lSS6 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



6s7 



advantag-e over English and Anici-ican lice-keep- 

 ers— oui- bees require no wintering: an extra mat 

 or a couple of sheets of newspaper under the cover 

 is all we need. 



On the 18th of June (the 2Ist is our niid-winter 

 day) T opened the hives and found egg's and brood 

 in all stag'es; again on the IStli ofJulyit was the 

 same with this ditference— that the brood was all at 

 the top of the frames, and the honey at the 

 bottom. I think we shall have an early spring and 

 good honey season; and if it please God we hope to 

 do well with our bees this year. I5ee culture is be- 

 ginning to excite some interest here; but still 

 there are plenty of people who think we are quite 

 mad to think of making money by bees. 



1 have come to the end of nij- paper, so T must 

 bring this to a f^lose by asking you to see that the 

 things are sent as (jjuickly as possible 1 am anx- 

 ious to begin work. We should have sent the 

 month before, with Mr. Garrett's order; but 

 through a misunderstamling it was left behind. 



Sophie A. Bkadj.kv. 



Campbelltown, N. S. \V., July i:}, 188H. 



My ffood friend, your description of your 

 first start brouglit vividly to my mind my 

 experience witli my first swarm. It was 

 carried home on a "pole between two of us, 

 exactly as you describe ; and as it was a hot 

 autumn day the sweat dripped from our 

 faces before we got the hive to its destina- 

 tion ; namely, the upper tloor of the wood- 

 shed. You say you carried your hive four 

 miles, but I believe we carried ours only 

 about one mile. — I should be very glad in- 

 deed to give you some practical suggestions 

 in regard to starting a supply-house, but 1 

 know too little of your circumstances and 

 surroundings. 1 would suggest, however, 

 that you invest cautiously, and bend all your 

 energies toward making the l>ees themselves 

 open a way for a brisk trade. Nothing ever 

 helped me so much to establish a business as 

 pouring tons of honey on to the market, the 

 product of our own apiary. Articles written 

 for your local papers, answering <iuestions 

 and explaining improved bee culture, will 

 greatly help you.— Many thanks for your 

 very kinil and encouraging words. It gives 

 me a thrill of pleasure to know that I have 

 made friends, even in far-olf lands, by A\i.iat 

 I have written about bees. ]May God bless 

 and prosper you in your undertaking, for I 

 am sure it is one that is pleasing in his 

 sight. Perhaps I should explain to our read- 

 ers that the above letter was accompnnied 

 by an order for over ."SiiOU worth of supplies. 



CAN A QUEEN LAY 3000 EGGS PER 

 DAY? 



A. W. OSBUKN'S OPINION ON THR SUBJECT. 



IpTOW many bee-keepers are willing to be i)ut on 

 record as saying that it is their candid ojiin- 

 ion that they e\er owned a queen that laid 

 ;5000 eggs a day? For one T am not willing to 

 be put on record as ?aying any such thing. 

 While for the last ten years I have kept bees in a 

 warm climate, and where it is reasonable to ex- 

 pect the queens to lay as fast as in colder climates, 

 yet I am not going to say that T ever thought that 

 any one queen laid for me ;5000 egg» in ~4 hours. 



Let's figure a little: Suppose the queen has got to 

 layJiOOO eggs in 24 hours, how long will that allow 

 her for each egg? According to my figuring she 

 will have 28.8 seconds for each egg; that is, suppos- 

 iiig she does not losfi" any time, which is a wrong 

 supposition; for the time lost ill examining cells 

 that have already been laid in, and in traveling 

 over the comb, will reduce the aggregate of her 

 day's work fully one-third (that is, if she is expected 

 to lay :5000 eggs in one daj-. You or any other bee- 

 keepei' can satisfy your minds upon this subject by 

 watching any good ju-olitic queen while she is lay- 

 ing. Hold your watch and see how many eggs she 

 deposits in one minute. I have known them to de- 

 posit three in one minute, and then go three min- 

 utes and not deposit any; but when there is nothing 

 to disturb them, and the comb is free from pollen; 

 about two eggs a minute is their speed, i<'/ii7(; they 

 keep at it; but they do not keep at it all the time; 

 they stoij and hiuo a friendly chat with some work- 

 er, or perhaps take a little refreshment, as they gd 

 from one Coml) to another, for no queen tills the 

 full side, or two sides of a comb, beforO she goes off 

 from it; but the time is going on; and when the 24 

 hours roll round, if she has deposited 2000 eggs she 

 has, in all lu-obabilitj-, done aliout the best she 

 could. 



Now, it will not be out of place here to say somd 

 things for the benefit of beginners about the habits 

 of queens while laying (I am speaking now of full 

 colonies that have from 8 to 10 frames). It is sup- 

 posed by numy hi'ninnevs, that, when they put an 

 empty comb in the broodMiest, the queen is going 

 to till that comb the first thing she does, and that» 

 too, without leaving it. Nothing can be furthei* 

 from the fact, as experience shows. The queen 

 goes from one side cf her brood^chamber to the 

 other every 24 hours, or nearly that, examining 

 every comb that has brood in, to fill all cells where 

 bees have been hatched; and if the empty comb 

 comes in her way she puts in it what eggs she has 

 time to, but never to the neglect of the combs 

 where young bees are hatching constantly; for it 

 has always seemed to me that, if there were any 

 one thing that a queen delights in doing more than 

 another, it is to lay in cells that bees have just 

 come out of. A. W. Osbuhn. 



Havana, Cuba, W. 1., Aug. 2, 1886. 



^\' hy, friend O., it is not a matter of opin- 

 ion, but simply a question of tigures. From 

 our obsei'vations here, a queen will till one 

 side of an L. frame, and sometimes a part of 

 the otlier side, in li4 hours. What we mean 

 by '' lill " is two-thirds or three-fourths of 

 oiie side. As queens till a frame somewhat 

 in the foim of a circle, there is generally not 

 over three-fourths of the cells with an egg 

 in. The number of eggs can now be very 

 easily determined by calculating the num- 

 bei- of cells to the frame. It is commonly 

 estimated that there are about 125 worker- 

 cells to the square inch. This number per 

 inch Avould be correct if the cells were 

 scpiare ; lint as they are hexagonal in form, 

 Cheshire has shown that there are nearly 29 

 cells to the inch. Taking liS cells as the ba- 

 sis, we lind that, in round numbers, there 

 are about 40(10 cells to one side of an L. 

 frame. On the supposition that a queen can 

 till tlu'ee-fourths of this number, HUOO as the 

 total numl)er of eggs laid by a queen in a 

 day is about correct. You say you have 



