944 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



or quite as much as inverting; and alter the first 

 inversion has caused the bees to comiiletely fill the 

 frames, but little if any inverting- will be ncede<l. 



After the frames are completely filled with comb, 

 the ]ipciiliiir construction of the hive enables us to 

 inanii)ulate hives instead of frames; and perhaps 

 my readers will not be surprised when I say that I 

 value this feature moi'c than 1 do its invertibility 

 it is the g'rand function of the hive. 



I worked 50 colonies the past season for comb 

 honey. One - fourth of tliem were in the " new 

 hive," and most of the swarms were hived in it. I 

 secui'ed 100 lbs. of surplus, per colony, from clorcr 

 alone. I am aware that it is the Jicen that gather the 

 lioney. I l^now we have been told repeatedly that 

 a colony of bees will store as much honey in a nail- 

 keg' as in any hive; but in all seriousness, 1 should 

 like to ask, is this assertion Intc' When coming 

 home from the convention at Indianapolis I stopped 

 off and made Mr. Heddon a short visit; and among 

 the many things we talked over was this one of the 

 intiuence that the hive may be made to e.\ert upon 

 the energy of the workers. I did not reniember it, 

 but Mr. Heddon thought he had, within the last three 

 j-ears, written ui)on this topic under the heading of 



PHESENT CONDITION. 



If Mr. Heddon did write upon the subject, 1 think 

 but little attention was paid to it; at least, T knew 

 that, when he mentioned it, it struck me as a new 

 idea. I consider it well worthy of consideration, 

 and will do my best to illustrate it. 



Wc have all noticed with what energy a newly 

 hived swarm works; the "present condition" is 

 different from what it was in the old hive. Let a 

 full case of finished or nearly finished sections be 

 removed from a hive, and an empty case be put in 

 its place, and the bees are sometimes quite slow in 

 makir.g a start in the empty case; if, instead of re- 

 moving the case of nearly finished sections, it is 

 raised up and an empty one placed between it and 

 the hive, the " present condition " is such that the 

 bees work with renewed energy to fill the newly 

 added case, and thus connect the upper one with 

 their brood-nest. Mr. Heddon told me, that, what first 

 called his attention to this subject, was that, when 

 Iireeding for qualities in bees, he found there were 

 two different causes for good work. One (the one 

 he wanted to breed from) was a fixed characteristic 

 of the variety; and the other was an energy result- 

 ing from proper " present conditions." With an 

 extremely tall hive, top - stormg would not be 

 a success; neither would side - storing be prof- 

 itable with a vciy shallow liive, because the 

 " present conditions " would not be favorable to 

 success in either case. Mr. Shuck says, in his cir- 

 cular, that his attention was first directed to inver- 

 tible hives liy accident. A colony of bees, although 

 strong in numbers, refused to enter the honey- 

 boxes. The honey-board holding the bo.ves was re- 

 moved, when it was found that the combs were 

 built diagonally, and the hive was inverted for the 

 purpose of putting the combs into proper shape, 

 .lust then he was called away for the day; the 

 honey-board with the boxes was hastily placed on 

 the bottoms of the hive (temporarily, as he thought), 

 and the cover put on the boxes. On inspecting the 

 hives at night the boxes were found to be full 

 of bees: honey-making went on apace, and the 

 strength of the colony increased, so that they stored 

 85 lbs. of honey after the first set of boxes -were 

 taken ofl". This well illustrates what a change of 



"present condition " can do. Ue-arrangiug or in- 

 terchanging the parts of a hive often starts new 

 ilrtrnninatioiix in the bees. Under the head of 

 ■' i)resent condition " it would be proper to consider 

 the right amount of brood and honey in proper 

 shape, and this is much governed by the depth, 

 size, length, and width of the hive. The kind of 

 communications between the eases would also come 

 under this head. 



In my opinion, this (luestion is a very important 

 one, and well worthy of consideration. In a short 

 article like this I can do little more than touch upon 

 it; but I trust I lune said enough to set my brothei- 

 bee-keepers to considering whether the stj'le of 

 hive used may not be made to have a bearing upon 

 the amount of honey stored liy the bees. 



Rogersville, Mich, W. /. Hittchi.nson. 



I agree with you, friend 11., in regard to 

 what yon are pleased to term '• present coii- 

 dition." 1 have seen a new swarm cluster 

 on the outside of the hive, and refuse to 

 go near it for several days, in the very 

 height of the honey season. Sometimes J 

 have driven tliem in' and up into the boxes 

 by means of a smoker ; and when they once 

 got started to work they would gather enor- 

 mous quantities of honey in a very short 

 time. Now, it is not new swarms only, but. 

 a good many times, powerful colonies, that 

 work very little, or do only about half what 

 they might do, if they felt like it. If there 

 is any thing we can do in tlie arrangement 

 of hives to start up this latent energy, by all 

 means let us do it. I am very glad indeed 

 that you begin to think that reversing is not 

 really jiecessary after the combs are once 

 tilled out clear' to the bottom-bars. Lt will 

 save a great deal of complication and ma- 

 chinery in making hives and frames. Now. 

 then, how many others have found out that 

 alternating answers nearly or quite as well 

 as inverting? 



BEE-LEGISLATION. 



TflK Srii.IECT KHO.M ANOTHER I'OlNT OK VIEW. 



T I^O not doubt that most bee-keepers are w illing 

 4|[ to believe, with Dr. Miller, that some kind of 

 ^r legislation directed toward the protection of 

 '^■^ the interests of bee-keeping would be a good 

 thing. Class legislation is usually a good thing 

 for these in whose favor such legislation is done. 

 But if the professional bee-keeper is to be protect- 

 ed by law against the amateur, why not protect the 

 creameries against the farmers who make butter in 

 a small way, sometimes much to the detriment of 

 prices V If we applj- this principle of special legis- 

 lation to ;iny one business, let us apply it to all. 

 When one man is " first in the field," and has built 

 up a thriving grocery trade, let us keep all other 

 grocers at a i-espcctful distance. The first comer 

 has invested thousands of dollars, perhaps, iii build- 

 ings, stock, and "fi.xtures," and other grocers in his 

 vicinity might render these totally worthless on his 

 hands. The same is true of almost any line of busi- 

 ness. The mass of humanity will not stand aside to 

 let the favored few carry on the business of the 

 W'Orld. Few men would be willing^to accept the 

 theory that government has the right fo forbid a 

 citizen following whatever honest occupation ho 

 mav choose. To me it is a self-evident ti'uth, that 



