Yol. XTI. 



FEB. 15, 1888. 



No. 4. 



10 or more,75cts. oach. Single num- \ published semi-monthly by -1 r,.i^:'''V 



ber. 5 cts. Additions to clubs may be 



Clubs to different postofBces, not less 



cts. each. Sent postpaid, in the 



and Canadas. To all other coun- 



les of the Universal Postal Union. 18 



To all countries 



^t^^I^iro^^'^''^''''}A. I. ROOT, MEDINA. OH/OA^^^^^^^^.^^Sr^^ 



REMOVING THE QUEEN DURING HAR- 

 VEST. 



ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT BEES AND BERRIES. 



fN page 810, 1887, friend Perkins thinks 1 would 

 chang-e my opinion if I could visit his place 

 where are three acres of raspberries. I had 

 nearly the same amount on my place at one 

 time, friend P., and bees and berries go nicely 

 together so far as the bees are concerned; but the 

 trouble is, the busy time of each comes at the same 

 time. Mr. Perkins says, " I can tend all three, bees, 

 berries, and poultry, and yet have time to play." 

 Yes, and so you could add blacksmithing and tailor- 

 ing and cobbling, making six lines of business, 

 " and yet have time to play," providing you do 

 little enough of each. During the busy season, a 

 man can take care of only so many colonies of bees; 

 but there are other times when he has some " time 

 to play." What is wanted is not something that will 

 come just when his time is already full, but some- 

 thing to fill up his play time. In this view 1 think 

 Mr. Perkins is making a success with poultry, but 

 not with berries. 



CAN THE QUEEN BE REMOVED TOWARD THE CLOSE 



OF THE HARVEST SO AS TO GET THE SAME 



AMOUNT OF SURPLUS HONEY? 



Referring, friend Root, to your remarks oi) page 

 55, 1 have had considerable experience in this matter, 

 but am not sure that I know mupli about it for 

 sure and certfvin. I have taken away as manj- as a 

 hundred queens in one season, from colonies when 

 they were busily storing, and I never saw ^ case 



where I knew that they immediately slacked up in 

 their work. For all that, there might have been a 

 difference, for it is not an easy thing to look at a 

 colony and say whether it is doing more or less 

 than it did the previous day. 



Although I am not sure that any immediate slack- 

 ing up occurred, I think there are cases where the 

 bees stored less some time after the queen was 

 taken away than they would have done if she had 

 remained. The fact that such men as EUwood and 

 Hetherington practiced taking away queens during 

 basswood bloom is an argument in its favor. I do 

 not know whether they still follow the practice. 

 Those who favor the plan, argue something like 

 this: A bee does not go to work in the field till it is 

 16 days old, which, added to 21 days from laying- the 

 egg to hatching, makes 3T days from the laying of 

 the egg to the time of working in the field. Now, 

 in localities where basswood closes the harvest, 

 or even where the harvest continues three or 

 four weeks later, no egg laid during basswood har- 

 vest can produce a bee that will gather any honey 

 to put in the surplus apartment. But if the queen 

 continues to lay during this 37 days before the close 

 of harvest, and lays 1500 eggs per day, she will fill 

 about 8 feet of comb. If, instead of 8 feet of brood,we 

 had, by the absence of the queen, 8 feet of comb 

 honey or its equivalent in sections, it will be seen 

 what an addition we should have to our surplus 

 crop— at least 30 or 40 pounds. But it is generally 

 rather unsafe to rely on plans figured out on paper, 

 without asking the bees what they will do about it. 

 Actually put to the test, no gucb surprising gain is 



