866 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



ing filled with warm air, the same as we talk of the 

 room we live in being thus warm? The warmth is 

 held inside of the cluster of bees, not inside of the 

 hive; and the sooner we realize this fact, the soon- 

 er we shall be able to work our bees intelligently. 

 A cluster of bees that is not bigger than a quart 

 bowl can do good work at comb-building in the cor- 

 ner of a dry-goods box 3 feet square, yet there are 

 those who would have us believe that, in order to 

 do any thing, they would have to heat the whole 

 inside of this box up to that degree of heat which is 

 required for comb-building. Now, why T object to 

 tiering up is that, when the cluster of bees gets ex- 

 panded to its utmost, consistent with doing good by 

 keeping the heat inside of the cluster of bees, 

 which can just hold one tier of sections, along 

 comes the bee-keeper, and raises these sections up, 

 placing twice the room inside the cluster which the 

 cluster can keep warm; consequently the cluster is 

 all broken up, a new cluster has to be formed, 

 which is, of course, so formed that it will protect 

 the brood rather than the honey, so the bees com- 

 mence building comb again, where they would, if 

 they had been let alone, been sealing honey; and 

 should the honey season now stop, or the weather 

 turn so cool that the cluster of bees have to con- 

 tract to a smaller compass so as to retain a heat in- 

 side the cluster sufBcient to build comb, during the 

 rest of the season, a lot of unfinished sections will 

 be the result, and many must result from such 

 manipulation in any event, if it is practiced to the 

 end of the season; hence I say this tiering-up pro- 

 cess is not according to the natural way that the 

 bees work. Now take the plan I gave on page 634, 

 and compai'e with the way the newly hived swarm 

 works, and we have this: As soon as the colony 

 gets strong enough to go into sections, one-third 

 of the room over the brood-chamber is covered 

 with sections, which are at once occupied, as the 

 bees have only to complete the arch of the cluster, 

 or crust bees, over tlie brood. When I think they 

 need more room, I add at the side of this cluster 

 more room, so that the bees crowd out into it the 

 same as the cluster expands with the new swarm, 

 building comb only as they have need of it, and 

 that at the outside of the cluster as nature inclines 

 them to do. Now, if I have given too much room, 

 they are not inconvenienced in the least, for they 

 do not need to occupy it unless they wish, nor 

 are any combs which they have once worked up- 

 on thrown outside the cluster. When they are 

 again crowded out to the outside sections, more 

 empty room is added beyond this, and so they are 

 kept going out naturally all the while as the swarm 

 has been, as we have seen. 



Now let me say right here, that, so long as there 

 is room at the sides for the bees to work out, they 

 will never be crowded for room, no matter whether 

 the climate is warm or cold. As soon as many of 

 the sections are sealed, which are those first work- 

 ed in right above the brood, as the doctor supposes, 

 they are taken out, as T gave on page 634, by the 

 wide frame full; all of those the bees have com- 

 menced work in are drawn together over the brood 

 again, and the empty ones placed on the outside, so 

 the cluster is never broken up, but keeps working 

 out all the while as nature has inclined them to do. 

 Is this not all plain to you now. Dr. M.? If not, tell 

 me wherein, and I will try to explain further. 



On page 767 of Gleanings, I see that Mr. Whealy 

 has a T super which he claims can be worked as 



above. If the T super can be so worked, I did not 

 know it before, and will take back all I said re- 

 garding the non-working of it along this line. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Borodino, N. Y., Oct. 31, 1888. 



You are doubtless right, friend D., or at 

 least pretty nearly right. This matter of 

 contracting so that the size of the hive ex- 

 actly corresponds with the size of the colo- 

 ny, is an idea that has been very strongly 

 urged for a good many years. I have, how- 

 ever, several times had reason to be skepti- 

 cal in regard to it. In fact, I have seen 

 bees pretty nearly in the condition that you 

 express, " in the corner of a dry-goods box,'' 

 not three feet square, however, but a hive 

 so large I should have supposed it would 

 have been disastrous so far as a large yield 

 of honey was concerned — that is, theoretic- 

 ally ; but the bees gave a tremendous yield 

 in their big hive. In talking with Dr. Mil- 

 ler about it a short time ago. I asked him if 

 he felt certain that a colony with the hive 

 and surplus chamber, contracted according 

 to the teachings of the books, was sure to 

 do so very much better than one that was 

 not contracted at all. He said a good many 

 results had made him feel a good deal of 

 doubt as to whether this careful contract- 

 ing amounted to very much after all. I con- 

 fess I am somewhat undecided about the 

 matter, and I should be glad of more facts. 



LATE QUEENS. 



ABE YOUNG QUEENS THAT REFUSE TO LAY LATE IN 

 THE FALL, NECESSARILY UNFERTILE? 



T HAVE just had my attention called to a mat- 

 ^ ter which interests me from a scientific point 

 ^r of view: One of the most prominent queen- 



"*• breeders in the Northern States writes me that 

 his queens which have come forth from the 

 queen-cells on and after September 1.5th are none 

 of them laying, although he has practiced feeding 

 them. Drones are abundant, and have been fiying 

 freely every two or three days, and often for sever- 

 al consecutive days together. Some of the queens 

 have flown out that were more than ten days old. 

 He adds, further, that some imported queens 

 which have just arrived he has failed to make lay, 

 even though he has fed the colonies. 



This breeder is of the opinion that these queens 

 are impregnated, and will lay all right if kept till 

 another spring. One of the queens was sent me 

 for microscopic examination, that I might confirm 

 or disprove the breeder's opinion bj' a discovery of 

 the facts. 



The queen looked like a non-laying impregnated 

 queen. I examined the contents of her spermathe- 

 ca, and found that she had been impregnated- 

 The contents swarmed with the threadlike sperm- 

 cells (spermatozoa), which positively attests that 

 she had successfully mated (see last edition of Bee- 

 Keepers' Guide, p. 103, where the sperm-cells are iU 

 lustrated, and the process of fecundation fully de- 

 scribed). Now, it seems well established that, while 

 laying, the queen is fed chyle, or digested food, by 

 the workers. Is it not probable that, in this case, 

 the workers, realizing that the time for egg-laying 

 for this season is past, refuse to yield of their di- 

 gested aliment, and so the queen, of course, can 



