1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



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a one-inch startei'. I put the empty frame in 

 the middle, between the other four combs. 

 Aug. 2Sth I put in another empty fi-anie with a 

 one-inch starter of foundation. Sept. 10th I 

 looked at the bees again. They are a fair 

 working colony yet. The fi'ame put in Aug. 

 24th is two-thirds full of comb, and the empty 

 fi'ame put in Aug. 28th is half built, and both 

 new combs are nearly filled with brood as tar 

 as they are built. They have now been work- 

 ing steadily for three months, sc^creting wax 

 and building combs 90 days— just double Mr. 

 Doolittle's time, and I am not sure but they 

 would pass the winter if allowed to hatch the 

 crop of brood that is now coming on. They 

 don't dwindle away very fast. What kind of 

 bees are they? Very near pui'e Carniolans, 

 from a queen that I bought of John Andrews, 

 Pattens Mills, N. Y. I don't know whether the 

 kind of bees has made any difference: but it is 

 the kind of stock that I have in my home yard. 

 But. one thing I do know — my home yard has 

 stored double the amount of surplus honey of 

 any other yard we have. 



Now. what have I proved by this experiment? 

 Just nothing, positively. Here it is 90 days 

 since this swarm was hived. There is quite a 

 lot of bees there yet building combs and raising 

 brood. But, arethe bees that are there now a 

 part of those that were hived there the 10th of 

 June? If they are, they are 90 days old at 

 least. I do know that there has not a bee 

 hatched in the swarm since they wei'e hived. 

 But I do not know but that young bees fi'om 

 other hives near them may have joined them 

 in sufficient numbers to keep up the stock to its 

 present working condition. 



Now, if I have not proved any thing I have 

 learned how to prove the point that I was driv- 

 ing at; and if I live until another year I will 

 try it again. I propose to hive a swarm as 

 early as I can get a good one, and then place it 

 20 rods at least from any other bees, so as to be 

 sure that no other bees would join them; then 

 take their brood away often enough so they 

 can not get recruits, and then see how long 

 they will live. I hope others will try some ex- 

 periments of this kind 



If any one has any suggestions to make I 

 should be glad to get them. Prove all things 

 yourself. E. Fkance. 



Platteville, Wis., Sept. 14. 



[See editorials.] 



RECORD-BOOKS AND MEMORANDUM PAPERS. 



THEIR COXVENIEXCE AS VIEWED BY A CALI- 

 FORNIAN. 



I was much interested in what Miss Emma 

 Wilson had to say about record-books. She 

 gets away with Mr. Root's argument in good 

 shape. I will add that I have depended entire- 

 ly on record-books for seven years, and have 

 not lost one yet. It would be a serious matter 

 if the book should get lost; but the advantages 

 are so great that it pays to take the chances. I 

 indorse all Emma says in their favor, and wish 

 she had said more. I wish she had given us a 

 page fi'om the book, so we could get the plan, 

 and see how much space is devoted to each 

 colony. And wouldn't it be interesting to see 

 one of the memorandums which Dr. Miller 

 makes from the book, while going to the out- 

 apiary — of work to do whim he gets there? 

 Just think of having to run all over the apiary 

 to see which colonies need attention, when you 

 can do it in one-fourth the time sitting in the 

 shade or in a buggy ! Cards and slates might 

 do for a very active man; but for one who 

 wishes to take things a little easy, and still 

 get there on time, the book is indispensable. 



Mr. Root comes out ahead in Aug. 1.5th 

 Gleanings; and the question is now like the 

 one in the Question -box on the same page, with 

 regard to buying books or going to the conven- 

 tion. It is more econom-ical to buy the books; 

 but you really need both. I have often felt 

 the need of some memorandum on the hive to 

 tell whether the colony has filled several supers, 

 or has been all the season filling one super. A 

 colony that has been all the season filling up 

 should not be extracted late, for it would surely 

 starve if not fed; and how are we to tell which 

 are the best colonies to breed from unless we 

 know how many supers each colony has filled? 

 I think I should want a slate about as large as 

 a postal card, tacked on top of the hive so I 

 could read it, and write on it without holding it. 

 You are obliged to visit each hive in the apiary 

 ortce a week or oftener to see if it i.s full of hon- 

 ey, and you might just as well have your honey 

 memorandum on the hive; but other conditions 

 are irregular, and it is not necessary to go to 

 every hive in the apiary because twenty colo- 

 nies are queenless; better have a memorandum 

 of the twenty colonies, and go directly to each 

 one and attend to it. I have dispensed with 

 queen registers on each nucleus, because I 

 could not see the whole at once, as it were, and 

 know just where to go for what I wanted, and 

 adopted a system of memorandum which I car- 

 ry in a light paper clip with a pasteboard back. 

 I give below a memorandum of 20 nuclei for one 

 month, so you will see how it is done. You will 



AUGUST. 



* Torn down. + Lost. 



see that the plan is to write the number of nu- 

 cleus down the side, and the condition along 

 the top of the page, and the day of the month 

 where the two lines come together. It requires 

 three sets of names to run a whole month; and 

 one sheet of letter paper is plenty large enough 

 to keep the record of 20 nuclei for 31 days. 

 Now, suppose I want some laying queens. In- 

 stead of running all over the apiary and read- 

 ing all the slates and cards, I run my eye down 

 the two last laying columns, and find that 

 numbers 1, 4, 9, 14, 15, and IS, contain laying 

 queens, and I go straight to the hive for them. 

 You will understand that all the figures except 

 the first column, which is the number of the 

 hive, are the days of the month on which the 

 hive was examined; and I claim that it is easi- 

 er and quicker to put down one or two figures, 

 in the column which represents the condition 

 of the hive, than to manipulate the pins of a 

 queen register on the hive. Now, suppose I go 

 over 100 nuclei with queen registers, and mark 

 the condition of each nuclei on the registering 

 card; when I get through" I have forgotten 

 which hives have laying queens and which are 

 queenless, and must run over the apiary again 

 to find them. With this system you have the 



