850 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. L 



proved Buckeye engines, of a capacity of 13.5 

 horse-power, runs the wood-working establish- 

 ment just below the boiler-room. Three other 

 engines help to make up the equipment; viz., 

 one 10-horse-power for the machine-shop, and 

 another 10-horse-power for the wax-room, dy- 

 namo, and an elevator, and a 7-horse-power for 

 the press and printing departments. Three 

 freight elevators — one in the wood - working 

 building, one in the main building, and one in the 

 warehouse, take the freight up to the various 

 floors. Overhead runways connect the main 

 building with the wood -working building and 

 machine and tin shop. This lattei'is tire-proof, 

 brick, equipped with the Grinnell sprinklers, 

 the same as the others. It is 36 x 98, two stories 

 and basement. This was put up in 1890. It is 

 in this building that all the metal work is done, 

 such as making extractors, feeders, tin I'abbets, 

 wax-extractors, perforated zinc, saw-mandrels, 

 and all sorts of wood - woiking machinery, 

 foundation-mills, and every thing else that the 

 use of the little bee can demand in metal. 



Several Smead odorless water-closets are sit- 

 uated at convenient points on our bee-plant. 



In 1891 an east and west raih'oad was put 

 right through our premises, and so we now 

 have two roads — an east and west as well as a 

 north and south. Some of our customers, no 

 doubt, have noticed a reduction in their freight 

 bills — a fact due to competition, that life of all 

 trade. Right alongside of the east and west 

 road we erected, duiing the past summer, a 

 building 48 x 96, two story and basement, of 

 wood. This is designed for storing made-up 

 goods, and it is intended to receive the work 

 turned out during our dull season. Heretofore 

 our storage room has been very much cramped, 

 with the result that we could not make up 

 ahead very many goods for the following sea- 

 son's use. The seveie lessons we have learned 

 In getting behind daring the busy season, and 

 the consequent necessity of running nights, 

 putting on green hands, with the inevitable re- 

 sult of poorer workmanship, has forced us to 

 the construction of this latter building. In ad- 

 dition we have bought enough lumb(U' to last 

 us anywhere from one to two yeais ahead. 

 This lumbei- is stored in our own yards and in 

 Michigan, awaiting our call. Instead of being 

 obliged to use lumber not properly seasoned, 

 we now have a stock of the very best of dry 

 lumber. This, together with our storage build- 

 ing, we hope will enable us to make" prompt 

 shipments, even of carloads. You see cars on 

 our switch standing in front of the warehouse. 

 All that is necessary is to truck the goods, al- 

 ready boxed, on to the car. to be pulled out by 

 the next freight. Almost all of our goods can he 

 loaded on our platforms. vSmall shipments are 

 trucked across the draw-bridge, shown in front 

 of the main building, to the freight depot. 



The sjuall evei'greens that were set out. sur- 

 rounding the apiary, have now grown to an 

 average height of 20 feet, and their limbs 

 branch out past each other so much that it is 

 now quite difficult to pass between the trees. 

 When th(>y have a fe^v years' more growth, and 

 their tops have been lopped oflf. as a windbreak 

 they will be complete. In fact, even now. on a 

 cold, piercing, winti-y day. the pi-otection which 

 they afford inside of the inclosure is very ap- 

 parent. We have never yet had 500 colonies 

 in the home apiary — not even nuclei. vSo many 

 in one locality where they can not possibly sup- 

 port themselves are pi'etty a])t to get into mis- 

 chief with (-ach otliei'. unless etei'ual \igilance 

 is exercised during the hoiu'S of bee-flight. We 

 do not usually have more than 200oi' 300— rarely 

 this latter figure— in the home yard at a time, 

 the extra number being put intoan out-apiary. 

 This out-vard is used as a sort of reserve, both 



to store honey and to supply bees, when neces- 

 sary, to the home yard. 



We find, by looking on our books, that we 

 have sent out, during the past season, over 

 2000 queens. Besides that, we sent out from 

 our own apiary alone nearly 400 nuclei. Of 

 course, it would be impossible to rear all of 

 these queens ourselves. Accordingly, we have 

 to draw on one or more apiaries in the Soutli, 

 besides some from the apiaries of Neighbor H. 

 and friend Rice, These yards are situated any- 

 where from three to twelve miles from our 

 home apiary. 



EXPERIMENTS. 



DO WOr.KEK BEES LIVE MORE THAN 45 DAVS, 

 UNDEK NOKMAL CONDITIONS? 



It was with intense interest that I read Bro. 

 France's article on page 760 of Oct. 1st Glean- 

 ings: not particularly because Bro. France was 

 trying to disprove some of the things which I 

 have written, but because he has brought out 

 something new for us to think about. May it not 

 yet be possible that we can make individual 

 worker bees live a year by throwing the colony 

 into an abnormal condition ? All of my experi- 

 ments have been with colonies in a normal condi- 

 tion; or, in other words, with colonies that have 

 their '"own sweet will" just as they would 

 have it were they in their home in the hollow 

 tree in the woods. I never had a doubt but 

 that bees could be compelled to do many things 

 which they do not usually do by thiowing them 

 out of balance, as it were. Iluber threw his 

 colony out of balance by confining them to the 

 hive, and so proved that it took 20 pounds of 

 honey to produce one pound of wax; but near- 

 ly all of the present day do not consider this 

 just a fair experiment; and. if I am correct, 

 none now believe that it takes that amount of 

 honey in " our every-day " bee-keeping to pro- 

 duce a pound of comb. Again, some one has 

 proven that, by allowing none but young bees 

 in a hive, bees go into the field to labor when 

 three oi' four days old; but all who are at all 

 observing know that, in the production of hon- 

 ey "with the least amount of capital and la- 

 bor," bees do not go into the field as laborers in 

 their "childish moments." Now, like Bro. P\, 

 Doolittle has been experimenting to see if he 

 has been wrong in the assertions which he has 

 made for a number of years, that " bees, when 

 in a noi-mal condition, do not live more than 45 

 days.'" and here is the history of those experi- 

 ments: 



July 9th I went to my out-apiary, five miles 

 distant, and thei'e shook into a box 2)^ lbs. of 

 young. i)oorly marked hybrid bees. I brought 

 them home to my own ajjiary. and set them a 

 little distance away from the other bees, after 

 having first intioduced to them one of the 

 queens which give bees so yellow that they 

 look when flying at the entrance like lumps of 

 gold. In this lot of bees there were hundreds 

 which had only just crawled out of their cells, 

 and those probably not more than from three 

 minutes to an hoiii' old. fori took pains to se- 

 cure all th(^ young be(>s possibl(>. On the morn- 

 ing of July 10. tiu'ee frames of brood from this 

 queen which was introduced to the box of bees 

 were put into a hive, and set away from the restof 

 the bees as above, and the swarm made as 

 above given hived from the bu\ in this hive, 

 which also contained twoem|)ty ct)mbs and the 

 I'est of the hive filled out with frames having 

 starters of foundation in them. As the three 

 frames of brood had many c<'lls fi'om which 

 bees wi're hatching. I watched the hive closely 

 to see when the first "lump of gold "would 



