lS<t2 



(}lf:anings in hee cui/ruuK. 



547 



niiikt'. tliiit. ufti'i- licarin;,' I'mf. ("ooU talk in 

 his inimitable way. whiMicvcr \v«' road one of 

 ins articles wo can almost see him and hoar his 

 voice. And this is not tine of him alone, Ivnt 

 of many others, and. perhai)s. 1 iniixht alnu)si 

 say of most other encM-p'tic speakers ami 

 tliinkei-s. And herein is one of the yiand siood 

 tliiniis of conventions. Aft(M- yon know a man 

 intimately, and have enjoyed a good hearty 

 laniihwiih him and the rest, the be(>-;»(//>(;r.s' 

 liave a new signilicance. Yon read their writ- 

 inirs with a new zeal and intensity thai biiniis 

 deeper meaning ont of tiie words on the printed 

 page.] A. 1. U. 



DIFFERENCES IN COLONIES, ETC. 



WHY SD.MK iJATllKK MOItK IIONK.Y T1I.\N OTIt- 



KHS. AM) now TO MAKI<: THKM VAiVAlA/.K 



THK AMOINT OF HOXKY STOHI<:i). 



A correspondent writes that he has noticed 

 for some years back. that, of many colonies in 

 the spring. \s hich were exactly alike, us nearly as 

 he conld discov(>r. some Colonies would yield an 

 excellent surplus, while others would give vei-y 

 little or none at all. and says. •■ Why is this? 

 Please answer through (;i.t:AXiN(iS.'" Here is 

 a question wliich used to boiher me greatly, for 

 I was formerly troubled in the same way: but 

 of late years I have succeeded in making the 

 most of my colonies which were worked for 

 lioney. produce lU'arly like results; that is, if 

 one colony contains 4<:>.()0() bees and produces 

 100 lbs. of honey. I obtain about that amount 

 from every colony containing that number of 

 bees: while one having 20.000 bees gives a yield 

 of about 4.") lbs., for a small colony will not give 

 quite as large a yield in pioportion to its num- 

 bers as a large one. After carefully studying 

 the matter 1 found that colonies I i)ronounced 

 •"exactly alike" on May l.'ith would not be so 

 at the lime the honey harvest was at Its best. 

 The trouble was. I did not have a thorough 

 knowledire regarding the working force of my 

 bees at all limes, nor of the interior of the hive. 

 For instance, the colony which I called the best 

 on May 15th might become the poorest by July 

 10th. at which lime the honey harvest arrived. 

 This might be owing to two causes, one of 

 which would be the failing of their queen, and 

 the other that the colony would reach its max- 

 imum of strength some lime previous to the 

 harvest, either of which is sure to lessen the 

 yield. 1 liave often noticed that a colony 

 which winters extremely well, and goes to 

 breeding rapidly in early spring, is generally 

 sure to produce less honey than the colony that 

 begins to breed rapidly from forty to fifty days 

 previous to the honey harvest. The reason 

 seems to be, tliat the queen in such a colony as 

 breeds rapidly very early ceases her proliticness 

 to a very great extent by June ."ilh to loth, this 

 allowing the bees to put tlie first honey coming 

 in into the brood-combs, rather than forcing it 

 into the sections, as does the queen which ar- 

 rives at her maximum egg-laying at this lime. 

 If this is not the case, the colony becomes de- 

 moralized by becoming too strong at this time, 

 and so goes to loafing around, or. what is still 

 woi'se. contracts the swarming mania, either of 

 which is against a large yield of honey. If the 

 bees become overanxious to swarm, or the 

 queen ceases lo be prolilic. so that the bees get 

 tlie start of her and store lioney to any great ex- 

 tent in the bi()od-chambr>r during the lirstofthi^ 

 honey harvest, that colony will be an unprotiia- 

 ble one. The remedy is. to keep the queen on 

 only a few combs early in the season, or take 

 away a part of her brood to strengthen other 

 colonies till the right time has come, when her 



extra uowers will raise lices that will corneal 

 just the right time; then coax her lo do her 

 level best, and yon will succeed. At this time 

 give all the comi)s the hive will contain, and 

 let her spread herself lo \ii'V greatest capacity: 

 then the colony will it ach its sirongi'st point 

 just wlien the harvest is on. and thus bend 

 every energy at storing in the sections ratlier 

 than crowding the queen or loafing around. 

 Again, the giving of a colony a large amount of 

 surplus room to start with has a tendency to 

 tiiuke the colony an iinpiolitable one, which 

 has not a force ()f bees largi' enough to occupy 

 llie whole of the sui'pliis aiiartmeiil at once. 

 Tliey seem to become discouraged, and, instead 

 of taking possession of a part of it, they will 

 often cluster on the outside, and crowd the 

 brood out with honey, never entering the sec- 

 tions at all. 1 usiiaHy give only section room, 

 or room in the mu plii.'- apartment to the amount 

 of 15 to 20 lbs., and a part of this space has 

 combs in it left over from the i)revious season, 

 thereby coaxing the bees into the sections with 

 liKMr first loads of new honey. In a w(>ek or so. 

 more room is given, and so I continue lo give 

 suipius room as nei'ded. In this way a good 

 yield of honey is obtained from all the colonies, 

 if the season is so any colony gives a good yield. 

 It is the attending lo the little items in bee 

 culture thai gives success. 



CliOOKEL) COMBS. 



In a paper which I recently picked up I 

 found tlie following words: - In the fall, after 

 extracting the honey from the partly filled 

 sections, and rt casing the sections of empty 

 combs (as we use no separators), the combs are 

 not always perfect in these sections. When we 

 find one side a little fuller than the other, we 

 put the two full sides together, and the hollow- 

 ing sides together. No matter if the full sides 

 of the combs should touch each other, when the 

 bees begin operations the following season they 

 will cut right through, building out the other 

 sides equally, and the occasional crooked ones 

 are thus made straight."' Upon reading the 

 above I began to wonder if the writer had ever 

 practiced the plan given, and. if so. how it 

 could be that his experience was so much differ- 

 ent than mine had been when trying the same 

 plan. In every case where I ever put two 

 combs in sections, or brood-combs even, so that 

 they touched each other, I luive found that the 

 bees always left little liridges of comb from one 

 comb to the other, so that, when the combs 

 were pulled apart, ihe capping of one or both 

 combs was broken, thus setting the honey lo 

 running and making the sections unsalable, 

 unless put back on tlie iiive for the bees lo re- 

 cap the cells. In so doing, the bees nearly al- 

 ways remove the hiuiey out of these damaged 

 cells, so tiiat tue whole process requires nearly 

 half as long a- it does lo fill a section from the 

 start. This causes a great waste of time to 

 the colony, for they are thus kept fussing over 

 a bad job instead of doing new work. My plan 

 has be<'n. to place such crooked combs at the 

 top of a wai'in room, on a piece of canvas, until 

 Ihoroughlv warmed through, when the combs 

 can be bent and straight I'ned. to the perfect 

 satisfaction of the operator. In this way I have 

 a sure thing of it: and as the work is performed 

 in the winter it is much more cheaply done than 

 in having the bees make a ■' botch job '" of it in 

 the summer. (">. M. Doomtti.k. 



Borodino. N. Y.. July :.'. 



[Our observation al the Shane out-apiary 

 with reference to bulged combs was just the 

 same as yours. They would build bracers 

 across: and whei-e th<' iwo combs were separated 

 the combs were uncapped and honey set to 



