1S9J 



GLKANlNCiS IN BEE CUI/rURE. 



575 



niori'. This lioiu-y caiulK'S — ll)i> only Ixiiicy 

 pi'otiiii'cti in ("uha w liii-li iloi's not rrniain lii|ui»l. 

 so far as I know. Fruit and otliiT hiossonis pid- 

 duot'd soMH' fnitliiT siiipins. hut i-ontinucd rains 

 provtMitcd MX ffoin ohtaininii more tlian lialf the 

 nianjirovi' (low; hcsidcs. 1 liad sold i'i)j;lit of my 

 h»»si colonics hcfoif it hrixaii. My hives have 

 nine frames, i;?'4Xl3'4. in hrood-ohaiitlicr. and 

 eight above. I began with ten frames below, 

 spaced according to rule, lint found better re- 

 sults with one less. My location is very favor- 

 able in ont^ respect. About tliree-tjuarters of a 

 mile distant are molasses storehouses: and when 

 every thing els(> fails, tiie bees manage to scrape 

 a living from the draininiis of tlie hogsheads. 

 T\)\> undoubtedly heli)ed i hem through our two 

 bad montiis. August and Septembei'. One cir- 

 cumstance, liowever. is unfavorable; and that 

 is. our liouse is located on the edge of the bay. 

 so tliat half of the ai'ea of the range is water. 



The total amount of extiacted honey was TO','") 

 lbs.: comb honey. Ul.") lb<.: wax. 70 lbs. Of the 

 27 colonies, about two-thirds were strong: but 

 all gave surplus in upper stories. Since begin- 

 ning to extract I nav(> permitted no increase 

 until now. not intending to keep on with the 

 apiary. I now protio^e to increase to 100: and 

 if I get as good results ])er colony next season I 

 will report again. One result I have still to 

 tnention— a fund of health and enjoyment from 

 my work with the bees that I could hav(> ob- 

 tained here in no other way. B. W. Law. 



Havana. Cuba. July 1. 



DOOLITTLE ON ftUEEN-EXCLUDERS. 



WHAT PART OF THK HIVE FIELtl BEES STOKE 

 TifEIK HOXEV IX. 



A coiTespondent writes. "According to page 

 ll<i of Gi.EAXiXGS. a correspondent of the Brit- 

 ish Bcc Jiiunud thinks that queen-excluders 

 under the surplus-chambers are needed only at 

 the front and back end. and a thin board over 

 the rest. Is he right?" Bv turning to the 

 page referred to. I see that this is taken from 

 one of Dr. Miller's Stray Straws, and I will say 

 that he voices my opinion exactly where he 

 says. ••Soineho'v lam afraid that the bees will 

 not work quite so well over the board: and if 

 he had said I k)iow. instead of " I am afraid," I 

 would have indorsed it just as quick. To be 

 sure. I hav(» known bees to go clear around 

 division- boards and up into the cap of the hive. 

 and go to building comb and storing honey 

 there: but from close observation I am satisfied 

 that, the more perfect the connection between 

 the brood-apartment and the surplus arrange- 

 ment, the more readily the bees start to work: 

 and the iniicker the bees start in the sections, 

 the better the results in the number of pounds 

 of honey. 



•• Very well." says one: " but if this is so. why 

 do you recommend excluders at all? for the 

 connection between the; two apartments can 

 not be as perfect with excluders as without 

 them." 



Probably this "one" is correct: but in reply 

 I would say that it is not the largest number of 

 pounds of honey that is always the most prolit- 

 able to the apiarist: for if so. why not do as 

 our fathers used to— hive our bees in barreU? 

 Elisha (iallup once said that bi'es would store 

 as much honey in a barrel or a nail- keg as any- 

 where: and I have no reason to disjjute it. Ah 1 

 but honey stored in this way is not in market- 

 able >ihape: and >ioney stored without queen- 

 excluders, especially where the shallow frames 

 are used, is not always in marketable shape, for 

 thousands of sections have been spoiled for 

 market by having brood in them where ex- 



cluders were not used. I contend that more 

 lioney in iiuirliclalilc slutpc run t)e secured by 

 the use of separators and (excluders than can be 

 without tiiem: and this is the reason why I use 

 theni. That "bees don't go up through the 

 middle of the brood-nest" I think a mistake on 

 the part of our Enclish friend: for certainly the 

 most of the hives of our fathers allowed them 

 to go up nowhere else, and they s(»cured much 

 surplus in that way, my father taking as much 

 as 75 lbs. from a single luiw swarm with a two- 

 inch hol(» from the center of th<' brood-chamber 

 h'ading to the one surplus-apartment. 



But the correspondent asks further: " If he 

 should be wrong, does his theory not hold good 

 concerning excluders that stand vertical ?" I 

 am using large frames, and have my honev 

 stored at \ho sides. Now. wiien the bees inarch 

 from the entrance toward the excluders do they 

 not move along at the bottom of the hive? and 

 do thev not therefo'-e go through the lower 

 rows of zinc? If I am I'ight. how many rows 

 would be needed where the American frames 

 are used?" 



It is evident that our correspondent, as well 

 as our English friend, is laborins under the de- 

 lusion so often taught in the past, thai the bee 

 which gathers a load from the Meld must of ne- 

 cessity deposit that load in the surplus recepta- 

 cles. For this reason outside entrances were 

 made at the top of the hive, to be opened when 

 the harvest came, so the bees could go direct 

 from the fields to the boxes, thus saving them 

 that much of "foot weariness" and time, for it 

 was too bad to have them traveling and being 

 jostled all the way from the lower entrance up 

 through the crowded hive in the dark when 

 they could just as well go right from the field 

 by daylight to the combs where they were to 

 store the honey. However nice and poetical 

 this appeared, the coming of the Italian bee 

 virtually stopped up this upper entrance, for it 

 was soon found that, wlien there were only 

 black bees going in and out at ihe entrance, 

 just before the Italians commenced to work in 

 the fields, there were very few if any black 

 bees in the sections; and a look through the 

 glass showed these black laborers giving up 

 their loads of honey to the young Italians upon 

 their return from the fields, allowing these 

 nimble-footed young fellows ' to run upstairs 

 with the honey, taking the shortest and quick- 

 est way they could, whether at the top or bot- 

 tom, front or back end, or ri<iht thrmujh the 

 colter. - Moreover, it was ascertained thai, un- 

 less there was a very large yield of honey, these 

 young Iellc^vs held this honey in their honey- 

 .<acs, or deposited it in the brood-combs, right 

 among the brood, wherever an empty cell was 

 found, till it was sufficiently riiiened to be 

 stored in the sections or placed permanently in 

 the comb-.. Bees have no paths staked out. nor 

 lawns with "keep off the (jniss " notices posted 

 up: but they do like to cluster with and about 

 the brood, and deposit their honey above and 

 around it; and the more this "like" is inter- 

 fered with, the less will be thi> results in honey. 



Another coiTespondent wishes me to tell 

 which hatches first— a queen from a larva four 

 davs old. or one from a larva from 2-f to 36 

 hours old. He .seems to think that the queen 

 would hatch first from the 2-i-hour larva, and, 

 after quoting Mr. R. C. Aikin, in the Revieir, 

 as saving that the queen from the 4-day larva 

 would hatch first, says, "If this is as Aikin 

 says, there is no such thing as the "survival of 

 the fittest" in queen-rearing. Mr. Aikin is 

 certainly right in saying that a queen from an 

 old larva will hatch sooner than one from a 

 young larva— that is, where both are started 

 ifor queens at the same time; hence the chances 

 are. that, where a queen is taken from a colony, 



