234 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15. 



pure-culture fluid, the specific gravity of the 

 gelatine will be about the same as that of 

 honey — if any thing, greater. If he did the 

 boiling in water then there may be something 

 in the Taylor point. 



PUSHING A GOOD THING; STANDING BY ONE'S 

 CONVICTIONS. 



I have been criticised for pushing the mer- 

 its of plain sections and fences ; but the crit- 

 icism has come very largely from those who 

 have not tested them, and from one or two 

 others who have tried them in a small way. 

 To all such I have only the kindliest of 

 feelings. I know it is natural for outsiders 

 to think that the Root Co. would push them 

 because of the few paltry dollars there would 

 be in a new thing. Indeed, if I were an out- 

 sider I am not sure but I should share this 

 feeling, because there are grasping monop- 

 olies, and one who does not know us better 

 might think we were one of them. As to our 

 being a monopoly, nearly every thing of value 

 in beedotn is as free as water — open to the 

 competition of the world. But I hope we 

 have a higher motive than that coming from 

 the love of the " almighty dollar." 



When I feel morally certain of the value of 

 a thing, as I am of the plain section ; when I 

 have seen the results with my own eyes ; 

 when I have talked with the men who have 

 used the thing, and like it; nay, more — when 

 I have read scores of reports favoring it, I do 

 not feel like backing down even a little. I 

 would have been just as willing to back down 

 in the advocacy of plain sections as I was in 

 the case of the deep-cell (or drawn) founda- 

 tion. But as time goes on, and as reports pile 

 in, I feel more determined than ever to stand 

 by my convictions. Favorable reports are 

 coming in every day, as I have said before; 

 but there is not space in the journal to pub- 

 lish them all. But here is one out of several 

 that I had pigeon-holed to go into our letter- 

 files. It speaks for itself: 



I have tried the fences the past season; and if any 

 season would show up the poor side of an appliance 

 for bees or bee-hives, the last one surely would. I 

 watched the outcome of using fences very carefully, 

 and note the following : Two hives of bees, side by 

 side, were given the second super each, one contain- 

 ing fences, the other old-style sections 4%"x4%\ no 

 fences or separators, both having stored the first su- 

 pers nearly full. The one containing fences stored 

 nearly double the amount that the other did. Now, I 

 found this to be the case all over the apiary; in fact, 

 the bees seemed to give the preference to supers con- 

 taining sections and fences, no matter whether they 

 were next to the hive-body or two or three supers 

 above. I won't say why this is so, but will leave that 

 for you. As to the matter of cleaning fences, it is not 

 a very great task, as only the uprights have to be 

 cleaned; and the pleasure of having neat and even 

 sections of honey compensates for whatever extra 

 time is used. W. T. Sherman. 



Millard, Wis., Feb. 13. 



LARGE OR SMALL COLONIES? 

 In the Bee-keepers^ Rcviezv for February 

 appears a symposium on this question, the 

 subject-matter being made of extracts from 

 various bee- journals, followed up by an ex- 

 tended footnote by the editor. He sets forth 

 fairly the views of the different writers, but 

 still clings to the opinion himself that the 



smaller hive is the thing. He finally summa- 

 rizes the matter in this way : 



Bro. Dadant's trouble comes from expecting and 

 getting too much out of each queen. Instead of 

 " horsewhipping " the queens, I would get more 

 queens to help them. Hive your swarms in smaller 

 hives, give fewer combs to each queen, and another 

 year you will have mo e queens in proportion to your 

 number of combs than you have now. Bro. Dadant 

 says to himself, " Here I have 1000 combs and only 80 

 queens. I must give these queeus all the room possi- 

 ble, so as to get just as many bees as I possibly can." 

 My way of looking at it would be like this ; " Here I 

 have 1000 combs, and I want to get just as many bees 

 out of them as possible, so I will have plenty of queens, 

 and thus get the combs just as full of eggs as I can." 

 You see that Bro. Dadant and myself are both afier 

 bees, but we go at it in a difierent way. 



It does not seem to me that Bro. Hutchin- 

 son quite hits the nail on the head. It is not 

 a question of whether one queen or a plurality 

 of them raises a certain number of bees; but 

 it is a question whether the colony shall be a 

 large or a small one. As there can be only 

 one queen in the hive, then (if the colony is a 

 large one) one queen must be the mother of 

 all the bees. But Mr. Hutchinson seems to 

 take the ground that, as it is difficult to get a 

 queen that will breed up to such a point, bet- 

 ter have two queens in two colonies. But I 

 raise the question right here : Suppose there 

 are 5000 btes to the pound, and that there are 

 five pounds of bees, or 25,000 to the average 

 eight-frame colony. With two eight-framers 

 we should have 50,000 bees. My theory and 

 practice are that the 50,000 in one colony will 

 bring in more dollars to the bee-keeper than 

 the same number equally divided in two colo- 

 nies. 



It is well known that one large factory, for 

 example, can manufacture more cheaply and 

 make more money than two smaller factories 

 of half the size. The same executive force 

 of the smalltr concern, the same book-keep- 

 ers, the same clerks, the same foreman, can 

 manage a producing force of twice the size as 

 economically, or very nearly so. Perhaps the 

 illustration is not quite parallel, but it serves 

 to illustrate my idea. During the working 

 season it is conceded, I think, that a large col- 

 ony will have more working bees in propor- 

 tion to its size than a small one.* But Mr. 

 Hutchinson may bring up this question : Grant- 

 ed that there are more working bees in a large 

 hive in proportion to its size, would such a col- 

 ony make more money ? Mr. Dadant has 

 handled more bees — that is, operated more col- 

 onies — than any of the parties in the discus- 

 sion. Others may have handled as many for a 

 short time ; but the Dadants as well as the 

 Frances have each operated some 400 or 500 

 colonies for a period of 15 or 20 years, and have 

 made money as well as honey. 



* After I had prepared the matter it occurred to me 

 at this point that there might be a question raised 

 here. This r referred to A. I. R., and he replied some- 

 thing after this fashion : It takes fewer rods of fence 

 per acre in a large field than in one of less size. n 

 the same way there are fewer bees required to keep 

 up the necessary animal heat per square foot of brood 

 in a large colony than in a small oie ; that is to say, 

 the bees that might ordinarily be required to act as 

 nurse-bees, and to help sustain animal heat in a small 

 colony, in a large one can go to the field. A. I. R. 

 thinks it is almost an axiom that there are more work- 

 ing bees in a large colony in proportion to its size 

 than in a small one. 



