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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



ories to advance now, though I still hold 

 them, I find that my practice and experience 

 commend the golden Italians, and warrant me 

 in continuing to keep them till they fail to 

 keep up their record. 



Regarding what you said last season about 

 1^-inch spacing for brood frames, and conse- 

 quent freedom from drone comb, I was im- 

 pressed therewith, and resolved to try it. 

 This year I made some closed-end frames with 

 end-bars \% inches wide. I placed good reason- 

 able starters of either worker comb or worker 

 foundation therein, and gave them to a colony 

 that was not strong enough to want to build 

 drone come at the time. To make the experi- 

 ment a fair one, the conditions should not be 

 made such as to insure worker combs, even 

 with wider frames ; so I did not keep the col- 

 ony reduced to few frames at a time, as prac- 

 ticed by Mr. Doolittle when getting worker 

 comb built ; but I gave them all at one time 

 to the colony, and then left matters to take 

 their own course. The frames were clamped 

 tightly together with thumbscrews, so there 

 was no possibility of their being more than 

 \]4 inches from center to center. The bees 

 were half-blood Carniolan and golden Italian. 

 From the worker cell starters in part of the 

 frames thev built about half or more than half 

 of drone-cells. From one such starter they 

 built a solid sheet of drone comb, filling the 

 frame. From about half the starters they 

 built nice worker comb, but in two such 

 combs I found large quantities of drone brood 

 in worker cells, though the queen was a vig- 

 orous one, as shown by her record before, and 

 also since upon being shaken with the bees 

 into a hive with all worker comb. Hence I 

 conclude that 1^-inch spacing is not to be 

 depended on to insure all worker comb. 



Regarding what you, Dr. Miller, and others 

 say about shade as being beneficial for bees, 

 it has been my experience, the result of ex- 

 tended observation in various parts among the 

 coast valleys of California, that bees in the 

 shade are invariably as cross as can be endur- 

 ed, when the same bees in the warm sunshine 

 will be tractable. Moreover, the honey will 

 be sealed over in a thinner or less ripened 

 state in the shade. The reason of both con- 

 ditions is not hard to seek. Shade, then, is 

 eminently a " question of locality." 



Monterey, Cal. 



[I do not remember, friend N., where I ever 

 intimated that you were " partly theoretical," 

 and where I ever asked you to " confine your- 

 self to matters of fact ; " but I know that I 

 have held that the onlj' merit of many of the 

 so-called five-banded stock was their color ; 

 and I believe that I have stated that some of 

 them are cross, and seem to have been bred 

 originally from Cyprian blood ; that others of 

 our yellow stock have been short-lived, and 

 have been the first to succumb to winter ; but 

 I do not think I have anywhere claimed that 

 all five-banded stock had such characteristics ; 

 in fact, I have plainly stated that the queens 

 from two of the breeders were not only beau- 

 tiful to look upon, but were gentle, and good 

 workers. It is one thing, however, to rear 



yellow stock having color only, and another 

 thing to combine color with business ; but it 

 has been done, nevertheless, and you, doubt- 

 less, have secured some of this stock. 



But I have contended that the rage for color 

 on the part of many careless queen-breeders 

 has resulted in getting color and nothing else. 

 I know this to be a fact, because we have 

 bought such queens, and the result has been 

 that we secured some very cross bees, and col- 

 onies that died off in winter. 



In all these things there are extremes both 

 ways, and I have intended to hold middle 

 ground. 



With regard to l^-inch spacing, if I have 

 ever said that such a distance would result in 

 "freedom from drone comb," I do not re- 

 member it ; but I have said, and would refer 

 you to the A B C of Bee Culture, that close 

 spacing has a tendency to produce more of 

 worker and less of drone. You do not say 

 what were the other conditions under which 

 that drone comb was built. There are some, 

 you know, when nothing but worker will be 

 built, even if only starters are given the bees. 

 There are other conditions when, no matter 

 what the spacing, a large percentage of store 

 comb will be made. 



I have tried to avoid extremes in statement ; 

 and if you can find where I have not done so 

 in the above cases, I shall be obliged if you 

 will point out the places. But regarding the 

 value of close spacing, I would refer you to 

 the works of Cheshire, Thos. Wm. Cowan, 

 and to articles of Julius Hoffman, and scores 

 of others who have used the wide spacing, and 

 have finally adopted the close. — Ed.] 



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 BEE-LIFE — HOW LONG IS IT ORDINARILY? 



Question. — One of my neighbors claims that 

 the worker bee lives to be a year old, and 

 sometimes lives to see eighteen months. An- 

 other claims that no bee in the hive ever at- 

 tains to such an age, six months being the 

 usual length of the worker bee's life, while 

 the queen may live a year. In a paper I was 

 reading lately, I see that thirty days is the life 

 of a worker bee in the summer season. What 

 are beginners to think when there is such a 

 variety of opinions? Please tell us in Glean- 

 ings just how long the queen, drones, and 

 workers live, under ordinary conditions, and 

 thus confer a favor on the many beginners 

 who read that excellent paper. 



Answer. — Surely no one need be ignorant 

 in regard to the length of life of the worker 

 bee when one experiment would tell him the 

 truth in the matter, and convince him that the 

 average life of the worker bee is about 45 days 

 during the summer season, or a half more 

 than the time quoted from the paper, and 16^ 

 months less than that given by the first neigh- 

 bor. Take a colony of black or German bees, 



