1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



925 



The accumulation in the nozzle can not be 

 overcome with the dry est fuel, and must be 

 removed from time to time. A clean smoker 

 works more satisfactorily for me. 



Now, Mr. Editor, allow me to sa}' another 

 word or two on the subject of the smoker. I 

 should like to suggest a slight change too. 

 Some six years ago I bought of The A. I. Root 

 Co. a Crane smoker. This I have used since, 

 extensively and exclusively. I have taken it 

 to the out-yards with me ; it has been used 

 rather roughly some of the time. It has been 

 the only smoker I had in use, and it is still do- 

 ing a good businees, although the nozzle is 

 getting to be very weak and poor. Last win- 

 ter I bought six Corneils, and the}' work very 

 well too, but I do not like the way the nozzle 

 is hinged. Of course, you observe the hinge 

 on the Corneil is on the opposite side from 

 what it is on the Crane. The reason I object 

 to this is, we sometimes rest the nozzle on the 

 edge of the opened hive when blowing smoke 

 in between the slightly raised honey- board or 

 quilt and top of the frames. The pressure or 

 weight is quite often sufficient to cause the 

 smoker to come open, occasionally even let- 

 ting the fire fall out. If hinged the other way 

 the tendency in this case would be to crowd 

 the two parts rather more closely together, 

 and that would, of course, be preferable. I 

 am in favor of having the hinge opposite the 

 bellows. A corrugated shield would also suit 

 me better. 



Naples, N. Y. 



[We formerly had the nozzles of all of our 

 smokers hinged in the way you seem to prefer 

 them. There are two objections. One is, that 

 the nozzle falls back against the fire-cup, dent- 

 ing it ; and the second is, that when the smo- 

 ker is being filled the blaze from the burning 

 fuel will very often shoot out at the top and 

 burn the bellows and the fingers. I presume 

 the great majority use planer shavings — just 

 the very fuel that you condemn ; and it is this 

 fuel that blazes and causes trouble with the 

 bellows when the nozzle is hinged opposite. — 

 Ed] 



THE HIVE QUESTION. 

 Why Large Hives are Better for Extracted Honey. 



BY L. STACHELHAUSEN. 



Some time ago the best size of brood-cham- 

 ber was discussed very thoroughly in GLEAN- 

 INGS and other bee-papers, so the matter will 

 seem stale to many readers ; nevertheless, I 

 hope it will be interesting to have a summing- 

 up and a more scientific explanation of it, 

 which I will try to give. 



We know the bee is 3 days in the egg form, 

 5 days open brood, 13 days capped brood, 2 

 days it is not able to work, 16 days does house- 

 work, and about 16 days field work. If the 

 number of eggs laid daily remains the same, 

 we can figure how many young bees are in the 

 hive, if we know how many eggs are laid daily. 

 In this case the colony will remain the same — 

 that is, as strong or as weak as before. An 



increase of the population is possible only 

 when the number of eggs laid by the queen 

 is increasing ; and if this number is diminish- 

 ing the colony will become weaker. This is 

 important, because, if the population of a col- 

 ony would remain the same, it would in most 

 cases, during the time when no honey can be 

 gathered, consume what it had stored during 

 the honey-flow. 



In fact, a good colony increases the popula- 

 tion from early ipring up to the honey-har- 

 vest, then the colony is getting weaker. In 

 the fall, if some honey can be gathered, a new 

 short increase of the brood can be observed ; 

 and in winter, breeding is stopped entirely. 



If it is our aim to have as many bees as pos- 

 sible for the harvest, and as few consumers as 

 possible when no honey is coming in, it is 

 only one way to attain it in a given colony ; 

 and that is, to increase the number of eggs 

 laid daily by the queen up to the honey-flow, 

 and to the greatest extent. Now it is said, 

 "Why overwork this queen r Two queens 

 would easily lay the same number of eggs." 

 Well, suppose we have two colonies in spring 

 quite alike, covering 8 L. frames. One of 

 them is in a large and the other in a small 

 hive. In my locality the bees have generally 

 commenced brood-rearing Feb. 1, in all my 

 hives. The honey-flow commences at the end 

 of May. For this it is desirable that the 

 queen reach her highest egg-laying capacity 

 about May 1. Consequently we have for the 

 development of the colony 82 days — that is, 4 

 breeding-periods of 21 days each. If the 

 queen commences egg- laying with 200 eggs 

 daily, and doubles this number in 21 days, we 

 have 400 eggs Feb. 21 ; 800 March 14 ; 1600 

 April 5, and 3200 April 26. For the honey 

 harvest we have, then, 108,000 bees in this 

 hive. 



Now, suppose we have the same colony in a 

 hive so small that the queen is cramped as 

 soon as she lays 1600 eggs a day, because she 

 does not find more empty cells, or for any oth- 

 er reason can not lay more eggs. It is plain 

 that from this time on the population of the 

 colony can not increase any more, and we 

 shall have 54,000 bees for the harvest ; conse- 

 quently the colony can gather only half as 

 much honey as the other one. 



Here comes in another point which is of less 

 importance. We have reached the highest 

 population in the large hive May 17, when the 

 honey-harvest commences. In the small hive, 

 from April 26, the colony will remain the 

 same; consequently the largest possible popu- 

 lation is reached at a time when it was not 

 necessary. In these 21 days 43,600 eggs are 

 laid, and just as many bees die, and are raised 

 without any profit for the colony ; they are 

 consumers just as well as the bees raised after 

 the honey-flow. Nature has a remedy for this, 

 but this belongs to another chapter. 



During the honey- flow the brood in both 

 colonies is restricted; in the large hive, where 

 we have an overworked queen, probably more 

 so than in the small one. This is a desired 

 condition for the honey crop, because com- 

 paratively less brood is to be nursed, and a 

 part of the young bees can build combs and 



