1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



733 



you could with that colon)', as you said you 

 you intended to." 



"Now, suppose that, instead of securing 

 this large amount of bees in one hive, I had 

 not looked after them at all, but left them to 

 take care of themstlves, as the most of those 

 who doubt these large yields do, what would 

 I have had ? " 



"lam not going to answer that question. 

 I agreed to keep still." 



"The queen would have laid only moder- 

 ately, so tbat, by the time the white clover be- 

 gan to yield honey, they would have had only 

 about from 2.5,000 to 30,000 bees. At about 

 this time the bees would have swarmed, thus 

 dividing their numbers, while there would 

 have been no laying queen in the old hive to 

 lay eggs for the basswood and buckwheat 

 workers for nearly or quite three weeks. Be- 

 sides this, there would in all probability have 

 issued one or more after swarms, thus dividing 

 the bees still more, thereby defeating the pros- 

 pect of any honey at all from the old colony, 

 so that, were we to call 20,000 bees an ordi- 

 nary colony as kept by the majority of bee- 

 keepers, we should not be far out of the way." 



" I think you are about right there." 



" This would give but about 71 pounds per 

 colony had this 1877 colony been divided up 

 in that way, so that in reality' that big yield, 

 when brought down in this way to its propor- 

 tion according to the number of bees there 

 were in the hive, is nothing very great after 

 all; for no one would call 71 pounds of ex- 

 tracted honey per colony, in a good season, 

 an exaggerated report." 



"Then you think that the number of bees 

 there are in a hive has much to do with the 

 yield of honey from that hive? " 



" Most assuredly I do. And all bee-keep- 

 ers should understand that it is bees that gath- 

 er honey or nectar, not the number of hives 

 which they have standing in the yard, all the 

 way from weak to moderate in bees when the 

 honey harvest arrives." 



" Will a large colony do more in proportion 

 than a small one ? " 



" Now you have touched on a point worth 

 much to every one who desires good returns 

 from his bees. A large colony of bees will do 

 much more in proportion than will a small 

 one, for the outside elements do not have that 

 chilling effect on the hive of a populous colo- 

 ny that they do on a hive with few bees in it. 

 Thus more bees go to the fields, and all work 

 to better advantage." 



" In a remark you made a little back you 

 hinted at having the bees when the honey 

 harvest arrived. What about this matter ? " 



" As I have often said before, and it will 

 bear repeating over and over, the main secret 

 in securing a lirge }deld of honey lies in the 

 securing of a large and contented force of 

 bees at just the right time to take advantage 

 of the honey harvest. If secured too early 

 they are of little use, as there is nothing for 

 them to gather ; and if too late, they only be- 

 come consumers instead of producers." 



"How are we to know about these mat- 

 ters ? " 



" The same way you know about any thing. 



In connection with the bees the locality must 

 be understood. If a person understands his 

 locality, and secures his bees as we have been 

 talking, he will have no cause to complain of 

 his yield, if the flowers secrete honey. On 

 these things depends our yield of honey." 



" I am glad I called, for I not only under- 

 stand how better to work my bees, but no long- 

 er doubt what seemed to me to be ' fish stories ' 

 before. Good night." 





QUEEN CELLS FROM DRONE COMB ; WHY IT 

 IS PREFERRED ; DISPENSING WITH ROY- 

 AL JELLY. 

 I have just read in Gleanings from C. Rus- 

 sell, " How to Rear good Queens," and your 

 comment. I will say here that this plan is not 

 a new kink, as you txpress it in your com- 

 ment. This was discussed several years ago, 

 and given as a plan to rear good queens by re- 

 moving the larvae from cells started by black 

 bees and replacing with larvae from a choice 

 queen. In fact, I think you experimented 

 with it. I believe it is the only plan by which 

 royal jelly is of any advantage to a transferred 

 larva. I take the ground that just as good 

 queens can be reared by the transfer method 

 without royal jelly as with it, because, nine 

 times out of ten, the bees will clear it from 

 the cell. In rearing queens by the Doolittle 

 process in a double-story hive, with queen be- 

 low, it might be of service ; at least, it is sug- 

 gestive to the bees ; but by my plan of rearing 

 queens it is of no value whatever. I rear 

 queens by removing the queen and brood for 

 24 hours, and then transfer larvae into drone- 

 cells fastened on to bars in a frame, as Jones 

 described, and I get all the cells that 1 -wish 

 started, which should not be more than from 

 20 to 30 at one transferring, and then place 

 cells after two days over a strong colony to be 

 built out. 



I have quit fussing over royal jelly. I be- 

 lieve I was among the first to advocate the roy- 

 al-jelly plan, but have since discarded it. Of 

 course, the stronger the colony that the cells 

 are startt d in, and honey coming in, the bet- 

 ter the queens will be. The objection to the 

 plan that Mr. Russell advocates is that cells 

 become mixed up so that some blacks or hy- 

 brids will get in with the batch of cells by 

 oversight. The jelly of those cells is perhaps 

 beneficial to a young larva, but otherwise I 

 think not. If one will take the pains to try 

 it he will find that, within two hours after lar- 

 vae are transferred by my plan, the larvae ac- 

 cepted will be surrounded by watery fluid, and 

 in six hours will be floating in jelly, and, as a 

 rule, three-fourths of the transfer will be ac- 

 cepted. The queens I rear compare favorably 

 with those reared in the swarming season ; and 

 when I attain to that I am satisfied ; for I 

 don't believe we can beat Nature, but attain 



