542 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Junk 1 



ization would be another jjreat step in]ad- 

 vance, and I hope its day is near. 



We are still very far, in my opinion, from 

 reaching- the perfect stage of bee keeping; 

 and such things as the use of starters, 

 brush swarming, and inaccurate home- 

 made hives, are steps backward rather than 

 forward, in my opinion. I do not favor the 

 soap-box hive; on the contrary, I like my 

 hives to be as accurately gauged as the 

 slit of a spectroscope or the tube of a com- 

 pound microscope. 



[I wish to make one correction; and that 

 is, that the Heddon hive has a brood-cham- 

 ber of one depth and a comb-honey super of 

 another depth. The super as originally 

 put out by Mr. Heddon was of an entirely 

 different construction — shorter on the in- 

 side dimension?, and made of thinner stock. 

 If the tall section had been in vogue at the 

 time Mr. Heddon put out his hive, in 1885, 

 it is possible he would have mar'e the brood- 

 chamber and section super of just the same 

 depth. Mr. Danzenbaker originally did 

 have his hive this waj^; but the more he ex- 

 perimented, the more he became convinced 

 that a brood-nest just deep enough to take 

 in 4X5 sections was a little too shallow. 

 He therefore settled on something which is 

 a compromise between Langstroth depth 

 and the five inch super section depth. — Ed.] 



A HIVE ON SCALES. 



A Big Swarm; the "Witchery of Kodakery." 



BY F. W. HALL. 



give you the record. In 1903 she was not 

 kept on the scales, but did fine work until 

 she swarmed out July 20. She was caged, 

 and the swarm allowed to return to the old 

 hive, and she was put on to other brood, 

 and in soma eight or ten days afterward 



The General Manager's report makes me 

 say I began the season the first of May 

 with 90 colonies. I afterward took in 7 

 colonies besides to work on shares for a 

 neighbor, where I established an "outer 

 yard " In reality I had but 85 colonies at 

 the beginning of the honey- flow, which 

 opened up almost within a fortnight. May 

 22 or 2.V Between the 1st and 22d of May 

 was bad weather to keep bees from dwin- 

 dling. From that on they did good work 

 despite almost daily downpours of rain; bat 

 between showers the bees rolled in the hon- 

 ey. There were three swarms yet the 27th 

 or 28th of June that were scarcely' bigger 

 than a pint cup, which, had I not known 

 that it was not for want of a good queen 

 that they were that way, I would not have 

 tried to get them through. They were united 

 to swarmed colonies, old combs of brood, and 

 gave excellent account of themselves; and, 

 by the waj', they were all daughters of the 

 old queen I got from you three years ago 

 last July. I have some 50 or more daugh- 

 ters of hers, and they have shown more or 

 less of the vim of their mother, which was 

 the queen that gave ms 290 sections of hon- 

 ey in 1901 while my average was but 88 lbs., 

 aad no more pampering than the others got. 

 In 1902 she did good work; but I lost my 

 r2cord- book — that is, some one borro'* ed (?) 

 it (when I was not looking), and I can't 



she came out with another swarm, hiving 

 her with only a part cf the bees on other 

 brood, but lived only long enough to be su- 

 perseded by one of her own daughters. 



By pruning the combs of eel s I have 

 been able to get a good many daughters 

 each season from her, and, as stated before, 

 all have given good account of themselves. 

 Talk about that o'd queen of yours not be- 

 ing worth S200! Why, I believe this one / 

 have (which, by the way, was one of her 

 daughters) has been worth that much to me 

 already. I kept this old queen on scales 

 for two summers, weighing her three times 

 a day during 1901, and once a day (at eve- 

 ning) during 1902. The 1901 record is in 

 the American Bee Jojirnal, page 579, 1902. 

 It was borrowed(?), as stated above, hence 

 I can not reproduce it. The year 1903 is 

 as follows: 



May 23, 



weight 58 

 May 24, 



weight 62 

 May 25, 



weight 75 

 May 26, 

 May 27, 



75 '4 lbs.. 

 May 28. 

 May 29, 



lbs., loss 

 May 30 

 May 31, 

 June 1, 

 June 2, 

 June 3. 

 June 4, 



rain, sunshine; rain, sunshine; 

 lbs. 



rain, sunshine; rain, sunshine; 

 lbs. ; gain 4. 



cloudy; added 10-lb. super; fair; 

 U lbs., gain 3^4 . 



rain; cool; weight 75}:^. 



cool and windy; cloudy; weight 

 loss '2 



cool: weight 75 lbs., loss '4. 



cool, windy; cloudy; weight 73 '^ 



, rain; weight 73 lbs., loss /^. 

 rain; weight 72 lbs., loss 1. 



rain; cool; weight 71 lbs., loss 1. 



cool; weight 71 lb«. 

 hazy : warm: weight 70 lbs., loss 1. 



fair; weight 70 lbs., loss — 0. 



