1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1165 



be either absorbed by some bee-keeper larg- 

 er than himself, or to absorb the other fel- 

 low. Very often there is a bee-keeper in a 

 locality who does a larger business than the 

 rest. He makes his bees pay while his neigh- 

 bors, owing to his own superior management, 

 are not able to make a living. The big one, 

 of course, would like to have all the territory 

 to himself. The little fellows become dis- 

 couraged, and are willing to sell out. They 

 get their heads together and begin to talk 

 business. Suppose each one has different 

 kinds of hives or covers. The seller will 

 have to sacrifice in order to strike a bargain; 

 and the buyer will have to submit to all kinds 

 of inconvenience by reason of the lack of in- 

 terchangeability. I have seen this condition 

 of affairs in many parts of the country; and 

 when we attempt to make any radical de- 

 parture we are obliged to put up with a great 

 deal of inconvenience. — Ed.] 



THE NUMBER OF COLONIES TO A GIVEN LO- 

 CALITY; FEEDING IN THE FALL. 



1. At my suburban home, three-fourths of 

 a mile from the center of a city of 25,000 in- 

 habitants, I have a hive of bees which for 

 the last five years have averaged about 50 

 lbs. of honey. Within a radius of two miles 

 there are probably not to exceed a dozen 

 colonies. There is a fair succession of hon- 

 ey-producing flowers in this vicinity, though 

 no very great abundance of any kind. This 

 year's honey crop (which, by the way, broke 

 the record, notwithstanding the fact that 

 clover was practically nil) was about as fol- 

 lows: From locust, 23 lbs.; ailantus and ca- 

 talpa, 27 lbs.; sumac, 20 lbs., all comb hon- 

 ey. Late this year I got two more colonies. 

 How many more can probably be kept with 

 profit in this locality? 



2. When eight-frame Dovetailed hives are 

 operated for comb honey only, the brood- 

 chamber being left undisturbed, will the 

 bees, in an average year, store enough hon- 

 ey to winter safely without fall feeding, es- 

 pecially where there is a good scattering of 

 heartsease, asters, and goldenrod? 



E. W. Peirce. 

 Zanesville, Ohio, Nov. 4, 1904. 



[1. It is hard to estimate how many colonies 

 •could be kept in your locality— possibly 40 to 

 50, although the average per colony would 

 be a little less than where you have only a 

 few. It will, perhaps, be advisable for you 

 to increase the number to 10 or 15. If these 

 give you good average yields, keep on in- 

 creasing until the average is materially re- 

 duced. 



2. This is a hard question to answer, as 

 every thing depends upon the season. With 

 a year like that mentioned in question No. 1, 

 an eight-frame hive would have enough, 

 after taking away the surplus, to winter on, 

 but generally the bees will require to be fed 

 a little after all the honey but that in the 

 brood-nest has been taken away. If you 

 can exchange 3-cent sugar syrup for a win- 

 ter food for 10 or 15 cent comb honey you 

 can afford to feed a little.— Ed.] 



A SWARM OF drones. 



I want to tell you about my new expe- 

 rience. I was watching the bees; and, im- 

 agine my surprise to find quite a swarm 

 hanging high in a tree. So I got my step- 

 ladder and hoop, and climbed up and cap- 

 tured my swarm, when I found it was only 

 a bunch of drones and a very few workers. 

 Can any one explain where they came from, 

 and what would have become of them if I 

 had not got hold of them? 



Spearfish, S. D. N. L. Anderson. 



[This swarm may have been the remnant 

 of a fertile worker or a drone-laying colony. 

 As things were all going wrong they swarm- 

 ed out just as stocks will frequently do 

 when conditions are going from bad to 

 worse. — Ed.] 



HOFFMAN SHALLOW EXTRACTING-FRAMES TOO 

 LIGHT. 



The Hoffman frame was pretty well dis- 

 cussed in the Oct. 1st issue. That frame suits 

 me very well just as it is, and so does the 

 division-board. I think it best at first to put 

 one in at each side of the frames; if only at 

 one side the comb next to the hive is often 

 pasted to the hive because the space is too 

 small; and would it not be well to have di- 

 vision-boards between all the combs, sash or 

 frame, at first, till the combs are built 

 straight, which would necessitate leaving 

 out some frames at first till the division- 

 boards have been removed? The division- 

 boards should be made of slats like the 

 fence in the supers, and such springs as are 

 in the supers would be nice to keep up the 

 frames in the brood-nest. As I said, the 



