326 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



©(DR[]W[I[^©^TrD(S)K3© MDITK] [D}(S)(S)[LDir¥[LE 



At liorodino. New York 



DIAGNOSING. 



" What is meant by diagnosing the inside 

 of a bee-hive? When yovi examine a colony 

 carefully from the outside is it to determine 

 whether the bees are diseased ? " 



"Not generally, although one experienced 

 would be quite apt to recognize it if that col- 

 ony had a disease ])eculiar to bees." 



"Is it essential that the person making 

 the diagnosis be skilled?" 



"Certainly. A banker could neither di- 

 agnose the human body nor a colony of 

 bees within a hive. One should have some 

 idea of what to expect when he opens a hive, 

 in order to judge i)roperly whether every 

 thing is as it should be. 



"As much of our literature on bees does 

 not mention this subject, the desired knowl- 

 edge has to be gained through a series of ob- 

 servations covering one, two, or more years. 

 And i^erhaps this is wisest, after all; for in 

 no two hives will exactly the same condi- 

 tions be found. Again, what is observed 

 to-day will be different from what was found 

 in the same hive when it was last looked 

 over. In fact, after many years of observa- 

 tion it may not be the easiest thing for the 

 best of apiarists to give in words any thing 

 like a definite answer to the question,' ' What 

 ought a person to find inside a bee-hive ? ' 



"But if you so desire I will attempt in a 

 general way to tell you what you may ex- 

 l)ect to find in a hive containing a colony of 

 bees. If they have been left to do as they 

 l)lease after having been hived as a swarni, 

 there will be drone comb in different jilaces 

 amounting to from one-tenth to one-fourth 

 of the contents of the hive. If the apiarist 

 has given frames of foundation, or has con- 

 trolled comb-building, there may be only a 

 few cells scattered here and there, amount- 

 ing i)ossibly to between three and six square 

 inches. In this locality these drone-cells 

 are not likely to contain brood except dur- 

 ing May, Jiine, .July, and August. After 

 the honey har\'est (hey may contain honey. 

 As a rule they never contain ])ollen." 



"I have read tliat drone-comb cells are so 

 large that it takes only four to measure an 

 inch; then how is it possible to diagnose any 

 thing from the outside as to how much comb 

 having cells of this size is to be found ? " 



"You can tell nothing about it from the 

 outside except during the months mention- 

 ed. Suppose you stand in front of a ])0])u- 

 lous colony for an hour in June, about one 

 o'clock in the afternoon. If the hive has 

 one-fourth of the comb in cells of drone size, 

 the rush and roar of the drones going and 

 coming from the entrance will make you 

 think there is a swarm in the air; while if 

 the apiarist has excluded them, or if the 

 bees had a very vigorous i(ueen at the time 

 of comb-building, and so made onl^' a few 

 inches of drone comb, only oneor two drones 

 will be seen going from the entrance during 

 the time there were hundreds in the other 



case. You yourself would not try to diag- 

 nose for drones in the fall or early spring. 

 You would do it at the right time; and if 

 you saw them by the thousand going from 

 the entrance of any hive you woidd be sure 

 of a superabundance of drone comb. 



" We will talk next about the worker brood. 

 The queen in a colony wintered on its sum- 

 mer stand will often begin laying eggs in 

 worker-cells in .lanuary, and generally in 

 February. If the colony is wintered in a 

 cellar giving the best results, it is not likely 

 to have brood started much, if at all, before 

 being brought outside. The queen begins 

 by laying a few eggs daily, in a compact 

 form, right in the center of the cluster of 

 bees, no matter in what part of the hive it 

 may be, filling a space in one comb on either 

 side about as large as a silver dollar. Brood 

 will soon be found in three combs; that in 

 the first having increased in size to a circle 

 from five to six inches in diameter, while in 

 the other two it will not measure more than 

 two or three inches. 8oon she will be laying 

 300 to 400 eggs daily, which will give brood 

 to about one frame solid full, if it is all to- 

 gether. By May she will be laying from 1000 

 to 1500 eggs daily, if the season is favorable 

 — the latter figure being as high as some 

 queens ever reach. But such a queen I would 

 not consider fit for any thing but superse- 

 dure as soon as it could be done jirofitably. 

 From the 25th of May to the 10th of June 

 the queen should be at her best, when she 

 will lay from 8000 to 4000 eggs daily; and, if 

 so, where a ten-frame Langstroth hive is 

 used, eight of the combs will be nearly solid 

 with brood, while quite a little brood will be 

 scattered about in the two outside frames, 

 generally considerably mixed with the ik)1- 

 len and honey. Now, with an inferior queen 

 you will see no large force of bees going in 

 and out at the entrance, and their work in 

 the super will be under the average. On 

 the otlier hand, three weeks later, if you 

 should i)ass in front of the colony having 

 the (jueen that could lay 4000 eggs daily, if 

 the harvest is good, you would tliink there 

 was a mighty army rushing to and fro after 

 the nectar. No need of oi)ening these two 

 liives. A look at the entrance and the su- 

 pers tells you, and you will instinctively 

 mark the former for a supersedure of its 

 queen, and very likely the latter for a breed- 

 er. Then if you see many bees standing 

 about the entrance, with little work being 

 done, it shows that they are queenless; or, 

 in case of a strong colony in the swarming 

 season, they may have the swarming fever. 

 If the bees are shiny, have swollen abdo- 

 mens, move about with a trembling motion 

 while other bees are pulling at them, and if 

 dead bees are scattered about in front of the 

 hive, such colonies may have bee paralysis. 

 So exami)les might be multi])lied indefinite- 

 ly to illustrate what a glance at a colony 

 will show to an experienced bee-keeper." 



