422 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



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At Borodino, New York 



DIAGNOSING AT THE ENTRANCE. 



"Which is better, to let colonies entirely 

 alone during the year or to be continually 

 fussing with them?" 



"Well, Mr. Barber, neither plan is right. 

 No man can become a successful bee-keeper 

 without properly looking after his bees; but 

 this does not mean the overhauling of any 

 or all colonies once a week, nor does it mean 

 passing through the bee-yard once a week 

 and merely looking at the hives. However, 

 an experienced bee-keeper by this latter plan 

 can often tell if it is necessary to open cer- 

 tain colonies to correct any thing wrong. 

 Certain outside appearances which may be 

 discovered from the entrance and outside of 

 the hive of the one colony will tell very 

 nearly about all colonies. 



" Suppose it is the sjiring of the year. You 

 stand and look at the entrance of the hive 

 containing a good queen and a prosperous 

 colony during some fine morning in May. 

 You will see the bees going in and out quite 

 rapidly. You will note that the bees take 

 wing at once after they are out from the en- 

 trance, leaving in the air in a straight line 

 and at rapid flight. Then those returning 

 are bearing loads of iiollen in their pollen- 

 baskets, or have swollen abdomens from car- 

 rying water or nectar for the wants of the 

 rapidly increasing brood and for the colony. 

 If you are to make a successful bee-keeper, 

 such manifestation at the entrance will so 

 impress itself on your mind's eye that you 

 will ever after know just what to expect at 

 the entrance of a hive containing a prosper- 

 ous colony. 



"But if you have never looked inside a 

 colony you can not know just how matters 

 are inside the hive unless you look there as 

 well as at the entrance. Now open this hive; 

 look at the regular order of the brood in the 

 combs; see how the eggs are deposited in the 

 center of the bottoms of the cells; see the 

 eggs are out toward the margin of the combs, 

 little larvirie inside these eggs, larger larvae 

 still further inward, with sealed brood in the 

 center. Then see how large and nice the 

 mother bee (or the queen as she is called) 

 looks; and if she is a quiet Italian queen see 

 how she is laying eggs. Take out your 

 watch. Note when the second-hand stands 

 at the top, or at 60. Now count as she lays. 

 i'>ne, two, three, four, five, six, will be the 

 number during the (30 seconds if she is do- 

 ing her level best; but if it is only three or 

 four, do not feel badly, for it is a rare thing 

 that any queen does as well as six for many 

 minutes at a time. Say it is four, and that 

 she rests half of the time during the 24-hour 

 day. She will then have laid 2880, and that 

 is not bad at this time of the year, for 3000 

 eggs is considered the maximum for a daily 

 average. 



" Note the pollen. Not more than enough 

 cells having pollen in to fill half a frame. 

 This pollen tells something about the queen. 



If she is poor, a large accumulation will be 

 found; but with an abundance of brood it is 

 used nearly as fast as brought in. 



"Lastly, look at the honey. If there is 

 to the amount of one to one and a half 

 frames full, they have enough to feed that 

 brood for ten days to two weeks. 



' ' Now close the hive. Stop at the entrance 

 of the next one; and if you see the same 

 thing you did before, there is only one thing 

 that you are in the dark about, and that is 

 the amount of stores the hive contains, and 

 this you can guess at by lifting the hive. 

 But as the brood which the combs contain 

 makes the hive quite heavy with little or no 

 honey in it I think it wise to lift the cover, 

 when, by blowing a little smoke over the 

 tops of the combs, it will be readily seen as 

 to the amount of sealed honey there is, in 

 accord with the one we just looked at; and if 

 as much or more, we know about what this 

 colony is also. Now walk in front of each 

 hive, and then look about the stores with 

 each that compares favorably with what we 

 have in our mind's eye, and all such are just 

 as well off as if we handled the colony every 

 two or three days — yea, better. For with 

 every time we open any hive needlessly, we, 

 for the time being at least, destroy the equi- 

 librium of that colony. 



"Now observe the actions of weaker colo- 

 nies at the entrance, then look over one of 

 them as you did the good one, and you will 

 soon understand about them. If you find 

 any colony which does not compare at the 

 entrance with any of these, open the hive, 

 find the trouble, and ever afterward you will 

 know about what to expect. After the su- 

 pers are on, go amongst the hives and ob- 

 serve the conditions as to the amount of 

 surplus honey stored. This is more easily 

 told from the entrance and a peep in at the 

 top of the supers than are the conditions 

 during the brood-rearing period. 



"Where you see from the outside that 

 something is wrong, or that there is some- 

 thing going on inside that you wish to know 

 about, or that you think may be remedied, 

 don't hesitate a minute about opening that 

 colony to find out what you should do to put 

 it in a prosperous condition. If you find 

 something you do not feel equal to, go to 

 your A B of Bee Culture, Langstroth's, 

 Quinby's, or any other book or books you 

 may have on bees, and make them tell you. 

 Better still, have the matter these books 

 contain so thoroughly in your mind that it 

 will come to you at once what the trouble is 

 while you are still at the colony." 



EXPOSING FAKES, ETC. 



I Uke Gleanings very much, and am interested 

 in your poultry department. Keep on in your good 

 work of exposing fake poultry " secrets." I have 

 two colonies of bees. 



Sacramento, Cal., .June 8. A. D. Hunger. 



