994 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



forty clays of the honey-flow gone. If no 

 swarms, the queen continually lays, and field 

 bees increase every day. 



Last February I found nay 74 colonies 

 with very little honey and few bees; but 

 the weather was warm and very favorable. 

 The bees found plenty to su^jport them- 

 selves, and they were going after it with all 

 their might. I helped them all I could by 

 changing the brood every ten days, placing 

 the capped brood on the outside, as I 

 thought it would stand more cold than the 

 little larvje and eggs. It is wonderful how 

 they built ujd. As soon as five or more 

 frames were filled with brood I put on the 

 super (mine has eight frames), or second 

 story. I took from the strongest and helped 

 the weak until I had them all about equal. 



Whenever a colony begins to prepare to 

 swarm, or is crowded with bees, shake them. 

 First set the old hive to one side and place 

 a new one in its place with frames of 

 empty combs or foundation. Then open 

 the old hive, take from it a frame with 

 eggs and larvas, and the queen, and put 

 them in the new hive. Put on the queen- 

 excluder and a wire screen; shake two- 

 thirds of the bees in front of the new hive, 

 and place the two bodies with remaining 

 brood and bees on top of the excluder and 

 screen. Give a small entrance in the second 

 story, so that all field bees can get out and 

 return to the new hive. The screen keeps 

 all the bees down with the queen, and the 

 honey is stored below. This brings about 

 conditions like those of a natural swarm. 



In five days remove the screen, and in 

 five days more cut out all queen-cells. In 

 fiftten davs from then time the bees were 



shaken, remove the queen-excluder to the 

 top of the second story. The queen will at 

 once come above and fill the second story 

 with brood. When the queen was very 

 prolific I used a fourth story. One colony 

 on the scales from May 4 to June 9 aver- 

 aged 9 lbs. per day. May 16 they made 20 

 lbs. 



No increase was made until the end of 

 the honey-flow. In raising brood to the 

 third or fourth story the bees will build 

 as fine queen-cells as in natural swarming. 

 A week or ten days before the honey-flow 

 was over I placed the excluder with the 

 Avire screen on under the top story, and 

 gave them an entrance in the back and 

 succeeded in mating a queen in almost every 

 colony, so at the end of the flow I separated 

 each colony, taking almost all the brood with 

 the new colony, as all fleld bees would return 

 to the old hive. This gave me a fair increase ; 

 and as there is some honey coming in all 

 through July and August the colonies liuilt 

 up in fine shape. Ordinarily I would not 

 have secured any surplus at all; so by hav- 

 ing no swarms at or before the honey-flow 

 the bees were kept constantly at work for 

 me storing surplus honey, and the increase 

 cam.e at a time ujst as good for the bees, but 

 much better for me. 



My average was 229 lbs. per colony, 

 besides over 200 lbs. of comb honey for 

 home use. 



The theory is, to keep more bees. This is 

 certainly the very best advice. It does not 

 mean a greater number of hives, but more 

 in a hive; and esr)ecially at the time of the 

 honey-flow. 



Simi, Cal. 



MANY TRIPS TO THE FIELD DOES A BEE MAKE IN A DAY? 



BT JOHN II. LOVELL 



The attempt to determine how many trips 

 to the field a bee makes in a day, recently 

 described by Mr. Heberle, p. 904, Nov. 15, 

 is certainly highly praiseworthy for the 

 great patience displayed. A number of bees 

 were marked with colors; and for 13 hours 

 continuously, on July 15, Mr. Lunden 

 watched the entrance of the hive for the 

 purpose of determining how often the col- 

 ored bees returned from the field. It is 

 admitted that not infrequently they were 

 overlooked, especially in the afernoon, 

 when the observer became tired. The con- 

 clusions reached were that a field-bee makes 

 about ten trips a day— a trip requiring' 

 from 30 minutes to two hours — on an aver- 

 age, about one an hour. 



Clearly, the observation is only approxi- 



mately correct, even for this particular day, 

 since it was found practically impossible 

 to record exactly the number of trips made 

 by any individual bee for so many hours, 

 where so many bees were constantly passing 

 in and out of the hive. For any other day 

 it might be very inaccurate. The number of 

 trips a field bee m.akes in a day depends 

 upon : 1. The distance of the honey-plants 

 from the hive: 2. The abundance of nectar; 

 3. Temperature and weather; 4. Length of 

 day; 5. Incidental factors; age and con- 

 dition of bee. location of nectar in flowers; 

 place of storage in hive, etc. 



The best way to proceed, I think, is to 

 make observations, not at the hive, but at 

 the field end, and note how many visits an 

 individual bee will make in an hour under 



