10 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



CONVERSATIONS with DOOLITTLE 



At Borodino, New York. 



PROLIFICNESS OR LONGEVITY. 



" Which do you consider pref- 

 erable — a queen having extra pro- 

 lifieness, or the queen whose work- 

 eis have the greatest longevity? 

 Is it possible to combine the two 

 in one mother bee ? " 

 I believe it possible that a queen 

 may be prolific, and her bees long-lived 

 too; but Dame Nature has some peculiar 

 plans of her own, and, when left to herself, 

 she generally takes awav something when 

 she adds a great advantage to anything. So 

 we can rarely expect her to put length of 

 days and many children in the same hand, 

 even when she is dealing with her most 

 favored offspring, the bees. But most queens 

 are given to "sporting a little ;" and in this, 

 Nature seems more ready to acquiesce with 

 the bees than with many other things unless 

 it is with poultry. 



My belief is that we can combine longev- 

 ity and prolificness with less nicety of work 

 and trouble than was expended on produc- 

 ing bees with a lengthened tongue ; but if 

 we can't, longevity is well worth the effort. 

 Under similar conditions in the hive and 

 colony nearly all the bees would bring in 

 about the same amount of nectar. The im- 

 portant factor is, what will they make 

 of it ? In answering this question it is well 

 to remember that the colony of bees which 

 gathers the largest surplus during the hon- 

 ey-flow, and consumes the smallest amount 

 of this surplus in maintaining the colony 

 between or after the nectar flows, is the 

 most profitable one, and therefore the one 

 to breed from.. But in order to set about 

 breeding up bees to their highest standard 

 of excellence understandingly, we must 

 know what qualities in the bees stand first 

 in the make-up of a honey-gatherer. 



In order that we may better understand 

 matters, allow me to give something of the 

 past that first called- my attention to the 

 value of longevity in bees. During the 

 middle '90's one of our most successful 

 comb-honey producers desired to exchange 

 queens ; and as I was always on the lookout 

 for any chance to improve the bees I al- 

 ready had, we did so. I gave this queen my 

 best care and attention; but the best she 

 would do at brood-rearing was to the 

 amount of about six Langstro*h frames 

 full. I was disappointed, as many of my 

 queens would give to the amount of eight 

 and nine frames practically full of brood. 

 So I marked the colony as one whose queen 



should be replaced with one more prolific. 

 My time for superseding queens is when the 

 flow of white honey is near its close; but 

 when I came to this colony I found that it 

 had stored and eoinpleted more sections 

 than had any of the colonies having queens 

 giving eight and nine frames of brood. 

 This led me to keep this queen for another 

 season. 



The next season proved a repetition of 

 the year before ; and while her bees did not 

 seem to start out to work any earlier in 

 the morning, or work later at night, nor 

 seemed to be doing a " rushing " business 

 at any time, they kej^t steadily at it, Avith 

 the work in the sections slowly getting 

 ahead of those which made a far greater 

 showing as to working numbers at the en- 

 trance. Tliis queen lived to be nearly five 

 years old, and her colony held the "banner" 

 as to completed sections for four years: 

 and from close observation, longevity of 

 the worker bees was the only reason I could 

 ascribe to account for their superiority. 

 The third and fourth year I used her as a 

 breeder to a great extent. 



If six frames of her brood gave a work- 

 ing force equal to eight frames of another 

 queen, then that colony has saved the labor, 

 the honey, and the pollen necessary to rear 

 the two extra frames of brood. The labor 

 part is not often thought about. The less 

 brood that bees are rearing, the more slow- 

 ly they are aging, other things being equal; 

 and this saving tends to lengthen still 

 further their time of service as the bees 

 which " joile the honey in." And this is not 

 all. Long-lived bees have less brood in pro- 

 portion to keep warm and care for; and 

 the small amount of brood for the size of 

 the hive tends to discourage swarming as 

 m.ueh as anything I know of. 



Longer-lived bees do not slack off brood- 

 rearing so quickly as the working force is 

 large in proportion to the brood, and so a 

 smaller nectar-flow suffices to keep the 

 queen laying to her full capacity. This 

 leaves the colony in better condition to be- 

 gin storing a surplus from any smaller flow 

 that may occur. What does all this amount 

 to? To produce a given maximum force of 

 workers, less honey is needed, less pollen, 

 less labor, less heat; consequently a colony 

 attains its full strength earlier in the sea- 

 son, and more surely, no matter what the 

 weather conditions. It is better supplied 

 with stores than others shorter lived, and 

 the stoi'es stay there at less loss of bees. 



