148 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



March, 1921 



(iavoied with vanilla extract. Two of the 

 smaller varieties of native bees we liave 

 named robber bees because they always 

 pounce into the hives of our bees to steal 

 honey when we are extracting or working. 

 I have never seen them rob out a colony, 

 but they worry the bees considerably. 

 Average Yields. 

 We have made many mistakes since we 

 came here^ and have also learned much. We 

 have increased the 6 colonies that we 

 brought with us to 600 and have also sold 

 some. Our crop will average almost 300 



pounds per colony this year, figuring our 

 stock at the beginning of the season; if we 

 figure in all the increase, it reduces the av- 

 erage to a little less than 100 pounds. 



Our stock came originally from The A. I. 

 Eoot Company queens from their home yards, 

 having been bought about six years ago. 

 When we first came here honey was sold only 

 in drug stores; but we have worked up a 

 good local demand, and the largest whole- 

 sale store in Punta Arenas now keeps our 

 honey in stock. 



Punta Arenas, Costa Rica. 



COMB HONEY PRODUCTION 



How to Have Brood-Chambers Well 



Filled 'with 'Brooa at the Beginning 



of the Honey FIotjv 



By Geo. S. Demuth 



IN the Febru- 

 ary issue on 

 page 80 is a 

 brief discussion 

 of a time-honor- 

 ed problem in 

 comb-honey pro- 

 duction, that of 

 having the 

 b r od- chamber 



almost completely filled with brood at the 

 beginning of the honey flow, so that there 

 is neither much sealed honey left in the hive 

 nor many empty cells in which the bees can 

 begin storing within the brood-chamber 

 when the honey flow begins. This highly de- 

 sirable condition in all, or nearly all, of the 

 colonies at just the right time is not easily 

 attained, and too often only a small per- 

 centage of them happen to be just right in 

 this respect when the honey flow begins; for 

 it means that just at the beginning of the 

 honey flow the colonies must have consumed 

 practically all of the honey that had been 

 stored within the brood-chamber for win- 

 ter and spring, and at the same time must 

 reach their maximum in brood-rearing. Colo- 

 nies that happen to be in this condition just 

 at the right time are usually the ones which 

 work in the supers with the greatest energy 

 and give the least trouble from swarming. 

 To find the proper size for a brood-chamber 

 that would hold just enough honey to carry 

 the colony up to the beginning of the honey 

 flow (at which time the honey should be 

 practically all used up and the combs of 

 the brood-chamber almost completely filled 

 with brood) has been the dream of comb- 

 honey producers for years. But the great 

 variation in the way the bees come thru the 

 winter, the variation in the amount of honey 

 stored previous to the main honey flow from 

 minor sources, and the variation in the time 

 of the beginning of the honey flow have 

 prevented the attainment of this goal. 

 Experiments by Quinby and Langstroth. 

 Before the advent of the modern beehive 

 Quinby, after having experimented with 

 box hives of various sizes, wrote in regard 

 to this in 1853 as follows: "I am satisfi.- 1 

 that 2,000 inches in the clear is the propei- 

 size for safety in this section and conse- 



quently for prof- 

 it. ' ' Strangely 

 enough at the 

 same time this 

 was penned, 

 L a n g s t r t h, 

 working i n d e- 

 pendently and 

 without knowl- 

 edge of Quin- 

 by 's experiments, had already decided to 

 build his new movable-comb hive to hold 10 

 Langstroth frames, it thus containing, when 

 allowance is made for the frames and the 

 spaces around them, almost exactly :3,000 

 cubic inches. 



It must be remembered that these two 

 great masters were trying to find the best 

 capacity for the brood-chamber for the pro- 

 duction of box honey, for the extractor had 

 not yet been invented. 



After 68 years and after having departed 

 greatly from the recommendation of Quinby 

 and Langstroth, comb-honey producers now 

 generally admit that this size is about as 

 near the long-sought goal as any yet tried, 

 being smaller than that needed by the most 

 prolific queens and best colonies and larger 

 than is needed by others. In other words, 

 under good management, as the seasons run, 

 it is not far from the average size that will 

 be well filled with brood at the beginning 

 of the honey flow; but this does not take 

 care of the bette- colonies which need more 

 room for brood-rearing in the spring and 

 does not bring good results for those colo- 

 nies which do not fill these brood-chambers 

 with brood. 



As was pointed out in the last issue of 

 this journal, the attempt to bring about the 

 condition of brood-chambers that are honey- 

 less but filled with brood in all of the colo- 

 nies at the beginning of the honey flow, 

 by reducing the size of the brood-chamber, 

 almost resulted in "killing the goose that 

 laid the golden egg." 



At the present time the solution of this 

 problem is being sought in exactly the op- 

 posite direction, that of increasing the size 

 of the brood-chamber beyond the capacity of 

 the most prolific queens so that there is 

 still room for enough honey for safety, then 



