1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1239 



ently convince him he is standing on unsafe 

 ground, and that he is from thirty to fifty 

 per cent poorer in his annual yield of honey 

 than he need be while he stays just there. 



One of the reasons why so much more ex- 

 tracted honey can be secured, is, as we all 

 know, because the bees can be provided with 

 so much storage space in the shape of drawn 

 combs in advance of their requirements. 

 Then how can the owner expect nis bees to 

 go and do likewise when, in regions that 

 have cool nights, he checks the comb-build- 

 ing instinct for several hours out of every 

 twenty-f our ? Consequently his willing work- 

 ers can put in only half time; and, when 

 warmed up again next day, a large army of 

 workers restart— yes, let it be repeated, re- 

 start wax-working, only to do what should 

 be and would have been done through the 

 night, ready for the early morning gather- 

 ing. 



I may still be asked, "What difference 

 will this make to the ultimate yield? " It is 

 just this, as I am aware very many have 

 long since found out, that, not having the 

 new surplus combs sufficiently in advance of 

 the rush of honey, much of it is stored be- 

 low, thus crowding down the queen. This 

 process is a sadly progressive one (in a back- 

 ward direction) if once allowed to make 

 headway. Not only will the bees remove 

 some of the brood, but, as a natural conse- 

 quence, the incoming pollen, being little in 

 request, becomes an accumulating plague, 

 still further restricting the queen's powers. 

 We now begin to see a stationary if not a 

 declining population, which is a great calam- 

 ity when occurring long before the end of the 

 season. 



This means just an ordinary surplus; 

 whereas an open brood-nest, with nearly all 

 the incoming honey going upstairs where 

 cells are always ready for it, shows a con- 

 stantly increasmg population, and a yield so 

 much greater, even to the extent of one 

 hundred per cent, where judicious protection 

 is given to the supers. When the bees once 

 start comb-building, nothing should, if pos- 

 sible, be allowed to check them for a single 

 half- hour. If bee-men would only stop to 

 consider they would find they are losing 

 yearly more than the value of those thin- 

 cased supers— better by far pay a little more 

 in the first place for double-sided supers for 

 comb honey, and these again sheltered by an 

 outer case, as shown on pages 149 and 155 

 of " A Modem Bee Farm. " It is a question 

 whether manufacturers are to blame for 

 offering the cheaper thin cases or the pur- 

 chasers for insisting upon having a cheap 

 but certainly not economical super. Our 

 little friends are strict economists, and, 

 with the least reduction of temperature, 

 they are prepared to "strike" work, or to 

 cease comb-building the moment they see 

 nothing "in touch" to reward them for 

 their labor. 



In this country we have a great number 

 of amateur bee-keepers with a few hives. 

 Many of these people just put the hives 

 down in the garden ; in due time they put on 



a rack of sections, and often at the end of 

 the season seem surprised the bees have 

 stored but little if any honey above. The 

 reason is simple. The super is put on, 

 whether the bees are crowded or not— more 

 often not — and, with insuflScient covering 

 above, the bees crowd the stock combs with 

 honey and masses of pollen, so that there 

 are never sufficient bees to boil over into 

 two or three tiers of supers. 



I have seen many such instances, where 

 there has been no management; and not al- 

 ways is it among amateurs that the real se- 

 cret of honey-production is little understood. 

 Consequently I have endeavored to fix a 

 honey- barometer to meet the case, working 

 something in this way: Allow your stock 

 combs to become sealed one-third of the way 

 down with honey, and the loss is 25 lbs. of 

 surplus; when sealed one-half, then you lose 

 50 lbs. ; and if three-fourths of the brood- 

 combs are thus choked with stores, then un- 

 doubtedly there is a loss of 100 lbs.; i. e., 

 over and above an ordinary surplus yield. 

 The whole thing centers upon a proportion- 

 ate depreciation of population; the loss of 

 life from actual working, and other causes, 

 is enormous during the busy season; and 

 therefore requires constant renewal. 



[Mr. Simmins strikes on a very important 

 subject — one which I hope will be very 

 thoroughly discussed between now and the 

 time when we shall be in condition to test 

 the value of protection as advocated. We 

 shall be glad to hear from a number of our 

 subscribers who may have been in a posi- 

 tion to test the difference between no pro- 

 tection, i. e., that afforded only by the sin- 

 gle-walled hive, and plenty of protection with 

 double walls.— Ed.] 



A HISTORY OF A DRONE-LAYING QUEEN. 



Can Such a Queen, by Feeding Extracted Hon- 

 ey, be Made Over into a Good Queen? 



BY WM. M. WHITNEY. 



Some time ago I promised to tell you 

 something about that queen I got of you, so 

 here it is. In June, 1903, when she was re- 

 ceived I made a colony by division and in- 

 troduced her on two frames of brood and 

 bees — the rest, frames of foundation. The 

 colony built up strong for winter, though the 

 latter part of the season was not favorable. 

 June 24, the following year, division was 

 made by removing the queen and three 

 frames of brood. The season was very un- 

 favorable, yet the colony built up strong, but 

 I was obliged to feed for winter stores. I 

 fed granulated-sugar syrup. Last spring I 

 found the colony weak, the queen looking 

 slim and poorly nourished; in fact, she was 

 "spring poor." 



A large proportion of the worker-cells 

 used contained drone brood, and, of course, 

 I naturally concluded that the queen had 

 passed her days of usefulness; but, disliking 

 to supersede her if I could avoid it (as I 



