July, 1909. 



American l^ee Journal 



following, when we have gotten the bees 

 where the apiarist can say he is in con- 

 trol. It is now to apply the energies of 

 the bees where the most will be gotten 

 out of them. 



Most people suppose that no bees 

 work so hard as a newly hived swarm, 

 and possibly there is some ground for 

 such belief ; but I think I can dispel 

 some of such belief when I have an- 

 alyzed conditions, and have also shown 

 some other conditions under which bees 

 do most e.xcellent work. 



When the swarm is hived not much is 

 done the first day or two but clean house 

 and get comb started. What apiarist 

 but has noticed that when he hived a 

 swarm, say at noon, and went in the 

 late afternoon to look at them, that very 

 few bees are going and coming, and 

 often he will tip up the hive or other- 

 wise investigate, thinking his swarm is 

 lost. He finds them clustered apparently 

 idle. Xor is there much activity until 

 sufficient comb is built to receive eggs, 

 nectar and pollen ; when this time comes 

 there is work for every bee, and they 

 get to business ; there is lots of room 

 and a division of labor that calls into 

 play every energy. Contrast with this 

 a colony with just about bees enough to 

 cover 4 or 5 combs, and with brood 

 enough to keep every nurse at work and 

 every fielder in the fields searching and 

 getting necessary stores. I said con- 

 trast, it is not a contrast, but more 

 strictly a parallel. There is almost no 

 possible perceptible difference in the en- 

 ergies put forth by weak but healthy 

 normal colonies with plenty of room as 

 compared with a natural swarm. I will 

 give another parallel that any apiarist 

 should observe. 



Colonies worked for extracted honey 

 where plenty of store-comb is present 

 and in the most convenient location, and 

 where sufficient ventilation and other 

 conditions make for the comfort and 

 best opportunity to employ every bee — 

 there we almost invariably find a colony 

 that gives a good record of itself. It is 

 the common claim that extractcd-honey 

 colonies produce more honey than those 

 run for comb. In this case the credit 

 is not given to its being natural swarms 

 that do the work, but usually that there 

 is no comb to build. Go into a yard 

 where there are natural swarms at work 

 alongside of colonies of equal numbers 

 or working strength, and you cannot 

 tell which works the harder, or which 

 gets the more stores or accomplishes the 

 greater amount of work of all kinds in 

 the hive. It is the colonies uncomfort- 

 able from over-heat, over-crowded with 

 a mass of workers like an unwieldy mass 

 of individuals, always in each other's 

 way, no place in which to store, a queen 

 that is not laying enough eggs to keep 

 all the nurses at work, etc. A lot of 

 bees that are thoroughly demoralized 

 as by smearing with honey; if they get 

 out of stores within and notliing with- 

 out, anything and everything that tends 

 to disgust, discourage and disconcert 

 will retard in energy put forth. 



It is but the most natural thing that 

 a colony being annoyed by robbers, or 

 those excited by the presence of strange 

 or more than one queen, cease more or 

 less for the time to attend to the regu- 

 lar business. Shake a colony, making a 



forced swarm, and there is unquestion- 

 ably for the next few hours, and often 

 for even the second day, but a small 

 amount of work done, just as in a 

 swarming colony when the excitement 

 is on, almost all field-work ceases. But, 

 just as the natural swarm soon rights 

 itself and gets to business, so any forced 

 swarm of equal bees in all respects and 

 same opportunities will get right to 

 business and make work count. And I 

 will again repeat, and wish to empha- 

 size, that it is the colonies normal in 

 numbers and having the opportunities 

 that get the most honey per capita of 

 bees. 



An average natural swarm in a big 

 hive in an average honey-flow will not 

 do good work in section honey. To get 

 the finish desired, and as well the quan- 

 tity, we find almost every writer advo- 

 cating the doubling up by some plain 

 method. This doubling will add to quan- 

 tity and finish by the given colony that 

 is the product of the doubling, but the 

 same bees in two more nearly natural 

 or normal ones will accomplish more in 

 yross production of all products. That 

 is why small hives are used more for 

 comb-honey w'ork, because a normal 

 swarm must be squeezed up to super- 

 work by a contracted brood-chamber. 



Wh.\t About Queen-right vs. Queen- 

 less Colonies? 

 There is little difference between a 

 natural swarm with a normal queen, and 

 one with brood in all stages from which 

 to rear one, so far as working energies 

 go. The amount of brood present will 

 use more or less, in proportion, of the 

 energies and time of the workers; but if 

 a small portion of brood be given to a 

 swarm in lieu of a queen, work will 

 proceed just about the same as with a 

 queen just as soon as the colony be- 

 comes settled to conditions and accepts 

 the situation and starts cells. But of 

 course in all the manipulations and 

 changes and in the varying conditions, 

 we must keep in mind to have the end 

 in view always before us. If you have 

 bees, and want all possible from them, 

 you must always have present with that 

 colony, whether a swarm or one that 

 has not swarmed, a queen or the ma- 

 terial by which to produce one. If all 

 is to be centered in honey, sacrifice other 

 interests as wax, comb, brood-rearing, 

 and even the future life of the colony, 

 for they can not possibly do big work 

 in all lines with tbe same resources, at 

 the same time. 



On one stand put a colony with every- 

 thing favoring the greatest amount of 

 honey in the best inarketable shape, and 

 specialize that colony to that end, and 

 that only, at least when the honey is to 

 be had, no matter what change may 

 come later and what can be made of it 

 even 2 weeks off. You can have colo- 

 nies so arranged that you have robbed 

 thein of the fielders and of all workers 

 except just enough to care nicely for 

 the mother-queen and all the brood she 

 can get when not crowded out of busi- 

 ness by honey-logged combs, and a host 

 of workers that nature would lead them 

 through instinct to get dissatisfied and 

 swarm — here you are specializing this 

 colony to the getting of a normal colony 

 for winter, and whose sole business is 



in getting that brood-chamber into prop- 

 er shape, it is just in the most natural 

 condition you could get, as bees are 

 found in their one-room houses as in 

 trees, etc. 



And should the propagating colonies 

 get too full for best results, divide. Or, 

 if it is early enough in the season so 

 that another honey-flow is yet to be 

 harvested, so manipulate as to keep the 

 honey storers out of the way, centering 

 their efforts with the honey specialists 

 and not crowding out the queen from 

 her laying. Just as the farmer grows 

 wheat in one field, corn in another, po- 

 tatoes in another ad libitum; so should 

 the bee-keeper divide his field of bees, 

 for if he attempts to make every col- 

 ony a "jack of all trades," or trv to do 

 all the things at once, he finds they are 

 masters of none. The business of the 

 bee-family in a state of nature is not 

 to do such work as man sets them to, 

 so just as soon as the conditions are 

 unfavoraable to the making of a colony 

 of bees in that particular home, when 

 they have become unbalanced they di- 

 vide and take up the same work in a 

 new location. They have but one busi- 

 ness specialty. 



When it comes to the discussion of 

 comb honey in comparison to extracted, 

 note that with the latter there is by 

 no means so far departure from the 

 natural and normal conditions that in- 

 fluence the bees, for with the large hive 

 and the fact that it is not nearly so cut 

 up as if it were separate compartments, 

 the bees being in such condition that 

 they can continue to store freely with- 

 out hampering the queen and nurses ; 

 in fact, the colony being in a more easy 

 normal functioning condition, they just 

 plod along, and almost anj'body, whether 

 he knows much of the whys of bee- 

 nature, can handle them with fair suc- 

 cess. But our little bo.xes, our demands 

 for fancy finish, our trying to make the 

 bees do things contrary to instinct 

 promptings, run us into snags when 

 comb in these little chunks is attempted, 

 and requires skill and knowledge. 



So, then, the first and foremost thing 

 in the time preceding a honey-flow is 

 to plan what you will strive for : wheth- 

 er it be increase of colonies, or to get 

 the most in honey and wax, or to get 

 the most of both, the special thing first 

 is to favor getting the greatest num- 

 ber of workers. When the honey sea- 

 son is on, and also the season for in- 

 crease, use the material at hand as you 

 desire specializing, as above indicated. 

 Those colonies run for honey must 

 be put under special conditions where 

 you have absolute control and can de- 

 feat nature through instinct, and yo.i 

 do this not by fighting instinct but by 

 making conditions that stir up instinct 

 to do the thing you want. 



(To be continued.) 



Extracted vs. Comb Honey 



IIY LKO E. GATELEY. 



.Vowhcre in the history of modern 

 apiculture can there be found a time 

 during which the acquiring of distant 

 out-yards and the producing of extract- 

 ed honey ever became among all classes 



