AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



401 



Proper Size of Brood-diamber 

 Considered. 



Written for tlie American Bee Journal 

 BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



From the enquiries I receive, it would 

 seem that some of the readers of the 

 Ameeican Bee Journal, do uot under- 

 stand why it is that I should recommend 

 a hive holding 1,000 square inches of 

 comb, as the right size for a brood-cham- 

 ber, and then hive swarms in a hive so 

 constructed that there is only enough 

 room lor less than TOO square inches of 

 comb. The Good Book says we " should 

 always be ready to give a reason for the 

 hope that is within us," and what is ap- 

 plicable to spiritual things may often be 

 advantageously applied to worldly things, 

 hence I will try to give my reasons for 

 thus using and contracting hives. 



To best explain, I will give the reader 

 a little view of brood-rearing as I find it 

 in this locality, after careful experi- 

 ments which I have conducted for years. 



One queen lays all the eggs which are 

 to become the future bees for honey- 

 gathering or otherwise. These eggs 

 hatch in three days, so that a small 

 larva takes the place of the egg ; this 

 larva is fed on chyme for six days, 

 during which it has grown from a mere 

 speck so as to nearly fill the cell, at 

 which time the cell is capped over. 

 During the next 12 days this larva 

 passes through the transformation pro- 

 cess, " from the caterpillar to the but- 

 terfly," and at the end of that time 

 comes out of the cell a perfect bee, 

 making a period of 21 days in all from 

 the time the queen lays the egg till the 

 bee bites off the covering to its cell. 

 Very warm weather hastens the process 

 of development during all the stages, 

 and steady, cool weather retards it, so 

 that I have known the period to be 

 shortened to about IS days, and length- 

 ened to nearly 2-i, but 21 is the rule. 



Now, the Creator of all things de- 

 signed that bees should " multiply and 



replenish the earth," the same as all 

 animated things, so He gave them as 

 strong instinct to prepare for swarming, 

 as we see manifested in birds to build 

 nests to lay their eggs and rear their 

 young. This instinct causes the queen 

 to greatly enlarge the circle of brood 

 during May and June, so that, when the 

 height of her ambition is reached (from 

 June 10th to the 20th) she lays from 

 2000 to 3000 eggs daily. From experi- 

 ments conducted along another line, I 

 find that at this season of the year none 

 of the worker-bees, in a colony being in 

 a normal condition, exceed 45 days as 

 to length of life; so, as the time, 21 

 days (from the egg to the perfect bee) is 

 to 45 days (the life of the bee at this 

 season of the year), we can find the 

 reason for swarming, through the crowd- 

 ing of the hive. It will be seen that the 

 queen can place two and one-seventh 

 generations of bees on the stage of ac- 

 tion, to where one dies off ; hence comes 

 swarming, with both bees and queen 

 bending every energy in that direction. 



Swarming accomplished, the same in- 

 stinct that causes the birds in midsum- 

 mer to cease building nests, and prepare 

 for a journey South in early fall, seizes 

 hold of both bees and queen, the bees 

 now bending every energy toward secur- 

 ing a supply of food sufficient to carry 

 them over winter, while the queen keeps 

 "pace" by laying only enough eggs to 

 keep good the population of the hive. 

 Ifrom this understanding of the inside 

 workings of the hive I drew these con- 

 clusions : 



First, that up to the time of swarming 

 I desired a brood-chamber of the size 

 occupied by the average queen, plus the 

 pollen-room necessary for the brood. 

 Careful experiments gave this as 1,000 

 square inches of comb, or eight Lang- 

 stroth frames, or nine of the Gallup, 

 which I use. 



Second, the desire for swarming grati- 

 fied, two-thirds of the room needed 

 before is now amply sufficient to keep 

 the population of the hive good, and 

 care for the less amount of pollen now 

 required. Besides, with the desire for 

 less brood, pollen is gathered in far less 

 quantities, so it is a rare thing for me to 

 find half as much pollen in the combs 

 surrounding the brood at this season of 

 tht year as I do in May ; hence it is not 

 often that I have any pollen stored in 

 the sections, as some complain of. 



Again, the bees gather no pollen, as I 

 conclude, from basswood, which gives 

 us our main honey-crop ; for I have 

 watched for hours at basswood trees to 

 find a bee with any pollen in its pollen- 



