38 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



and other bee-keepers have had a simi- 

 lar experience. But let us suppose 

 that less honey is secured when a 

 colony sends out a swarm ; will not 

 two colonies in place of one compen- 

 sate for the lessened yield of honey 

 and for the hives in which they were 

 hived V If they will not, then the 

 colony from which the increase sprang 

 was obtained at a loss. 



Mr. Dadant speaks of the greater 

 number of surplus-cases that are 

 needed with small hives, and argues 

 that more work will be required to 

 manipulate them. With small, light 

 cases, nearly all the bees can be shaken 

 out when taking off surplus honey ; 

 with large cases this cannot be done, 

 as the cases are too heavy, and slower 

 methods must be resorted to. 



In Mr. Dadant's computations he 

 said that there were a certain number 

 of bees on cac/i comb, and he told us how 

 many combs there were. He nowsays 

 that he puts on surplus-cases, and "of 

 course these cases must be filled with 

 bees, which reduces the number of 

 bees quite materially upon the brood- 

 combs ; and when we take these bees 

 from the surplus-cases and a large part 

 of them from the brood-combs, in the 

 shape of a swarm, and put them into 

 a new hive, the brood-nest of which 

 has been reduced more than one- third, 

 he will readily see that the surplus- 

 cases are as well filled in the new as 

 they were in the old hives. Mr. D. 

 must make some new computations, 

 if he adds a surplus apartment to draw 

 off some of the bees, for as they now 

 stand, they are incori-ect. 



He speaks of the increase of work 

 occasioned by the removal of the sur- 

 plus-cases to the new hives. This is 

 but the work of a moment, and, even 

 if it were more, it hardly seems fair 

 to pick out one particular instance in 

 which tlie work is increased ; we must 

 look at things in the aggregate. Bee- 

 keepers are willing to work when the 

 work will increase their profits more 

 than any other thing they can do ; 

 they are also willingto use more costly 

 implements, or employ capital in any 

 manner when the expenditure is cer- 

 tain to increase the profits more than 

 anything else they can do. These re- 

 marks will also apply to the time spent 

 in hiving swarms ; the remarks in re- 

 gard to furnishing hives for increase 

 will also apply here. If we cannot 

 afford hives, and the time for putting 

 our bees into them, then " good-bye," 

 bee-keeping. 



Mr. Dadant's 5th paragraph is not 

 exactly clear to me. If I understand 

 him aright, he would say that I do not 

 have two quepns until the young 

 queen commences laying. True, nor 

 do I have any use for her, as by the 

 Heddon method of preventing after- 

 swarms the old colony is kept so re- 

 duced in numbers that but little brood 

 could be cared for if there were a queen. 

 By the time she begins laying thebees 

 liave hatched in sutiicient numbers to 

 care for her eggs, and there is no dan- 

 ger of the brood-nest being filled with 

 honey, because it is now reduced to 

 only 5 combs, and, with a young queen 

 just beginning to lay, it is the disposi- 

 tion of the bees to give her an abun- 

 dance of room; they will even remove 



the honey from the brood-nest to the 

 sections to give her room. 



Mr. Dadant's experience, as given 

 in the fith paragraph of his article, in 

 regard to small hives being filled with 

 honey to the exclusion of brood, in the 

 same proportion as large ones are, is 

 exactly opposite to mine. This is the 

 point that has been the very pith of 

 all these arguments, viz., that with a 

 small brood-nest the queen would 

 occupy all, or nearly all, the cells in 

 the brood-nest to the exclusion of the 

 honey, which would of necessity be 

 stored in the surplus apartment, 

 whence it could be removed and sold 

 at the highest market price. Mr. Da- 

 dant now says that there is nothing in 

 this ; that the amount of brood in a 

 hive is in proportion to the size of the 

 hive. I can best answer Ibis asser- 

 tion by quoting Mr. Dadant's own 

 words. In his Sth paragraph he says : 

 " Those who use large hives know 

 which queens are the most prolific." 

 True; that is the point exactly. When 

 we have a prolific queen the large 

 brood-nest is nearly filled with brood ; 

 but what happens when the queen is 

 not prolific '/ Why ," 5 to 20 pounds of 

 the choicest honey is stored in the 

 brood-nest." This is the manner in 

 which those who use large hives learn 

 which are their most prolific queens. 

 How else can they learn it V But, as 

 though '• to make assurance doubly 

 sure," Mr. D. in his last paragraph 

 says : " Those who employ small hives 

 do not know their liiost prolific 

 queens." Of course not; and ichy 

 noty Simply because aZi of the brood- 

 nests are full of brood, they being of 

 such capacity that an ordinary queen 

 can keep them full and more too. Mr. 

 D. thus refutes his own arguments. 



PROLIFICNESS OF QUEENS. 



Although this subject is of sufficient 

 importance to deserve a discussion by 

 itself, I here desire to say a few words 

 about the extra prolificness of queens. 

 I do not think that it is desirable, 

 and I would not breed for it. My 

 small hives settle the question to my 

 entire satisfaction. At the season 

 when I wish my hives full of brood 

 they ore full, all of them ; hence I 

 have no use for very prolific queens, 

 as the hives are rather below tlie 

 capacity of the average queen. 



Aside from this, however, I value 

 quality (in bees) above quantity. I 

 agree entirely with Mr. O. O. Popple- 

 ton, when he says, on page 120 of the 

 American Bee Journal for 1884 : 

 " How very common it is to notice 

 two colonies in the same apiary, in 

 the same kind of a hive, with about 

 equal numbers of bees and brood, and, 

 so far as the bee-keeper can see, in 

 equal conditions every way, yet while 

 the one gives a large amount of sur- 

 plus honey, the other gives little or 

 none. This is one of the most com- 

 mon experiences in bee-keeping, and 

 shows conclusively that while a good 

 queen is one of the essentials in suc- 

 cessful honey-production, it is far 

 from being the only one." Farther 

 along in the same article Mr. Popple- 

 ton says : " My colonies that contain 

 extra prolific queens are very rarely 

 indeed among my best honey-gath- 

 erers." 



I cannot conclude this article with- 

 out thanking my opponent for the 

 gentlemanly manner in which he has 

 presented his arguments ; there have 

 been no " quibblings," nor •' eva- 

 sions ;" and should he finally succeed 

 in convincing me that he is right, I 

 should not feel in the least chagrined, 

 as no man need blush to have an error 

 pointed out by Charles Dadant. 



Rogersville, d :Mich. 



For tbo Amencan Bee Journal. 



Wiiiteriiiff Bees in Cellars, 



I. .1. GLASS. 



It is rather amusing to observe the 

 different ideas on the wintering prob- 

 lem ; so many specialists have the 

 best plan, and nearly all differing, 

 notwithstanding that the experiments 

 are made in the same latitude. One 

 says that the only proper method is on 

 the summer-stands, and they never 

 have any loss, except those colonies 

 having-inferior queens. Now note the 

 margin for a plausible excuse, for the 

 reports of those same parties would 

 indicate that from 2-5 to 90 per cent of 

 their colonies had inferior queens. 

 One of those summer-stand advocates, 

 living at our county-seat, out of 2.S0 

 colonies lost all but 45, and he still 

 contends that out-of-doors is the natu- 

 ral element of the bee. 



Another good plan that we are ad- 

 vised to try, is to suspend the helpless 

 little creatures in mid-air, with plenty 

 of breeze from below so that they 

 may sleep or hibernate. If I under- 

 stand this system correctly it is too 

 expensive to be of value to any except 

 those having plenty of ready money. 

 However unreasonable this system 

 may appear, it is beginning to have 

 advocates of marked ability ; but my 

 experience will not admit of my co- 

 inciding with the hibernation theory. 

 I have examined my bees repeatedly 

 with the thermometer ranging at va- 

 rious degrees of temperature, and I 

 always find them easily aroused. 



I gave ray plan of wintering bees 

 more than a year ago, which for me 

 dispels all fears as to wintering them 

 safely, and I notice that Mr. Heddon 

 and Mr. Barber are advocating the 

 same plan, except that the requisites 

 are not the same with us all, for I 

 liave no ventilation pipes, no cushions 

 or sticks under the quilts, and I take 

 nothing but the brood-chamber in the 

 cellar, with the quilt sealed tightly. I 

 have iheu tiered up 3 hives high, and 

 to-day (Jan. 9), while the temperature 

 is 1.5° below zero, I would like to take 

 the summer-stand advocates into my 

 cellar, where the temperature is never 

 below 40°, and note the joyful hum 

 and perfect condition which can only 

 be attained in a moderate temper- 

 ature. 



I do not crave an argument with 

 any one— what I state in regard to my 

 own apiary is not theory, it is simply 

 facts. This is my third season in win- 

 tering bees in the cellar, and I have 

 not lost a colony, either with or with- 

 out an inferior queen. I do not care 

 whether a cellar is wet or dry, so that 

 it is warm. 1 know of two different 



