342 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



art subjects of taxation when hived, 

 if the legislature shall choose to ex- 

 ercise its power. Here in Iowa the 

 local authorities have no right to 

 assess a man's bees for taxation, as 

 they are exempt from taxation ty 

 legislative enactment. The legisla- 

 ture has undertaken to enumerate 

 such animals as may be assessed, and 

 bees are not included in the list. 

 Keokuk, o, Iowa. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Manasemeiit for tlie Most Honey. 



W. JI. WOODWARD. 



This is the one subject of the most 

 practical interest at this season to 

 every bee- keeper. How can 1 obtain 

 the most honey V Limiting the sub- 

 ject to comb honey as the one pre- 

 senting the serious difficulty, and the 

 time to the honey harvest, I would 

 proceed as follows : 



I would use a hive adapted to tier- 

 ing-up, and so arranged as to have 

 the comb-building done in one single 

 space. Nothing is made by dividing 

 the work of the young bees into two, 

 three, or more places. I have held 

 that side-storing with top-storing 

 must pay best; but after testing it 

 well 1 find that my old colonies 

 adapted only to top-storing have out- 

 distanced those — their equals— with 

 work divided between the top and the 

 two sides. The use of divided labor 

 brings about suhstantially the same 

 conditions as so many weak colonies, 

 hence less work is accomplished than 

 in a single body. My present view is 

 that a case 12-inches wide, or 12)^ 

 inches, is wide enough, and should 

 contain four rows of 43^x434 inch 

 sections. I would make the brood- 

 chamber the same size as the surplus 

 case inside and outside, and use 9 

 frames. 



The next point which I much de- 

 sire to make, is to get as many frames 

 full of brood as possible, up to the 

 white clover harvest ; and then con- 

 tract to just that space and hold them 

 there, or try hard for it, at least. I 

 have found but little difficulty in 

 keeping plenty of brood in the hive if 

 I could only get the honey out of the 

 way; and! think it is desirable to 

 produce much more brood than some 

 recommend during the honey sea- 

 son. I wish to breed only from my 

 best bees, and to get all the good 

 queens 1 can from them early, and 

 want all the brood I can get to build 

 them up for the late honey-flow. 



My next procedure is as follows : 

 Supposing that we have arrived at 

 the opening, or the beginning of the 

 bloom of the surplus crop ; with hives 

 full of bees and frames full of brood, 

 and that with sjiecial attention to 

 getting it well up to the top-ba,rs of 

 the frames. I make it a point to 

 have on hand sections with nice, 

 drawn comb to fill one case all round ; 

 but if not, I put what I have on the 

 strongest colonies, and raise them as 

 fast as they are lilled, or have bees to 

 use them, taking eases in which the 

 bees are at work (it honey is coming 



in fast), bees and all, and placing 

 them upon the next best colonies until 

 all are at work in the surplus depart- 

 ment with a will. I then shade well 

 and raise the cases, placing empty 

 ones (always filled with full sheets of 

 foundation) under them, and thus 

 keep them on the jump until the end 

 of the crop. 



The point of danger is this : Bees 

 work upon only one idea, and the suc- 

 cessful bee-keeper is the man who is 

 able to dictate what that idea shall 

 be, i. e., whether they shall gather 

 honey or rear queens and prepare to 

 swarm. The "nick of time " is the 

 opening of the first surplus-yielding 

 flowers. The power to control lies in 

 opening an abundance of room ready 

 to receive their first honey, so as to 

 get the very first, and all, as nearly as 

 possible, in the sections. I do not 

 have the majority of my colonies 

 swarm when able to carry out this 

 plan, and yet I get my full comple- 

 ment of increase by moving every old 

 colony that swarms, and dividing 

 them up so as to save all the best 

 queen-cells, and then build them up 

 as described above. It is my aim to 

 run every colony through without 

 swarming, except those irom which 

 I wish to breed. Those I encourage 

 to swarm early, and sometimes re- 

 move the queen and brood and com- 

 pel them to rear queens from the egg. 

 When swarms occur, I count it no 

 loss, but proceed to hive them on 3 

 wired frames with full sheets of foun- 

 dation; and I now use side-cases made 

 to hold sections crosswise of the 

 frames and cases, and filling the 

 vacant space of the hive. This is the 

 only way I have found side-storing to 

 pay, and with swHrms it does pay, 

 and pays well ; as I have no difficulty 

 to get my honey finished off nicely at 

 the side, even better than at the top, 

 and that without the use of separators. 

 The brood-space is then spread, as 

 the queen requires space, but I am to 

 get and keep every pound of honey in 

 sections if possible until September, 

 when they will be sure to store in 

 honey for winter, in most seasons. I 

 use only frames enough to accommo- 

 date the queen in the start, pre- 

 ferring to have all the bees at work 

 on surplus. The same bees which 

 draw out the first three combs will 

 draw a fourth and a fifth, and care 

 for the brood as fast as they are done, 

 sol make the same amount of bees 

 attend the queen, fill the hive with 

 brood, and work on surplus. 



Last year was one of the poorest 

 honey years since I have kept bees ; 

 and yet my best colony— the only one 

 that went" into tlie honey-harvest in 

 good condition — yielded very nearly 

 i.'iO pounds of comb honey, which 

 brought me more than 119 in cash. 

 Others— some of them very weak last 

 year — used most or all of the clover 

 crop to build up on ; but note pro- 

 duced less than 40 pounds during the 

 season. Seven colonies, all that the 

 winter left me out of 47, gave about 

 475 pounds of comb honey during the 

 season. 



A neighbor bee-keeper of years' 

 more experience, and having about .50 

 colonies in short Langstroth frames. 



and using -'comb honey-racks " and 

 sections, and all the usual fixtures, 

 but perhaps less careful on the points 

 I have urged above, reports from as 

 good or better location than mine, 175 

 pounds of honey all told ; and few 

 reported any surplus around here last 

 year. 



Bees have wintered badly out-of- 

 doors in this locality for four years, 

 but mine all wintered in the cellar. 

 I have a remarkable crop of willow 

 honey this year— ten-frame hives 

 filled and new comb built from 

 starvation fare. 



Custer, (5 His. 



For the AmerlcaD Bee JouTDrJ. 



Tlie Winter Stores of Bees. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



I am surprised at Mr. Clarke's 

 claims on page 293. Is it possible 

 that a man like Prof. Cook— a man we 

 all have to look up to as authority in 

 these matters— should " put a quietus 

 on the ' pollen theory,' " and never 

 realize it, but all the time think that 

 he was stating truths that sustained 

 it V Is it not more likely that Mr. 

 Clarke and some others have under- 

 stood only a part of the Professor's 

 essay i* 



Mr. Clarke tells us that the pollen 

 theory went down when Prof. Cook 

 stated that bees could not breed with- 

 out pollen, and that we know that 

 they do breed in confinement and 

 come out in good health in the spring. 

 Why, certainly, we knew this before 

 the pollen theory was conceived, and 

 this fact in no way disproves that 

 theory. We are having a hard time 

 to impress our opposition that pollen 

 will not cause diarrhea in a bee, 

 unless that same bee consumes the 

 pollen. Bees making chyme to feed 

 brood, do not consume the pollen, for 

 two different individuals cannot both 

 eat the same food. In my article on 

 page 213 of the American Bee 

 Journal for 18S5, 1 quote from Prof. 

 Cook as follows : 



" The fecal mass is mostly in the 

 intestines ; sometimes it is so abund- 

 ant as also to crowd the true stomach. 

 It is not likely that the alimentary 

 canal back of the honey-stomach, and 

 true stomach, are ever used to form 

 the larval food ; I think not, back of 

 the sucking or honey-stomach. If the 

 pollen is used up for larval bee-food, 

 it could not appear in feces." 



Now this "fecal mass" is pollen 

 first, and pollen last, and pollen all 

 the time; and this "mass" is the 

 cause of the intestinal disease that 

 destroys our colonies in winter and 

 spring. If it were true that pollen 

 can, under certain conditions, be 

 safely consumed in confinement, 

 whether voided dry or otherwise, it 

 still remains a fact that this ruinous 

 fecal mass is pollen, and this fact 

 leaves more of the " pollen theory " 

 than is now left of any other winter- 

 ing theory that has been sifted by 

 the reason and experience of bee- 

 keepers, it seems to me 



