418 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



July 



of another that succeeds it ; but then it is only tlie intelligent 

 bee-keeper who, like the successful man of business, having 

 laid his plans works them out and receives the due reward of 

 forethought and energy. 



ONE SEASON'S WORK. 



It may reasonably be askt: " What will an ordinary col- 

 ony of bees gather in one season ?'" 



•• Bees do nothing invariably " is a trite saying. It is not 

 only in what may be termed poor honey-producing districts 

 that the returns are the worst, for I call to mind a parish 

 where one bee-keeper took over 100 pounds per hive, another 

 over 90 pounds, and another not 10 i)0unds per hive, tho all 

 were working on the same system. The difference was un- 

 doubtedly due to forethought and energy in the first two 

 cases, and lack of these desirable qualities in the third. 



The best e.xample of continued success I know of is that 

 afforded by Mr. A. Abraham in the management of his three 

 colonies. He is a farmer's son, and attends to his bees in the 

 odd hours he can get after the ordinary work on the farm is 

 over. 



In 1802 he took 120, 105, and 103 pounds of honey, or 

 an average of 109 pounds per hive : in J 898, 1 75, 167, and 

 I2(i pounds, average 1 5fj pounds; in 1894, 205, 208. and 

 156 pounds, average 1M8 pounds: and in 1895, 185. 180. 

 and 154 pounds, average 17;!. These three colonies have 

 yielded honey that has produced on an average £3. 10s. per 

 hive for tiie past four years. 



A farmer living at Dowuham. near Ely, commenced bee- 

 keeping with one fully equipt colony, in the spring of 1894, 

 after attending a course of lectures in his village. At the end 

 of the first season his balance sheet showed an expenditure of 

 42s. 6d., and income by the sale of honey of 101 s. od., a profit 

 of over 1 20 per cent. This year's return was better still. In 

 many parts of the country, this year, the return of over 10(,) 

 pounds per hive is by no means uncommon. One bee-keeper 

 in Cambridgeshire, with 26 hives, took an average of 75 

 pounds per hive. 



These are a few examples that might be multiplied, but 

 they are sufficient to show that if situated in a good district 

 and favored with genial weather, the bee-keeper must be to 

 blame if. carrying out a few simple rules, he does not make 

 bee-keeping a iirofitalile undertaking. 



CONTENTS OF THE HIVE. 



In addition to the bees an examination of any hive of bees 

 will reveal the presence of combs, composed of wax and con- 

 taining honey and jiolleu. There will also be found, very 

 frequently in undesirable quantities, propolis — a product val- 

 uable to the bees, but a iiuisance to the bee-keeper. 



The combs are made from wax, secreted iu the body of 

 the bee. from honey or syrup it has consumed. They consist 

 of cells not quite half an inch in depth on each side of a mid- 

 rib. The cells are built horizontally, and from the mouths of 

 those on one side to thi' mouths of those on the opposite side of 

 the mid-rib. measure % inch. The distance from the mid-rib 

 of the comb to that of the next is 13< inches barely : there- 

 fore, the space between the faces of the combs is about J^ 

 inch. The great majority of the horizontal cells are, or ought 

 to be, worker size, measuring across the mouths of the cells 5 

 to the inch ; but upon the bottom edges of the combs, and 

 often iu larger quantities as the result of bad management, 

 there are found largiu- horizontal cells measuring 4 to the 

 inch. These are drone-cells. 



There is still another kind of cell, acorn-shaped, built 

 upon the bottom edges of the combs, and sometimes on the 

 face of the combs among the worker-cells, termed queen- 

 cells, but they are only built when the hive is becoming too 

 crowded with bees, and they decide to send out a portion of 

 the colony — a swarm — to found another colony. The building 

 of combs not only represents the loss of much energy by the 

 bees, but it also means the loss of a large quantity of honey 

 and much valuable time. 



Various calculations have been made as to the amount of 

 honey the bees consume in order to secrete one pound of wax. 

 some putting it as high as 20, and others as low as 10 pounds. 

 But whatever the bees really use it is an amount we cannot, 

 with a view to profit, afford to lose. At the same time, by 

 preventing the bees building their combs from the wax thi-y 

 secrete, we have their energies for several days directed to tin' 

 gathering and storing of honey, when they would otherwise 

 be comb-building. The immense importance of this saving of 

 time will be rightly understood when we consider that it may 

 make a difference of 20, 30, or more pounds of 'noney in favor 

 of the bee-keeper. It was recorded in the T5ritish Bee Jour- 

 nal in 1888, that one colony gathered 40 pounds in less than 

 three days, and anotlicr 58 pounds in six days. The late Rev. 



G. Rayuor stated, in 1889, that on June 15 his best hive 

 gained 9 pounds in weight. 



In the cells of the combs the bees store their two kinds of 

 food — honey and pollen. Honey is the carboiuvceous heat- 

 giving and fat-forming food, and alone forms the food of the 

 bees iu winter, but at other times it is \ised by the bees in con- 

 junction with pollen, the nitrogenous or muscle-forming food, 

 as a perfect food for themselves when working, and for the 

 rearing of grubs. The two foods together form a food without 

 which brood-roaring is impossible; hence, tho advisability of 

 giving a supply of artificial pollen when the supply from nat- 

 ural sources fails. 



The best substitute is pea-flour, which may be scattered 

 on shavings in a straw-skep or box. The bees must be enticed 

 to it by a little honey : then, when they have once found it, 

 they will not cease to carry it into the hive until they can ob- 

 tain the genuine article from flowers. Honey is also one of 

 the choicest foods for man, and not the least valuable, as it 

 is the only food that, having undergone chemical change in 

 the body of the bee. can be taken directly into the system and 

 used as a force-producer witliout having to pass through the 

 ordinary digestive process. Certain flowers produce pollen in 

 great profusion, and then it often happens that there is a 

 superabundance stored in the combs. In movable-comb hives 

 this is not a serious disadvantage unless all the hives are in a 

 similar condition. If there are only a few hives iu which the 

 combs are overloaded with pollen, some such combs may be 

 given to other colonies requiring a more liberal supply of this 

 kind of food. 



Propolis is a resinous substance found oozing from the 

 trunks of certain trees, and is gathered by the bees for the 

 purpose of filling up cracks and crevices, as well as covering 

 intruders, such as snails, that enter the hive and cannot be 

 removed. To the bee-keeper propolis is a great annoyance, 

 as it makes sucli a sticky mess of the fingers and other things 

 toucht during manipulations. Some bi-es gather more propolis 

 than others ; thi»refore, those who aim at perpetuating any 

 particular strain of bees should endeavor in the breeding to 

 eliminate this and other undesirable traits. 

 [Continued next week.l 



Loaded Bees iu the Sections, Etc. 



BY .J. A. GOLDEN. 



In the February Review, I said Mr. Doolittle and others 

 have told how the field-bees give the honey to the nurse-bees, 

 and the latter store it in the cells. My bees, as a rule, do not 

 follow that practice. I know this to be true, as I have spent 

 a great deal of time sprinkling bees with flour and then watch- 

 ing them through the glass as they pass up and deposit their 

 loads of nectar in the sections. 



Now, in calling attention to my observation as to the 

 above statement, I did not wish to be understood that fleld- 

 bees did not transmit their load of nectar to other bees on re- 

 turn as well, but to show that bees also deposited direct in the 

 cells. 



Having read Mr. Doolittle's article on page 321, I doubt 

 not he has reference to my article, having overlookt how I was 

 convinced. He says : " Mr. Oolden, I believe, claims that he 

 knows that they do this ; but if he has told us why, or how he 

 knows it, I have failed to see the place." But as Mr. Doolit- 

 tle seems to intimate in his concluding paragraph that if E. 

 Gallup and himself are right, all other observations are noth- 

 ing but fallacious, and if deceptive, It would be well to know it. 



Now, for the benefit of the readers of the American Bee 

 Journal I will here give my observations more fully, and I 

 want it distinctly understood that my evidence for believing 

 as previously stated, is seeing, which is in itself believing. 

 Therefore, it has been a fixt rule (with me) in the study of 

 bees and their manipulation, to make careful and painstaking 

 observations upon every subject relating to them, their habits 

 and their work coming under my observation, and thus I have 

 found much convincing evidence that greatly conflicts with 

 others upon the same subject, work or habits of the honey-bee, 

 regarding which they have been equally vigilant in their ob- 

 servations. Now, this being true, it does not prove, to my 

 mind at least, that one observer has given facts and the other 

 falsity. 



In regard to the question of where and how field-bees de- 

 posit their load of nectar on returning from the field, I had 

 learned long before reading Mr, Doolittle's observation, by the 

 aid of two observatory hives, and at a time when bees were 

 working in the height of the flow. My plan was this : When 

 bees were dropping by the hundreds upon the alghtlng-board, 

 I would sift flour over them, see them pass in, then care- 



