Feb. 2, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



67 



see the hives booming- with brig-ht, healthy bees when 

 spring^time shall come ag-ain. 



'■ Spring dwindling," "building up bees in spring,"' 

 "swarming out." " half-comb honey supers," "bait combs," 

 and other devices to coax the bees upstairs, are phrases 

 strongly suggesting defective wintering. 



I have experimented in the line of wintering without 

 floors, and the result has not been favorable in my hands. 



There is a great deal of imperfect wintering in Canada, 

 and the worst feature is that so many are satisfied. 



Ontario, Canada, Jan. 21. 



Those Double Bpood-Chamber Colonies. 



BY FRANK COVER DAI.K. 



THE "double-deckers" referred to on page 805 (1898) 

 proved to be a very interesting study for me during the 

 entire season of 1898. One very prominent feature that 

 ■cropt out was their determination not to stay in a single- 

 story after being hived. Only one out of the lot could be 

 induced to stay, the persistent ones had to be " scattered 

 among all nations." I g-uess they thoug-ht eight Langstroth 

 frames entirely too small quarters. The one that did go to 

 work did very well. I never had a reasonable amount of 

 success in hiving swarms on eight frames that had emerged 

 from anything larger, -so j-ou see I could not apply the con- 

 traction plan at swarming-time. 



Why did they swarm so? I can't tell, but I think I 

 might make somewhat of a liberal guess, after watching 

 them and their work. Perhaps the surplus of honey all 

 around the brood-nest had something to do with it. The 

 reason I formed this opinion is because when both stories 

 were chock-full, queen-cells were started at once almost in- 

 variabl}', and very little work in any case was done above. 

 Strong 8-frame colonies right by their side completed two 

 cases of sections, and didn't swarm at all. This strength- 

 ens and bears me out on what I have of late years begun to 

 believe, that the more honey stored in and around the brood 

 the greater the liability to swarm. 



A colony in a brood-chamber filled solid with brood 

 from the bottom and verj' close to the top-bars will usuallv 

 do considerable work in sections before swarming, and with 

 a far less liability to swarm at all. 



Right here let me say that an apiary all supplied with 

 g-ood, young, prolific queens will do nearl)- all to bring 

 about the above solid brood-chamber in time, and to a very 

 great extent lessen the chances of swarming and increase 

 the surplus. 



P*or years I u.sed 10 and 8 frame hives side by side, and 

 the former swarmed fully as much. I am fast coming to 

 the conclusion that it is not so much in the size of the 

 brood-chamber as how completely it is filled with brood be- 

 fore the opening of the harvest. Get such a colony started 

 «arly above, and keep an empty case directly above the 

 brood, and those more complete above it, and so on until the 

 season begins to draw to a close. Fully 50 percent of such 

 colonies, and treated as above, whether on 8, 10, or on 16 

 frames will not swarm at all, and these last are the ones 

 that just stack up the honey-cases. I have had them stand- 

 ing from three to six cases high with but a few capt on top, 

 but later on nearly all finisht. 



Suppose a super is placed on a colony like the latter, 

 and the bees allowed to fill it. wouldn't that be somewhat 

 after the fashion of a double-decker .filled with brood and 

 honey ? and the swarming-fever will be just as sure as with 

 a double-deck that contains a like amount of honej'. 



As nij' experience is so limited I think I will let those 

 of further knowledge next occupy the stand. 



Before long I will tell just how I safely introduced 50 

 Southern queens without the loss of one. 



Jackson Co., Iowa. 



COMB VS. EXTRACTED HONEY. 

 A Proposed Experiment to Show Compapative Yields. 



BV R. C. AIKIN. 



IN this article I am to detail plans for experiments, the 

 purpose of the experiments to prove or disprove present 

 accepted theories. I shall first consider that of comb 

 honey vs. extracted. 



Take a number of colonies, which number may be 

 greater or less as the apiari.st maj' be prepared to use in the 

 experiment, and divide the lot into two equal parts. The 

 dividing should be very carefully done, and maj- be accom- 



plisht in various ways. I cannot recommend the use of less 

 than 8 or 10 colonies in this experiment. The fewer colonies 

 used the greater by far is it necessary to be very careful in 

 details. Even with far more care in the work a small num- 

 ber of colonies used will be far less conclusive than a large 

 number. 



Select these colonies long before the flow. It is neces- 

 sary to have them as nearly equal as possible, and to do this 

 we must be intimate with every colony in its career from 

 early spring till the experiment is concluded. Suppose the 

 flow or harve.st is to come in June, make the selection of 

 colonies not later than April. See how nearly each is like 

 all the rest in stores, amount of brood and bees, and in age 

 and g-eneral characteristics of queen.s. I feel confident that 

 very frequently the age of the queen has a great influence 

 upon the colonj-. I should want the queens of about the 

 same age. 



Beginning say about the first of April, make and con- 

 tinuall)' keep a close record of each colony. Have this rec- 

 ord state the strength of each colonj- in both bees and 

 brood. Estimate the number of combs the bees can nicelj' 

 cover, and the number of combs of brood. Do not fall into 

 the error of recording four combs of brood simplj' because 

 there is brood in four, but each not over half filled. Esti- 

 mate the brood as to how many /«// combs it equals, and not 

 the number of combs containing brood. Apply the same 

 method to the amount of bees and honey. In estimating- 

 honej', if a comb should be extra thick and have probably 

 twice the weight of an average one, make j'our record show 

 the number of combs average. Any practical apiarist 

 knows at a glance about what is an average full comb. 



In my regular manipulations through the spring I fol- 

 low these rules in recording, and the entrj' is usually made 

 on a scrap of section in the top of the hive — m5' hives are so 

 constructed that I can so keep the record-board. I have 

 also practiced using book-entries, keeping the hive number 

 in the book. These entries are always in abbreviation. I 

 have a settled rule as to the order of the entry, here is the 

 order : Month, daj- of month, amount of bees, amount of 

 brood, and amount of honey. Having this as the order 

 alivays, a system of figures serves the purpose as well as a 

 great lot of words. 



On April first I probably examine a colony. My record 

 would read something like this : 4-1. 3-2-4. This means bees 

 to cover normally 3 combs, 2 full combs of brood (this brood 

 may be in 3 or 4 combs), and the equivalent to 4 combs of 

 honey. If I clip the queen I mark in addition, "cpd,"or 

 for swarming, " smd," etc. 



I do not think this all unimportant. It is very impor- 

 tant that you know the condition of every colony in the ex- 

 periment, else you draw false conclusions, get erroneous 

 ideas, and promulgate false theories. Any apiarist who 

 will bring himself to the details of an experiment like this, 

 will be well repaid in becoming more thorough and expert 

 in his apicultural work. 



During- the building-up process prior to the harvest, 

 much will depend upon the management of the experiment 

 colonies. I said the queens should be very like in age and 

 general characteristics. The reason for this is that queens 

 of varying ages — especially if some be very young- and one 

 aged — the old queen may fail in the midst of the experiment 

 when too late to remedy the trouble, and such a thing would 

 verj' seriously aft'ect the accuracy of the result. Do not 

 have a failing queen in the experiment. 



Having started with colonies well nig-h alike, try to keep 

 them equal all the time. Many and many a queen just as 

 good every way as her rivals in the apiary, falls behind be- 

 cause of environments. Previous manipulation or circum- 

 stances may have hampered her so that she had less bees to 

 winter, and so would necessarily have a weaker colony to 

 sustain her in the spring and be one to three weeks behind 

 in breeding up through the spring. To avoid this trouble, 

 or rather to remedy it, when one colony seems not able to 

 keep up with the rest, take from the strongest bees and 

 brood to help the weaker, preferably taking bees rather 

 than brood. The reason for taking bees is, the queen that 

 is getting behind may not have bees enough to care for 

 brood as fast as she would lay. A verj' common reason why 

 queens lay sparingly in spring is because there are not bees 

 sufficient to care for the brood. Try to judge of a queen 

 whether she lacks natural vigor or simply needs more 

 workers, and if the latter, give workers : but if the former, 

 give both brood and workers, thus adding vigorous workers 

 equalizing- both in numbers and stamina. Keep the colo- 

 nies equal, and make them enter the harvest equal in num- 

 bers, age and vigor. 



I shall not discuss in minute details all the little things 



