164 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



Mar. 16, 1899. 



MORE EGGS NOT ALWAYS ME.^N MORE BEES. 



One of the penalties of eminence as a teacher is that 

 carelessness of speech cannot be tolerated. The "fierce 

 lig-ht which beats about a throne " is not wholly fun for the 

 throne occupant. On page 83, Mr. Doolittle remarks, "The 

 more eg-g-s the queen lays the more bees in the hive." At 

 the time, and under the circumstances he is thinking- of, 

 this is measurably correct ; but beginners and students are 

 in danger of taking it as an axiom of truth. In their minds 

 it may lodge in the shape that eggs laid by the queen are 

 always developt into bees ; and that is far from being true, 

 if I have the right of it. The spring-dwindling colony can 

 develop only a fraction of the eggs we see ; and the nice 

 patches of fresh eggs we see late in the fall, in normal colo- 

 nies, are probably nine-tenths of them left to perish. A 

 few days of cold rain in May will consign thousands of eggs 

 to non-development. And whether colonies which might 

 do better .sometimes contract a vice of destroying eggs (just 

 as poultry are known to do) is a matter which will bear 

 some investigation. 



A BATCH OF SHORT " AFTEKTHINKS." 



Forty colonies requeened with young queens, and not 

 one of them swarmed, is an instructive item on page 84. 



Average surplus of Colorado in an average .season 12!4 

 pounds, page 85. I wonder how near to accuracy they got 

 that. It is not surprising at all, seeing how many people 

 " keep bees " in a way to get (and deserve) nothing. 



I would amend Miss Porter's removal of bur-combs and 

 propolis lumps after uncapping by having the same done 

 before uncapping. 



Pres. Aikin goes rather beyond me in his directions for 

 extracting honey in cold weather, but I guess he's right — 

 24 hours of warm room, and the last hours 98 degrees or 

 more. 



Yes, Mr. Aikin, if you can get the foundation makers 

 to "mill " foundation so it will hang the toughest way of 

 the grain, and with sidewalls vertical, too, you will be win- 

 ning a little gain for us — unless you bother 'em so much 

 that thej- put on another cent. 



Curious that 14.000 melted-wax foundation presses are 

 used in Europe, and none in this country — and that style of 

 machine once had a good start here, too. Colorado "folks 

 trying to start it again. 'Tater doesn't believe they will 

 succeed, altho he wishes them well. Seventeen dollars for 

 a $5.50 press shows that all the atrocities of transportation 

 have not j'et been overcome. 



Never thought of it before that our editor is so wise be- 

 cause he's one of the Y's. 



FOUL-BROODY COLONIES AND HONEY. 



The proposed foul brood law, on page 88, seems to me 

 one of the best yet suggested. But I wouldn't pay for colo- 

 nies destroyed, except in cases where more than half the 

 yard is destroyed. The increast value of the rest will be 

 compensation. And I'd put the upper limit of compensa- 

 tion at one dollar. Very rarely the case that bees demand- 

 ing destruction are really worth more than that. 



It's a splendid and up-to-date idea to give foul-broody 

 honey two short boilings rather than one prolonged one. 

 (Page 89.) Damages the honey less, and makes a surer 

 thing on the " varmints." 



\V.\X RENDERING .AND MELTING. 



The Beckwith wax press and process, referred to on 

 page 90, had best be copied, picture, article and all. in all 

 the journals. Evidently the best thing in its line. 



Very slow cooling of cakes of wax usually works well ; 

 and very rapid cooling will no doubt work fairly, if you see 

 to it at once that the wax lets go of the sides. 



WHERE STINGS DIDN'T STOP RHEUMATISM. 



Page 94 scores a plain case where stings did not benefit 

 rheumatism. That stings sometimes cure wonderfullj-, and 

 sometimes do no good at all, seems to be the situation. 



COGITATOR. 



Langstroth on the Honey = Bee, revised by the Dadants, 

 is a sfandard, reliable and thoroughly complete work on 

 bee-culture. It contains 520 pages, and is bound elegantly. 

 Every reader of the American Bee Journal should have a 

 copy of this book, as it answers hundreds of questions that 

 arise about bees. We mail it for $1.25, or club it with the 

 Bee Journal for a year — both for only $2.00. 



The Spping- Management of Bees, Etc. 



I 



BY C. r. DADAXT. 



HAVE been askt to answer through the columns of the 

 American Bee Journal the follo.wing questions : 



1. How do you manipulate your brood-frames ia order to ^et the 

 greatest amount of bees to the hive? In other words, tell us something- 

 about frame manipulation and its relation to successful apiculture. 



2. If you have both combs and full sheets of foundation, which would 

 you use to hive swarms on, and which for e.xtracling- ? 



3. What are the dang-ers to a beg-inner in feeding- bees ? 



P. D. Gr.w. 



The first and third of the above questions have a very 

 natural relation to each other, so I will speak of these two 

 first, and will afterwards consider the second question, 

 which has no bearing on spring manipulation. 



In the manipulation of hives in the spring there are two 

 very distinct methods which ought to be considered com- 

 paratively and also separately to get into the details. .The- 

 first method consists in allowing nature to work without 

 anj' interference, except as it is absolutely necessar)-, in 

 case the bees are short or weakened by circumstances be- 

 yond their control. This method is followed by the great 

 majority of apiarists, but is certainly not always the most 

 successful. The other consists in helping the bees in every 

 possible way, by furnishing them whatever will tend to in- 

 crease their activity and their prolificness ; supplying them 

 with food, extra space, additional shelter in cool nights, etc. 



The first method is perhaps the safer one for beginners 

 who are apt to overdo their part when manipulating the 

 hive, and carry things to any extreme, which may prove 

 even worse than a complete indifference to the condition of 

 the bees. With an absolute lack of care certaitily manj' 

 colonies will suffer from want, or from extreme winter 

 losses, and the loss in colonies will be great in hard sea- 

 sons, after protracted and severe winter weather, or in cold, 

 backward springs ; but an experienced novice may lose as 

 many bees through over-management as through entire in- 

 difference. In any case, it is entirely indispensable to as- 

 certain early in the spring the needs of each colony. 



The first requirement is a sufficient amount of stores to 

 breed and recuperate winter losses to all colonies having 

 laying queens. Queenless colonies need but little feed, as 

 the brood consumes much more food than the adult workers. 

 Then a queenless colony is less able to defend itself than 

 one in normal condition, and is more likely to get robbed. 

 So it is hardly advisable to feed them unless they are en- 

 tirely destitute, or unless they have been given brood for 

 queen-rearing, and are in a fair way to recuperate. But 

 queen-rearing- in this climate can hardly be attempted till 

 April 1, and in the meantime such colonies must remain in 

 status quo. 



The apiarist who wishes to carry his bees through with 

 the least possible expenditure of time will ascertain that all 

 the colonies have a sufficient amount of honey, and not too 

 great a breeding-space, and will then leave them to their 

 own resources until the beginning of bloom. If this method 

 is not a very forcing method, it has at least the advantage 

 of not taking anj' risks of drawbacks and reverses through 

 artificial forcing, when there is still a possibility of se%'ere 

 weather which might chill the brood of a too precocious col- 

 ony. Yet. even with this method it is not advisable to leave 

 four or five empty combs in a hive if there is only about the 

 same number occupied by the bees. A large, cold space in 

 spring is sure to delay the breeding, and here the division- 

 board, or dummy, plays an important part by enabling the 

 man who wants to succeed to reduce the space within nor- 

 mal limits, making a small colony as comfortable in its 

 hive over the space it covers as a larger 0010113- maj' be in a 

 greater compass. Two or three, or perhaps four, visits to 

 each colonj- during the spring will enable one to readily 

 follow the progress of the bees, and enlarge their .space as 

 needed, wherever weak colonies have been found towards 

 the close of winter. 



But if an apiarist has the leisure to attend to his bees 

 daily, or if he is making- it his especial business to rear his 

 colonies to the highest possible strength for the honey har- 

 vest, there is no doubt that he can achieve very much more. 



