1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



881 



sheet (covering' the frames), with my left 

 hand catching- it at the extreme right-hand 

 corner. I hold the smoker in my right 

 hand with the nozzle close to this right- 

 hand corner, and pull the cloth back just 

 enough to admit a little smoke, forcing- the 

 bees down as I pull the cloth back, the ob- 

 ject being not to let a single bee fly from 

 the tops of the frames. 



A very vicious colony may need the smoke 

 frequently; but large volumes (in my ex- 

 perience) are unnecessarj' with any sort of 

 disposition. I have some hj'brids thn^t re- 

 quire smoke ever3' time a frame is moved; 

 but the lightest possible blast is sufficient 

 to keep them down. B3' manipulating the 

 opening-up of the hive as I have described, 

 it will be a rare thing for a bee to fly from 

 the top-bars. I have never found a single 

 good reason for smoking the entrance to the 

 hive. Mj' bees do not bother me from that 

 point. I just let them work away, and they 

 will do so if not stifled with smoke from the 

 top. I have seen them, when not " stifled 

 to death " with smoke, working- away 

 seemingly as if the hive had not been dis- 

 turbed. Before I learned how little smoke 

 was really' necessary I demoralized my bees 

 to some extent every time I worked with 

 them, and the demoralization was apparent 

 some da3's afterward. I prefer to " fool 

 away " my time trying^ to produce a race of 

 bees that can be "handled" without 

 smoke, in preference to that of tr3dng to 

 evolve a race that will not swarm, which 

 last-mentioned "feat" will never be per- 

 formed. The non-sitting breed of hens has 

 never been produced, yet there are breeds 

 that are less inclined to sit than others; but 

 there are hens, and lots of them, among- 

 these so-called non-sitters, that will sit in 

 spite of an}' thing- (sometimes), and they 

 make good mothers. I happen to know 

 from experience. 



Some of our domestic animals have been 

 domesticated for four or five hundred years, 

 and thej' show habits, instincts, and dis- 

 positions today that their ancestors trans- 

 mitted to them in the "long ago." I am 

 persuaded that, where these instincts bear 

 upon the propagation of the species, and 

 the welfare of the young- of the dift'erent 

 animals, fowls, or insects, they are surely 

 God-given, and should not be bred out. 

 Bees swarm, mostly, for want of room at 

 the time they need it, or at the time they 

 think they are going to need it, and some- 

 times they swarm anyhow, and no one can 

 tell why. Give them an abundance of room 

 before they have started queen-cells, and 

 few colonies will ever swarm. I have a 

 neighbor who has twenty colonies in two- 

 story ten-frame Simplicity hives. He ex- 

 tracts from the upper story, and sometimes 

 in a good flow he puts supers on his best 

 colonies. He hasn't had a swarm from 

 those bees in three years. His bees are na- 

 tives. Now, if he were to Italianize, and 

 get some very prolific queens, some of them 

 would fill these "double deckers," and 

 swarm; or if he would take ofif that top 



story, and keep it ofi", they would swarm 

 just for want of room. 



THE VALUE OF DRONES IN A HIVE AS HEAT- 

 PRODUCEKS. 



He who arrives at the conclusion that 

 drones are worthless except as male func- 

 tionaries of the hive arrives (I think) at a 

 verj' unwarranted conclusion. I am fully 

 convinced, from this season's experience, 

 that drones pay for their keep by support- 

 ing- the temperature of the inside colony, 

 and that the bees hustle with a greater de- 

 gree of energ-y where there are drones, es- 

 pecially those colonies that have drones in 

 large numbers. I got my proof for the 

 above in the following- manner: 



I bought some bees early in the spring- in 

 box hives; and when transferring- them I 

 noticed that two of the colonies had an un- 

 usual amount of drones, and drone brood 

 which I transferred. I later discovered 

 that these two colonies, which wei'e work- 

 ing- very strongly, were one- half or more (in 

 bulk if not in numbers) drones. I was 

 anxious to destroy these black drones, so I 

 placed these hives over excluders on their 

 bottom-boards, and dumped every thing on 

 the outside. Of course, I got all of the 

 drones that had hatched. I succeeded so 

 well in destroying black drones in this 

 way that I proceeded to do some more of it; 

 and, to my astonishment, I demoralized 

 some of m3' strongest colonies. Some of 

 them were at work in the supers, and im- 

 mediately left off, while three of the strong- 

 est drone colonies (to my knowledge) have 

 never recovered their former energy. I ob- 

 served, too, that these colonies did not 

 swarm. I am persuaded that, by destroy- 

 ing the drones, I reduced the temperature 

 probably enough to chill the brood, or at 

 least enough to make it necessary for a 

 large number of the field bees to abandon 

 their work and take care of the indoor work, 

 especially to keep up the temperature. I 

 have seen drones lining up with the work- 

 ers to raise the temperature when building 

 comb. To say the least about them, sober 

 "men folks" about the house are usually 

 a great consolation to the female portion of 

 the family, even if they are not very indus- 

 trious. 



I honestly believe that bees know more 

 about some things than I know. It might 

 prove that, for queens to do their best, it is 

 necessary for them to laj' drone eggs; at 

 least they may have their own way about 

 drones until I see further, so far as restrict- 

 ing the rearing of drones by the Italians is 

 concerned. 



Statesville, N. C. 



[I do not remember that any one has, in 

 our columns at least, recommended smoking 

 a colony needlessly. Beginners, however, 

 will very often use too much smoke because 

 they are not able to determine when the 

 bees are subdued or peaceably inclined. It 

 is my rule to use very little smoke except in 

 the case of a very cross colony, and even 

 then I seldom blow any in at the entrance. 



