1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1055 



will continue to if the flow is good, until 

 I the body of the hive is full of comb, which 

 '' it will be in from eight to ten days, and 95 

 per cent will be worker comb; and if the 

 queen is a good one, from five to seven of 

 these combs will be well filled with brood. 

 The time is ripe for raising workers, just 

 as last week was for raising drones. Of 

 course, this swarm was given the super off 

 from the old colonj- at the time of making 

 that was full of bees, bait- combs, and full 

 starters; so if thej' needed storage room they 

 had It. 



Friend Morrison, in criticising my plan, 

 tells how much better I would like his plan 

 of using a half-depth story filled with wired 

 foundation; then, he says, in four or five 

 days they are ready for a super. I will 

 ask Mr. Morrison to go with me while I 

 make a swarm, and bring along his little 

 half story to put the swarm in. 



Here is this pair of hives. They are 

 eight frame hives, full of bees from the 

 bottom-board to the top of the super, and I 

 will warrant the two have fifteen frames of 

 brood. One colony is verj' nearly ready to 

 swarm, and the other has eggs in the cell 

 cups. I am going to shake all the bees 

 from both colonies into one, and take the 

 queen from this one with one frame of brood 

 to give the new swarm. Saj', Mr. Morri- 

 son, 3'ou will have to set that little "rig- 

 gin' " of yours to one side. It's too much 

 like "baby bee-keeping" for me, for it 

 won't hold half of these bees. Hand me 

 that eight-frame hive with a full set of 

 starters onl}-, and remember there are two 

 supers full of bees at work in the sections 

 to go on top of this; yet you see mj* swarm 

 is ready for the super now instead of wait- 

 ing three or four days. When I come here 

 again in six daj's it will need the third 

 super. 



Say, Mr. Morrison, isn't that swarm a 

 whopppr? Do jou know I think there are 

 75,000 bees? Yes, they will be all settled 

 down to business like a natural swarm. 

 You see they got well mixed and daubed 

 when I shook them. No, there is no danger 

 of their going off. They won't go without 

 a queen, and she can't go unless she goes 

 on foot, as she is clipped. 



You see, I have set one of those old hives 

 of brood on top of the other, right behind 

 where the pair sat, and facing the other 

 way. When I come again in six daj's I 

 will shake a lot more bees into this one 

 from those old combs, and face it around 

 here where it belongs. Next time I come 

 around I will work all the brood into one 

 hive, and put on a super; then I have the 

 other hive to use somewhere else. No dan- 

 ger of this one swarming, and this colony 

 will be just as good as Jumbo there the last 

 half of July and all of August, at which 

 time of the year our best surplus-honey 

 season comes. 



No, I don't do this with all my bees, but 

 1 do it with a great many v^'hen I don't 

 want any increase. 

 Longmont, Col.. Oct. 24. 



[I have just read portions of your commu- 

 nication to our Mr. Phillips, who has had 

 much experience in producing extracted 

 honey in Jamaica. According to his expe- 

 rience bees will build drone comb after a 

 swarm is shaken, about the same as before; 

 that in the case of a young queen they are 

 less inclined to build drone comb, and are 

 less inclined to swarm. But he thinks he 

 could not get along without full sheets. 

 Mr. Morrison, who lives in a tropical coun- 

 try, finds hi-s experience to be about the 

 same. Is it not possible and even probable 

 that local conditions have a great deal to do 

 with this question? 



Surely Mr. Morrison would not attempt 

 to hive one of your double-decker swarms 

 in a small half-depth brood-chamber. One 

 who uses these chambers must, in the case 

 of large colonies or swarms, use enough 

 more of them to provide suflficient cubic ca- 

 pacit}'. 



As I understand you, you think bees 

 build drone comb because they want drones; 

 but is it not also true that they also build 

 drone comb because they want room? 



Here is an article from Mr. Shepherd, 

 which would seem to show quite clearly 

 that bees build drone comb because they 

 want room. — Ed.] 



DRONK COMB — WHY BUILT. 



In reply to a footnote on page 841 I will 

 say that the reason for so much drone comb 

 in our hives is this. When our honey- flow 

 is on, a good colony of bees will increase 

 the weight of their hive from 10 to 14 pounds 

 per day. Now, if there is any comb to be 

 built it will be store or drone comb, no mat- 

 ter whether you use light, medium, or heavy 

 brood foundation. If the flow should not 

 come with a rush, or if it should let up, the 

 bees would build mostly worker comb. 

 Say, does drawing the wires too tight in our 

 frames cause the foundation to buckle? I 

 mean where we use horizontal wiring. 

 Now, if you are really sure that the wires 

 drawn too tight are the cause, just make the 

 end-bars of the frames fg or U inch thick, 

 and trj' them, and see if buckling- founda- 

 tion is not a thing of the past. The end- 

 bars, only 'I inch thick, are too light. 

 When you pull the wire tight, the end- bars 

 spring in as the bees keep adding weight. 

 The end-bars spring in more and more; 

 and how can buckling be helped? The wire 

 slacks, and that tells the story. This is how 

 it works with us. I lay no claim to its be- 

 ing the same all over the world, for the 

 world is a large place, and conditions vary. 

 Rules and regulations that work well on a 

 New York or Rhode Island hilltop may not 

 do so well in a Florida swamp. 



Marchant, Fla. M. W. Shepherd. 



[Thickening the end-bars might help the 

 matter to a certain extent; but is it not 

 this, after all. a rather expensive expedi- 

 ent? A better way is not to draw the wires 

 too tight.— Ed.] 



