1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



681 



one was to enquire of the farmers on whose farms we keep 

 bees, the answers would invariably be in favor of the large 

 hives. These people do not use any arguments, but only their 

 eyes. They have seen the largest crops taken off the largest 

 hives, and that is enough. All the arguments that could be 

 enclosed in a hundred pages would avail nothing against the 

 facts. 



Mr. Taylor wrote in the American Bee Journal for June 

 2, that ho lost 70 colonies last winter. Mr. Davenport lost a 

 numoer also, yet these gentlemen winter their bees in the 

 cellar; while a neighbor of Mr. Davenport, who sold to him 

 nine colonies of bees, successfully wintered his bees on the 

 summer stands. Mr. Davenport narrated the fact in the 

 American Bee Journal of June 20, viz.: "The bees were in 

 large box-hives. They were all powerful colonies, and the 

 hives heavy with honey, although they had been out-doors all 

 winter. The owner always left them out without any protec- 

 tion whatever, and he did not remember ever losing a colony 

 that had enough to eat." 



Why did these bees winter better than those of Messrs. 

 Taylor and Davenport, who take the trouble of putting them 

 Into the cellar for winter? I answer : 



1st. They were in large hiv^s. 



2nd. They had a larger number of bees, and Mr. Taylor 

 acknowledges that one of the causes of bis large loss was the 

 want of young bees. 



3rd. They had been able to store and keep for winter 

 some of the lightest-colored, early-harvested honey; while 

 Mr. Davenport thinks it is best to compel the bees to put all 

 the light honey in the sections. He writes that bees in large 

 hives do not give as much surplus by 14 to 16 pounds. But 

 if ho will compare the loss of colonies, the cost and work of 

 feeding bees, of wintering in the cellar, of adding combs and 

 exchanging and removing them, he will see that the balance 

 is in favor of large hives, even if they are heavier in the fall ; 

 for there is no need of disturbing them from their summer 

 st?iuds, Hamilton, 111., Oct. 11, 1895. 



What Dr. Miller Thinks. 



Contraction. — I'm not expecting to see the columns of 

 this journal badly crowded with replies to the question of Bro. 

 Secor on page t)4S, as to what will prevent bees putting pol- 

 len in sections when the room is much limited in the brood- 

 chamber. There seems a tendency on the part of the workers 

 to store pollen in the lower story, and if there are two stories 

 of brood-combs I think you will find most of the pollen in the 

 .lower combs; but limit too much the amount of brood-combs, 

 and the bees seem forced to consider the sections as part of 

 the brood-chamber for holding pollen and brood. An excluder 

 will keep the brood out but not the pollen, and I suspect the 

 only way Bro. Secor can keep the pollen out of sections is by 

 giving room enough for it below the sections. 



Laying-Workers. — The plan given on page 649 for 

 dealing with laying workers is one that has been given many 

 times, and for aught I know is generally or always successful. 

 But the reason given for its success may well provoke a chal- 

 lenge. The theory is that if all the bees are shaken from the 

 combs lOO feet from the stand. " the layers, which had n^ver 

 left the hive before, and would also be too heavy to fly, will 

 fall to the ground and get lost." What evidence have we that 

 the layers have never left the hive before ' Don't they at 

 least have a play-spell and mark the location when they at- 

 tain a certain age ? But late investigations have shown that 

 instead of a single laying-worker, a large number are in the 

 hive, a majority of the colony perhaps having taken up the 

 business of laying eggs. In such case, if the layers should not 

 return to the hive the colony would be reduced a half, and 

 what has become of the laying half '? 



Instinct. — I don't know that it matters much to the prac- 

 tical bee-keeper whether the views expressed on page 650 be 

 correct or not, but I confess one is likely to be somewhat be- 

 wildered, no matter what view one takes. Deny intelligence 

 to the bee and you deny what seems sometimes very direct 

 testimony on its part. Admit its inielligence, and you are at 

 sea to explairi how in many cases such utter stupidity is 

 shown. What intelligence is shown by the bee in going 

 directly to its home on returning from a field a mile or more 

 away ! Change the location of its hive a rod or more, and it 

 has no great diflBculty in finding it if no other colonies are 

 near. But remove it five feet to the other side of another col- 



ony, and It will never find its home. What intelligence is 

 shown in rearing a queen from a worker-larva when the old 

 queen is removed ! And yet what utter lack of intelligence is 

 shown in trying to rear a queen from a drone-larva when no 

 worker-brood is at hand. The bees seem to know enough to 

 recognize a difference, for the drone-larva has a different cell 

 built around it, but if they know enough to know it's a drone, 

 why don't they know enough not to fool away labor and ma- 

 terial in trying to turn it into a queen ? Sometimes they seem 

 to know a lot, and then again they don't seem to know beans. 

 But then other folks are a good deal the same way. 



Blacks vs. Italians— On page 649, A. S. Rosenroll 

 says all experienced and disinterested Swiss bee-keepers give 

 the preference to blacks for gentleness, hardiness and indus- 

 try. My reading of journals coming from that region has 

 hardly impressed me in that way, although I may be mistaken. 

 He thinks that when blacks are found to be vicious, a close 

 examination would show that they are not pure. In view of 

 the great mass of testimony to the gentleness of the Italians, 

 is it not possible that when they are found to be vicious a 

 close examination would show an admixture of black blood? 



Texas. — For those of us who have harvested no honey, 

 there's a crumb of comfort in reading that the bees of the 

 great honey-yielding State of Texas, represented at the State 

 convention, had only yielded 5 J'4 pounds per colony up to Aug. 

 21. But where were the Atchleys ? 



Charles Dadant. — On page 652 is the statement that 

 "Mr. D.'s experience covers a period of over BO years in 

 France and Auierica." It covers a period of more than 30 

 years in America, but was any part of his bee-keeping experi- 

 ence in France ? One may readily be excused for making 

 such a mistake — if mistake it is — from the fact that Mr. 

 Dadant has been the most potent factor in introducing modern 

 methods of bee-culture in France. He is in fact better known 

 in France than in America. And that's saying a good deal. 



Non-Stinging Bees. — On page 654 is a description of 

 bees that look no offense at having their hive kicked over, 

 and Mr. McArthur is not the only one who claims to have 

 originated a strain of non-stinging bees. Interest in non- 

 stingers Is perhaps to take the 0l*ce of that in 5-banded bees. 

 I think it likely that if they could do so by a word, the ma- 

 jority of bee-keepers would change their bees to non-stingers. 

 And I feel pretty sure that a majority of that majority would 

 afterward regret it. If I kept my bees on the house-top, to 

 which no one could gain access without entering the house, 

 then I think I would very much like to have bees that would 

 never sting me. But nearly all bees are kept where they are 

 very easy of access, and about the only security against thieves 

 is the sting of the bee. If all stings were struck out of exis- 

 tence, I think nine out of every ten bee-keepers would find 

 bees and honey such insecure property that they would 

 heartily beg for the return of the stings. 



What Ailed the Bees? — I have some doubts whether 

 Andy Cotton gives on page 655 the correct answer to the 

 question of A. E. H. He says he never saw anything of the 

 kind unless a colony was queenless, and it is hardly likely that 

 all of the bees of A. E. U. were queenless. So the trouble is 

 one that Mr. Cotton has never met, and I doubt if his guess at 

 the answer is the best. That queenless bees crawl on the 

 ground is something new to me, and I never knew that queen- 

 lessness would make any difference in the deportment of bees 

 when badly affected with diarrhea. Do the observations of 

 others agree with those of Mr. Cotton ? Marengo, III. 



Overstocking in Colorado — Alfalfa. 



BY F. L. THOMPSON. 



Replying to Mr. Carlzen's request on page 576, I estimate 

 my yield this year at about 24 pounds of comb honey per col- 

 ony, spring count; last year, between 40 and 50. Last year 

 120 more colonies, since removed, were in this same yard. 



But that is uot the point. I don't doubt the existence of 

 "overstocking in Colorado." and never did, and agree that my 

 own locality is overstocked at times. What I was after was 

 that circle of four or five miles in diameter, of which oy far 

 the greater portion is barren prairie, which Mr. Cailzen still 

 leaves us in the dark about. The wonder is uot that 1,500 

 colonies overstock such an area, which of course they do, but 



