1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



23 



convolution. That it is no inferior organ is 

 shown from the fact that, in proportion to 

 the body of the worker bee, it is as 1 to 174; 

 while in the ant, which some have claimed 

 to be the highest of insects, it is as 1 to 286. 

 In man the proportion is about 1 to 40, so we 

 see that the brain of the bee is no mean or- 

 gan, even when size is considered. Its con- 

 volutions add to its effectiveness. As is well 

 known, only the higher vertebrates have con- 

 volutions to the brain. The same is true of 

 insects. The convolutions show most in ants, 

 wasps, and bees. For this reason 1 have no 

 hesitation in considei'ing these animals the 

 highest insects of the animal world, and so I 

 feel there is good warrant for placing the or- 

 der Hymenojytera as the highest of the orders 

 in the insect world. 



From what has been said of the anatomy 

 of the nerve system, we are not surprised at 

 the varied economy of our pets of the hive. 

 As ws know, they have a wondrous life his- 

 tory. In habits and instincts, the bee and 

 ant are in many ways the equal of even the 

 highest of animals. Every working bee- 

 keeper is so familiar with these in tne bee 

 that it is not necessry here to call attention 

 to them. 



I have had the same experience with "two- 

 story " cells that Dr. Miller mentions on page 

 1416. In fact, I wrote of it in Gleanings 

 some years ago. I have repeatedly exposed 

 such combs outdoors when robbers were ac- 

 tive, but never knew the under cell of honey 

 to be uncapped. But his observation that 

 cells with sunken caps will also be let alone 

 is new to me. 



Some have said that their experience with 

 honey vinegar has been unsatisfactory be- 

 cause of its poor quality. It may be that a 

 strong-flavored honey like buckwheat will 

 not make good vinegar, or it may be that the 

 poor quality has been due to getting the vin- 

 egar started with the wrong kind of ferment. 

 It is well known to those who have investi- 

 gated carefully the subject of butter, cheese, 

 and other food products, that the flavor de- 

 pends on the kind of bacteria developing it, 

 and that often a good article is spoiled in 

 spite of the maker s care, simply because he 

 did not have the right kind of "seed" if we 

 may use such an expression in regard to 

 these bacterial ferments that develop flavor. 

 The honey vinegar that I have made from 

 alfalfa and clover honey, even that which 

 has been boiled, is certainly of good quality 



— superior, in my opinion, to any cider vin- 

 egar. 



HONEY OUTPUT OF COLORADO. 



An article in a Denver paper claims for 

 Colorado the lead in honey production this 

 year, with 41 carloads, whereas California 

 produced but fifteen. This honey was pro- 

 duced in the following localities. Fort Col- 

 lins, one car; Berthoud one; Longmont five; 

 Loveland one; Denver five; Sterling one; 

 Platteville one; Boulder two, and the Ai'kan- 

 sas Valley two, with scattering amounts suf- 

 ficient to make up 23 carloads for the eastern 

 side of the mountains. For the western 

 slope, the estimate is as follows: Southwest- 

 ern Colorado, one car; Montezuma Co., one; 

 Montrose Co., five; Delta Co., five; Mesa and 

 Garfield Counties, six cars— a total of 18 cars 

 for the western slope. I can not vouch for 

 the correctness of all these figures, but one 

 dealer told me he had bought thirteen car- 

 loads of Colorado comb honey this season. 



HORIZONTALLY DIVISIBLE BROOD-CHAMBERS. 



The article by C. P. Dadant in the Sept. 

 1st issue stirred me up somewhat, and the 

 editor's request foi* contributions on the sub- 

 ject made it an inviting field for discussion: 

 but lack of time, owing to an accident to one 

 of my eyes, that kept me from doing much 

 work for nearly a month, made it difficult 

 for me to keep "up to date." The testimo- 

 ny of an experienced bee-keeper like Mr. 

 Dadant, with his father's experience before 

 him, carries weight. To some it will appear 

 more weighty than it really is, because they 

 will consider that the elder Dadant had used 

 the divisible-brood-chamber hives and had 

 discarded them in favor of the deep frames. 

 We must remember, though, that the hives 

 he discarded were not movable-frame hives, 

 and were open to nearly all the objections 

 which the practical bee-keeper finds in the 

 ordinary box hive. It is, possibly, owing to 

 this cause that he did not learn to use the 

 shallow hives satisfactorily. The objections 

 urged to the divisible hive are not new, with 

 perhaps one exception — that is, that the bees 

 would often desert one of the stories of the 

 hive entirely. As I have almost never had 

 this experience with double brood-chambers 

 I can not but think there was something in 

 the construction of the hives that is respon- 

 sible for this. Possibly it was the fact that 

 three stories were used. I have seldom found 

 any use for more than two stories, and three 

 were generally unsatisfactory. It seems to 

 suit the bees very well to have their brood- 

 chamber divided into an upper and lower 

 portion. This occurs quite naturally. But 

 any further division of the lower part of the 

 brood-chamber, except with very small hives, 

 frequently results in a desertion of the lower 

 part of the hive. This is the case not only 

 with the shallow frames, but I used to have 

 the same trouble when tiering up Langstroth 

 frames without queen-excluders. I would 

 frequently find in the fall that the brood- 

 nest was in one of the upper stories, with 



