442 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



AXJG. 



comb-building above and away from the frames, to 

 the blacks. "Yes; but do they not show less refloe- 

 ment of instinct than the blacks, when they attempt 

 to build combs upward from the tops of their frames, 

 so that, when sufficient space is given them, these 

 combs soften and bend over, unless braced as in the 

 photograph I send you, copied from combs taken 

 from one of my colonies?" 



Now, this disposition when proper storage room is 

 not given to build on the tops of their frames, is a 

 virtue, if we know how to use it aright. Tilling up 

 the roof, as though it were hinged — for to lift, it off 

 before 1 know that I /oust, would be against the 

 cardinal principle already laid down — a bare glance 

 at the tops of the frames whitened by their new 

 foundations, tells me that the extractor is needed, 

 as plainly as though I had lifted out the frames to 

 learn how heavy they are. 



Now compare this easy and swift manipulation 

 with the methods so frequently practiced by our 

 leading bee-men — the lif ting-off the roof, and care- 

 fully setting it down, and the bee-provoking prac- 

 tices which have already been aescribed, only in 

 many cases to find that extracting is not needed, 

 and that more precious time must be wasted to re- 

 place things as they were I 



If such useless manipulations are common among 

 our best apiarians, with our style of hives and frames, 

 what must be said of the foreign side-opening hives, 

 in which bars are preferred to frames by Germany's 

 greatest bee-master, and where, even when frames 

 are used, little can be seen but the face of the first 

 comb, and in the use of which the tbin boards which 

 cover both bars and frames must be pried loose be- 

 fore even a single comb is ready for removal; and 

 when all this is done, both frames and slats running 

 in propolized grooves must be pulled toward you by 

 the pliers, forks, or hooks, described on pages 'Mi, 

 '5, '6, of Dziei-zon's " Rational Bee-keeping." These 

 methods truly seem to me like the preference of 

 horses to locomotives for use on railroads. 



If I stood alone in this opinion I might think it al- 

 most presumptuous to express it; but it is well 

 known that Messrs. Wagner, Grimm, Dadant, and 

 other great leaders among us have said the same 

 thing. The former, who was wonderfully well post- 

 ed up in the history of German apiculture, thought 

 that the dearness of land in the old country seemed 

 almost to necessitate the use of side-opening hives, 

 piled one on top of another, notwithstanding the 

 tedious and difficult manipulations which such hives 

 necessarily compel, while the comparative rarity of 

 circular saws, planers, etc., all moved by steam, and 

 which may be found in our nearest settlements, rec- 

 onciled Dzierzon to the slow work of splitting out 

 the pieces which covered his bees! 



If it shall be thought that Mr. Wagner and myself 

 were very naturally prejudiced in favor of our own 

 methods, surely there could be no reason why Adam 

 Grimm and Charles Dadant, the one from Germany 

 and the other from France, should condemn, as in- 

 ferior, the hives which they had used in their mother 

 countries. 



What a digression! But I can not close it without 

 paying, as I have often done before, my tribute of 

 praise to the honored names of Dzierzon, Berlepsch, 

 Kleine, and others, to whom in all that pertains to 

 the habits and physiology of the honey-bee, we are 

 under the deepest obligations. Who will hesitate 

 to say, that the discovery, by Dzierzon, of partheno- 

 genesis, is the greatest that has ever been made in 



apiarian matters, and was the " open sesame " to 

 the mysteries which defied the subtle acumen of 

 Aristotle, Swammerdam, Reaumur, and all who suc- 

 ceeded them? L. L. Langstroth. 

 Oxford, *0., July 19, 1883. 



Friend J^., if yon will excuse me, I think 

 there is one important point you overlook, 

 or pretty nearly overlook, all the way in your 

 kind article, and that is, thajt bees will be 

 greatly hindered in honey-storing if they 

 have too much ventilation, or if the space 

 where they are storing is too open or expos- 

 ed. As it is some warmer in your locality 

 than it is here, that may account partially 

 for the fact that you notice it less than we 

 do. Excuse me if I repeat somewhat what I 

 have gone over before. In the hoop hive we 

 found the bees averse to filling combs next 

 to the hoops or open slats. Again, in our 

 experiments in the house apiary, we found 

 very much more honey stored in the sections 

 that were blanketed or covered with cush- 

 ions than in those left entirely without pro- 

 tection or covering. Especially was this the 

 case when the bees were gathering honey in 

 August and September. We tried the mat- 

 ter over and over again. 



Only a day or two before your present ar- 

 ticle was received, I went through our apia- 

 ry of about 300 colonies, making a careful 

 investigation to see how the boys had pre- 

 pared the hives in which was" stored the 

 basswood honey, which is now in full blast. 

 Part of the hives had the frames closely cov- 

 ered with enamel sheets, strips of duck, or 

 pieces of burlap, while quite a number had 

 notliing over the upper firames at all. With 

 weak colonies, many of them had nothing 

 over the lower combs. Before I was one- 

 fourth through I was satisfied the bees were 

 storing much more honey where the mats 

 were sealed down close, than where the 

 combs had a partial covering, or no covering 

 at all. The reason for it, I take to be this : 

 That if the cove»is complete and entire, but 

 few bees, comparatively, are required to keep 

 the requisite temperature to build the comb 

 and ripen the liouey ; whereas, with exposed 

 combs a large body of bees are obliged to 

 stay at home to keep the requisite tempera- 

 ture for both these purposes. After that I 

 took pains to have the space made tight and 

 close, so not a bee could get above the combs, 

 and it seemed to me a larger force went to 

 the fields immediately. Now, I may be mis- 

 taken in my position here ; and as this is a 

 very important matter indeed, I would ask 

 others to make experiments at once, and de- 

 cide as far as we can what is best to do about 

 it. I know combs can be worked nicely for 

 the extractor with no covering during the 

 honey season. I, too, have learned to tell at 

 a glance at the top of the frames when it is 

 necessary to extract. 



While I think of it, I might mention that 

 I tell by this very plan, when a colony has a 

 laying queen. I have frequently gone out 

 into the apiary and puzzled the boys a good 

 deal by telling them that they would find 

 laying queens in colonies where the slates 

 indicated them to be queenless. In every 

 case I was right ; and the new eggs and 

 brood would be found right under the white 

 caps on the upper edges of the combs. ' 



