458 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



HOW MANY BEES MAKE A HIVEFOL? 



It Strikes me that when the bee-mathematicians 

 have attempted to tell us how many bees do or 

 ought to constitute an ordinary swarm, they have 

 left many interesting points still in the dark. As I 

 am a mathematician m3'self, I will tell what I know; 

 or, rather, what conclusions I have arrived at. 



A Langstroth main frame being 16J4 inches long 

 and 8?i inches deep, inside measure, the surface 

 measure both sides of comb would be 384 -^a inches. 

 This, if all worker comb (35 to the inch), would con- 

 tain 7100 cells, or 71,100 for a hive of 10 frames. But 

 a bee, after she is hatched out, being about % of an 

 inch long, covers the space of 3 cells. Therefore if 

 we open a hive and find all ten frames covered as 

 thickly as the bees can stand on the combs, there 

 would be just 23,700 bees. If in layers 3 bees deep, 

 47,400. It is needless to say, that such a swarm could 

 spare half of the bees above to work in surplus box- 

 es, 50,000 bees; then in a good working swarm, 20,000 

 to 35,000 would be sufficiently large to winter safely ; 

 and I am induced to think that our swarms average 

 even less than this during the winter season. Again, 

 if the bees consume 20 to 35 lbs. of honey during win- 

 ter, it would be at the rate of one pound to each 

 1000. Many other interesting things could be figured 

 out; but this will do, I think. T. L. RiGGS. 



Portland, Oregon, May 39, 1883. 



WM. F. CLARKE, AND A WORD IN REGARD TO HIS 

 PRESENT WHEREABOUTS. 



The ways of Providence are mysterious, but al- 

 ways wise and kind. For some not yet manifest 

 reasons I have been pitchforked away up into this 

 far-away region, where I have been editing a daily 

 and weekly paper for the past nine months, and 

 have been busier than I ever was before in my life. 

 How long I may stay is at present uncertain; but 

 the path of duty was made plain to come, and I 

 doubt not it will, in due time, be made manifest 

 whether 1 am to remain or depart. I have been 

 knocked clean out of bee-keeping for the time, hav- 

 ing felt both too unsettled and too dubious about 

 this climate to do any thing in that line. But after 

 an experience of the steady dry winter weather, and 

 a sight of the gorgeous prairie flora in summer, I am 

 inclined to think that, even so far north, bees will 

 do well in the hands of skillful manipulators. If I 

 stay here I shall certainly give them a trial. 



Wm. F. Clarke. 



Winnipeg, Manitoba, June 23, 1883. 



HOW TO TELL WHEN THE SECTIONS ARE FILLED, 

 WITHOUT OPENING THE HIVE. 



How do you tell when sections of honey are cap- 

 ped, without looking previously? J. F. Kline. 

 Grigsby's Bluff, Texas, July 1, 1883. 



At first thought, friend K., I should have 

 said there was no way ; but it now occurs to 

 me that I did find a bee-keeper last summer, 

 Mr. George Carrington, of Weymouth, Ohio, 

 who had a plan of telling which sections 

 were lilled, and which were not, in the \h 

 story hive, without opening it. I saw him 

 raising the covers to his hives, and going 

 about, rubbing the sections with his finger, 

 as if he would test the smoothness of their 

 basswood tops. I finally asked him why he 

 did it ; but almost before he could reply, I 

 noticed that some of the sections gave back 

 a different sound wliile his finger glided over 

 them, from what some others did; and it 



soon transpired that those solid with the 

 chunk of honey they contained seemed to 

 have a different feeling, as it were, by sim- 

 ply passing a finger over them almost as fast 

 as you could touch them. Try it, friends. 

 Just raise the cover to your H-story hive 

 with one hand, and with the forefinger give 

 the tops of the sections a little brush. 

 The empty ones give back a hollow sound, 

 while the "filled ones have a dull '' thud," as 

 it were, when they are touched. 



GOING OFF WITHOUT CLUSTERING. 



Last summer, about the middle of June, while at a 

 hive taking off comb honey, a large swarm of black 

 bees just in front of and to the left of me began 

 coming out. I weut immediately to the hive, think- 

 ing that I could find the queen as she came out, but 

 did not. After I had looked for her until I thought 

 she was out and on the wing, I looked up to see if 

 the swarm had begun to settle. To my disgust, I 

 saw they were not alighting, and did not intend to 

 do so. The swarm was all out, and they were in a 

 compact bunch about 10 or 13 feet in front of the 

 hive, and about 6 or 8 feet above the ground. It 

 appeared that not a single bee ever looked back 

 toward the old hive, but they kept their heads turn- 

 ed toward the woods, which was just across the run 

 bottom, hardly one-fourth mile away; and for that 

 timber thej' immediatelj^ started, and I kept them 

 company almost to the top of the hill, where they 

 entered a hollow in a small oak-trte that bees had 

 been in a few years before, and had died. This was 

 a first swarm; queen one year old; came off at 

 eleven o'clock a.m., and left 56 one-pound boxes 

 nearly finished. Cut the tree that evening; brought 

 them back, and made them finish that honey, and 

 make me nearly 56 lbs. more. J. A. Bucklkw. 



Clark's, O., June 11, 1883. 



SWARMING WHILE IT RAINS. 



I have but just commenced in bee culture, and 

 find myself deeply interested in the little workers. 

 I started with three colonies. May 6ih, and now have 

 an increase of three — two by artificial swarming, 

 and one natural swarm. All are strong, and doing 

 finely. Have taken 25 lbs. comb honey from original 

 swarms. My natural swarm acted a little different- 

 ly from your theory in A B C, and I should be pleas- 

 ed to have your opiuion on the subject. They came 

 out right between two showers of rain and clustered 

 within 50 yards of the apiary, on a willow; and al- 

 though 1 was not longer than 10 minutes in hivin«r 

 thera, they were, as well as myself, pretty well 

 "soaked" with rain before it was completed. If I 

 mistake not, the ABC says they are not likely to 

 swarm during any thing like threatening weather; 

 and after coming out, often go back to await a bet- 

 ter day. They were not at all crowded for room, 

 having 3 frames almost entirely empty. It puzzles 

 me. Please help me out. I have started ray apiary 

 after the style mentioned in A B C, as the Vineyard 

 apiary. A. T. Shotwell. 



Somerset, Ky., June 9, 1883. 



AN ENTHUSIASTIC ABC SCHOLAR; CHAFF HIVES, 

 ETC. 



Here is my report for the winter and spring. I 

 packed 30 colonies last fall with chaff on their sum- 

 mer stands; 39 came through safe, and as bright as 

 a nfw d.illar, with no si^ns of disease, and they 

 gatherfd considerable h<in'-y from fiuit-bloom; but 



