796 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Topics oMjiterest. 



Queeii-Exclniliiig Honey-Boarils, Etc, 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Allow me, Mr. Editor, to say a few 

 more words relative to Query 767. By 

 the replies to that query I see that some 

 think that not as much honey will be 

 stored above a queen-excluder as there 

 would be if no such honey-board was 

 used. I have very carefully tested this 

 matter, for both comb and extracted- 

 honey, and while I can see no difference 

 in the least in regard to comb-honey, I 

 think that I do see a difference as 

 regards extracted-honey, the same being 

 in favor of the excluders — not against 

 them, as some would have it. 



Without the excluders, the queen is 

 bound to spread her brood to her utmost 

 capacity, filling not only the lower story, 

 but much of the comb in the upper story 

 as well. This having brood in the combs 

 you wish to extract from is a great 

 disadvantage in tw^o ways, the first of 

 Wfhich is, that you have to handle more 

 combs for the same amount of honey, 

 turn the extractor more carefully so that 

 the unsealed brood may not be thrown 

 out with the honey (thus making a 

 sickish looking mess of the product 

 before it is strained), as well as endan- 

 gering the life and limb of the queen in 

 getting the bees off the combs ; this 

 latter being quite a serious matter, 

 according to my experience. 



Then, again, the bee-escape boards are 

 of no use in freeing the combs of bees 

 where the queen is in the upper story, 

 for the bees will not go below and leave 

 her, no matter how good the escape is. 

 Also, the queen will lay the given 

 number of eggs which nature has 

 prepared her to lay, much sooner than 

 she otherwise would, so that the queen 

 arrives at old age, and must be super- 

 seded much oftener than is necessary; 

 and all for what ? This brings us to 

 the second disadvantage (which the 

 reader probably has already divined), 

 which is that nine times out of ten this 

 brood is only reared at our loss. 



Where the queen has access to the 

 whole amount of room given, she 

 increases her egg laying on the arrival 

 of the honey harvest until she often has 

 brood in every frame in the hive used. 

 This brood requires much of the honey 

 brought in from the field to rear it, and, 

 as I said before, nine times out of ten 



arrives on the stage of action as mature 

 bees, just in time to become consumers 

 instead of producers, thus taking a large 

 part of our honey crop, not only in the 

 brood stage, but in the adult as well. 



How often have I seen hives black 

 with bees during the month of August, 

 when there was no honey in the fields to 

 gather by these supernumerary bees, 

 which are hanging on the outside, in 

 perfect idleness day after day. Far 

 better that they had not been reared, for 

 they have not added a single ounce to 

 our crop of honey, but, on the contrary, 

 have consumed pounds of what we might 

 have had. 



Now, the queen-excluders give us the 

 privilege of determining just how much 

 brood may be reared after the harvest of 

 honey commences, and the wisest 

 apiarist will place the amount at the 

 point which will allow him bees enough 

 to secure all subsequent crops for that 

 year ; for, as a rule, none of the eggs 

 laid by the queen after a honey harvest 

 commences, will be of any direct use in 

 securing honey from the bloom of the 

 kind of flowers which are yielding honey 

 at that time, for it takes 37 days from 

 the time the egg is laid until the bee 

 goes into the fields as a laborer, where a 

 colony is in a normal condition ; while 

 no flora, here at the North, with which I 

 am acquainted, gives a continuous yield 

 of honey for that length of time. 

 Inasmuch as the perforated zinc allows 

 us to adapt the number of laborers to 

 the capacity of our field, I consider it 

 one of the greatest inventions of the 

 age ; especially so,as it in no way hinders 

 the work in the surplus apartment, no 

 matter whether we are working for 

 comb or extracted-honey. 



WHY BEES CLUSTEK. 



On page 680 I see that Prof. Cook 

 "supposed it settled" that bees always 

 have a home selected when they swarm, 

 and cluster so that the queen may rest 

 her wings, which are unused to flying. 

 No, no. Professor ; if such were the fact, 

 why do not the bees go at once to their 

 home, instead of going about the country 

 for days before entering that home, as 

 they are often known to do ? 



While I fully agree with you that 

 bees "sometimes" have a home picked 

 out before they leave the hive, yet I 

 "guess" you are wrong in supposing 

 that they do always ; for I believe that 

 more swarms do not thus have a home 

 selected than do, and I will proceed to 

 give the reasons why I believe my guess 

 to be nearer right than yours : In the 

 first place, I have known of very many 



