1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



121 



What, then, must it be when they 

 have, not only a bar, but two bars 

 and a beespace to pass over before 

 changing from one story to another? 

 It is true that they finally do it. But 

 how much time is lost in hesitating 

 and hunting can hardly be guessed. 



There is a great deal of method in 

 the queen's laying. To convince our- 

 selves of this, it is only necessary to 

 look at combs of brood. The older 

 brood is usually in the center, the 

 younger brood around the edges. The 

 queen evidently goes around a circle 

 and thus loses but little time looking 

 for cells that are empty and ready. 

 Otherwise how could she lay from 

 3,000 to 4,000 eggs in 24 hours? When, 

 in the course of her laying, she gets 

 to a wooden bar, she is directed out 

 of her set path and evidently re- 

 quires a little time to find the thread 

 of her laying again. As often as 

 this happens there is delay. That is 

 why all those obstructions have been 

 almost invariably set aside by prac- 

 tical men and often by the leaders 

 themselves, who invented them. That 

 is why so many people object to the 

 Danzenbaker hive after using it. For 

 the same reason, if the queen hap- 

 pens to locate herself in an upper 

 story, there will be more or less diffi- 

 culty in getting her back to the lower 

 story, unless she is driven down. 



There are advantages to shallow 

 brood stories, else no one would ever 

 adopt them. But there is no doubt 

 that they interfere, more or less, with 

 the full laying of the queens. This very 

 objection to shallow stories, for 

 brood, becomes an advantage when 

 we consider them for surplus recep- 

 tables. If the queens happen to go 

 into them they will dislike them for 

 the very reasons given above. 



The Ithaca Short Course 



On page 60, February number, we 

 insetted the program of this Short 

 Course organized, like that of Cali- 

 fornia, by the United States Apiary 

 Department, through Messrs. Phillips 

 and Demuth, at the College of Ag- 

 riculture of Cornell. It will be no- 

 ticed that I was booked, in this 

 course, for an address on "The Da- 

 dant System." This subject was not 

 of my choosing, and I would have 

 considered it vain on my part to 

 make the attempt of going to New 

 York State, where so many eminent 

 beekeepers live, and preach the "Da- 

 dant System." But as my name was 

 thus put forward by Dr. Phillips, in 

 connection with our methods, there 



was nothing to do but go there and 

 show, to the best of my ability, why 

 and how we adopted large hives and 

 an economical method of manage- 

 ment. 



There do not appear to be any bet- 

 ter or more efficient teachers of good 

 methods than Messrs. Phillips and 

 Demuth, aided by such men as Dr. 

 Rea and the list of beekeepers which 

 were booked for the course. Every- 

 thing that these men advance has 

 passed the test of experience, sus- 

 tained by sound reasoning and 

 thorough acquaintance with the 

 habits of bees. 



I expected to find some opposition 

 to the idea of large hives. I found 

 nothing but concurrent statements 

 and arguments. In fact, the train of 

 discussion and statements led in the 

 direction that I followed myself. So 

 I could not speak to a better pre- 

 pared audience, and was listened to 

 very attentively. 



Many influential and capable lead- 

 ers in beekeeping of the East and 

 Canada were present. 



After leaving the pretty city of 

 Ithaca and its college located in one 

 of the most picturesque spots in the 

 country, I had the pleasure to visit 

 both of the Greiner brothers, long 

 known as careful contributors of the 

 American Bee Journal and whose 

 portraits were given in our June, 1918, 

 number. I also called upon Messrs. 

 Taylor, of Newark, and Adams & 

 Myers, of Ransomville, all practical 

 men. On the way, through the zeal 

 of Mr. Taylor, I had two bee conven- 

 tions with a few beekeepers who 

 kindly called upon me, during my 

 stop at Rochester and at G. C. Grei- 

 ner's home. Thanks, gentlemen, for 

 this attention and courtesy. I cer- 

 tainly wish to speak of these visits 

 more at length, but space forbids 

 now. 



At Ithaca I took a few notes of 

 salient statements made by the lead- 

 ers who spoke : 



"Young bees that have never had a 

 flight do not winter well, because 

 their intestines are loaded with resi- 

 dues from their transformations 

 from the larval and chrysalis states, 

 which must be voided within a week 

 or two after birth." This tallies with 

 our experience in importing bees. 

 The Italian shippers, at our request, 

 tried, many years ago, the sending of 

 queens, with freshly hatched young 

 bees, with very old field workers and 

 with young and active field workers. 

 Success was altogether with the last 

 mentioned, the worst being the young 



bees that had never flown. Bees that 

 are imported from Italy are never 

 less than 2 weeks in confinement, 

 oftener 3 weeks or more, and the vi- 

 tality of the workers is important. 



"Shall we use tartaric acid in the 

 syrup fed to bees, to secure a 

 change from its sugar condition and 

 prevent a hard crystallization?" It 

 was shown that an ounce of this acid 

 to 15 pounds of sugar would ef- 

 fectually prevent any crystallization. 

 The change from cane sugar to grape 

 sugar is fairly brought about in the 

 stomach of the bees, if they have a 

 sufficient length of time to work it 

 over. The few instances of crystal- 

 lization of sug*ar syrup fed were 

 evidently due to too rapid storage. 



Demuth's experiments show that 

 bees can carry a third of their weight 

 in honey readily. 



Another experiment of Demuth 

 was on the number of trips that a bee 

 makes to the field in a day. I was 

 astounded to hear that the average 

 worker makes only 4 trips. I hope 

 further tests will be made, in the 

 time of a bouncing honey crop. 



Demuth recommends to put on su- 

 pers in number sufficient to permit 

 the evaporation of the nectar and not 

 just for storage only. He calls at- 

 tention to the fact, well-known 

 among beekeepers, that bees arriving 

 from the fields place their honey in 

 any vacant cell at hand and that this 

 honey is afterwards re-handled by 

 the young bees, thus ripening it. If 

 there is more room than enough 

 there will be a greater scattering of 

 the nectar harvested and a conse- 

 quently greater ease of ripening. 

 This is sound sense. 



"It is important to shelter the un- 

 derside of the hives, as well as the 

 sides and the top, in outdoor winter- 

 ing." Evidently correct. The cold 

 reaches the bees as well from the 

 bottom as from the sides. We for- 

 get this too often. 



"If the honey crop is delayed when 

 the bees are ready for it, it may be 

 advisable to make increase." This, of 

 course, must be left to the judgment 

 of every beekeeper, and he must be 

 guided by the floral conditions, re- 

 membering that it takes about 35 

 days for bees to develop, from the 

 day the egg is laid, to the active 

 field worker. "We must rear our bees 

 for the honey crop, not on the honey 

 crop." — Demuth. 



"A ten-frame LangStroth hive is 

 too small for prolific queens." This 

 seems to be now universally granted. 

 — C. P. D. 



