130 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



and sensibly treated by Cheshire that I be- 

 lieve it will be wisdom to quote what he has 

 to say upon this point. 



" The last point (size) is one upon which 

 great misapprehension abounds, The idea 

 that it is desirable to increase the dimensions 

 of our bees is all but universal, and, since I 

 have ventured, more than once, to stand 

 alone in condemning it, I must give my 

 reasons for so doing. Aiyisdorsata has been 

 hunted up, although it is know to lie a use- 

 less savage, simply because it is big, and 

 that by the very persons who claim that the 

 smaller hive bees are the best, in that they 

 give their vote generally to the yellow varie- 

 ties. Fortunately, it is in the very nature of 

 things impracticable to 'hybridize' our hive 

 bees with dorsata, over which we may in- 

 scribe 'Rebuiescat in pace.'' 



But it is still necessary to point out that 

 the smaller the creature, the greater, rela- 

 tively, are its powers, both for a mechanical 

 and physiological reason. First, other things 

 being equal, as an animal i^ enlarged, its 

 weight increases as the cube, and its 

 strength as the square only, of the ratio of 

 the lineal increase. Thus, if a man could be 

 developed until his Gft. stature became 18ft., 

 his weight would be increased no less than 

 twenty-seven times; while his muscles, be- 

 cause three times their former width and 

 thickness, would have only nine times their 

 former power. Such a man would be just 

 able to stand: but if he were to stoop to pick 

 up a pebble, he would be too weak to rise 

 again to the erect posture. This aspect of 

 the question is quite mechanical, and may 

 be further illustrated thus: An ordinary 

 lucifer match, supported horizontally at the 

 ends, will bear about 70CK) times its own 

 weight suspended from its centre; but by en- 

 larging it 240 times, it becomes a great baulk 

 of timber, which would be broken by once 

 its own weight similarly suspended. Here 

 we have the reason why ants can build nests, 

 which, in relative size, utterly transcend 

 anything bigger creatures can accomplish; 

 why some insects can jump even a hundred 

 times or more their own height, while the 

 gazelle can, at a push, do twice, and man 

 and the horse once theirs, leaving the ele- 

 phant to disdain jumping, as unsuited to his 

 ponderous dignity. 



The economies of the question must not 

 be overlooked. In gathering from clover, it 

 has been shown that about l-U.'SOth grain is 

 secured at each visit. Let us imagine that 

 our bee is enlarged twice, by which its weight 

 has growu eight-fold. As it flies, carrying 

 its large I lody from clover-bloom to clover- 

 bloom, an amount of wear and tear is in- 

 volved which is eight times as great as that 

 accompanying similar movements in the 

 normal bee. This wear ai.d tear is replaced 

 by food — of course, proportionately aug- 

 mented, and which has to be deducted from 

 the l-.^.Wth grain se(!ured. The net increase 

 to the stock is, therefore, less at ea h visit, 

 in the case of the large bee, than in that of 

 the normal one. The formpr, however, has 

 the advantage of being able to decrease its 

 return visits to the hive to unload, because 

 its honoy-sai5 is larger; but this is the only 



gain, and it is much more than counter- 

 balanced by the fact that, with normal bees, 

 eight independent gatherers would be at 

 work simultaneously for only the same wear 

 and tear that would permit of the efforts of 

 one if the bulk were increased as supposed. 

 Selection has gone on for ages regulating 

 the proportions of the wondrous insect be- 

 tween those extremes in which the loss by 

 excessively frequent returns to the colony, 

 and the loss through excessive bodily weight, 

 balance each other, and has thus given us a 

 bee whose size yields the best possible re- 

 sults. 



The botanical reason for desiring no altera- 

 tion was expounded in Vol. I. Flowers and 

 bees have been constantly interacting. The 

 build of every floret is adapted to that of its 

 fertilizer, and, could we suddeidy increase 

 the dimensions of our hive bees, we should 

 throw them out of harmony with the floral 

 world around them, decrea'^e their utility, by 

 reducing the number of plants they could 

 fertilize, and diminish eiiually their value as 

 honey-gatherers. Mechanics, physiology, 

 economics, and botany alike, show any crav- 

 ing after mere size to be an ill-considered 

 aud uuscientido fancy, for which it would be 

 even difficult to tiud an excuse." 



Manum's New Methods of Running Several 

 Apiaries Alone. 



Some have been inclined to laugh at me 

 because I was so visionary as to think that 

 the time would yet come when one man 

 could care for several apiaries; but even now 

 Mr. E. A. Manum proposes to care for six 

 out -apiaries and one at home, and no help 

 to be hired. From an article in Gleanings 

 I clip that part that tells how he proposes to 

 manage. 



"First, I shall do all in my power, through 

 the month of May — by contracting and feed- 

 ing — to stimulate brood-rearing, in order to 

 get a large force of workers hatched out by 

 the time clover blossoms, which is usually 

 about June 10th; and as then is the time 

 swarming commences, I shall remove the 

 queens from such colonies as have started 

 queen-cells, or that show any signs of pre- 

 paring to swarm: then in eight days I remove 

 all queen-cells found in these hives, except, 

 perhaps, from one or two that I wish to rear 

 queens from. In these I allow the cells to 

 remain until they are old enough to transfer 

 to the queen-nursery to hatch, and perhaps 

 at this second visit I remove fifteen or twenty 

 more queens, and in six or eight days more I 

 again visit this yard and cut out queen-cells 

 as before, both from the first lots where the 

 queens were taken out— should there be any 

 — and the second lot and remove queens 

 from as many more as I find preparing to 

 swarm. Now, by the time I make the third 

 visit I shall find a lot of young queens hatch- 

 ed in the nursery: and tiie colonies from 

 which I removed the first (jueens will be in 

 condition to receive and accept a virgin 

 queen, so that I will run in a virgin queen in 

 each colony. All this time I must manage 



