26 



THE BrW-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



The Importance of Longevity in Bees. 



Prolificness in queens is almost universal- 

 ly desired. In summing up the desirable 

 qualities of a race of bees, or of a queen, 

 prolificness is almost always put at the head 

 of the list. ( )ccasionally a bee-keeper has 

 had the insight to notice and the courage to 

 say that there are other points of more im- 

 portance than prolificness : in fact, some 

 have asserted that prolificness is at the ex- 

 pense of other desirable qualities. Every 

 bee-keeper knows that it is not always the 

 most populous colony that stores the most 

 surplus. There is certainly a reason for this, 

 and it is possible that Mr. Geo. J. VandeVord 

 of Weston, Ont. has struck it. Here is an 

 article on the subject that he contributed to 

 the American Bee Journal. 



" It is somewhat surprising that quality is 

 so seldom given any prominence by writers 

 in our bee-journals, when upon it, to a very 

 large extent, devolves the interesting ques- 

 tion of "profit or loss" in bee-keeping. 

 That it is of such vital importance may be 

 denied by some of the "older heads" and 

 " bigger lights " in bee-culture, but no one 

 is bound to coincide with the opinions held 

 by others when sr.ch opinions appear to him 

 to be false ; but I am glad I can say, as far 

 as my experience goes that there are few 

 classes of men more anxious to adopt pro- 

 gressive ideas and methods of work than are 

 bee-keepers. And I have no doubt that if I 

 succeed in focusing a little more light on 

 this neglected issue, greater and keener 

 minds will push the matter further, and 

 givsus more knowledge of it. 



Before all our theorizing began, and after 

 it is all settled ( if it over will be ), the fact 

 remains that the colony of bees which 

 gathers the largest surplus during ihe honey- 

 flow, and consumes the smallest amount of 

 this surplus in maintaining the hive between 

 or after the honey-flows, is the most profit- 

 able one, and therefore the one to breed from ; 

 but in order to intelligently set about our 

 work of breeding up bees to their highest 

 standard of excellence, we must know what 

 qualities in the bees stand first in the make- 

 up of a first-class honey-gatherer. And now 



I would tell you a few facts— iiof " theories " 

 — that were presented by a colony in my 

 apiary, and first compelled my attention to 

 tho creat value of longevity in bees. 



This colony liad only (! frames of brood 

 ( frames 11 x ]'i inches ) at the beginning of 

 the honey-flow, although there seemed to be 

 a good average poj>ulation of workers ; and 

 during the honey- flow I noticed that the 

 queen did not seem able to increase that 

 amount, so I tliought of replacing her with 

 one more prolific, but before doing so I 

 noticed that this colony was storing as 

 much honey as the colonies which had !• to 



II frames of brood, so I began to think they 

 must be great workers, and I took notice of 

 them early in the morning, only to find out 

 that they were not the earliest by many in 



getting off to work, nor did they appear to 

 be doing a " rushing " trade any time in the 

 day — just working away, steady, without 

 very much show around the entrance, and 

 this puzzled me a little until I began to 

 think if these bees were longer lived than 

 average bees, that would explain their sur- 

 plus and their strength for so small an 

 amount of brood. That queen is now 3 years 

 old, has never swarmed, but her colony is 

 almost always crawling ahead when others 

 are doing nothing. And after paying par- 

 ticular attention to her for the last two sea- 

 sons, I can see where their great advantage 

 is. 



If 6 frames of her brood gives a working 

 force equal to 8 or 9 frames of another queen, 

 then that colony has saved the labor, the 

 honey, and the pollen, neccessary to rear the 

 three extra frames of brood, and the labor 

 saved the bees is, I think, a very important 

 item, for it is well known that the less brood 

 bees are rearing, the more slowly are they 

 ageing, other things being equal : and this 

 saving tends to still further lengthen their 

 time of service as field-workers ( the bees 

 that pile the honey in ). But these three 

 things are not all that is saved. Long-lived 

 bees have less brood to keep ivanti to pro- 

 duce a given force of workers, and heat is a 

 very valuable commodity in the hives in 

 early spring. Then there are the extra 

 combs that may be used for extracting, and 

 a queen-excluder proves to be a useless arti- 

 cle when the (]ueen cannot under ordinary 

 circumstances be induced to leave the bot- 

 tom story. But these two items are only 

 slight advantages — here is one of the great- 

 est : The small amount of brood for the 

 size of the hive, tends to discourage swarm- 

 ing more than any other one thing I know 

 of. And, lastly, longer lived bees do not 

 slack off brood rearing so quickly as others, 

 as the working force is large in proportion 

 to the brood, and so a smaller honey-flow 

 suffices to keep the queen laying to her full 

 capacity ; this leaves the colony in better 

 condition to begin storing a surplus from 

 any little flow that comes along. 



Now let us see what it all amounts to : 

 To produce a given maximum force of work- 

 ers, less honey is needed; and less pollen, 

 less labor, less heat ; conse()uently a colony 

 attains its full strength earlier in the season, 

 and more surely, no matter what the weather 

 is like, and is better supplied with stores 

 than others shorter lived, and when it is 

 there it stays there at less expenditure ot 

 bee-force. 



I suppose one is ready to rise now and say, 

 " Why, but you are almost taking it for 

 granted that long-lived bees are not pro- 

 lific. " No, I am not ; it is possible that a 

 queen may be prolific, and her bees long 

 lived, too, but Dame Nature has a way of 

 squaring accounts that scientists designate 

 as the " law of compensation, " and when 

 left to herself she generally takes away some- 

 thing when she adds an advantage to any- 

 thing, and it is not her custom to put " length 

 of days" and " many children " in the same 

 hand, not even when she is dealing with her 

 favored children, " the bees ; " but she occa- 

 sionally " sports " a little, and she seems 



