NOTES. 165 



good, the linn was very abundant, and the hives were very strong in 

 bees. Under these conditions a much larger yield per day, than 

 mine, is often obtained. 



R. R. Murphy, Garden Plain, 111., writes : "I have a swarm of 

 bees on the scales that was fifteen pounds heavier this morning at 

 six o'clock than at the same time yesterday." — America?i Bee jfotcr- 

 nal, Vol. xiii., p. 240. 



G. M. Doolittle, Borodino, N. Y., reports that the largest yield 

 from his best swarm was sixty-six pounds in three days, or an average 

 of twenty-two pounds a day. — Gleanings in Bee-Culture, Vol. v., p. 

 263. 



13. (Page 103.) A hive of bees without a queen will continue 

 working with spirit, if they have the eggs or larvse from which to 

 grow a queen. But if they build comb when having no queen it is 

 drone comb. A hive with a queen a year or more old has, under 

 any circumstances, a strong determination to build some drone comb, 

 and if honey is coming in rapidly, and new combs are needed for 

 storing, it will often build a lai-ge amount of drone comb. A hive 

 with a young queen, grown during the season, builds worker comb 

 almost entirely. The skillful bee-keeper takes advantage of this 

 fact to get his combs, for the brood chambers of his hives, built in 

 hives having young queens, and thus he avoids having much drone 

 comb. 



14. (Page 107.) If the cost of growing bees to make new swarms 

 is so great, some may ask, why grow them at all, why not buy bees in 

 box hives, as I did in the Spring ? 



Under some circumstances it is more economical to buy bees than 

 it is to raise them. That is, the skillful bee-keeper, by keeping his 

 bees at work gathering honey and storing it in combs for market, 

 can make more money than he can by allowing them to rear brood 

 for making new swarms. But my course was best for me under the 

 circumstances, as will be seen from the following facts : 



a. There were no bees near me which could have been purchased. 

 To have gone some distance would have been an expense and trouble 

 for transportation. 



b. Bees bought must have been transferred to the hive I was 

 using. This transferring would have made a large amount of extra 

 work. 



c. I could have bought only black bees, and those probably with 

 old and feeble queens. These would have been of little service to 

 me that first year, for I could not, at that late period in the season, 

 have built them up into vigorous condition for collecting the fall 



