. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. 562 AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL Sept. 7, 1899. is because the small broodisfs colonies are too small in the spring-, or rather at the end of the winter. The prolificness of the queen is not the only thing to be considered. No matter how many eggs a queen can lay. no more brood is g^oing- to be reared than the bees can take care of. This is especially true in the early part of the season, when the weather is cool yet, and the brood has to be well covered by the bees to get the necessary warmth. No brood will hatch, or rather emerge, until three or four weeks
. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. 562 AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL Sept. 7, 1899. is because the small broodisfs colonies are too small in the spring-, or rather at the end of the winter. The prolificness of the queen is not the only thing to be considered. No matter how many eggs a queen can lay. no more brood is g^oing- to be reared than the bees can take care of. This is especially true in the early part of the season, when the weather is cool yet, and the brood has to be well covered by the bees to get the necessary warmth. No brood will hatch, or rather emerge, until three or four weeks after the opening of the season, and during that period the strength of the colony will decrease all the time. After that, the amount of brood will increase slowly at first, then faster and faster until the honej'-flow comes. Now, it seems evident to me, and my experience has been in accordance with it, that the amount of brood se- cured at the opening of the honey-flow depends chiefly upon the strength of the colony at the opening of the season. With such colonies as the small broodists have at the open- ing of the season, only enough brood can be reared to fill the 8 combs by the opening of the honey-flow. With a col- ony SO percent stronger in population, SO percent more brood could be reared—12 combs occupied instead of 8. and with a population SO percent larger, SO percent more of sur- plus could be secured. It seems to me that I see somebody bobbing up with the question. How do you know that the small broodists winter only small colonies ? Well, I know it by their own writings. It is only two months ago that Mr. Hutchinson said in the Bee-Keepers' Review that in Michigan a large colony would be almost sure to rear brood in the winter, and come out practically worthless in the spring. Mr. Doolittle has said, time and again, that small colonies (he calls them medium) winter better than larger ones. Mr. Davenport, in a late number of Gleanings in Bee-Culture, wrote that wh
Size: 1335px × 1872px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbees, bookyear1861
