NEW

PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES

IN BEEKEEPING

BY

GEORGES DE LAYENS

WINNER OF THE INSTITUTE (ACADEMY OF SCIENCES)

PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERATION OF FRENCH BEEKEEPING SOCIETIES

With figures in the text

Price: 0 fr. 60

PARIS

EXTRACT FROM THE TEACHERS’ JOURNAL

PAUL DUPONT, Editor

4, RUE DU BOULOI, 4

1892

THE BEEEKEEPER

NEWSPAPER

BEE CULTIVATORS

Organ of the Central Beekeeping Society

and Insectology

36TH YEAR

(Appearing every month)

Subscription: Price, 5 fr. per year

CONTACT MR. SEVALLE, SOCIETY SECRETARY

167, rue Lecourbe

PARIS

PAUL DUPONT Bookstore, 4, rue. du Bouloi, Paris.

Works awarded by the Academy of Sciences

and by the National Agricultural Society of France

NEW FLORA

FOR THE

EASY DETERMINATION OF PLANTS WITHOUT TECHNICAL WORDS

WITH 2,145 NEW FIGURES

SHOWING PLANTS. WANTED BY BEES

By GASTON BONNIER

PROFESSOR OF BOTANY AT THE SORBONNE

AND

GEORGES DE LAYENS

LAUREATE OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

3rd edition. A pocket volume of 300 pages (franco): 4 fr. 50. (Hardcover: 5 fr.)

Flora of Belgium and Northern France with 2,282 figures. Work crowned by the Academy of Sciences and adopted by the Ministry of Public Education of Belgium, by MM. G. BONNIER and DE LAYENS. Paperback, 4 fr. 50; with English binding, 5 fr.

Petite Flore des Écoles, for easy determination of common plants, with 898 figures in the text. Cardboard price 1 fr. 50

New Flora of Mushrooms, by MM. COSTANTIN and DUFOUR. Work awarded by the Academy of Sciences. Flight. with 3,842 figures. Hardcover: 6 fr.; paperback 5 fr. 50

NEW

PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES

IN BEEKEEPING

By Georges de LAYENS

SUMMARY: I. Experiments proving that bees must be made to build wax, p. 3. —II Experiments on the uselessness of reuniting hives in spring, p. 13. — III. Experiments on the Uselessness of the Partition Board, p. 17. — IV. Experiments on the uselessness of double walls for hives, p. 19. — V. Experiments on the conservation of honey, p. 22. — VI. On choosing a frame hive, p. 25. - Note on breeding and honey production, p. 29.

I

EXPERIMENTS PROVING THAT BEES NEED TO MAKE BEE WAX

Among the errors found in German beekeeping treatises and which beekeeping authors from different countries have generally reproduced without checking, the question of whether or not it is advantageous for the beekeeper to have bees make wax still remains hanging.

The German authors say “no” based on an experiment by Berlepsch where the bees were confined in a closed space, without being able to escape; our old French practitioners, through long observation of the work of hives, say on the contrary “yes”.

According to Berlepsch's experiment, which has become a something of an article of faith, it takes bees about 12 pounds of honey to make 1 pound of wax; hence, a loss for the beekeeper if he makes his bees work in wax. So much noise was made about this experiment that it soon became the basis of a new culture, consisting of constantly preventing the bees from building wax, by always providing them with ready-made combs.

This famous experiment, and several others on wintering, thirst, heating hives in winter, etc., etc., did not take long to bring about profound modifications in the culture of bees, which were reflected in Prussia , for example, according to official statistics, from 1873 to 1883 by a reduction in the number of hives: This reduction was 227,824. Fortunately, worthy beekeepers, in Germany as well as in other countries, have come to recognize that it is better to simply leave bees alone than to torture them perpetually.

As I have always had more confidence in the practice of those who have made money with their bees than in the theories of those who have lost money, I thought it useful, in the interest of our young French beekeepers , to make some new practical experiences on the important subject that concerns us.

In 1886, I made a first experiment, not like Berlepsch, by locking up the bees, but in the apiary, leaving them completely free to work outside as usual. It seems pointless to me to go into the details of this experience, which was reproduced by the beekeeping journals. Instead of 12 pounds of honey consumed for one pound of wax made, as Berlepsch found, I found that it only took 6.3 weight of honey to produce 1 pound of wax. Around the same time, Mr. Viallon, an American beekeeper, also found, by letting the bees work freely, 6 to 8 pounds of honey consumed for 1 pound of wax produced. These two experiments already prove that Berlepsch had operated under defective conditions.

Reflecting on my experiences, I recognized that, despite all the freedom given to bees, they were at fault in one important respect. I had in fact forced the bees to work in wax at a time fixed by me; however, nothing proved that this period was the one that the bees themselves would have chosen to work in wax as economically as possible.

In fact, all our old experienced practitioners say that, under the influence of humidity, heat, the greater or lesser abundance of pollen at certain times of the year, the wax work advances more or less quickly and is done more or less economically.

From then on, the goal that I set for myself was no longer to find the quantity of honey that the bees spend to make the wax; but to simply inquire whether there is gain or loss for the beekeeper when he lets the bees work in wax and when he allows them to build at the time of year which suits them best.

It is not a question, for the practitioner, of investigating whether, from a physiological point of view, a bee must consume so much honey for the wax glands to produce so much wax, a delicate question which, undoubtedly, cannot be resolved by a number. For the beekeeper, it is a question of knowing if the bees can build combs, the colony will bring in a total harvest (wax and honey) greater than the harvest of the same hive where the bees would be prevented from building.

The whole practical question is there and nothing else.

1° method of experimentation.

1° In an experiment of this importance, the first element of success is to operate, not as has been done so far on one or two colonies, but on a certain number.

I chose from the apiary the 18 best colonies which had all overwintered perfectly, according to the method indicated below. (See legend of Figure 2, p. 9.) There were very few dead bees on the trays and not only were the combs dry, but their color indicated that no damp mist had been present on them. All the colonies had brood in compact masses or regularly arranged in a crown;

2° All the colonies were visited, and I noted, on each of them, the honey that they still contained;

3° In each hive, I measured as exactly as possible the surface area of brood that each comb occupied. By adding these different surfaces, I obtained the total brood contained in each hive;

4° I then divided the 18 colonies into two batches, so that the quantity of brood contained in each of the two batches of 9 colonies was as equal as possible;

5° We estimated, either in spring or at harvest time, the honey contained in the combs by means of the total weight of the comb and the surface area occupied by the honey. The estimation was done in exactly the same way for both lots;

6° In the first batch, each hive received three or four empty frames depending on the strength of the colonies; these frames were placed, between combs A containing more or less honey, at the end of the hive adjacent to that where, in spring, the brood and the bees were located. (See figure 3, p. 9.) In the 2nd batch, the hives were completely filled with comb. The hives in the experiments were all of the same horizontal shape and the same size;

7° In order not to cause unequal disturbances in the hives, which could have caused unequal expenditure in the colonies, they were all visited on the same day;

8° The hives of the two batches contained (the most important point in the experiment) a sufficient number of combs so that, throughout the season, egg-laying could not be interrupted for lack of space nor the harvest hampered for lack of combs to receive it . Moreover, the season having had little honey production, the bees and the queen had too much space all year round either for harvesting or for laying eggs.

2° Experience.

On April 15, the colonies were visited and divided into two lots.

The first batch, the one in which the bees could build combs, contained 6,730 square centimeters of brood.

The 2nd batch, the one whose bees could not build combs, contained 6,766 square centimeters of brood.

The 1st batch contained 118 pounds of capped honey.

The 2nd batch contained 121 pounds of capped honey.

No colony was fed; was content, through exchanges of honeycombs, to give each colony more honey as it had more brood; in this way, we were not obliged later to make other exchanges of honeycombs or to feed certain colonies, which would have greatly complicated the experiment.

On May 30, all the hives were visited; in each batch only a small amount of old honey remained, but all the hives already contained more or less new honey.

It is useful to point out that while the fruit trees were flowering, the bees collected honey for a week of fine days.

During May, all the hives of the 1st batch had already started to build several combs, and each had built in proportion to the strength of the colonies; at that time there were already settlements of which more than half of the rays were built; in general, the rays were built into workers' cells.

At that time, the season having been extremely late, we were still far from the great honey flow which began at least three weeks later than usual.

The bees therefore built new combs, without the need being felt either by the lack of space for laying eggs, or by the lack of space for harvesting. It seems as useless to seek the cause of this fact as that of the almost indefinite harvest of honey that the bees produce in a good year. They build too many wax combs in advance when they can, just as before winter they collect, when possible, too much honey for their winter provisions.

From May 30, the apiary was left untouched until the end of the season; a single hive (1st batch) gave a swarm whose honey product was added to the total honey collected by this batch. Around September 15, harvest time, the quantity of honey contained in each hive was determined. We could then see that all the combs were built in all the hives; at the bottom, but part of the combs were built with male cells, and, in some of these combs, we recognized that there had been male brood, but never brood in the worker combs.

The 1st batch, the one that had built combs, contained 457 pounds of honey.

The 2nd batch, the one that had not built combs, contained 455 pounds of honey.

To more accurately assess the beekeeper's profit or loss in this operation, it was necessary to add the reserve honey which already existed in each batch at the start of the season and which had also contributed to the production of wax. before the time of the great harvest.

Final result.

1st batch. (Hives having to build) New honey 457 pounds.

Ancient honey 118 —

Total 575 pounds.

2nd batch. (Hives not having to build). New honey 455 lbs.

Ancient honey 121 —

Total 576 pounds.

It ultimately results from the preceding numbers that in this practical experiment, the honey harvest is approximately the same, in each batch, but that in the 1st batch there was also the production by the bees of 31 wax combs. There is therefore a benefit for the beekeeper in making his bees work in wax by placing them in the conditions achieved in the previous experiment.

The bees of the 1st batch did not apparently spend any honey to make the wax of 31 combs, but, in reality, they were able to consume a lot of it and this consumed honey is represented by a surplus harvest which corresponds to a greater amount of work deployed by the bees who build.

Among the observations or experiments which are entirely in agreement with the previous result, I will limit myself to citing the following. Abbé Delépine, as good a practitioner as he is an excellent observer, says in his work: “Given two hives of the same strength and two boxes of the same capacity, one filled with embossed leaves, the other with combs emptied with an extractor, which one will be filled first? A priori, it seems that the second should be in advance of the first, the bees having in reality only to fill the cells with honey and seal them; the experiments that I carried out with the greatest care, however, gave me the opposite result. » So, if the bees which built combs on embossed leaves finished their harvest before those who did not have combs to build, it is obviously because, during this same period of time, they displayed greater activity and subsequently harvested more honey.

It does not matter to the beekeeper how much honey a bee consumes in a given circumstance to produce a given weight of wax.

There is an advantage, all things being equal, to allowing bees to build; this is the only result that interests the practitioner. The rest is a very complicated physiological question whose solution is of no interest to the harvest. The number of combs to build will vary depending on the size of the colonies and it is obvious that the bees will very often be able to build a greater number than in the previous example.

3° Practical rules to follow.

1° To prepare the frames for the bees to build, it is essential to glue small strips of old comb under the upper crossbar of the frames, in order to force the bees to begin their constructions in a regular manner. This is what Figure 1 depicts. (I particularly recommend strong glue as best for attaching spoke strips to frames.)

FIG. 1. — Frames primed at the top with fragments of old spokes.

2° During the first visit in spring, which should not be made before the bees have worked actively for around ten days, all the brood combs will be placed in the same order as that in which they are, at one end of the the hive, so that all together are located between two combs containing a little honey. These two rays are the natural partition boards that protect the brood.

FIG. 2. — Hive before the spring visit. — In this section of the hive at the end of wintering, we see the cells full of brood surrounded by bees, which are themselves surrounded by honey. The empty combs A, B, C, D are used to protect the colony during the winter. The air is renewed and carries with it the humidity coming through the entrance, following the direction of the arrows and exiting through the cover N N through the spaces o o o, located between the planks p p p. (Half of one of the H rays is shown in perspective in Figure 4.)

FIG. 3. — The same hive after the spring visit. — This section of the hive represents the arrangement given to the frames during the spring visit. The brood, the bees and the combs G, H, I, J, K remained in the same place. The 4 honeycombs L, F, M, E (compare with figure 2), were removed and placed in the empty space on the left, interposing them between frames primed at the top N N N N (see figure 1). Everything else was filled with empty shelves.

m, cells full of honey; e, space between rays; c, one of the empty frames, primed at the top.

At the other end of the hive, depending on the strength of the colonies, we will insert 3 to 5 frames to be built each between two combs containing more or less honey; in this way, the bees will always build their combs straight, and the young wax bees will be attracted to that part of the hive where there is reserve honey which they will gradually transport towards the center of the brood

3° All the space which will remain in the middle, between the brood on the one hand and the frames to be built on the other, will be filled with completely constructed empty combs.

It is essential to place all the frames to be built in the hives at the same time, because the bees begin to build on several frames at the same time, as soon as in the spring there are a few days of heat which coincide with the abundance of the pollen in flowers. I have often noticed that the quantity of combs built by bees during the same time is greater when they can build in several frames at the same time than if during the same time they are forced to build in only one frame. ; This is because the upper part of the hive is the warmest.

FIG. 4. — One of the frames of the hive (frame H), cut in the middle and seen in perspective m, cells full of honey; c, cells full of brood.

4° Hives of 20 frames will not be too large in regions with sufficient honey production; but, in countries with a high honey production, we should not hesitate to have horizontal hives of 24 to 26 frames.

5° The preceding method will be applied to all colonies regardless of their strength and the quantity of brood they contain.

Any colony that has capped brood in a tight mass or in a compact crown and whose bees are active is in good conditions in spring.

As for supposing that a small colony will grow more quickly in the spring if it is given only a quantity of rays proportionate to its strength, this is a complete error. Specific experiments were carried out on this subject by Mr. Gaston Bonnier, regarding the uselessness of partition boards. (See page 17.)

6° If in the previous autumn, we took care to leave the bees with strong winter provisions, 18 to 20 kilograms, we will no longer have to take care of the bees until the moment we wish to harvest honey.

7° At harvest time, we must start by harvesting the newly built combs; after having extracted the honey and after having the combs cleaned by the bees, we will remove from these combs all the parts of the wax which contain male cells. This wax will be melted and exchanged for embossed sheets, for which we will only have to pay for the shipping.

4° Example of the application of the preceding rules.

In order to easily understand the arrangement of the frames in spring in a horizontal hive, I have shown in Figure 2 a hive in winter, cut lengthwise; Figure 4 represents one of the H rays also cut in two.

Figure 3, compared to Figure 2, shows what arrangement should be made to the frames in this hive during the spring visit.

By comparing Figures 2 and 3 and using their legends, it will be easy to understand how the practical rules stated above apply to this example.

NOTE. — I must point out that these rules do not seem to me to apply to hives which can only contain a small number of frames. Suppose for example that we have a hive of ten or twelve frames; it would not be possible at the end of winter to insert four or five empty frames between the combs, because this would result in numerous inconveniences, the least of which would be that the queen would encounter empty spaces on her route which would stop her laying. On the other hand, inserting empty frames between the brood combs would be the most serious mistake that could be made. It would also not be possible to build shelves in the supers, since the supers can only be placed at the time of harvest and if we built them at this time in the supers we would lose a lot of what. We must not forget, moreover, that it is always the method which must lead to the adoption of this or that hive, and never the hive which must lead to the adoption of this or that method.

5° Usefulness of embossed wax sheets.

Based on previous experiences showing that it is advantageous to completely construct combs without embossed wax, novice beekeepers might assume that embossed wax sheets will no longer be of any use, since bees can build wax economically. This is not the case, however, because we assumed in the previous example that the beekeeper had a sufficient number of constructed combs in reserve; but to quickly build new combs, independently of the primed combs, embossed wax will always be very useful; I will show it with an example.

Let us suppose two colonies which are enlarged in the spring, one using frames simply started with a few strips of old spokes glued under the upper crossbar of the frames; the other with frames containing embossed wax sheets. At the end of the season we will have obtained the following result:

First hive enlarged using primed frames:

1° The bees will have built too many combs of males, resulting in too abundant laying of males and consequently a loss of honey;

2° The bees will not have had time, before the big harvest, to build enough combs to store all the honey; hence loss of part of the harvest for lack of space;

3° The bees, at the time of the big harvest, not having enough space due to lack of a sufficient number of combs, will fill all the free cells with honey; from there stop in laying and very often the bees will swarm naturally, which we want to avoid above all in order to obtain as much honey as possible.

Second hive enlarged using frames containing embossed wax sheets:

1° The bees will have built many worker cells on the embossed leaves, hence few males;

2° The bees will build very quickly on the embossed leaves; They will thus have, at least in part, during the big harvest, the space necessary to store their honey.

The embossed combs will therefore always be of the greatest use but will cost much less than before, the beekeeper only having to pay the manufacturing price, and the manufacturer will also gain, because he will sell many more of them.

Conclusions.

So, in summary:

To obtain at the same time, few swarms, the maximum amount of honey and new wax, you need a large horizontal hive that can contain enough combs at the same time so that the queen's egg-laying cannot be stopped for lack of space, enough combs to store all the honey harvested, and finally empty frames to allow the young bees to build new combs at the time they prefer to take care of this work.

II

EXPERIMENTS ON THE USELESSNESS OF MEETING HIVES IN SPRING

It is recommended as a good practice in most beekeeping treatises to bring together weak hives in the spring.

I wanted to see, using precise experiments, if this practice was still necessary, because it is often stated that two colonies united in the spring yield more than if they were separated.

Near my house there is an apiary made up of around thirty colonies in common hives. This apiary is not managed by any method, we just collect the swarms and we never hold meetings. For fifteen years I have been carefully following the work of these bees, so to speak, in the wild, and very often I have noticed at the end of winter very weak colonies which, at the end of the year had become as heavy as the best in the apiary. So, if we had combined two of these weak hives together, we would have had less, at the end of the season, one hive full of honey.

In order to resolve this question by facts, I operated for two years using different methods, not on a few isolated colonies, but on an entire apiary, except for a few hives which swarmed:

1° By comparing the brood surface area that each colony had in the spring to the weight of the honey found in the fall;

2° By comparing, in spring and autumn, the volume of the group of bees in each colony, at the same temperature.

First method. — In the spring, when visiting the hives, I measured the surface area of brood contained in each colony in order to compare their productive strength; no colony in the apiary was united with others; all the hives were, as usual, filled with comb, and I no longer took care of the apiary until the time of the honey harvest which was taken at the end of September.

At that time, I calculated the weight of the honey contained in each colony.

FIG. 5. — Comparison of the relative strength of 28 hives from an apiary at the beginning and end of the season. — The vertical lines above the horizontal line AB are proportional to the brood surface area of each hive in spring. The vertical dotted lines below AB are proportional to the total amount of honey found at the end of the season in each of the same hives. — We see that, generally speaking, the harvest of the hives is not related to their strength in spring.

Figure 5 compares the relative strength of hives in spring, and the total quantity of honey found in hives at the end of the season.

The relative strength of hives in spring, measured by brood surface area, is represented by a series of solid vertical lines located above the horizontal line A B. Each line corresponds to a hive and is of a proportionate length to his strength. We arranged these lines in order of size, starting on the left with the largest, corresponding to the hive with the strongest brood, and ending with the shortest, corresponding to the hive with the least brood.

The total quantity of honey found in the hives at the end of the season is represented by a series of dotted lines located below the first which are each proportional to the total quantity of honey collected.

FIG. 6. — Comparison of the relative strength of 31 hives from an apiary at the beginning and at the end of the season. — The vertical lines above the horizontal line AB are proportional to the volume of the group of bees in each hive in spring. The vertical dotted lines below line AB are proportional to the volume of the group of bees in each of the same hives at the same temperature. — We see that, generally speaking, the volume of groups of bees at the end of the season is not related to the volume of the same colonies in spring.

One has only to glance at Figure 5 to be struck by the manner in which the crop evens out and becomes almost as strong in the weaker hives in the spring as a whole, as in the hives as a whole. the strongest at the same time.

Thus, for example, colony No. 27, which in the spring was about seven times weaker than hive No. 1, found itself at the end of the season having harvested about 1/6 more than No. 1 .

Likewise, No. 19, more than twice as weak in spring as No. 5, gave a harvest that was close to double that of No. 5.

Moreover, it is useless to cite a greater number of examples, the table reports all the results of these observations.

In summary, if we compare the 14 strongest hives in spring (1 to 14), to the 14 weakest hives at the same time (15 to 28), we find that the latter harvested approximately the same quantity of honey than the first.

Second method. — In another series of experiments (figure 6), I operated in a different way; I no longer compared the strength of the colonies in brood in the spring, to the harvest of these same colonies; I compared the bee strength of the colonies in spring to the bee strength of these same colonies in the fall.

The solid lines placed above line AB (figure 6) represent in their order of strength for 31 colonies, the volume occupied by the bees in spring; the dotted lines below the horizontal line represent the volume of bees in these same colonies at the end of the season. But we know that the group of bees expands more or less by heat; it was therefore necessary to compare them at the same temperature, I operated in both cases at a temperature of 10°.

It is enough to consider Figure 6 to recognize that the results only confirm those obtained by the first method.

Conclusion. — It follows from all the preceding facts that bringing together in the spring the hives which are weak, but which nevertheless have brood in masses or in tight crowns, is not a profitable operation, because previous experiences prove that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to predict at the start of the season whether a strong hive will not become more or less weak or vice versa.

Moreover, either at home or at my neighbors, we have been applying these methods for ten years which are only the practical confirmation of previous experiences.

III

EXPERIENCES ON THE USELESSNESS OF THE PARTITION BOARD

We extract the following from a summary of the experiences of Mr. Gaston Bonnier.

“I presented in the International Review of February 1891 the experiments which demonstrate that one or more frames furnished with rays produce the same effect as the partition board from the point of view of heat loss. Here is a short summary of these experiences: »

“A first series of experiments was carried out on two large colonies overwintered in one of Mr. de Layens' apiaries, in October; at that time, the bees were no longer coming out, and the temperature, which dropped below zero during the night, still rose noticeably during the day; I operated on a series of days of good weather, and regular variations in temperature. The necessary precautions being taken so that the bees could not reach the reservoirs of the thermometers, I took for each hive three, precision and comparable thermometers. The reservoir of thermometer No. 4 was placed exactly above the group of bees. Thermometer No. 2 had its reservoir at the same height, but outside the group of bees which was isolated by a metal mesh. Between this metal canvas and thermometer No. 2, one could place either a shelf or a partition board. Thermometer No. 3 was used to give the outside air temperature. »

“By successively alternating the partition board and the comb, I found that the average of all the temperatures for the first hive was 7°.86 with the partition board and 7°.88 with the comb. For the second hive, I found that the average temperature was 8°.44 with the partition board and 8°.46 with the comb. »

“It follows that the temperature in a hive, taken at the same point outside the group of bees, is identically the same whether there is a partition board, or whether it is replaced by a comb. »

“In another series of experiments and operating in the same way, except that I replaced a single ray by several and so on alternately, I again found approximately equal temperature averages for one ray or for several. »

“Other control experiments were carried out by replacing the group of bees with a regulator oven giving a constant temperature, and operating in the same way. »

“These experiments have shown that it is not to a difference in consumption of honey by the bees that the equality of temperature must be attributed. »

“All of these results therefore demonstrate the uselessness of using partition boards mainly in winter where their use condenses in the hive the humidity which is so harmful to bees during this time of year. This is why in many apiaries partition boards are no longer used either in winter or in summer. »

“The previous experiments also explain why a weak colony develops just as quickly in a hive containing many combs (which are all natural partition boards protecting the brood) as in a hive having only a small number of combs. »

IV

EXPERIMENTS ON THE USELESSNESS OF DOUBLE WALLS FOR HIVES

We often say: thousands of beekeepers have adopted this or that hive, this or that method, therefore this method and this hive are good. This is what one could say to recommend double-walled hives. This reasoning is absolutely false. For example, one could apply this inaccurate way of reasoning by saying that since the most ancient times, all beekeepers have been happy to use small hives; and yet everyone today agrees in recommending larger hives. This type of argument is therefore the negation of progress.

I sought to determine through precise experiments whether the double-walled hive, so much praised these days, was superior to the very simple one, more economical and very easy to build, whose walls are simply covered with mats.

Experience.

I had two hives built from northern fir, the best wood for this purpose. The capacity of these hives was strictly the same, as was the thickness of the walls. The first hive was surrounded by an envelope of fir wood 10 millimeters thick which thus formed a double-walled hive. The space between the walls was, as usual, filled with bales of oats.

The second hive simply had walls covered with mats.

The two hives had exactly the same total thickness, 7 centimeters.

On each hive, we nailed a floor and a ceiling of the same thickness.

In the middle of the ceilings, holes of the same diameter were drilled, each intended to accommodate a thermometer.

*** TABLE ***

With the help of these precision thermometers, we could easily evaluate the temperature with rigorous accuracy. A third thermometer similar to the previous ones indicated the ambient temperature (1).

(1) These thermometers came from the physics office of the Sorbonne in Paris and were made available to me by Mr. Bouty, professor of physics at the Sorbonne.

Among the series of experiments that I have carried out, I will only cite four, the others having given similar results.

In the first two experiments, the thermometers remained in the same situation, while in the next two we crossed the experiments by changing the thermometers, the thermometer placed outside the hives always remaining in the same initial situation.

The previous table indicates the temperatures taken at the same time in the room where the hives were placed after their exposure to the outside, and in each of the hives.

These numbers show that the double-walled hive and the hive lined with straw, whatever the circumstances which caused the temperature to vary, approach or move away from the external temperature in an almost strictly identical manner.

We can therefore conclude that for the same thickness, the wall of the hive lined with straw is as poor a conductor as the double-walled hive. If one objects that straw wears out quickly, I would simply point out that I have had hives with straw for 20 years and I am still waiting to replace it until the straw is worn out.

We must deduce from these experiences that hives should not be complicated and made more expensive by making them double-walled, which is completely useless.

V

EXPERIENCES ON HONEY PRESERVATION

There are beekeepers who extract honey from the combs using an extractor without waiting for the bees to have capped the honey; They claim that they thus obtain honey that is as good and keeps as well as the honey removed by those who wait to extract it until it is capped in the combs.

In exceptionally dry years, I have sometimes seen bees collect nectar which at that time already contained almost no water, and the bees could then seal it almost immediately; but this case is rare, and generally it takes some time for the heat of the hive to evaporate the excess water into vapor which the bees expel outside by active ventilation.

In any case, all practitioners recommend large hives, so that the bees can find the necessary space to store all the honey they can collect during the season. You can then wait until the honey is sealed and only harvest one harvest per year, if you wish.

At the beginning of September 1890, I carried out a comparative experiment concerning capped and uncapped honeys which proved that the former are infinitely superior to the latter.

During the harvest, I extracted the uncapped honey from a few combs, then after uncapping the cells of these same combs I extracted the honey again.

I filled 12 stoneware jars with lids that simply covered the jars with uncapped honey, and I also filled 4 glass jars with lids that closed tightly.

An equal quantity of capped honey was placed in the same conditions as the uncapped honey.

I noted the comparative condition of these honeys.

1° During September, the capped honey begins to become cloudy throughout the mass.

Uncapped honey only begins to cloud in the lower part of the vases.

2° During October, the capped honey is almost entirely taken in fine grains throughout the mass, the uncapped honey begins to crystallize in large grains at the bottom of the vases and less and less from the bottom until the upper part, which is still completely liquid.

3° In the month of January, the sealed honey is completely crystallized throughout the mass into very fine grains and the top of the jars is perfectly dry.

9/10 of the uncapped honey is crystallized in large grains and flakes interspersed with veins of still liquid honey throughout the mass. The top of the pots is covered with a light crystallized layer under which we find liquid, thin honey. By taking some of this honey with a spoon, we recognize that the liquid part contains large crystals of honey. In April, capped and uncapped honeys look the same.

In summary, it follows from the previous observations that the capped honey set quickly and could be sold as long-life honey; while uncapped honey never set completely and was not salable.

I add that during the summer, the uncapped honeys, placed in the stoneware pots, began to ferment, while the honeys extracted from the capped cells had not fermented.

If, however, the beekeeper is obliged, for whatever reason, to harvest his honey before the majority of the cells are capped; here is the method he must follow. The extracted honey will be poured into a large purifying vase, much higher than it is wide; the honey will be left there for several days, until all the particles of wax it may contain have risen to the surface of the liquid. In this state, the honey which contains the most water is on the surface, the majority of the honey will be drawn off through the lower tap; it is the one that will be good for sale; the surplus will be kept for home consumption or to make mead or vinegar.

The best pots for storing honey and its rapid crystallization are those made of stoneware or earth simply covered with lids. The most suitable place for storing honey and setting it quickly is a dry room with a constant flow of air. An attic is excellent for this purpose.

Some honeys sometimes remain for a long time without setting; they are often the finest and the best, like sainfoin honey. If you want to activate their crystallization, you must add a little old crystallized honey to the jars and mix everything together. Finally, I will add that honey often crystallizes more quickly in large vases than in small ones.

VI

ON CHOOSING A FRAME HIVE

I. — Comparison of common hives and framed lanes.

It has always been recognized that bees thrive very well in the large, common, bell-shaped hives that we find in our countryside; it is not rare, in fact, in honey-producing regions, to find them at the end of the season weighing 80 to 100 pounds. If the bees succeed so well in these hives, it is because they are the ones which most closely resemble the form taken by a natural swarm working in a free state.

In these hives, the combs are large, higher than they are wide, and without any break in continuity; it follows that the queen's clutches develop rapidly there in the spring, which hastens the exit of the swarms; during the winter, the honey reserve is located above the group of bees and on the sides, it follows that wintering takes place there in the best conditions. The only fault with these hives is that it is very difficult to collect the honey without killing the bees; moreover, the honey obtained by breaking the combs is always of inferior quality. It is for these reasons, and for many others that it would take too long to discuss here, that hives with mobile frames were invented where all the previous difficulties are overcome with ease.

We have built all kinds of hives, with frames, and every day we imagine new ones, very often less good than the old ones.

For a frame hive to be good, it must above all possess all the qualities of large ordinary hives and we will then be sure that the bees will prosper there as well.

The rays must therefore be large, offer no solution of continuity, and be higher than wide, but in practice, it has been recognized that the square frame, provided it is sufficiently large, also gives good results. Furthermore, hives must only contain one row of combs, as in ordinary hives, so that the bees are always found in a single group, as in their natural state.

The only frame hive which meets all these conditions at the same time is the horizontal hive with large frames, higher than wide or with square frames and which are arranged in the body of the hive in a single row.

II. — The capacity of the hives.

We have just demonstrated that hives with a single row of frames are the best, because they are the only ones where the bees work as in ordinary hives. Let us now seek by practice to determine their magnitude.

Beekeepers have come up with very ingenious calculations to determine the size to give to what we call the brood nest, that is to say the space necessary for the queen to develop all her fertility. Having found this capacity, they added the necessary space for harvesting honey.

In my opinion, all these ingenious calculations are useless and even harmful, because they lead us to believe in difficulties which do not exist when we simply refer to the laws of nature.

To know the capacity to give to a hive in honey country, I followed a different method; I simply compared the common hives of our countryside according to their capacity, and I gave preference to the capacity of those which produce the largest swarms.

In a remarkable beekeeping statistics from the Pyrénées-Orientales, a department which has more than 19,000 hives of all sizes - and where we find the weight of the swarms for each size of the hive, we note:

1° That hives of 30 to 35 liters produce swarms weighing 2 to 3 kilograms;

2° That hives of 40 to 60 liters produce swarms weighing 3 to 4 kilograms;

3° That hives of 80 to 150 liters produce swarms weighing 5 to 6 kilograms.

Now, all beekeepers agree in recognizing that the hives which provide the largest swarms are those which bring in the most honey; therefore, in all honey-producing regions, hives must have at least 80 liters.

Whether the hives have a capacity of 80 or 150 liters, the swarms will not weigh more than 5 or 6 kilograms, which proves that for the queens to be able to develop all their fertility, this capacity of 80 liters is sufficient in fairly honey-rich regions. ; but in those where the abundance of honey plants is exceptional in certain years, this capacity will no longer be sufficient to store all the honey that these large populations can harvest. We will then have to have hives of 100 to 150 liters.

The hives should not be found too large even if the combs are, at the end of the season, only two-thirds full of capped honey. We must not forget that, when bees collect nectar from flowers, they are obliged to temporarily spread it over a large area of comb in order to evaporate most of the water; the bees then carry the honey that has reached the desired point of concentration to the top of the combs. This comb surface devoid of honey and which seems lost therefore had its necessary role at the time of the honey flow; this unoccupied place at the end of the season must therefore exist in every good hive, and it would be a serious error to think that it proves that the hive is too large. Furthermore, it is known that bees overwinter poorly in hives that are too full of honey, because they are forced to overwinter on the parts of the combs that do not contain honey.

III. — Comparison of hives with horizontal and vertical frames.

All frame hives can be divided into two categories. In the first, all the frames are in a box in a single row; in the second, the frames are in several boxes superimposed on each other.

In the first category, the honey harvest is found in the combs placed on one side of the box; the opposite end is used by bees to raise the brood and to place their reserve harvest there.

In the second category, the bottom box, which is larger than the others, is used to raise the brood and to store the reserve honey for the winter. The upper boxes called supers and which are placed on the lower box at harvest time are used to store the honey that the beekeeper must harvest.

The first hives are called horizontal hives; the latter are called vertical hives or super hives.

Which of the two systems is preferable to adopt?

1° In vertical or super hives, the supers can only be placed at the time of the big harvest, because if the supers were added very early in the spring, the bottom box being uncovered to make it communicate with the super; all the heat from this box would be lost in the box placed above, which is a serious inconvenience in spring, a time which is often cold and during which the bees are obliged to develop a lot of heat to hatch the brood;

2° If, due to negligence or if one does not know how to seize the opportune moment to add the supers, one puts the supers too late, and when the big harvest has already begun, the beekeeper then loses a lot of honey, because the hive body is not large enough to contain all the honey that the bees can collect;

3° It happens quite often that the queens climb into the supers, and during the harvest, instead of honey, we find both honey and brood in the supers, which is a great inconvenience;

4° It sometimes happens, either in years with little honey production, or in regions poor in honey, that the top contains enough honey, and the bottom box too little. It would therefore be necessary, in the fall, to take honeycombs from the honeycomb and place them in the bottom box, in order to complete the winter provisions; However, this is impossible, since the frames of the boxes are not generally the same size as those of the lower body. The beekeeper is therefore obliged to sell the honey in order to obtain the money necessary to purchase sugar intended to feed his bees, a speculation that is the worst in all respects;

5° In honey years, second boxes must be added under the first ones when the latter are three-quarters full; but as not all the supers are full at the same time, constant monitoring of the apiary is necessary to successively place the supers;

6° If during the season, we wish to visit a colony, the work is long and complicated because of the supers placed on the hives;

7° Finally, it goes without saying that hives with supers do not lend themselves to the method described above where it is advantageous to have the bees build a certain number of combs.

All the previous disadvantages are eliminated using horizontal hives, in fact:

1° There is no danger of cooling the hive by enlarging the hive on the side, since the part occupied by the brood is not uncovered;

2° We can enlarge the hives in the spring, and all the hives at once, whatever their number of bees, which provides a great saving of time;

3° If the harvest is bad, the reserve honey is naturally placed by the bees above their group, and the beekeeper has no particular work to carry out;

4° We can, at all times of the year, easily visit the colonies, since there are never any boxes on the hives;

5° If you want to have the bees work in sections, you simply place them in the frames of the hive. But it is recognized that it is not advantageous for the beekeeper to make honey in sections, unless these sections are sold at a very high price.

In summary, hives with supers, despite the few advantages they can present, require a lot of work and beekeeping experience to be properly managed; while horizontal hives, to be well managed, require very little work and beekeeping experience. It is therefore this second hive which must be adopted by the mass of bee owners. As for the construction of the horizontal hive, it is easier and more economical than any other.

NOTE ON BREEDING AND HONEY PRODUCTION

In the same region there can be regions with high levels of honey production and others with very little honey production.

In a beautiful valley covered with natural meadows, sainfoin and trees of all kinds, with little work we can harvest a lot of honey in good years, and the bees will still find enough honey in bad years to collect their winter supply.

Not far from these favored regions, there are often others where honey-producing plants are rare. Here, the cultivation of bees must be entirely different, otherwise it will lead to cruel disappointments for the farmer. Instead of producing honey, we will have to multiply bees, that is to say, become breeders. In these regions, where honey is often of inferior quality, there will always be much more profit in selling a good straw hive of 40 to 50 liters capacity for 15 to 20 francs than trying to make a profit from any excess honey it produces.

As frame hives become more widely used, the beekeeper who wants to set up an apiary must necessarily purchase colonies.

On the other hand, if he seeks to harvest as much honey as possible, he sees his apiary diminish in number each year following the suppression of swarming; However, to replace the orphaned hives, it is in his best interest to obtain a few colonies. It will be better to buy them far from his apiary, so that new crosses prevent the breeds of bees from degenerating. Therefore, there will be no disadvantage if breeding countries find themselves far from production countries.

In summary: honey for rich countries; livestock for poor countries.

GEORGES DE LAYENS, in Louye (Eure}, by Dreux.

INTERNATIONAL BEEKEEPING JOURNAL

APPEARING EVERY MONTH

Editor-in-chief: Ed. BERTRAND

Administration M editorial in NYON (canton of Vaud), Switzerland.

This REVIEW, which has been published since 1878, publishes articles written by the most experienced beekeepers of all countries. There you will find all the information on the numerous advances that beekeeping makes every day. — Subscription price: 4 fr. 60 per year.

LARGE BEEKEEPING ESTABLISHMENT

OF

LUCIEN ROBERT FILS

IN ROSIÈRES (Somme)

SILVER MEDAL, AMIENS 1890. — SILVER MEDAL, LIÈGE 1891 GOLD MEDAL, PARIS 1891

VERMEIL MEDAL, MANTES 1891

Layens hive.

EXTRACT FROM THE GENERAL CATALOG OF 1892

Layens economical hive with 20 frames 31 x 37. Price 16 fr.

Economical Layens hive with 20 frames 33 x 33. Price 16 fr.

The same hive, for beekeepers who wish to make it themselves, can be supplied with the parts ready to nail, including the frames and the brochure consisting of 32 pages, 42 explanatory figures (Economic construction of frame hives by G . DE LAYENS), at the price of 12 fr. 75

WORKS BY M. DE LAYENS ON SALE AT L. ROBERT

Bee breeding using modern methods, crowned by the Société d'Acclimatation. Free by post 1 fr. 65

The Bees, first lessons for use in schools, crowned by the Société d'Acclimatation 0 fr. 25 Managing an isolated apiary 0 fr. 25

Economical construction of frame hives, with 42 explanatory figures 0 fr. 60

New practical beekeeping experiences, with figures in the test 0 fr 60

For embossed wax and all beekeeping instruments, see the General Catalog sent free on request.

PAUL DUPONT Bookstore; 4, file du Bouloi, Paris

ELEMENTS

OF THE

PHYSICAL AND NATURAL SCIENCES

FOR PRIMARY EDUCATION

ACCORDING TO THE NEW PROGRAMS OF JULY 27, 1882

BY MM.

GASTON BONNIER

Professor at Soibonne.

AD. SEIGNETTE

Director of the Journal des Teachers.

(Works adopted for the primary schools of the City of Paris)

Elementary course (First readings and first object lessons). 1 vol. in-12, with summaries, 120 wood engravings, 24th edition. Price, hit. 0 fr. 80

Medium course, 1 vol. in-12, with 250 figures, questionnaires, summaries, homework, experiments. 22nd edition. 1 fr 25

Higher course (Physics, Chemistry, Hygiene, Botany, Zoology and Geology). 1 vol. In-12, with 420 figures, etc. 26th edition 1 fr. 75

Twenty object lessons, fuels, metals, building materials, etc. 130 figures. New edition 1 fr. 25

SECONDARY EDUCATION

Works by Mr. Gaston BONNIER

Compliant with the new programs of 1891

(Recommended by the Ministry of Public Instruction.)

The new teaching of natural sciences in the elementary division. 5 volumes together 9 fr. 50

New object lessons (Part 1: Preparatory class), with 200 figures in the text. New edition 2 fr. 25

New object lessons (Part 2: Grade 8), with 220 figures in the text. New edition 2 fr. 25

Stones and grounds (7th grade), with 106 figures in the text. 20th edition entirely reprinted and expanded 2 fr. 25

Elements of zoology (6th grade of classical and modern teaching), with 364 figures. New edition 2 fr. 50

Elements of botany (Class 5 of Classical and Modern Teachings), with 403 figures, 14th edition 2 fr. 50

Elements of geology (5th grade). (In preparation for.)

Plant anatomy and physiology (Philosophy, First Modern Education and Elementary Mathematics classes). New edition 3 fr.

Animal anatomy and physiology (Philosophy Classes). (In press.)

FULL COURSE

OF NATURAL HISTORY

(ZOOLOGY, BOTANY, GEOLOGY)

BY

GASTON BONNIER

Professor at the Sorbonne

FOR THE USE OF CANDIDATES FOR THE HIGHER BERT, VARIOUS BACCALAUREATES, ETC.

Work written according to the new programs of 1891

WITH 767 FIGURES IN THE TEXT

Hardcover price: 4 francs

Paris. — Imp. PAUL DUPONT, 4, rue du Bouloi, (Cl.) 53.2.92