Bees Improving Themselves, Etc,
Written for the American Bee Journal
BY DR. E. GALLUP.
The second season after moving to Iowa, I had occasion to go to Postville on the stage. At Decorah we stopped for dinner, and to change horses. I saw a man in a back yard all bundled and tied up from head to foot. As I approached to see what was up, he ordered me away, saying that I would get stung to death, etc. But seeing that he was at work with bees, I still advanced, but he said very excitedly, “You foolish man! I tell you to keep away from here, or you will certainly get stung to death!” I remarked that bees very seldom stung a fool, etc.
On inquiry, I found that he was to receive $5.00 for destroying a very powerful colony that had been in a large hive for a number of years, had never swarmed, and had become so vicious and strong in numbers that it was dangerous to live in the neighborhood.
Here was the largest honey-bees that I ever saw, without an exception. They looked as though they were a cross between a common honey-bee and a bumble-bee—large, light-grey, hairy bees, with quite a flat and stubbed abdomen. Their wings were more like a drone than a worker, etc. The operator said that they were vicious Italians. One thing was certain, he went about the operation of destroying them in the most awkward manner possible.
Now, in this case, and all the cases that I mentioned last week, were where bees had improved themselves, especially in size of colonies, working qualities, etc. Thinking the matter over, and dreaming of large bees, large hives, large colonies, etc., for a long time, led me to get up the large twin hive that Mr. Doolittle mentions in one of his articles. My standard hive contained 12 Gallup frames. My first large hive contained 4 times 12, or 48 frames—24 in front, and 24 in the rear. The balance of large hives that I made contained 36 frames—18 in each end. By closing the passages between the two apartments, I could work two colonies in each hive, if my plan did not work to suit. But I never worked two in a hive.
My first and earliest natural swarm I hived in the largest hive, confined them to one end, and used a division-board. As soon as they commenced building drone-comb, I filled out with ready made worker-comb, and just before basswood bloom, opened the passage-ways, filled up with comb, and spread the brood one-half in one end and one-half in the other. The queen was from my Grimm-Hamlin stock, and extra prolific, and she spread herself grandly in the laying business. We had the best and longest basswood bloom that I ever saw, and I took from that hive, by extracting from one end one day and the other end the next day, 600 pounds of honey in 30 days—not by actual weight, but by measure. It was so thick and matured that it all candied in short order, that I took out that season. I took in all about 750 pounds for the season, besides what was left in the hive, and it was left completely full. This was all the product of the bees of one queen.
The following season none of my large colonies swarmed, but all superseded their queens. Their queen-cells were extra large, and contained extra-large queens, with the largest amount of royal jelly left in the cells that I had ever before observed. Now, you had better believe Gallup “hollowed” and swung his old hat! He had got a non-swarmer, a great honey-yielder, etc. You could hear him from Maine to California—through the American Bee Journal. In fact, they heard him in Germany.
But the third season the colonies in large hives were the first to cast swarms nearly 3 weeks earlier than those in my standard hives, and here was another dilemma. The swarms were so large that I had to pile up three standard hives on top of each other, in order to get the bees all in.