62 EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OP THE 



The President. — We should like to hear from Mr., Pettit on the 

 subject. 



Mr. Pettit. — We use excluders entirely in our work and there 

 may be some kink in the management that we have not got to, to get 

 along without excluders, but we find the same ambitious disposition in 

 our queens that this gentleman here finds, the queen likes to get to the 

 top of the hive. 



Mr. Hinzel. — I find my queens go to the top of the hive, no mat- 

 ter how high. If I put the excluder on, they get up there some other 

 way. I guess I have a stubborn set of queens. 



Mr. Pettit. — I think Mr. Dadant has a point that I have not 

 heard him mention. I should like to hear from him on that. 



Mr. Dadant. — Mr. President, we began with the American hive, 

 but soon changed to the Quinby frame. The Quinby hive was originally 

 a hive of 8 frames, containing a little more room than the ten-frame 

 Langstroth. We later manufactured it for 11 frames, 10 frames and 

 a dummy. This has since been called the Dadant hive. The ten-frame 

 Jumbo is a copy of it, the only difference being that the Dadant is a 

 little over an inch longer than the Langstroth and 2 inches deeper, 

 while the Jumbo is of the same depth as the Dadant and of the same 

 length as the Langstroth. 



Now as to our comparative experience. We use supers six and 

 five-eighths inches deep and we rarely have the queens go into the 

 supers to lay, unless they seek drone cells and there are drone cells 'in 

 the supers. The reason why they stay below is that they have enough 

 room there to breed, even though we do not use excluders. 



We had never used Langstroth hives till I was requested to take 

 care of about 110 colonies in 10-frame Langstroth hives. I cared for 

 them ex&,ctly as I did for our hives, placing supers of the same size 

 upon them. In practically every case of strong colonies in Langstroth 

 hives, the queens went into the supers to lay, while those in our hives 

 remained in the brood chamber. Now can you tell me why they 

 should go into the supers of the Langstroth hives and not go into the 

 supers of the Dadant hives? I can see only one explanation and that 

 is that the 10-frame hive is too small for a profilic queen. If you»can 

 give me any other explanation, I should Hke to have it. A prolific 

 queen will fill more than a 10-frame Langstroth, therefore, when you 

 give her a super she goes up. After she starts going up, there is no 

 reason why she should not go up to the top. But if you have a suffi- 

 cient chamber and when the crop begins your queen has not moved 

 from that brood chamber and has had ample room, she is not apt to 

 seek for the top cells. 



When the bees fill that top story with honey, this confines her 

 below, effectively. But, if there is no drone comb in that brood cham- 

 ber, she may seek for them above. In that case the bees often leave 

 empty any drone comb that may be in the upper story, for her use. Dr. 

 Miller called that fact to my attention. I had noticed it, but had not 

 understood why the bees left that comb empty, among full combs of 

 worker cells. So it is of great importance for us to have no drone 

 comb in the upper story if we wish to confine the queen below. 



