64 



SEVEXTEEXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



T have not. I havp had another pleasant 

 summer with the bees and got nearly 2,000 

 pounds of honey from 15 colonies, spring 

 count, 1,500 extracted and 500 pounds of 

 comb. My best colony gave me nearly 

 400 pounds of extracted honey. I had only 

 three swarms and they all went back. 



How did I do it? By folio ning your 

 wise suggestion, of wider spacing of frames, 

 with plenty of ventilation and abundance 

 of super room. 



To get wider spacing — mine being all 

 10-frame Hoffman-frame hives, spaced 

 1 3-8^1 just pulled out one and divided 

 the room between the others. I wonder 

 whether I can succeed again. But I feel 

 very grateful to you and the Journal for 

 the advice you gave me. 



C. H. Crofut. 



This man is not the first man to use the 

 method of keeping one frame out of the 

 10-frame hive. It has been tried before. 

 I belieive that, as a rule, those who have 

 tried it may not have been displeased with 

 the results. However, the use of only 9 

 frames in a hive gives just that many less 

 cells for the queen to laj'. But nowadays, 

 when so many beekeepers are recognizing 

 the necessity of large brood chambers for 

 the breeding season, there is a tendency 

 to use two stories for breeding, especially 

 when extracted honey is in prospect. So 

 the standard hives, as manufactured, do 

 not need to be discarded by the man who 

 wishes to try wide spacing. 



Not a few words as to the greater number 

 of bees required in spring to keep the brood 

 warm, when wide spacing is used. I do 

 not wish to minimize this requirement. But 

 my experience, with very large hives, indi- 

 cates to me that powerful colonies that have 

 had the benefit of the wide spacing during 

 the season, have avoided swarming, have 

 placed more honey in the center of the 

 brood chamber and have been in better 

 condition to winter. Thej' are, therefore, 

 usually, enough stronger in the spring to 

 be able to take care of the brood, in spite 

 of the additional space, and reach honey 

 season in better condition than the col- 

 onies with the narrow spacing. 



One more word. While I believe I find 

 3. points of advantage in the wide spacing of 

 frames as follows: More honey in the 

 center for winter; more room for bees to 

 cluster in the same space and a less tend- 

 ency to swarm; yet I do not wish to be 

 understood as holding this point as infal- 

 lible in reducing swarming. A number of 

 other conditions have to prevail, in order 

 to avoid swarming and the spacing of 

 frames is only one of them. 



In giving you these arguments, I do not 

 wish to set myself up as a teacher, or to 

 claim infallibility. In fact I must insist 

 upon the statement that the principal 

 advantage of wide spacing, swarm pre- 

 vention, was entirely overlooked by us 

 until J\fr. Latham incidentally mentioned 

 it. But it explained to me one of the 

 reasons of our greater pucccss in this 

 direction. 



The older I get, the more I perceive 

 that what we know is but a grain of sand 

 on the shores of the ocean of the unknown. 

 Or, as Josh Billings remarked: "What's 

 the use of knowing so much, when half of 

 what we know ain't so?" I never attend 

 a bee-keepers meeting without recogniz- 

 ing the truth of that joke; for many things 

 which I thought I knew prove to be false- 

 hoods. When I think I have some wonder- 

 ful discoverj^ to disclose. I find some 

 stranger who discovered it long before I 

 did. 



The only thing one can do, in addressing 

 a convention of specialists, is to call their 

 attention to some particular subject in the 

 hope that they may discuss it and sift the 

 arguments on both sides thoroughly. The 

 greatness of America comes from the im- 

 partial way in which every one is given a 

 hearing and the best methods are selected 

 without regard to routine, former custom, 

 or the source of the information, provided 

 it contains useful points. It is the amal- 

 gamation of dozens of races of men united 

 under one flag and seeking progress with- 

 out restrictions that is producing the hardy 

 nation that we have been in the past and 

 that we hope to remain. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Root — One of the prime reasons 

 why I came to this convention was to hear 

 thatt paper. I will tell you why I am 

 interested. We have two automatic ma- 

 chine.: that turn out 180,000 frames a day 

 and the spacing of the end bars at the 

 present time is 1 3-8 inches. I will quote 

 what Dr. Miller said when we discussed 

 this question. He said, "I am kind of 

 afraid those miserable Frenchmen are 

 right." You all know Dr. Miller, I think 

 there is no ©ne in the woild that he thinks 

 more of than the Dadants, but that is his 

 way. He would say the same thing of me. 

 Well, I am afraid Dadant is right when it 

 comes to the spacing. Now, then, these 

 frames are going out, 180,000 a day and 

 if many are going to adopt these ideas, I 

 wonder what is going to happen. I went to 

 see Mr. Allen Latham and I said to him, 



