THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



47 



j'ou will be just about an extra case of 

 hone}' per colon}' ahead of what you 

 could have had by retaining- the old 

 queens on the old stands where they 

 could not possibly lay freely. A queen 

 cannot do much business brooding- in a 

 colony under section supers. 



APPLIANCES VKRSUS LABOR. 



You may object that this requires 

 extra hives. Well, not many; but, 

 what if it does ? I am sure the extra 

 room in the brood nest, when brooding- 

 up before the harvest, will give enough 

 more bees per colony to gather enough 

 more honey in one fair season to pay 

 for ever}' extra hive-body needed. 

 These extra bodies cost about 50 cents, 

 new, say a dollar, by the time they are 

 filled with comb; half a case of honey 

 will pay for it. Besides this you have 

 saved time, either your own or that of 

 hired help, because you have become 

 master and not servant to the bees. 



But, if you wish to use smaller brood 

 chambers in winter, and cellar the 

 bees, you can still make good use of 

 the extra bodies by putting them under 

 the ones cellared, doing this when 

 they begin to get strong. Have each 

 chamber so used, full of dry, or nearly 

 empty, comb. Always p\it this e.xtra 

 story under the colony. 



If you must draw brood and make 

 new colonies or nuclei to keep down 

 swarming before the flow, you need the 

 extras. The fact is, these extras are 

 almost a necessity. They are cheaper 

 by far than extra help, or even your 

 own labor. Labor is the most expen- 

 sive thing in our business. Put into 

 equipment in supplies, what you now 

 pay for labor when using old methods, 

 and, when done, you have your sup- 

 plies still as an asset; but if the money 

 goes into labor ''Wsgone. 



We must, so far as possible, get rid 

 of such work as constant watching for 

 cells, examination to find if a colony is 

 preparing to swarm, together with any 

 thing else that keeps one in a state of 

 anxiety and uncertainty. The bees 



must be fixed to stay fixed until we are 

 ready to return for more fixing. The 

 double brood chamber plan gives much 

 brood room beneath, and toward the 

 entrance, from present brood and 

 stores, which, in itself, is almost a 

 sure preventive of swarming before the 

 harvest flow; gives room for comfort- 

 able clustering, room for plenty of 

 feed-stores, or anything coming in, 

 makes easy the dividing for increase, 

 in fact, simplifies the whole business 

 at almost no cost whatever, for they 

 pay for themselves. I, therefore, rec- 

 ommend to those using 8-frame hives, 

 to have extra bodies, and, at all times 

 outside of the harvest-flow, to use them 

 double. By a thick dummy in each 

 chamber, they may be reduced to seven, 

 or even six, frames to the chamber. 

 And with any double or divisible 

 chamber hive, have zinc, slat, honey 

 boards to use when needed; they are a 

 great convenience and help. 



THE ADVANTAGE OF THE DIVISIBLE 

 BROOD CHAMBER. 



To users of the Heddon hive, or any 

 similar one, control of swarming and 

 making of increase and all the whole 

 business is made easier and simplified. 

 I will illustrate by telling how I use a 

 divisible chamber hive. Each cham- 

 ber is 5 '4 inches deep, 12 wide and 

 16 1-16 inches long, 8 frames to the 

 body. This hive used in two sections 

 gives 8-Iv-frame room and capacity; 3 

 of them gives 12, and 4 of them 16-L- 

 frame capacity. They are to be used 

 3 and 4 sections for a brood nest at all 

 times outside of the harvest flow, when 

 out-door wintering is followed. Never 

 use less than 2 in any case for full 

 colonies (one can be used for nuclei), 

 and, if for cellar wintering, 2 after the 

 honey flow starts, but 3 or 4 before it 

 if needed to give that room of empty 

 dry comb beneath the increasing brood 

 and store supply, to control swarming. 



In case a colony has, when the flow 

 is starting, the use of 3 of these brood 

 bodies, but has shown no tendency 



