16 



January, 1913. 



American Hee Journal 



but I stand in need of rest, and I look 

 forward to a change with happy antici- 

 pation, I don't expect to be idle dur- 

 ing my stay in Florida, for I will have 

 lots of writing to do aside from my 

 correspondence, as I expect to write 

 on extensive bee-culture, and cover a 

 broader field than any writer has ever 

 before covered. 



I have operated a large number of 

 apiaries for years, and during the past 

 season I ran the number up to 40, con- 

 sisting of over 2000 colonies. The 

 future seems much brighter to me than 

 the past, and I am looking forward to 

 vvrhere my apiaries may number nearly 

 100. I expect to write solely from the 

 standpoint of extensiveness. 



Chunk Honey— 8 or 10 Frame Hives 



"Mr. Wii.dek; — I think I would like to 

 produce chunk honey, for it appeals to me 

 as being the cheapest way to produce comb 

 honey. What size of hives do you use r" I 

 am thinking of changing from the 8 to the lo 

 frame hive. Do you think this would be 

 advisable?" J. Wade Dickson. 



Westminister. S. C. 



There is nothing like trying a thing 

 out and settling it for yourself. If you 

 run a part of your bees for chunk 

 honey and a part for comb honey in 

 sections, you could not go very far 

 wrong. But I believe that where these 

 two methods of producing honey are 

 tested side by side, the former will win ; 

 especially is this true where a bee- 

 keeper produces honey mostly for his 

 own use and the near-by market, be- 

 cause he can leave it on the hives and 

 remove it as he sells it. Then, too, it 

 is not so troublesome to produce, and 

 more of it can be produced by the 

 same number of colonies. 



But if comb honey is produced for a 

 distant market, section comb honey 

 would be the best. Comb honey in 1- 

 pcund sections is known on all the 

 markets. It will not granulate so soon 

 as chunk honey. In fact, it does not 

 granulate at all on our southern mar- 

 ket, and this is a very strong point in 

 its favor. 



Almost all of the honey produced in 

 the South granulates too early, or be- 

 fore it can be consumed, and usually a 

 lot of it is left over at the end of the 

 season. This, of course, is detrimental 

 to its sale. 



Now about the 8 or 10 frame hives. I 

 use the 8-frame hives, because a single 

 story furnishes sufficient brood-nest 

 for the bees in many of my apiaries, 

 where brood-rearing is never at a very 

 great pitch, owing to certain condi- 

 tions which always prevail. The 8- 

 frame single-story hive with a shallow 

 extracting super makes a more ideal 

 brood-nest, and one that can be ex- 

 amined better and quicker. Even if 

 the 10-frame hive gave a better brood- 

 nest, I could not get the first frame out 

 or the last one in as quickly. The hive 

 is just too small for so many frames, 

 and this reason alone would prohibit my 

 adopting it. No doubt in some locations, 

 especially where the main honey-flow 

 is short and heavy, and by the methods 

 of some bee-keepers, the 10-frame hive 

 is the best, but I doubt if it would be 

 advisable to change from one size of 

 hive to another, and in many cases it 

 would be too much of a "mix up " to 

 adopt both. 



[Friend Wilder's statement that the 



10-frame hive is "just too small for so 

 many frames," and that he cannot " get 

 the first frame out or the last one in as 

 quickly" with the 10-frame hive as with 

 the 8-frame does not appeal to us. 

 Properly made hives should have the 

 same space, pe>- frame, whether they 

 are 12-frame hives or 6-frame. His 

 lightning methods of handling bees, 

 and his bee-keeping by proxy may make 



the 8-frame hive more desirable to him 

 However, we would like to hear from 

 him whether he does not have more 

 swarms and smaller ones from the 8- 

 frame than from the 10-frame. We 

 have always considered the 10-frame 

 hive as scanty enough, and our expe- 

 rience is that a colony in a 10-frame 

 hive will fill its wide superas quickly 

 as the 8-frame super will be filled by 

 the colony in a smaller hive. — Editor.] 



Mr. Wilder .Amongst the Oranges, 



Conducted by J. L. Ever, Mt. Joy. Ontario. 



Alfred Pike's Record Crop 



" What is believed to be a record yield in 

 alsike clover in York county, and probably 

 in the Province of Ontario, has been grown 

 and harvested on the farm of Alfred Pike, 

 of Box Grove, in Markham township From 

 7J4 acres of land. Mr. Pike has thrashed 66}^ 

 bushels of uncleaned clover seed. This was 

 sold to a city firm at Sua bushel, or S731 for 

 the whole lot. or nearly 8100 an acre. The 

 average price of farm land in Markham 

 township does not reach that amount, and 

 the one crop would pay for the land and 

 leave a small margin over, Mr. Pike is a 

 successful farmer, but the yield and the 

 prices quoted will probably stand as a rec- 

 ord for some time." 



The gentleman referred to in this 

 clipping is well known to the writer, 

 and the facts given are beyond ques- 

 tion. Some few years ago, while we 

 were still on the farm, we thrashed lUO 

 bushels from 10 acres, but the price at 

 that time was about $ti.00 per bushel. 

 Yield and price combined, it certainly 

 looks like a record breaker, as it has 

 been a long time since alsike reached 

 $11 a bushel. One of my apiaries was 

 in reach of that field of alsike, and for 



some reason that yard gave me the 

 highest average of any this season. 

 Alsike certainly pays the farmer as 

 well as the bee-keeper, even if yields 

 and prices are not apt to be on a par 

 with the example under consideration. 



Experiences as a Foul Brood Inspector 



Mr. J. E. Crane, of Vermont, well 

 known to the fraternity all over the 

 continent, is writing for Gleanings in 

 Bee Culture some experiences encoun- 

 tered while acting as foul brood in- 

 spector in his State. Many of his 

 reminiscences are of a humorist na- 

 ture, and have to do with queer hives, 

 frames and fixtures. The writer of 

 these notes has traveled around on in- 

 spection work for four years, and met 

 with many experiences like those that 

 Mr. Crane tells about. 



When reading Mr. Crane's last arti- 

 cle, one of the best things that hap- 

 pened while I was at the work came to 



