March, 1911. 



American Hee Journal 



because they were more or less dis- 

 torted, uneven, or pierced with holes. 



In the present days of comb founda- 

 tion, when we know that we can re- 

 place our old combs at small cost since 

 we can melt them up and have the 

 wax worked again into the proper 

 foundation, we will certainly hesitate 

 less. But I can not help remembering 

 the old days when I was less than 2m, 

 and my father sent me to the bee-keep- 

 ers of the vicinity to buy up old combs 

 of colonies that had died during the 

 winter. In most instances they were 

 given to me, so little did the old-time 

 bee-keepers know about the value of 

 them. Besides, they would say : " The 

 moth will destroy them before swarm- 

 ing-time, and it is a blunder to try to 

 save them." And they shrugged their 

 shoulders at our ignorance. But the 

 elder Dadant would smile. He always 

 had artificial increase from the previous 

 season that were not fully provided. He 

 would remove a comb of brood and 

 honey from one of his strongest colo- 

 nies, give this to one of the new hives, 

 and in its place insert a frame filled 

 with purchased combs adjusted with 

 wires by the old transferring method. 

 True, in these times of foul-brood ram- 

 pant over the land, such a course would 

 be a mistake. But at that date little 

 was seen of foul brood, and I may here 

 state that I did not see a case of foul 

 brood anywhere until 1903, when I took 

 a trip to the West. 



I do not believe that there is any dan- 

 ger in your old combs if you have 

 never had the disease in your apiary. 

 Of course, it wouW be an error to ad- 

 vise any one to buy old combs from 

 the outside. But let it not be feared to 

 court foul brood because the combs are 

 old. The only case in which I would 

 melt up old worker-combs that were 

 neither crooked nor defective would 

 be, if they were so dirty and thick that 

 the queen failed to lay eggs in them 

 during a good breeding season. This 

 ought to condemn them. If, however, 

 your bees have had foul brood, it is 

 best to preserve them unless you are 

 positive that they are immune. 



However, the real danger of foul 

 brood lies more in the honey than in 

 anything else, and we must by all 

 means avoid feeding honey the source 

 of which is not positively known to 

 us. Under ordinary circumstances, 

 when we must feed, it is best to give 

 sugar syrup to the bees. 



That worker-combs, if fit for breed- 

 ing, have great value does not admit of 

 a doubt. They cost honey, labor, and 

 time. But some people would have us 

 believe that the cost of comb is «//, be- 

 cause the wax is produced involun- 

 tarily, unknown to the bee, and must 

 be thrown away if not used as soon as 

 produced. They should add to this 

 that there is no production to speak of 

 if the bees are not compelled to remain 

 with their honey-sacs filled with honey 

 for a certain length of time — 24 hours 

 or more. 



In all my experience I have never 

 seen a positive waste of wax-pellets in 

 any quantity, except in one instance. 

 The combs of a hive had broken down 

 during the height of a honey-flow. The 

 bees had gathered all they could of the 

 running honey, and had clustered on 

 the outside, owing to the deplorable 



condition of the inside. It was in an 

 out-apiary, and when I came, two days 

 later, parcels of wax in large quantities 

 were lying about, and small knots of it 

 had been plastered in different spots 

 by the confused bees. In normal con- 

 ditions, if the bees can unload their 

 honey-sacs upon their return to the 

 hive, very little wax-production results 

 — not more than enough to lengthen 

 the combs as needed, and to seal them. 

 There is, to my mind, a perfect adapta- 

 bility to conditions, and Nature has 

 devised an arrangement which is better 

 than we could imagine. 



Concerning the value of combs or 

 foundation to the bees, I can not re- 

 frain from citing a practical European 

 apiarist — Ph. Baldensperger — who, in 

 the January number of L'Apiculteur, 

 of Paris, says, page 6 : 



" It does not seem possible that a thinking 

 beinsbe still able to doubt that a swarm 

 hived upon 20 frames supplied with wax be 

 not farther along than a swarm hived upon 

 26 empty frames; that the swarm provided 

 with work already done should be beaten, 

 or even caught up with, by the other with 

 nothing but empty space before it." 



Dr. Miller's opinions on old combs 

 are significant. Even though our 

 younger men may not hesitate to de- 

 stroy old combs to replace them with 

 new, owing to the comparatively small 

 cost nowadays, old and experienced 

 apiarists are certainly excusable for 

 continuing a practice which has been 

 one of the causes of their early suc- 

 cesses. 



Hamilton, 111. 



Wintering Bees in Protected 

 Hives. 



BY DR. A. F. BONNEY. 



This article is not for experienced 

 bee-keepers, unless they find something 

 in it to interest them, but for those who 

 keep a few colonies of bees — those who 

 would like to keep some — and that 



SE( TIONAI. DKAWING of A PROTECTED HiVE 



A— Brood-chamber, 



B— Super to be filled with chaff. 



C— Metal-roofed shallow cover. 



D— Super cover, or bee-escape board with 

 hole closed. 



KK-Water-table. 



KF— Chaff space between walls GgGe. 



GgGg— Inner and outer walls. 



H— Bottotn-board. 



This represents no particular hive, but 

 those having -M-inch outer walls w«j/ be 

 made moisture proof with paint, white lead 

 in the joint and rosin inside. 



larger army who once engaged in api- 

 culture but abandoned it on account of 

 the terrible winter losses. This is 

 where the average professional bee- 



keeper will smile in pitying derision. 

 The fact remains that of farmers alone 

 there are thousands who would now be 

 supplying themselves with honey were 

 it not for the fact they were sold single- 

 walled hives when they should have 

 been furnished those of the protected 

 pattern. 



Let me digress long enough to say 

 that I incline to the opinion that the 

 more people there are who keep bees, 

 the more honey there will be sold, for 

 there are many now who look on it as 

 an expensive luxury, and they have to 

 learn its food value. An annual output 

 of $2.5,000,000, while a large sum, is but 

 about 2.5 cents per capita consumption 

 of honey. However, while this matter 

 is not pertinent to this article, I think 

 increased production will result in in- 

 creased demand, for surely there is 

 room to increase. 



I have spent .5 years posting up on 

 protected hives, and for the benefit of 

 those who, like myself, can not have a 

 cellar — perhaps would not if they could 

 — and must economize time and 

 strength, I shall give the result of my 

 investigations, though I had not 

 thought to write when I took up the 

 study, my only idea being to find a 

 hive which while comparatively inex- 

 pensive and light would keep my bees 

 safely over winter. 



I \\as discouraged on all sides. I was 

 told that chafif hives are heavy and 

 bunglesome ; the bottoms are fast to 

 the body, the covers leak, they are out 

 of date and very expensive. I believed, 

 for the men who told me had nothing 

 to gain by my actions, but as my ex- 

 perience increased, as did my knowl- 

 edge, I found that these men were liv- 

 ing in the past. They had never seen 

 a modern chafif or protected hive, and, 

 I guess, there are those who will doubt 

 the statement that the protected hive as 

 now made will weigh but a little more 

 than the dovetailed hive using the same 

 size frame, and no heavier than some 

 I have seen made of yellow pine, sold 

 to the farmers by country stores. Had 

 they ever handled any other kind they 

 would not have bought them, for they 

 weigh like lead. 



The principal objection the editor of 

 one of the bee-papers had to the chaff 

 hive was that he should not like to use 

 it in the summer on account of its 

 weight, and in a recent answer in this 

 Journal, Dr. Miller states that the chafif 

 hive is heavy and expensive. Now both 

 these men, as well informed as they 

 are, evidently have not kept up with 

 the improvements in protected hives, 

 for they have been improved. Years 

 ago they were massive afi^airs, with 

 walls 4 inches apart, and that would 

 call for a water-table fully 6 inches 

 wide. I can not learn what the covers 

 were, but it is immaterial so long as 

 the body was practically immovable. I 

 have secured samples of all but one of 

 the protected hives made in this coun- 

 try, and find that the heaviest of these 

 weighs 17 pounds filled with frames, as 

 against 12 for a dovetail hive — a differ- 

 ence of only 5 pounds. The cost, 

 which, to the average farmer is more 

 material than weight, is $2.20 each in 

 lots of 10, and that is for body, frames, 

 bottom, super-cover, chaff-tray and 

 winter-cover. 

 The next hive in weight weighed 2^ 



