312 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May 15 



THE ESTABLISHMENT AND MAINTENANCE 

 OF A BROOD-CHAMBER. 



Eight vs. Twelve Frame Brood-chambers. 

 BY E. F. HOLTERMANN. 



1 have used the small and the large brood- 

 chamber, and I should, therefore, be able to 

 speak from an unprejudiced standjjoint. 

 This great and important question in bee- 

 keei)ing in the attitude of bee-keejiers toward 

 it reminds me of the "chamber of torture " 

 of ancient times, with the exception that, in 

 the former, there was no way of escape; in 

 the latter, there is left an open way of escape, 

 and they who remain in it do so of their 

 own will. 



In my estimation the small-brood-cham- 

 ber men are in the chamber of torture, the 

 walls of which are gradually but surely clos- 

 ing in. These walls are made up of public 

 opinion, and they are strengthened and re- 

 inforced day by day by recruits which come 

 by the way of escape "from the chamber it- 

 self as it is gradually crushing those who 

 still maintain the ground of adequacy of an 

 eight-frame Langstroth brood-chamber. 



Say what we will as year after year goes by, 

 the question of the size of brood-chamber be- 

 comes less and less a question. Ai)icultural 

 writings, the result of debate at conventions, 

 votes taken at conventions, an examination 

 of the apiaries and methods of progressive 

 bee-keepers, and the trend of orders from 

 supi^ly-dealers. all prove that the sweep with 

 accelerated force is toward the larger hive, 

 and those who advocate them can well in 

 l)atience await results. If one will look over 

 the writings upon this question in recent 

 times, in my oi)inion he will find that the 

 large-hive men have appealed to reason, 

 while in some instances the other side has 

 made statements in which ridiculehas had a 

 l)rominent i)art. For instance, .1. E. Hand. 

 Gleanings, i). 695, last year's volume, calls 

 the twelve-frame-hive men " honey-sling- 

 ers." Well. I have always tried to be a man 

 who thought in this world's matters for him- 

 self and did not shrink from standing alone 

 at the exi)ense of ridicule. They laugh best 

 who laugh last, and I have already enjoyed 

 many a broad smile in that way. 



As I stated at the recent Chicago conven- 

 tion of the National Association, so let me 

 say now, when we study apicultural catalogs 

 and literature, the number of combs in the 

 bottom story makes u]) the size of the hive, 

 and the number of combs of brood makes 

 the size of the brood-chamber. The P.nglish 

 language allows no other interpretation. If 

 the number of combs of brood in the hive 

 really makes the size of the brood-chamber, 

 the difference between a twelve-frame or 

 larger bottom story and the eight-frame bot- 

 tom story on the tiering-uj) system can best 



be illustrated by the following: In times of 

 intense heat, es))ecially in eastern countries, 

 one man has standing over liim a hireling 

 who laboriously, and by might of arm and 

 expense, sways back and forth a fan to cool 

 his heated brow, while his neighbor can turn 

 on. by means of a button, the electric cur- 

 rent which regularly, steadily, and at less 

 cost, runs a fan until his good jileasure wills 

 it otherwise. In the manii)ulation of the 

 small bottom story and the taking of brood 

 to the sujjcr we have a far more laborious 

 and expensive process, to say nothing of 

 more radical departures from normal lines. 

 To i^lace brood in an upper story, be it shal- 

 low or deep, entails greater exjjansion and 

 inconvenience to the bees in feeding thelar- 

 vie and maintaining the heat thereof than 

 that obtained by the adding of combs to the 

 lower story. Then, too, it is more normal, 

 and less of a break to tlie walk and ways of 

 a queen, to i)ass from the 8th to 9th and 9th 

 to 10th comb, and so on, than for tlie queen 

 to leave, as it were, tf rra firma and pass up 

 to the unexi^lored regions above. The very 

 fact that bee-keepers are found who argue 

 that the queen rarely goes out of the cham- 

 ber she is in, and therefore queen-excluders 

 need not be used, is an argument that it is 

 more natural for her to move sideicise from 

 comb to comb rather than pass from one 

 chamber to another. 



No matter what the assertions of all the 

 bee-keepers who ever wrote may be, I know 

 that which I have seen again and again, 

 and that which others have admitted to me, 

 that a queen, when she passes from one 

 chamber to another, does not return as read- 

 ily to the first as she would pass from one 

 comb to another in one brood-chamber. 

 Her inclination during the honey-flow is to 

 deposit the eggs in that position where the 

 brood will be as close as j)ossible to the hon- 

 ey above; and the result is that she loses 

 valuable time while being forced out of reg- 

 ular paths. Sidewise she readily passes from 

 comb to comb; but up or down she follows 

 the comb; and when she comes to the end 

 of that comb, either up or down, her journey 

 ceases, and she is not so ready to pass a jiiece 

 of wood, an emi)ty s])ace, and another piece 

 of wood to another comb. 



The large-hive men are wise 

 enough not to thwart bees in their 

 natural instincts any more than is 

 necessary to serve our purpose, and 

 therefore we place frames side by 

 side until we have twelve, rather 

 than form a brood-chamber, like 



the diagram, or double its capacity at one 

 jump by clai)ping one shallow chamber on 

 top of another. 



To be continued. 



