1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



347 



would scatter eggs like a laying worker un- 

 less she were somewhat cramped for egg- 

 laying room. 



The very fact that Mr. Latham, a progres- 

 sive bee-keeper, has not found laying work- 

 ers among his bees is not at all strange. He 

 ought not to find them. Most strains of 

 bees can be queenless a considerable length 

 of time without developing laying workers. 

 We will venture to say if he or any one should 

 attempt to produce them by making a hive 

 long queenless he would be disappointed. 

 He might succeed with the Eastern races. 

 It is very seldom that we have laying work- 

 ers in any of our yards; and when they do 

 show up we are sorry to confess it is in the 

 case of a yard that has been neglectetl. We 

 have, around Medina, in our various yards 

 anywhere from four hundred to six hundred 

 colonies. Among all these bees we do not 

 have a hive of laying workers once in three 

 years, notw ithstanding that some hives will 

 be long queenless some time in the spring 

 when the demand for queens is lieaN y and 

 it is too early to give cells or virgins; but 

 scrub queens from some insignificant cell 

 that escapes scrutiny are not uncommon. 

 Such queens make all kinds of trouble until 

 they are located and their heads pinched. 

 If Mr. Latham keepsonly a limited number 

 of colonies it would not be surjjrising if lie 

 should not find a case of laying workers in 

 thirty years. — Ed.] 



COMB AND EXTRACTING SUPERS ON THE 

 SAME HIVE. 



A Plan for Preventing Swarming, and Inducing 



the Bees to Enter Comb-honey Supers 



Readily. 



BY JAY SMITH. 



•ONE OF JAY smith's HIVES, SHOWING EXTRACTING 



COMBS AT THE SIDE OF THE SUPER, A LA 



TOWNSEND. 



The question is frequently asked, "What 

 is the best-sized hive for comb honey?" 

 The answer has usually been that the eight- 

 frame L. hive or the ten-frame Danzenbaker 

 is recognized as the proper size. Others 

 contend that these hives are too small for a 

 prolific queen to lay to her full capacity and 

 yet have room in the hi\'e for ten or fifteen 

 pounds of honey anil a frame of pollen 

 which are necessary for the best results. 

 Now, both of the above claims are entirely 

 correct; but it will be seen that, if the same 

 size of hive is used for brood-rearing and for 

 comb-honey production, you can not have 

 the advantages of both the large and small 

 hive. I wish to state here that the person 

 who uses one size of hive for both purposes 

 is not getting out of his bees what he 

 should. 



Some time ago I described in Gleanings 

 how I used two hive-bodies for brood-rear- 

 ing and then reduced to one for the honey- 

 flow. This system was good; and when it 

 came to getting a host of bees on deck at 

 the critical moment it worked 

 to perfection. But it had sev- 

 eral drawbacks wlien running 

 on a large scale. When it 

 came time to put on supers it 

 was a job to open hives and put 

 all brood in one body. And 

 then some of the hives I took 

 off had brood in them. This 

 had to be looked after. Then 

 a lot of the honey in these extra 

 Ijodies was unsealed honey. 

 This had to be put on a hive or 

 it would have soured. 



The system I have used for 

 two years back has all the ad- 

 vantages of the above, and none 

 of its disadvantages. Instead 

 of using two full hive-bodies I 

 use one Danzenbaker hive and 

 a shallow super filled with ex- 

 tracting-combs. When raising 

 brood before the honey-How 

 this super is on the hive, and 

 the queen has full sway, and 

 can lay in the hive-body or up- 

 stairs as her royal highness 

 wills. Now, the swarming sea- 

 son comes on just after the flow 

 starts; and unless one has plen- 

 ty of room for the queen to lay, 

 as well as room for honey, 

 swarming will be the result. 

 But leave this on shallow ex- 

 tracting-supers till the bees are 

 busy gathering, and then raise 

 it up and put the comb-honey 

 super on between the extract- 



