730 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Nov. 15 



A QUEEN-CELL IN TWO PARTS, CONSTRUCTED ENTIRELY OF WOOD. 



cells as far as the quality of the queens is 

 concerned; also, in the feeding of the larva> 

 by the bees I can see no difference. 



I believe the wooden cells are as much 

 ahead of cell cups as cell cups are ahead of 

 natural cells. 



Youngstown, Ohio. 



[Perhaps there would be no objection to 

 wooden cells made in two parts, as these are, 

 so far as the actual rearing of queens is con- 

 cerned, but it would seem to us that they 

 would be more expensive and no better than 

 cells built by the bees from cell cups and 

 then enclosed in wire queen-cell protectors 

 in the ordinary way. 



There is another point which may or may 

 not be important. The natural cell is at 

 first very shallow; and if it were best to have 

 a deep cell from the start, it would seem as 

 though the bees would m^ake them, this way. 

 —Ed.] 



EIGHT. TEN, TWELVE, OR 

 FRAMES— WHICH? 



SIXTEEN 



A Plea for a Two-story Light Frame Brood-nest. 



BY B. C. AIKEN. 



For some time I have noted with pleas- 

 ure that bee-keepers are finding out the val- 

 ue of large hives; and it has given me much 

 satisfaction, also, to note that the editor is 

 beginning to advocate them. I believe it is 

 a step in the right direction. I wish, how- 

 ever, to offer a warning against what seems 

 to me a mistake; and that is, a change of 

 hives to ten or twelve frame. I think there 

 is not the least necessity of discarding the 

 eight-frame hives for any other width; on 

 the contrary, to do so would be a serious 

 mistake. A hive using eight frames of 

 Langstroth length gives an abundance of 

 lateral space; but if such a hive could be 

 shortened, and the amount cut off added to 

 the width, making a body of equal length 

 and breadth, the horizontal shape and meas- 

 ure would, in my opinion, be more nearly 

 ideal. Then I think the height should be 

 doubled to the depth of two eight-frame 

 hives. So far as the bees are concerned, an 

 ideal hive would be one circular in form, 

 about 12 to 14 inches in diameter, and 2 ft. 

 high. Such a hive would conduce to the 

 best wintering and the most rapid building- 

 up in the spring; would give the greatest 



economy, and 

 would best pre- 

 serve the inter- 

 ests of a colony 

 jiut into it and 

 allowed to con- 

 tinue there un- 

 disturbed by man 

 from year to year, 

 just filling up and 

 swarming at the 

 wdll of the bees. 

 However, when it 

 comes to manip- 

 ulating a hive, the form that will more 

 nearly maintain and conserve these ideals, 

 and at the same time allow us to get sur- 

 plus in the best shape and quantity, must 

 be changed somewhat from the ideal brood- 

 chamber form. The Langstroth frame, if 

 shortened a little, would be preferable; yet 

 with a hive approximately 12 inches wide 

 and 18 inches long (most manufacturers put 

 out a hive about 12>^ by 18^), the change 

 is not radical from the ideal lateral capacity 

 throughout; though, as I said before, if we 

 could get a satisfactory super adjustment 

 I should prefer a brood-chamber measur- 

 ing about 12X12. 



I most heartily agree that the eight-frame 

 Langstroth hive is too small for best results. 

 I have arrived at this conclusion after thir- 

 ty years of experience, practicing on a large 

 scale, and most of the time with from two 

 to four kinds of hives in use throughout 

 nearly the whole period, both in Iowa and 

 in Colorado. I have myself devised many 

 styles and sizes of hives and various com- 

 binations; in fact, I have spent a life of 

 experimenting, and reading nearly all that 

 has been written on the subject of hives in 

 the various journals and books. I have had 

 a very extended experience with both Lang- 

 stroth and American hives, the former be- 

 ing a long, narrow, shallow style, and the 

 latter almost square, and deeper than wide. 

 Then I have made and tried almost every 

 combination of both of these, including the 

 wide end-bar and close-fitting frames, deep 

 and shallow style, hanging and standing, 

 and also the divisible hives. 



The objection has been made to the divisi- 

 ble hives that queens will not lay freely when 

 going from one set of frames to another — 

 that they will startbrood laterally ratherthan 

 perpendicularly in the two sets of frames. 

 I certainly consider this a mistake, as there 

 need be no fear of queens refusing to pass 

 from one set to another if there is not all 

 the room wanted in the first set. INIy expe- 

 rience is, moreover, that bees will spread up 

 and down, especially down, through two 

 and three sets of combs, making a very high 

 and narrow brood-nest. This is just what 

 we would expect to be the case, and my ex- 

 perience proves it. If any one has had a 

 different experience I am inclined to think 

 it the result of lack of proper management 

 or manipulation. I am led to believe that 

 many apiarists, in using two hive-bodies for 

 a brood-chamber, putting one over the oth- 



