18VI5 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



45 



1,0 slip into a common wagon-box; and as I ex- 

 pected to haul them sometimes from place to 

 place I changed; and all that I made after the 

 lirst I made to use eight frames in a set, so that 

 is the way it happened that I am using eight 

 frames. I soon discovered that two sets of 

 eight frames did not give me comb roam enough; 

 so then, to have more comb room, 1 put on the 

 third story. In the honey-gathering season I 

 luse 24 combs. I think it is none too many. I 

 am still u^ing my nine-fiame hive with a third 

 story added— liT frames — and I don't think that 

 is too large. I have 140 colonies in my home 

 yard, and have combs enough to fill all three 

 stories high. For winter I take off the ihird 

 stories and pack them away in my comb-room. 

 I make sure that the second story is full of 

 .honey. I want at least a part of the lower 

 •combs to be empty when cold freezing weather 

 sets in; then the bees will cluster in the empty 

 combs just below tlie honey, and will woik up 

 as they eat the feed, no matter how cold the 

 weather is. I think there is at leas-l -000 lbs. of 

 honey now in my comb-room, that I took off 

 with those third stories, so the bees are in no 

 •danger of starving, as they had their second 

 story full in the fall. 



In the spring, in March or April, I look the 

 ibees over. If any are getting short of honey I 

 change their empty combs for full ones taken 

 from the honey-room. In the spring we work 

 to get all colonies strong; and as soon as the 

 two lower stories are full of bees we put on the 

 third stories and fill up with the combs from the 

 :Store-room — honey and all. We usually get 

 that on two or three weeks before we com- 

 mence to extract. By that time the combs will 

 •extract nicely. 



Mr. Hatch seems to think, in Gleanings for 

 •July 15, that, if a queen keeps eight frames full 

 •of brood, they are boomers. If I had a queen 

 that did not equal eight frames of brood during 

 the breeding-season, she is no queen for me. 

 With our L. frames we keep the lower story of 

 ■eight frames full of brood, and the surplus 

 brood-combs we make into new colonies. In 

 that way I made 45 new colonies this year, 

 1894, from 05 old ones, and every one of the new 

 ■ones were given eight good brood-combs — 360 

 brood -combs, or on an average of nearly four 

 combs from each queen, to keep the brood down 

 to eight combs; no natural swarming to speak 

 •of. We very seldom hive a natural swarm. 

 We don't have them to hive. When we are ex- 

 tracting we take all the honey we can get from 

 the two upper stories, and keep the brood be- 

 low. If I should find a brood-comb in the sec- 

 •ond story, and an empty one in the lower, I 

 would put the empty one up and the brood be- 

 low. Eight combs, kept at work breeding bees 

 for a three-story hive, will keep bees enough in 

 the hive to fill the two upper ones with honey, 

 in a good flow, once in a week; so they can be 

 •emptied once a week; and bees with me worked 



in that way don't swarm. I don't know but a 

 three-story ten-frame would give more honey to 

 the hive than the eight-frame. There would 

 be larger colonies, but you could not get as 

 much increase, as it would require ten brood- 

 combs in the lower tier to breed enough bees to 

 work the upper twenty honey-combs. This 

 brings me to another point— 



LIFTING HIVKS AND TOP STOHIEr^ FULL OF 

 IIONKY. 



I don't have to lift hives. No man can lift 

 my quadruple hives when full. Three stories 

 will weigh at least 400 lbs., and I think more. I 

 am getting too old and feeble to lift a top story 

 full of honey. I use a hand-cart at home, where 

 my L. hives are. For a few years past I have 

 run that yard myself, with the help of one and 

 sometimes two hired boys. My cart will hold 

 four carrying-boxes. The boxes are made with 

 bottoms, two sides, and back boards. The front 

 is left off. They will hold ten combs each, if 

 full. The combs hang on top of the end boards; 

 cleats are nailed on the outside of the end 

 boards to handle them by. When extracting I 

 till two boxes with empty combs; put them on 

 the cart, then either myself or boy runs the 

 cart alongside of one of my big hives, then 

 turns one half of the top chamber over on to 

 the other half. Now we can work two colonies 

 —pry up the honey-board of one, smoke the 

 bees down and brush off what few bees iheie 

 may be on them; hang the combs in the 

 empty boxes on the cart; when the third story 

 is empty, lift it off and set it down on the 

 ground, then smoke and take out the second 

 story; set and hang them in the other empty 

 box. Now lill up the hives with your empty 

 combs; put on the honey-board, wheel the cart 

 to the extracting-house, slide the full boxes off 

 on to a platform on a level with the cart. You 

 will not need to lift it. When they are extract- 

 ed, take them back to fill out the next one 

 worked. Why not use a bee-escape to get the 

 bees out of those combs'? Too much lifting to 

 put them on, and I don't think the bees can be 

 got out of the second or middle story any way, 

 with an escape, as there is very likely to be 

 some brood in it. It doesn't matter, however, as 

 I can take the combs out of the two upper 

 stories in five minutes, and no lifting except 

 taking the combs out one at a time. 



Now, Ernest, if you can not get along with 

 your out-apiaries run for extracting without so 

 much lifting, come here and let me give you a 

 few lessons. But let me tell you, if you run a 

 good-sized yard for extracted honey you will 

 want some help during the extracting season. 



This brings me to another point. When you 

 travel over the country I think sometimes you 

 go too fast. You would do better to take more 

 time. When you got to Platteville you put up 

 at the hotel, and came to our place after church 

 time, Sunday. I told you then that you deserv- 

 ed a whipping for not coming out the night be- 



