18ii5 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



135 



or three years, commenced using 9 frames in my 

 eight-frame hive, in a space of 12 in., and the 

 number so used is increasing eacii year. It 

 gives some advantages that I will not describe 

 here, only to say it gives very nice combs; so 

 you may put me on record as favoring the 

 eight-frame hive with 1) frames in it, and with 

 the tieriug-up feature. Let me say, first and 

 last and all of the time, that, in an experience 

 of 3.T years, I have found my hive large enough 

 for every time and place. 



There are two principal points which I take 

 into consideration in deciding the proper size 

 for a hive: I want it large enough to hold suf- 

 ficient winter stores, and also to furnish about 

 the right capacity for brood for the average 

 queen — average, I say, for I have never been 

 able to have all of my colonies breed up uni- 

 formly. Some queens will outdo and go ahead 

 of the rest, w hile others will fall behind. It is 

 a prominent feature of my work in the bee- 

 yard during the early part of the season, when 

 the bees are building up rapidly, to equalize the 

 strong and weak colonies: and until I have all 

 of uniform strength in the yard, and all built 

 up to the full capacity of the hive. I think I 

 have no need of more room: and with all in 

 this condition I feel that I am well prepared for 

 the beginning of the honey-harvest. I do, 

 however, build up extra strong colonies some- 

 times by tiering up, which I will describe here- 

 after. 



For winter stores I would consider it poor 

 economy to have a hive larger than required, 

 when well filled, to carry the bees through, and 

 have the honey all cleaned out at the beginning 

 of the honey-harvest. I should rather feed a 

 little to bridge over than to furnish hive room, 

 and tug in and out of winter quarters a lot of 

 old stores that are worse than useless in the 

 hive. 



In the early days of my bee-keeping expe- 

 rience I used to buy bees in old box hives, and 

 transfer them to movable-frame hives. These 

 hives were of all shapes and sizes, and my work 

 upon them gave me an excellent opportunity of 

 observation, and I availed myself of this op- 

 portunity. Proper size of hives was one of the 

 things I had in mind, and I satisfied myself that 

 a brood-chamber of about :?000 cubic inches was 

 near right; and the experience of many years 

 since has confirmed that decision. In many of 

 the largest of the box hives that I transferred, 

 I found old stores that had been carried over 

 from year to year until it was thick and waxy. 

 I could not see how the colony could be benefit- 

 ed by this surplus of stores: and unless a knowl- 

 edge of the reserve gave them a sense of secu- 

 rity, I decided that such hives were too large. 

 When hives were so small that brood-rearing 

 had to be economized, I decided that these were 

 too small. 



LARGE SWAKMS FKOM BIG HIVES. 



There has been a great deal said from time lo 



time about large hives giving large swarms — 

 big booming swarms— and much heavy argu- 

 ment is brought forward to show the profit of 

 these large swarms, and consequently the ad- 

 vantage of large hives. Now. isn't it a fact 

 that the size of the swarm depends almost en- 

 tirely upon the queen. Would any queen pro- 

 duce any larger swarm in a large hive than a 

 small one, so long as she was not restricted in 

 laying and the bees were furnished room? I 

 think it is the laying capacity of the queen that 

 regulates the size of swarms almost entirely. 



Now about the economy of large swarms. 

 How large would it be economy to have swarms? 

 Of course, there is a limit beyond which it 

 would not pay to go. A large swarm costs just 

 as much per pound to raise as a small one; and 

 who can tell what is a big booming swarm — 

 how many pounds of bees? So far as I can re- 

 member, no one has thought to tell us just how 

 many pounds of bees there are in a big booming 

 swarm that issues from a big hive. 



If we had a big pile of bees, as we sometimes 

 do in the swarming season, when several 

 swarms go together, how many would it be 

 profitable to put together in a hive in dividing 

 them up? I have sometimes hived these big 

 abnormal colonies all in one hive, and given 

 them room, and watched them with expecta- 

 tion of wonderful results. To be sure, they 

 work very rapidly at first, and do more than an 

 ordinary colony; but they never come up to my 

 expectation. They soon become normal in size, 

 and never make a record that will compare 

 with the same amount of bees in two colonies. 



During the swarming season last year my 

 bees were in what I called very fair strength. 

 In order to know just what my swarms were, I 

 set them on the scales and weighed them be- 

 fore shaking them out of the basket. I found 

 them to weigh 7 to Tjo lbs., from single eight- 

 frame hives. I could never see much gained by 

 having swarms much larger than this. 



BUILDING UP COLONIES BY TIERING UP. 



I find no difficulty in getting brood reared in 

 two hives by tiering up. In fact, I had thought 

 that more brood could be secured by this meth- 

 od than any other I had ever tried. It involves 

 some extra labor, and requires plenty of stores, 

 unless honey is coming in. When a colony be- 

 comes strong, and needs more room, if a hive of 

 empty combs be placed on top oroverit. the 

 bees will soon occupy it. and the queen will not 

 be long in following. The empty combs, with 

 a strong force of workers, make the conditions 

 favorable for the queen to do her best, and she 

 will not be long in filling the combs with brood. 

 I do not expect the queen to continue laying in 

 both hives at the same time. I do expect, and 

 am not often disappointed, when the queen goes 

 above, that she will continue work in the upper 

 hive until it is full of brood; and unless honey 

 is coming in, the bees will remove a considera- 

 ble portion of the honey above also, thus leav- 



