162 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1. 



at hand. These double hives contain 134,800 

 cells, while our large hive contains 99,000, or 

 25,800 less. Many of the cells, unoccupied with 

 brood, will be filled with honey that will have 

 to be extracted from frames containing brood, 

 in many cases. Very often the reduction of 

 such a large hive leaves the colony with too 

 little honey for winter; while with the large 

 brood-chamber we may be sure that we always 

 leave enough, and we dispense with the removal 

 of honey from the brood-combs. 



We have ascertained that spring honey 

 makes better winter feed than the darker hon- 

 ey of fall, and we are enabled to leave enough 

 of it in the brood-apartment, without any 

 manipulation, for the winter supply. With 

 shallow supers over a large brood -chamber, we 

 rarely get brood in the upper story, and have 

 no difificulty In removing the bees in using the 

 bee-escape, for ihe queen is usually where she 

 belongs— in the brood-chamber. The manipu- 

 lations for extracting are, th( refore, much sim- 

 plified. 



The bee-keepers who use small hives have to 

 use the queen-excluder when working for comb 

 honey, because the queen is short of room, and 

 lays wherever she can find space, without re- 

 gard to the color of the comb, in those beautiful 

 basswood sections which afterward give only a 

 second-grade honey. The qtieen-excluder in- 

 creases the expense and the work for the bee- 

 keeper, and the unpleasantness for the bees. 



Your double-story eight-frame hive is an un- 

 wieldy affair, too large when first doubled, and 

 too small when reduced by half; too high for 

 its width, and with too little room over it for 

 a big crop of honey, unless you tier it up to the 

 skies. With the large brood-chambers, all in 

 one story, our breeding-room is always ready; 

 the amount of honey left over is in proportion 

 to the size of the colony; the breeding is pushed 

 along uninterruptedly during spring, and the 

 surplus capacity is very large, owing to the 

 width of the hive. The most prolific queens 

 are easily ascertained, and may be used as 

 reproducers. As the colonies are all more pop- 

 ulous than with small hives, their capacity for 

 storing honey is larger, and their wintering is 

 better insured by their greater strength. 



Now, friends, if we have placed the matter 

 before you with too much "assurance," blame 

 but yourselves for it. We did not seek the dis- 

 cussion, but are always ready to take our own 

 part. 



Hamilton. 111. 



[I certainly did not intend to throw out a 

 taunt of any kind; but if what may be con- 

 strued as such has been the means of calling 

 out a valuable article that we otherwise should 

 not have received, I am glad it went in. 



Regarding the use of two eight-frames, one 

 on top of the other, versus a ten or twelve 

 frame all in one brood-nest. I must confess I 

 am gradually coming to the opinion, from the 

 testimony so far received, that 1(> frames, or 

 the double brood-nest, is too large; that the 



twelve- frame* capacity seems to be a maximum. 

 But I am not prepared yet to accept the state- 

 ment that this size is the best, all things con- 

 sidered, for all bee-keepers, although I am in- 

 clined to think it is about right for the Dadants. 

 If, then, we must have a large hive, the weight 

 of testimony seems to be so far in favor of not 

 more than twelve-frame capacity. Now re- 

 garding the egg-laying of queens: 



On page 138 of our last issue, Mr. Doolittle 

 seems to have almost anticipated an answer to 

 Mr. Dadant's statements. Among other things 

 he says: "With the large hive the bees are 

 quite likely to get the start of the queen, and 

 commence to store honey in the brood-combs 

 before entering the sections at all, and in such 

 a case the bees seem loth to go into the sec- 

 tions." During the poor years of late it has 

 been hard to get even an eight-frame brood- 

 nest so crowded as to force any surplus above. 

 Again, he says: "It is well to rememljer that 

 all queens are not equally prolific; and while 

 20 per cent of our queens would keep the brood- 

 chamber of a ten-frame Langstroth hive prop- 

 erly supplied with brood to give the best re- 

 sults in section honey, the other 80 per cent 

 would not be prolific enough to do so: and that, 

 because a queen m'ay lay GOno eggs daily by 

 using plenty of comb capacity and coaxing, 

 it does not necessarily follow that it is to the 

 best advantage of the apiarist to accommodate 

 or eveu coax the queen to bring her fullpst lay- 

 ing capacity to the front at any time." Further 

 on, he thinks that the qneeu should be rather 

 above the capacity of the brood-nest than 

 otherwise. From all his past experience he 

 believes that 2400 eggs would be a good maxi- 

 mum average. In the same number, Mr. 

 Boardman thinks it is not so much the large 

 hive as the laying capacity of the queen that 

 regulates the size of the colony. 



My own views are subject to revision, for I 

 can not, in the beginning of things, strike the 

 golden mean. I do not wish to appear to be 

 fickle, and jumping from one thing to another; 

 nor do I desire to stick to one idea year after 

 year, right or wrong, and try to bolster it up by 

 all sorts of arguments. I do not wish to be con- 

 strued as being strictly an advocate for an 

 eight-frame hive, nor for a ten-frame or twelve- 

 fiTame. In our catalog for this year we have 

 given our customers the option of any one of 

 the three sizes. We give them, as fairly as 

 possible, the advantages of each size, consider- 

 ing the matter of locality, so that each one may 

 decide for himself. If one is a beginner, and 

 does not know what he wants, we recommend 

 the eight-frame size, because the majority of 

 our customers have elected it in the past; and 

 because, too. when we were making the ten- 

 frame size onlv. the pressure got to be so great 

 that we not only admitted the eight-frame size 

 on an equal footine. but later on gave it the 

 foremost position.— Ed.] 



EXPLANATIONS AND ANSWERS. 



MISfONCEPTIONS CORREr'TKI). 



B.I/ C. A. Hatclu 



One of the perils and disadvantages of writ- 

 ing for the press is in being misunderstood and 

 misrepresented by those who hold opposite 

 opinions. I suppose one of the chief reasons 

 for this is the poverty of written language as 

 compared with spoken. In the written, all the 



* A twplve-frame Lanpstroth has about tlie same 

 capacity as the Dadant liive.— En.] 



