314 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15. 



right on the hive when the swarm is run in; 

 but should you fill the sections with foundation, 

 and use only starters in the brood-frames the 

 queen would be likely to go into the sections to 

 deposit her first eggs unless a queen-excluder 

 were used, in which case she could not get into 

 the sections, no matter how the hive was ar- 

 ranged below. With nothing but starters in 

 the brood-frames, and no queen-excluder used, 

 then it is best to wait about putting on sections 

 till the queen has commenced laying in the 

 new comb built below, when the sections can 

 be put on without fear of brood in them. The 

 plan I consider the best, and the one I use more 

 largely than any other, is, to contract the 

 brood-chamber to two-thirds its usual size, us- 

 ing only frames having starters in them of 

 foundation about half an inch wide, on too of 

 which is placed a queen excluding honey- 

 board. The new hive thus prepared is set on 

 the stand of the parent colony while the swarm 

 is out. and the sections from the removed hive 

 placed over the qUeen-excluder on the new, 

 when the swarm is hived in this new hive on 

 the old stand, when the old or parent colony is 

 placed at some distance away on a new stand 

 Vhich we wish it to occupy. In this way work 

 does not stop in the sections at all, and we. as a 

 rule, get the frames in the contracted brood- 

 chamber filled with nice straight worker combs, 

 at a less cost to us than the purchasing of 

 foundation and fitting it into wired frames. 



THE DIVISIBLE-BROOD-CHAMBER HIVE. 



By Homy Producer. 



is to obtain his product at the least cost possi- 

 ble. Where this is accomplished, his hive will 

 be so constructed, and its manipulation such 

 that he applies the principles of bis art to each 

 individual colony, 1, with the greatest effective- 

 ness; and, 2, with the least expenditure of labor. 

 However, be our hive construction and manip- 

 ulation never so good, we can not force the 

 productiveness of any colony beyond the limit 

 of its ability, nor, on the other hand, lessen the 

 labor of manipulation beyond the point of 

 profitable efPectiveness. We see, therefore, that, 

 in order to be the most effective, these two ele- 

 ments must be made as weighty as possible, and 

 so adjusted in our hive that it will exactly bal- 

 ance upon its fulcrum, honey-production. 



It must also be remembered that the natural 

 principles which govern tha developraentof the 

 honey gathering and storing instinct of our 

 bees can not be changed, but that the methods 

 of applying them can, and that they either 

 hinder or help the effectiveness of these prin- 

 ciples. That the sectional hive and system, 

 from which we can not with justice separate 

 the name of James Heddon, lis inventor and 

 patentee, requires, in practically applying prin- 

 ciples, the least known amount of labor, does 

 not seem to have been generally disputed, ex- 

 cept by some who, for some cause, have been 

 troubled with brace-combs between the sections; 

 but that it is also pre-eminently adapted to the 

 most cifecttue application of these same prin- 

 ciples to the colony it contains, and hence to 

 the securing of the greatest amount of honey 

 from each individual colony, is ignored by a 

 few. disputed by some, doubted by others, and 

 entirely overlooked by many. 



THE PRINCIPLES OF THE HEDDON HIVE SET 



FORTH BY AN ADMIRER OF 



HIS SYSTEM. 



In all the arts with which we have to do, there 

 are certain governing principles or laws peculiar 

 to each, with which we have to comply if we 

 wish to accomplish a certain definite result; 

 and, reasoning at least from analogy, honey - 

 production and hive-construction should be, and 

 are, no exception to the rule. However, as with 

 the farmer, so also with the bee-keeper, there 

 are climatic and other conditions or principles 

 over which he has no control, and which affect 

 the obtaining of the object he has in view, thus 

 giving varying results, no matter how correctly 

 and effectively he has applied those which he 

 can control. 



The honey-producer applies the principles of 

 his art largely through his hive, which fact 

 shows its important relation to the cost of his 

 product. Like other producers, his first object 



The cut is a good representation of this hive. 

 ^ is the stand, Iv the loose bottom-board and 

 two loose entrance-blocks; B and If are shallow 

 brood-cases, one or more of which are used for 

 a brood-chamber. Each is of five Langstroth- 

 frame comb capacity, and contains eight shal- 

 low combs in close-fitting end-frames, which 



