550 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15. 



of the receptacle at nearly the same time, and, 

 as a result, all sections will be completed ready 

 for removal about the same time, or ready to 

 raise up and insert an empty one between it 

 and the brood-chamber, which I do, as I have 

 practiced this for over 25 years, long before the 

 sectional box was used. If the surplus honey 

 is sealed at about the same time in all parts of 

 the case, the case can be removed promptly 

 when full, and present the neatest appearance 

 possible. The surplus will be a little whiter in 

 appearance where there is a little capped honey 

 under the top- bar than where that space is 

 taken by brood. With a small brood-nest it has 

 always been my experience that but little comb 

 honey can be secured, or that such will cast a 

 swarm before work has been well begun in the 

 boxes. 



With a large shallow brood-nest, work was 

 readily begun in the central part of the super, 

 and gradually pushed to the extreme parts; 

 but too much time elapsed ere the remote parts 

 were completed— so much so that the central 

 combs were badly soiled by travel of the bees 

 from the dark combs so near at hand in the 

 brood-nest. The same rule will hold when 

 tiering. With the hive I use, no honey-board 

 of any kind is needed for comb honey, as I have 

 not yet had the first queen to enter the i}4 sec- 

 tions. Four or five brood-frames can be moved 

 sidewise at a time if desired, as is the case with 

 closed-end frames, which is very convenient. 



One point I omitted in the proper place is 

 this: In the hive described above as my prefer- 

 ence, I will say that, in a good honey-flow, I 

 have often two or more supers well advanced 

 before the colony casts a swarm. With two 

 hives now in my yard, holding ten b»ood-frames 

 llMx8>^ inside measure, they have never had, 

 when they survived the winter, one case near 

 completion ere they sent out a swarm, invaria- 

 bly a small one, while the larger hives send out 

 swarms that count, if any. 



Economizing heat in a brood-chamber during 

 winter and spring, and where the stores should 

 be, I may write on in the future. 



I have taken Gleanings from the first. 



Milledgeville, 111., June 17. 



[We haven't heard from Doolittle on this hive 

 discussion yet; and as this article is somewhat 

 in his line o*" experience, we should like to hear 

 from him. In the mean time we received an- 

 other article from C. W. Dayton, also in the 

 same line. — Ed.] 



THE BEST CAPACITY AND SHAPE FOR BROOD- 

 CHAMBERS. 



BROOD -CHAMBERS OF VARIOUS SHAPES AND 



SIZES IN MANY LOCALITIES; A GOOD 



ARTICLE. 



By C. W. Dayton. 



In 1882, in my apiary were 120 brood-cham- 

 bers of 3466 cubic inches capacity, and contain- 



ing 16 Gallup frames, l\}4x\\li inches. The 

 inside measure of this hive was one foot in 

 depth and width, and 24 inches length. It was 

 designed to run the whole number of combs for 

 brood-rearing up to the honey-harvest, when 

 an upper story was to be added for extracting. 

 Or, where the colony was operated for comb 

 honey, the least-occupied combs were removed, 

 and the space filled with two-pound sections. 

 Such sections, being six inches square, four of 

 them exactly filled the end of the hive when 

 resting on the bottom-board. After three years' 

 use it was found that not more than half of the 

 colonies would become populous enough to re- 

 quire an upper story, and a large share of the 

 extracting was done from a single story. About 

 this time the ends of the hives were sawed off 

 to reduce the number of combs to twelve. After 

 a couple of seasons' use more, the brood-cham- 

 bers were decided to be still too large because 

 there were from three to six combs in the ends 

 which contained honey instead of brood. The 

 honey was wanted in the upper story. The 

 hives were sawed off again, reducing the num- 

 ber of combs to nine. Then the brood-chamber 

 contained 2088 cubic inches. I used that size of 

 brood-chamber several seasons following, with 

 perfect satisfaction so far as size of brood-cham- 

 ber was concerned. The lower story contained 

 brood in a compact form, and the super story 

 caught nearly all the honey whenever the 

 honey-flow was of any consequence. Yet it 

 was found that attention was needed to pro- 

 vide sufficient stores for winter. This was usu- 

 ally done by inserting full combs of honey re- 

 served for that purpose in extracting-time. By 

 thus providing winter stores it makes a little 

 more labor at the time of preparing the colo- 

 nies for winter, but this is far more than re- 

 gained by not being encumbered by unneces- 

 sary stores and combs in the hives in the busy 

 season. 



About one queen in 40 will appear to need 

 two stories for brood; but I believe that such 

 brood, if compactly disposed, might be all put 

 in the one story. 



In 1889 I began to look favorably upon the 

 production of comb honey in one-pound sec- 

 tions; and the measurements of the Gallup 

 hives were found exceedingly unsuitable for 

 the adoption of the standard section. I was 

 compelled to adopt the Langstroth measure- 

 ments. For three seasons I handled 40 colo- 

 nies, followed by one season with 250 colonies 

 on Langstroth frames in both eight and ten 

 frame hives. As a ten-frame colony is exam- 

 ined it would seem that the same amount of 

 brood could be contained in an eight-frame 

 hive; yet where a colony has been brought up 

 in an eight-frame hive it seems to possess less 

 available strength. The eight-frame colony 

 does not occupy the super in greater force than 

 does the ten. But when a ten-frame colony is 

 contracted down to eight there is an increase of 



