628 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15. 



adopt the Langstroth measurements. Aye, 

 there's the rub; and so long as the 4^4 section 

 continues to be the standard, just so long will 

 the shape of the Langstroth form of hive make 

 it so much better adapted to the successful use 

 of this section than any square or deep frame 

 hive. It will require better arguments than 

 have yet been produced to induce very many 

 practical honey-producers to change from the 

 L. to any square-frame hive. On the contrary, 

 I am firmly of the opinion that the tendency of 

 the times is in the opposite direction. I be- 

 lieve about all the advocates of the square hive 

 claim is that they winter better and build up 

 faster in the spring. While this is doubtless 

 true when run on the let-alone principle, as 

 many so-called bee-keepers manage their bees, 

 yet it is a demonstrated fact that, with proper 

 care and management, the L. hive will gener- 

 ally have its working force ready for the har- 

 vest when it comes, and that is all that is 

 necessary. Too large a swarm in early spring 

 is not desirable, and never does as well when 

 the harvest comes. 



I believe the majority of bee-keepers, like 

 friend Dayton, have found out that the L. hive 

 form is best adapted to the use of the standard 

 section; yet is there not room for more im- 

 provement in the same direction? or, in other 

 words, is there not some system of management 

 that will preserve the form of the L. hive for 

 surplus, and yet give us more perfect control of 

 our bees, and thereby enable us to secure some- 

 thing of a crop of surplus, even in poor seasons 

 which seem to be so common with most of usV 

 Has not this need been supplied by the advent 

 of 3the horizontally divisible brood-chamber 

 hive? 



While there are locations so good that almost 

 any kind of hive will give a fair crop of surplus, 

 yet there are very many locations so poor that 

 it is only by the very best system of manage- 

 ment, and strictest attention to every detail 

 connected with the business, that any ining 

 like a decent crop of honey can be secured. In 

 such a location as this it has been my lot to be 

 placed as a honey-producer, and for several 

 years as a specialist, depending on the produc- 

 tion of honey for food and clothing for wife 

 and the liitle ones, and therefore I must have 

 a hive and system that will give me perfect 

 control of my bees at all times — one that will 

 give me all the white honey where I want it, 

 and that is in the sections. I have never in- 

 vented a hive, but have carefully tested every 

 hive of any note that has come before the pub- 

 lic for the past twenty years; and the divisible- 

 brood-chamber hive is the only one that has . 

 ever given me perfect control of my bees. With 

 this hive and clipped queens I am not only a 

 bee-keeper, but am master of the situation, and 

 can say to mv bees, " Thus far shalt thou go, 

 and no farther." 



I will not take the space to explain the sys- 



tem of management necessary to the successful 

 operation of this hive, as it has been given to 

 the public by Mr. Heddon and others, and is 

 familiar to all careful readers of Gleanixgs. 

 Of course, friend Mclntyre or any oqe else 

 would make a failure in trying to use this sys- 

 tem with a frame 7 inches deep and 10 frames 

 to the hive at that. The frame I use is 43^ xl7 

 inches inside; and any brood-case can be used 

 as a wide-frame super by simply providing the 

 frames. With this depth of frame and proper 

 bee-spaces between the cases I4 inch, and top 

 and bottom bars ff inch, I have no trouble 

 about the queens passing from one section tp 

 the other; and my bees will remove the honey 

 from the lower case as soon as they are inter- 

 changed, every time. 



Friend Root, you say that Dr. Miller, after 

 experimenting with the shallow extracting - 

 chambers, arrived at the same conclusions as 

 friends Mclntyre and Holley. I notice by your 

 catalog the top-bars of your shallow frames are 

 l.^B inches wide. Perhaps this had something 

 to do with the doctor's failure with them. 



I am not in any way interested in booming 

 any hive or system, but have only tried to give 

 to the readers of Gleanings the result of my 

 experience along the line of hives; and if it 

 will help some brother bee-keeper to increase 

 his yields of surplus, and by so doing be the 

 better able to provide for those dependent upon 

 him for support, I shall be amply rewarded, 

 and shall be only too happy to give something 

 in return for the many helpful instructions I 

 have received through the pages of Gleanings. 

 It is useless to add that the honor of bringing 

 this system to public notice belongs to James 

 Heddon; and whether ills patent is valid or 

 not, I believe his rights will be respected by all 

 honest bee-keepers. 



Wakeman, O., July 20. 



[The columns of Gleanings are open to fair 

 and impartial testimony of this kind. The top- 

 bars that Dr. Miller used were, I think, 1^ in. 

 wide. Possibly this may account for the fact 

 that queens did not breed properly in the two 

 sections of the hive at the same time. What 

 he had was extracting-supers and not brood- 

 chambers. 



Since this came to hand we have received 

 the following from O. R. Coe. quite an extensive 

 bee-keeper in the Catskill Mountains.— Ed.] 



nl have over 700 half-story hives, and do not 

 propose to make or use any other style of hive 

 than the divisible brood-chamber, but have not 

 time now to tell why I like it better than any 

 other hive. 



Honey is a total failure up to this time 

 Bees are in a starving condition except as I 

 feed them where there was not honey left over 

 from wintering. O. R. Coe. 



Windham, N. Y. 



[Here is an article equally fair and unpreju- 

 diced, on the "other side."] 



