1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



629 



THE DOUBLE BROOD CHAMBER A FAILURE. 



costs much more than' the singi>e i5kood- 

 nest; winters no bktTer; the revers- 

 ing AND shake OUT FUNCTIONS. 



By B. Taylor. 



Dr. Miller, in Stray Straws, says: 



B.Taylor, after iuventiiig- and using for maoy 

 years the sectional brood-cliamber, takes away 

 one's breath by saying in Review that he prefers the 

 single brood-chamber. 



Now, doctor, if you should fail to recover 

 your breath 1 shall not consider myself respon- 

 sible for support of the widow, for you had no 

 real excuse for losing your breath; for, while I 

 have written approvingly of the divisible shal- 

 low brood-chamber as being very handy for 

 doing many things that I practice in raising 

 comb honey, such as contracting the brood- 

 nest to hive prime swarms in, yet I have in none 

 of my writings disparaged the larger full-brood 

 chambers. At length 1 came to the time, as I 

 have told in the June Review, when I had to 

 choose between them; and 1 had to decide in 

 favor of the larger full brood-chambers, upon 

 the ground of utility alone, and for the follow- 

 ing reasons. 1. The double brood-chambers 

 cost more to make. I have always sold a single 

 brood-chamber, such as I use, for fl.25, and 

 could not sell two sections of the shallow hive 

 for any thing like that sum, for each section 

 costs nearly as much to make as the larger full 

 hive. It is true, there is a little less material 

 in each section of the shallow hives; but in the 

 two sections there is at least 40 per cent more 

 material, and very nearly double the work. 

 There are 20 instead of 10 frames; two hive- 

 bodies instead of one, each costing in work and 

 material nearly as much as a single full hive. 

 Now, if I could have secured more honey, or 

 with less work with the double brood-chambers, 

 the increased cost of them could have been 

 borne without loss; but after thirty years' trial 

 I was compelled to know I could not. I at 

 length became aware that I had over-estimated 

 the double brood-chambers. Especially did 

 this become manifest in the last few years of 

 poor honey crops, when the struggle for bread 

 and butler became greater. I have no apology 

 to make for over estimating the double brood - 

 chambers. It was my baby, and I wanted it to 

 be the handsomest and best baby in the whole 

 world; but all parents know that our babies at 

 length grow up to mature age, and their faults 

 manifest themselves. We still love them; but 

 if we are ivise we see their weak points, and 

 can not love their faults. 



My double-brood-chaiuber baby grew up 

 with more faults than my less showy, fuU- 

 brood-chamber baby. I once believed the 

 double brood-chamber wintered bees better 

 than the full hive; but in the last few poor 

 seasons for honey I have lost heavily in bees 

 each spring, and the colonies in the double 



hives fared as badly as those in other hives. I 

 now know that it is the bees themselves that 

 make wintering (when proper rules are observ- 

 ed) safe. I have long observed that some sea- 

 sons bees wintered well in all styles of hives, 

 and with seemingly careless management. I 

 now believe I know the cause, ^ow, do not 

 understand me as denying that the double 

 brood-chamber has some good points; but Its 

 bad features overcome them. I have tested 

 the "shake-out " function, the reversible func- 

 tion, about which much has been claimed; and 

 I know that, for practical work, they are arrant 

 humbugs. 



In any hive we sometimes need to handle 

 single frames, for various reasons, which I need 

 not mention, as every bee-keeper understands 

 them; and for many years, when this work had 

 to be done in the double hives, I began the 

 work with uncomfortable feelings. With the 

 wire- end-frame handy hive all this work is 

 begun with a kind of joyful feeling, for you can 

 get into every part of the brood-chamber so 

 easily, without any poking or prying, and with 

 no tools but our unaided hands, that the work 

 becomes a pastime indeed. 



Readers of my writings will have noticed 

 that I practice the same system with these 

 hives that I do with the double brood-chamber. 

 I still hive prime swarms on six to eight hun- 

 dred .inches of comb space. I contract by using 

 two to four dummies made exactly the size and 

 shape of the brood-combs; and in my hive I can 

 do this work of contracting and enlarging 

 twice as easily as with any other hive in ex- 

 istence. In the fall we use these hives double, 

 but not as double brood-chambers. A queen- 

 excluding honey-board is used between, for we 

 have found that more bees can be raised on 

 1000 inches of comb, and have them ready for 

 field work when clover blooms, than in a larger 

 hive. 



I have now fully answered the question of 

 why I finally decided in favor of a single brood- 

 chamber, and have done it in no hostile spirit 

 toward any man or his interests, but have writ- 

 ten every line with a sincere desire to benefit 

 poor bee-keepers who are struggling to meet 

 life's demands. 



Forestville, Minn., July IG. 



[I do not know that I have any comment to 

 make, other than that I have not yet succeeded 

 in making the shake-out feature work, nor 

 have I seen any one do it with success. — Ed.] 



Our Crifnson=Clover Symposium. 



HOW TO RAISE IT AND HARVEST IT. 



Bij Arthur T. Oaldsborough. 



As you ask for points on crimson clover, I 

 write to say that I was one of the first men in 

 the country to grow it. For three or four years 

 people have driven by to see "Mr. Goldsbo- 



