1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



603 



if I could find the proof that such was best. 

 Now, I haVe learned by experience ttat extra- 

 large swarms are not always the most profita- 

 ble. Such, as a rule, are the ones that give 

 trouble by deserting their hives, after being 

 hived, and that whether they are hived in large 

 or small hives; and I also know that they do 

 not always make the most surplus, even when 

 they work contentedly; yet I like fairly large 

 prime swarms; and a^ the large-hive brethren 

 are always talking and writing about the ad- 

 vantage that their large hives give in sending 

 out larger swarms, I concluded to try some 

 careful experiments in that line. So last spring 

 I put out some ten swarms in hives containing 

 ten combs ]3 inches long inside the frame, 63^ 

 inches deep, 80 inches in each comb, or 800 in 

 the hive. As many more contained 1000 inches 

 in the hive, while 3.5 contained 1600 inches each. 

 All the hives contained colonies of nearly equal 

 strength, but with a little advantage in favor 

 of the large hives. All of these had abundant 

 natural stores, and were treated in other re- 

 spects as nearly alike as possible. The 1000- 

 inch hives produced the first swarms, closely 

 followed by the smallest ones. Some of the 

 large hives swarmed reasonably early ; and 

 where they did, the swarms were in no case ex- 

 tra large, but in some cases smaller than those 

 from the smallest hives. 



I had said nothing to my son, who, in most 

 cases, put the swarms into the catchers; but he 

 very soon came to me and said that some of the 

 very largest swarms were coming from the 

 smallest hives. Two years ago I told in the 

 Review how I had produced the second largest 

 amount of comb honey [ ever raised from a sin- 

 gle colony (2.50 lbs.), all the bees of which were 

 raised in one of those little 800-inch hives. That 

 hive swarmed rather late in the season, but the 

 queen did not follow. The swarm returned, and 

 did not come out again, and this queen had 

 been marked for destruction the previous fall 

 on account of seeming inferiority that season. 



The swarms I have mentioned as coming first 

 came just as or a little before the white and al- 

 sike clover bloomed here, and have made what 

 white honey I shall get this year. Near the 

 close of the clover season most of the large 

 hives swarmed, and the swarms were very 

 large — much larger than any from either large 

 or small hives that swarmed early, and some of 

 them cast second swarms of great size. 



Now, friends, these large hives had made no 

 section honey worth mentioning, previous to 

 swarming — not nearly so much as the smaller 

 ones; and need I point to the fact that these 

 great swarms came after the battle for this 

 year was over? and unless the fall differs from 

 those of 1893 and 1894, tliey will prove worthless. 

 If there is a good fall flow of nectar, which 

 seems promising now. they may partly redeem 

 themselves ; but the swarms that have made 



considerable white will share equally in the 

 benefits of a fall How. 



I always read Mr. C. W. Dayton's articles 

 with interest, whether I agree with him or not. 

 Bro. Dayton is both a thinker and experiment- 

 er, and always has some demonstration to back 

 his opinions. I am not surprised that he has 

 come to the same conclusions in regard to hives, 

 nearly, as myself. He has been at work. 



I remember that, at the national meeting at 

 Chicago, in 1893, a vote was taken, both for and 

 against double brood -chambers. Some fifty 

 votes were cast. Nine-tenths of them condemn- 

 ed such hives. Tliose who had tried such hives 

 were then asked to stand up. Some four or five 

 arose ; the other forty or more had nothing but 

 prejudice and lack of knowledge upon which to 

 base an opinion. Thus we go blindly through 

 life, condemning those who have searched for 

 truth, and in religion and politics, honestly be- 

 lieving that things that are right are wrong, 

 and that things that are wrong are right. Let 

 us prove things by investigation, and hold fast 

 to the things that prove true. 



Forestville, Minn. 



[Since the above was in type, Mr. Taylor has 

 sent us the following by way of explanation of 

 a few points. — Ed.] 



Editor Gleanings :—l wrote you an article a 

 day or two ago, on the effect that the large 

 hives have on the size of swarms. There was 

 one point I ought to have mentioned in that ar- 

 ticle; viz., the quality of brood-combs. I have 

 eiglit hives of the Langstroth ten-frame size 

 that I took of a friend last spring. An exami- 

 nation of them has led me to make that expla- 

 nation. Now, as a part of my last article, these 

 Langstroth hives contain nearly twice as many 

 inches of brood-combs as my smallest hives 

 mentioned in that article. The combs had been 

 built on wide strips of foundation. The conse- 

 quence was, some frames were filled nearly sol- 

 id full with drone comb, and there is scarcely a 

 frame but has some drone comb in it. The con- 

 sequence is, my 800 inches of comb in the small 

 hives has more worker comb than one of these 

 big ten-frame hives. Let it be borne in mind 

 that all the hives mentioned in the experiment 

 were solid full of worker comb. I have fifty 

 hives now in the apiary that have not enough 

 drone comb in them all to fill a single frame. 

 The combs were built on worker foundation, in 

 frames with horizontal wires, so that all sag- 

 ging was prevented, and all bee-spaces are not 

 over li in.; so there is no place for drone comb 

 in them. I have examined hives in which I 

 could not find a single drone-cell. This is the 

 best drone-trap ever invented: Raise no drones 

 to trap. I have heard it suggested that such 

 colonies would not swarm ; but it is all theory 

 and no fact, like many cherished notions in all 

 trades 25 years ago. In the afternoons the 

 drones would fly from the hives, with a roar like 



