694 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15. 



a waterfall; but now there is never heard that 

 death-knell of paying honey crops in our bee- 

 yard, in such a year as this. The conditions 

 existing in our apiary twenty years ago would 

 render any surplus impossible. I shall get some 

 surplus. So much for modern improvement. 

 Forestville, Minn., July 23. B. Taylok. 



[Heretofore the testimony has seemed to 

 show that there were more swarms with small 

 than large hives, but your experience seems to 

 be the other way. Has any one else had expe- 

 rience similar to Taylor's '?— Ed.] 



A TEN-FRAME HIVE AND A GOOD QUEEN. 



I am becoming interested in the hive ques- 

 tion, and will tell you the hive I want. It is 

 the one that has the best queen in it, and it 

 takes a ten-frame Simplicity hive to hold her 

 with three T supers on top ; but two are hold- 

 ing her this year. So far she has 46 sections 

 finished to date, and I run 20 ten-frame sim- 

 plicity hives of bees, and 37 eight-frame hives 

 of bees this year. Out of the 20 ten-frame 

 hives came 4 swarms ; 37 eight-frame hives cast 

 27 swarms. That's how they did this year with 

 me. What has become of G. M. Doolittle? 

 Have him wake up and tell us all about what 

 kind of hive to use. H. W. Vankikk. 



Washington, Pa., July 23. 



TEN-FRAMES AHEAD. 



I should like to add my mite to help out the 

 ten-frame hives. Let your arguments in 

 Gleanings go on a while, and we shall find 

 out that many have changed to the eight-frame 

 hive against their own pocketbook. I have al- 

 ways been afraid to leave the ten-frames, so 

 have kept half in each for five years. The tens 

 are always ahead. I have this spring 40 colo- 

 nies— 20 eight and 20 ten-frames. Seventeen of 

 the tens have ten frames below, and super with 

 from 10 to 25 Rs. in. and only 5 eight-frames 

 have the average 10 to 25 ttis., and are ready 

 for supers. The rest have no supers on yet. I 

 use half-depth extracting-supers at first. It is 

 very cold here at present. C. G. Nevius. 



Chiles, Kan., May 23. 



SHALL THE HIVE DISCUSSION CLOSE? 



I have read with so much interest the articles 

 on small vs. large hives that I am sorry to see 

 the argument close. I am a bee-keeper on only 

 a small scale, but I want to have the proper 

 size, as I expect to engage more extensively in 

 the bee business in the future. I believe the 

 location is the greatest problem to solve, so 

 that we can arrange the size according to it. 

 We know positively that, the more space we 

 have in the brood-chamber, the more bees it 

 will require to keep it warm; the more bees 

 you have, the more honey it takes to carry 

 them through the winter; hence you have it in 

 a nutshell. 



And now, Bro. Root, if you will allow me I 



should like to give you my experience with 

 three hives during this summer, and I will try 

 the same thing again another season if I live. 

 It is this: I took the three hives and placed 

 them side by side, and had the same kind of 

 bees in each hive. One hive contained nine 

 frames, one eight, and the other six. The eight 

 and six are thick top-bars, and the nine are Jo- 

 inch. I have not 1 lb. of surplus from the nine; 

 got 10 lbs. from the eight; and 20 lbs. from the 

 six; and to-day the six has 10 or 12 lbs. on, 

 while the others have none; so, now, which 

 hive can I chose for business '? 

 Blacklick, O., Aug. 15. D. N. Ritchey. 



A FEW FACTS AND FIGURES IN FAVOR OF THE 

 TEN-FRAME HIVE. 



Gleanings is a welcome visitor. I think 

 you might just as well give up the discussion, 

 because the location and honey-flows make all 

 the difference of opinion. I started with ten- 

 frame hives several years ago; then when they 

 made the strong claims for the eight-frame 

 hives, I put one-half in each, eight and ten 

 frames. With my location as to honey-flows, 

 my ten-frames store 2 lbs. to 1. Theeight-frame 

 hives and the eight have done all the swarm- 

 ing until this year, when the swarms all came 

 from the ten -frame hives. The cause was, the 

 ten-frames stored enough honey from fruit- 

 blooms to carry them through to the next 

 honey- flow, while the eight- frames nearly 

 starved. These are about the amounts that 

 they have stored this year so far : 



18 colonies, S- frames, 230 fts. comb. 300 lbs. ext. 

 20 colonies, 10 -frames, 400 lbs. comb. GOO lbs. ext. 

 Two best 10- frames stored 100 fts. each. 

 Two bests-frames stored 30 lbs. each. 



We always have a fall flow commencing the 

 20th of August. The prospects are the best in 

 four years. C. G. & W. V. Nevius. 



Chiles, Kan., July 22. 



[This is the first letter we have received in- 

 timatini»that the hive discussion had better be 

 discontinued ; but if we can get a few facts 

 such as are here given, it ought to go on a little 

 further yet. To have stopped it three months 

 ago would have left us but little wiser than 

 when we first started out; but now we have 

 learnedVhat a bearing locality has in the mat- 

 ter; that there are more using ten-frame Lang- 

 stroth hives and deeper hives than we sup- 

 posed. But if even a few vote to have this dis- 

 cussion discontinued we will do it. — Ed.] 



RAMBLE 140. 



AT M'CUBBIN'S. 



By Ramhler. 



On the 2(ith of November Mr. McCubbin de- 

 voted a good share of the day to driving the 

 Rambler out among the bee-keepers. Our first 

 call was upon Mr. C. M. Davis, who had an 

 apiary of 125 colonies upon the home ranch, 

 and another apiary 60 miles away, over on the 



