810 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



have written and may write on the subject of 

 hives (and I only hope more may be said), don't 

 you think that father Langstroth. in adopting 

 a size of frame, and ten frames per hive, came 

 as near tilling the wants of the general bee- 

 keeper as it is likely or possible to do? 



I notice that many find fault with the weight 

 of the larger hives when tilled; but now the 

 season of 1895 is closed, how about stores? 

 I presume many — yes. very many — of the bee- 

 keepers are only wishing for weight; and if 

 they had heavy and atiundant stores, no com- 

 plaint as to weight would be h'ard. 1 can 

 truthfully say that I should prefer hiring help 

 to handle hives heavily stored than to he able 

 to handle the lighter weights lone-handed. 



Addison. Pa., Sept. 20. 



[Is it not indeed remarkable — yes, very re- 

 markable — that Mr. Langstroth. without the 

 aid of previous literature to guide him. should, 

 almost alone, be able to settle tnose problems so 

 nearly right every time? The mere fact that 

 the ten-frame hive is coming to be recognized 

 after all. as the standard; that the Langstroth 

 hive as a whole has been a standard all these 

 years — is a proof of how far-seeing Mr. Lang- 

 stroth was in his early years. For example, 

 again, bee-spaces, about which we hear so 

 much nowadays, were first provided for in the 

 construction of the hive by Langstroth. Thick 

 and wide top-bars will be found in old hives 

 after Langstroth away back in the early sixties. 

 Honey-boards, with a provision for a bee-space 

 on both sides, were a part of the Langstroth 

 system. Verily, he seems to have marked out 

 a pathway for the whole of us.— Ed.] 



QUEENS WORKING IN ADDED STORY. 



NOT " SHARP STICKS " BUT CLUBS FOR DR. MIL- 

 LER ; THE EXTRA-LIFTING QUESTION, ETC. 



By C. A. Hatch. 



I had thought that I had said all there was 

 for me to say on the 8 and 10 frame question; 

 but Dr. Miller has aimed a club straight at me. 

 and if I do not " cheep " he will think he has 

 hit me hard or downed me entirely: and to 

 have him think that would be too humiliating. 

 But here, after judging from Oct. 1st Glean- 

 ings, all there is for the ten-framers to do to 

 give Dr. M. good hard knocks on the hive 

 question is to turn one of his own household 

 against him. Go for him, Miss Emma; you 

 will fetch him yet. He will find out, before he 

 is 40 years older, that a queen will not climb up 

 and down over an inch of wood and half an 

 inch of space to lay eggs on both sides of it, as 

 readily as she will step from one comb to an- 

 other. And hit him again on the lifting-off of 

 that top hive every time he has to examine the 

 colony, and perhaps he will see that the extra 

 work is all on the side of the small hive; and 

 may be you will convince yourself that all this 

 extra work during the honey season will com- 

 pensate for the heaviness of the hive in moving 

 time. 



But, to answer Dr. M.'s question. "What 

 kind of frames did you use when the queen would 

 not go back and forth from top to bottom hive? " 

 The common three-cornered top- bar, % inch 

 each way, bottom bar >sx".; inch, with about i.< 

 inch space between them when tiered up, with 

 but few burr-combs. It is plain that the reason 

 your queen went back and forth so readily was 

 that the space between, being filled with comb, 

 it was to all intents and purposes one comb. 



In the case of those obstinate bees and very 

 obstinate queens that refused to lay in the top 

 at all. are you sure the queen was at fault? 

 To me it only shows the good hard sense of the 

 bees them-^plves in refusing to fix up the combs 

 for eggs when nature said. ''There is the place 

 for the surplus honey." Did you examine the 

 combs to see if the bees had fixed them rpady 

 for eggs? Were they cut down to the right 

 length, and cleaned and polished ? If not. how 

 do you know but you werp killing that poor 

 innocent queen for something she was entirely 

 guiltless of? for you must, have observed That, 

 unless a queen has a cell all clean and polished 

 to her liking, she will not put an egg in it. 

 And to make sure that this is so, she examines 

 each and every cell before depositing her egg in 

 it. 



As to that extra lifting. Dr. M., that is keep- 

 ing you out of the camp of the t^n-framers, 

 there is only one time that the two extra frames 

 make much difference, and that is when carry- 

 ing into the cellar. Come right over, doctor; 

 we will welcome you with open arms, and you 

 will find that the ten-framers' hearts are large, 

 like their hives. If those eight-frame hives 

 you have on hand stand in the way, put some 

 lath across the bottom, and use them for boxes 

 to store vegetables in. Your assistant. Miss 

 Wilson, has put the case quite strong indeed, 

 and shows she is really a convert, but holds 

 back a little for consistency's sake. Even the 

 Roots have had to acknowledge some things 

 they would not at the start, and we may con- 

 vert them yet. 



If all men had the candor and honesty of B. 

 Taylor, to acknowledge a hive a failure after 

 making it a hobby for years, we might sooner 

 get at the truth of things; but I am afraid we 

 are all more or less warped by our prejudices. 



That idea of yours. Dr. M., to have combs 

 filled in the fall, ready for the bee-feeding in 

 spring, is a good one; but let the bees put it 

 right in their own hives, and then you have got 

 it all "solid," and no trouble about getting 

 them to take honey from a feeder in the spring 

 either— another argument for two more frames 

 in the hive— see? 



Send on your clubs, doctor; we will throw 

 them back, any way. 



Ithaca, Wis., Oct. 8. 



[Friend Hatch was the man who started this 

 large and small hive discussion a little over a 



