1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



899 



deep, and a wide belt of honey over them, after 

 they use this first supply they have farther to 

 go to Hnd more stores, as they often move in 

 mild spells, as we say when the cold lets up. 

 Hence dwindling in winter is the restilt, because 

 the bees in search of food become chilled on the 

 cold combs as night comes on, and drop; oi" 

 after the first supply of honey over the brood- 

 nest is exhausted, say loward spring, a)id the 

 cluster, in trying to move back to more stores, 

 or to one side in the L. hive, has to move up 

 and over that thick top-bar, or under the comb. 

 Being obliged to leave the center, the bees 

 become chilled by sudden changes of tempera-, 

 ture, especially if so near spring that a brood- 

 nest has been started, and the cluster will not 

 leave it for stores. This means spring dwin- 

 dling, and sometimes starvation with plenty of 

 honey in the hive— the more so if a cold snap 

 sets in. The shallow frame is less subject to 

 these conditions, because the bees cluster clear 

 to the top and nearly to the bottom, and so do 

 not have to leave the warmth of the brood- 

 nest or cluster to go to the next frame, and the 

 cluster gradually moves backward to more 

 food toward spring. There is usually enough 

 stored toward the ends of the frames, with 

 what little is near the top to last through the 

 first cold weather. 



It is my habit to take out the light combs in 

 front when I put the bews up for wintei', and 

 move some of the heavy combs at ihe back to 

 their place, and close up the back board to 8 or 

 9 frames, say. instead of 10 or 11, as used in sur- 

 plus time. This gives more room for packing, 

 which is one more good feature for the Bing- 

 ham hive. 



The original Bingham hive of this style now 

 in use was 10 frames, ;iO inches in length by V-i}4 

 in depth, from hive-bottom to the top of the 

 wooden frame. This gave about 5 inches up 

 and down of brood-comb, besides the short cells 

 on the under part of the top-bar, which i-; a 

 square bar set cornerwise. This was the size 

 in the patent-papers, and the same as I use 

 now, though Mr. Bingham used them 23 inches 

 ong in his own yard. 



THE SHIKI-EY SHALLOW HIVE AND FRAME. 



The Shirley hive was invented and patented 

 just before the new Heddon hive. The frame 

 is 19}^ long by r,)^ high at the end of ihe frame, 

 with both top and bottom bar. and is reversi- 

 ble. It has comb space only i}4 inches deep, 

 and was intended to winter by tiering up, half 

 of the frames on top being reversed. This gives 

 the bulk of honey near the center of the brood- 

 chamber, with a be<'-space through the center. 

 This is the best arrangement yet known, for 

 wintering outside, as the bees can pass freely 

 from one side to the other without leaving the 

 cluster. In fact, the cluster of bees can move 

 gradually in very cold weather. I have win- 

 tered a few in this way as an experiment, and 

 they did well. The new Heddon hive can be 

 handled on the same principle, but it needs a 

 packing-case for outdoor wintering, and is all 

 right then. Both need looking to as to the win- 

 er supply of honey, all the same. 



Now, Mr. Editor. I have no ax to grind in 

 this matter; but I never could understand why 

 a bee-keeper who is after surplus should use 

 such deep frames as in the L. hive, aftcu- hav- 

 ng tried shallow ones. J. O. Shearman. 



New Richmond, Mich., Nov. 4. 



[You have given some strong points in favor 

 of the shallow brood-nest and frame, and we 

 must acknowledge that they do have some 

 (piite decided advantages. In your locality 

 they may giv(i better results, perhaps, than any 

 thing else; but localities differ so much that 



what will be just the thing in one is totally un- 

 suited for another. The testimony as to the 

 value of the various devices in the different 

 localities, called forth at the last convention of 

 the N. A. B. K. A. at Chicago, illustrates this 

 very forcibly. For instance, the Dadants, J. M. 

 Hambaugh. A. N. Draper, and other bee-keep- 

 ers in that vicinity, furnish quite convincing 

 arguments in proof of the statement that the 

 larg^Quinby frame and hive give better results 

 than the small brood - chambers. In most 

 northern localities the eight-frame Langstroth 

 capacity seems to give best results: but no one 

 can assert positively, if he is unbiased, and has 

 carefully read the reports from the South, that 

 the ten and twelve frame Langstroth hive may 

 be too large, especially where extracted honey 

 is the object. Within the vicinitv of our cor- 

 respondent there is Mr. James Heddon, Mr. 

 Bingham. Mr. W. H. Shirley, Mr. R. L. Taylor, 

 and quite a number of others, who use shallow 

 brood-chambers; and while we may admit that 

 the large Dadant hive, for the locality of the 

 Dadants, and the ten and twelve frame Lang- 

 stroth for Texas and the South, seem to give the 

 b''St results, we must not assert that the shallow 

 hives are not the best for the localities in which 

 they are used. Now, if we go east, into the 

 locality of Hetherington and Elwood, we shall 

 find thousands of colonies on the Hetlierington- 

 Quinby frame— a frame not quite as long as the 

 original Quinby, but quite a little larger than 

 the Ijangstroth. You could no more induce 

 these York State bee-keepers, who have care- 

 fully tried large and small hives together, that 

 the latter would give the better result, than 

 you could convince them that the earth is 

 squai-e. We do not mean to say that those 

 intelligent bee-keepers of the East are stub- 

 born, and proof against any kind of argument, 

 no matter how convincing; we simply mean to 

 say that they have carefully tested their locali- 

 ty, and know pretty well what gives them the 

 best results. The question, then, as to the best 

 size of hive for any particular locality is largely 

 dependent upon the fact of whether (1) the 

 honey-flow is moderate and long - continued; 

 whether (2) it is heavy, and lasts only a few 

 days, or (3) whether it has only a few light 

 spurts during the season. As supply-dealers 

 we have endeavored to adopt that sort of hive 

 and frame for the mass of bee-keepers that is a 

 compromise between the very shallowest and 

 the very deepest, and a brood-chamber that is a 

 compromise between the very largest and the 

 very smallest, and one, too, that best meets 

 condition No. 2 above. Recognizing that there 

 is a demand for a large hive, we make and keep 

 in stock the eight and ten frame Dovetailed 

 hive, and, upon order-, the twelve- frame. We also 

 make, and have made for the last ten or fifteen 

 year's, half-depth brood-frames and hives, be- 

 cause we find that there is a demand from 

 some sources for hives and extracting-supers of 

 this description. But it is safe to say, that 

 nine-tenths of all the bee-keepers prefer and 

 order the eight-frame Langstroth. 



Now. we do not wish to throw cold water 

 upon the very strong points in favor of the 

 half-depth hives, referred to by our correspon- 

 dent above. To be candid about it, we will 

 say that the demand se(Mns to be growing for 

 these shallow hives; but the call has been 

 more particularly for them as shallow c.rt/7(rt- 

 i?i(;-supers than as shallow br'ood-nests. To 

 show what we have been selling for a good 

 many years back, and more particularly for the 

 past year, we present below an engraving of 

 our half-depth Dovetailed hive and frame. It 

 is put in our catalogue as a shallow extracting- 

 super, two of them being sold at the same price 

 as one full-depth extracting-super with Hoff- 



