OCTOUER, 1918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



593 



ones, and that one good colony may gather 

 $25.00 worth of honey while the weak one 

 may not gather more than $2.00 worth, it 

 would seem that the expense of the case is 

 justified. The big cases ought to last for 

 10 years and hence the cost should be divid- 

 ed by 10, making the price per colony 30 

 cents a year. 



One difliculty we have had with these 

 quadruple cases has been drifting in the 

 spring. On the first flight day the bees of 

 one colony drift over to the colony alongside 

 it, with the result that one colony will be 

 too weak and the other too strong. When 

 colonies are individually packed, each hive 

 on a stand by itself, this difficulty does not 

 occur. 



Last winter we used with a great deal of 

 satisfaction the Demuth inner winter case 

 on a stand by itself. This costs only about 

 a fourth per colony of the cost of the quad- 

 ruple case per colony and yet gave us re- 

 sults that were fully equal to and in many 

 cases better than we secured from quadruple 

 cases, on account of the freedom from drift- 

 ing. An ordinary ten-frame colony in Sep- 

 tember and October is squeezed down to 

 seven of the best frames with stores; these 

 are then stood ou end in the Demuth ease. 

 This case of seven frames is placed vertical- 

 ly in three tiered-up ten-frame Langstroth 

 hive-bodies. Packing material is poured in 

 between. The hive-bodies act as a protecting 

 case; and if one is producing extracted hon- 

 ey, he will have enough extra supers to 

 house every colony he has, without any ad- 

 ditional outlay. The inner Demuth case 

 can be sold for about 75 cents, which, on the 



basis of its lasting for ten years, costs 7^2 

 cents a year. 



Figs. 11 and 12 give an idea of the 

 Demuth jjrinciple; for it must be understood 

 that Langstroth frames, instead of hanging 

 in the hives in the usual way, are stood up 

 on end in the case. The space above allows 

 for giving a feeding of candy to make up 

 for any shortage of stores, and at the same 

 time allows room for the cluster to expand 

 after the young bees begin to hatch out 

 from the seven frames. By turning the 

 frames up on end it converts the Langstroth 

 frames into deep ones for wintering. Many 

 good authorities have taught and still be- 

 lieve that a deep frame is better for winter- 

 ing than a shallow one. I am convinced* that 

 a tall shaft, nearly square or round, as in a 

 bee-tree, is a better shape for wintering than 

 a shallow oblong brood-nest such as we find 

 in the Langstroth hive. The Demuth case 

 is similar in shape to the old box hives that 

 often would surpass modern Langstroth hives 

 for wintering. A cluster of bees in a tall 

 chimney-like inclosure can fill the whole 

 space; and when it is very cold the bees can 

 crowd up into the top where all the warm air 

 is. If there is a cake of candy on top to 

 prevent starving at such times, the bees are 

 in the warmest part of the inclosure where 

 there is plenty of stores ready at hand. The 

 scheme worked as pretty in practice last 

 winter as in theory. It does away with all 

 troubles of drifting, and, moreover, only 

 requires half the stores of the two-story 

 colony in the big cases. In these days of 

 scarcity of sugar this is no small item. 



While this Demuth method of putting up 



Fig. 9. — This represents a corner view of one of the outyards Veilonging: to Ira ]'. i.arncu. i-.asi Jordan, 

 Mich. These four-hive large packing' cases are at least 25 years old. Mr. Bartlett was one of the first to 

 use this form of outdoor wintering on a large scale, if we are correct, altho (niadr'ii])Ie liives of a similar 

 type are older. This same packing case is elaborately described in the A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture. 

 The high hoard fence show-n in the background, says its owner, is too much of a good thing. It is too solid. 

 In his opinion the fence would be better if the boards were spaced a little ways apart. 



