November, 19l8 



GLEANINGS IN BEE C U I. T U H lO 



659 



From 300 colonies he took over 1,000 supers 

 uveraging 45 pounds to the super. This 

 would make an aggregate of 45,000 pounds 

 of honey, or over 3^^ supers on the average, 

 not including the brood-nest, for every colo- 

 ny he had in his apiaries. In other words, 

 the average of his colonies was four and a 

 half ten-frame stories high. If they had 

 been eight-frame they would have been 

 nearly six stories high. As there are always 

 some colonies that will fall below the aver- 

 age, it necessarily follows that other colo- 

 nies will have to go far above the average. 

 Mr. Griggs would, therefore, have a large 

 number of colonies six stories high for ten- 

 frame and eight-story for eight-frame. The 



labor. When I asked him how he would lift 

 those heavy supers off from those skyscrap- 

 ers he said, with a twinkle: "If the bees 

 put it there, I'll find a way to get it down. 

 That's the least of my trouble." 



I must confess that I myself was surprised 

 to note the size of some colonies in Michi- 

 gan, New York, and Canada during the past 

 summer; and the large number that would 

 go into the skyscraper class. 



Four conditions make a skyscraper possi- 

 ble and not so uncommon: (1) The produc- 

 tion of extracted honey as the result of war- 

 time conditions; (2) good wintering; (3) 

 good management; (4) good location. Mr. 

 Griggs has all four of them. I positively 



Fig. 1. — A general view of one of the apiaries oi L. S. Griggs, Flint, Mich. If one will take the pains to 

 count, he will see that many of these skyscrapers are six stories high, and some of them 7%. Six 10-frame 

 stories amount to 60-frames capacity, which, translated into eight-frame hives, is the equivalent oi 7 V2 

 stories, or precisely the same thing that was shown on the cover of Gleanings fo^r September, and which 

 our good friend Dr. Miller considered of rare occmrrence. Figs. 2 and 3 are the deitails of another yard 

 belonging to Mr. Griggs. A good location, a good beekeeper, and the production of extracted honey make 

 a skyscraper not an uncommon occurrence. 



illustrations from photographs show a num- 

 ber of skyscrapers taken out of the Griggs 

 yards, and they by no means represent his 

 best. Mr. Griggs does not buy a pound of 

 sugar for feeding. He makes his bees fill an 

 extra super of combs with good honey. One 

 of these he gives to every colony he puts in 

 the cellar. 



I said to Mr. Griggs, "You must have had 

 abnormally good wintering and a good sea- 

 son." I do not remember his exact words; 

 but the impression conveyed to my mind 

 was that this was nothing out of the ordi- 

 nary, since he had turned his attention to 

 the production of extracted honey; and he 

 further added that, since changing over, he 

 would be able to take care of 50 to 75 per 

 cent more colonies with the same amount of 



know there are some in the same bee terri- 

 tory, or equally good, who do not get any- 

 thing like such results. If this is the case, 

 our good friend Dr. Miller may claim that 

 the good beekeepers are rare. I do not 

 know about that; for during the past sum- 

 mer it seemed to me they were all good — • 

 that is, where they have gone beyond the 

 100-colony stage. A man who can make a 

 hundred colonies pay can usually handle be- 

 tween 300 and 400, and make a very good 

 living indeed during these war times, pro- 

 viding, of course, he has the locality and 

 strong colonies in the spring to back him 

 up. Dr. Phillips of Washington says the 

 key to success in beekeeping is good winter- 

 ing, and good wintering means big colonies. 

 Perhaps my good friend Dr, Miller may 



