Dkckmbkr. 1918 



G L E A N I N G S IN B E K C U 1- T U K E 



725 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



They fail to realize that if honey is to be- 

 come popular enough so that it will pay 

 them as well to keep bees as hogs, it must 

 be available to the consuming juiblic thru 

 the regular channels of 'trade, so that people 

 may procure it whenever they want it. 



l\'oj>le buy and pay good prices for wli;it 

 they think they want these days. Making 

 the public think they want honey requires 

 hard work by experts. 



Your problem will be solved if you follow 

 this simple rule: When wholesaling, sell at 

 wholesale price; when retailing, sell at re- 

 tail price, remembering that in spite of the 

 socialistic propaganda both the wholesaler 

 and retailer are a necessary part of our 

 modern civilization. 



Yours for more and better honey, 



A. S. Brown. 



Warren, O., Nov. 1, 1918. 



HOW LARGE A HIVE ? 



Queens More Prolific Than Formerly ; the Jumbo 

 Hive Very Satisfactory 



Eeferring to hive sizes, as mentioned in 

 the editorial on "Bigger Hives and Colo- 

 nies" in September Gleanings, keep clearly 

 in mind that it is brood-chamber capacity 

 that is the real point at issue. With the 

 present superiug system there is ample op- 

 portunity to expand or contract the storage 

 room, therefore, so far as hive capacity, 

 brood and surplus combined, is concerned, 

 every modern hive is elastic. Not so with 

 the "long idea" hives. They must at the 

 beginning be made to meet the needs of the 

 "locality. Their merits and demerits we 

 will leave to their friends. Capacity of 

 brood nests is affected by shape as well as 

 size and greatly by comb c[uality. Do not 

 forget this. Shape and proportions of 

 length, to width and depth, have been thresh- 

 ed over most thoroly. Deep hives, shallow 

 hives, and wide hives all have their advo- 

 cates. There are two points of view as to 

 brood-chambers: one that of the man who 

 wants more or less frequently to expand or 

 contract them, which he does by giving or 

 removing extra chambers; and that of the 

 man who wants something which is right 

 all of the time. 



It may be asked why this matter of hive 

 sizes has arisen now? Because our queens 

 have outgrown our present hives. I think 

 it is quite evident that the run of Italian 

 queens today is considerably more prolific 

 than were the queens of 20 to 30 years ago. 

 But be this as it may, there is certainly an 

 increase in the i)ractice of expanding brood- 

 nest capacity, either by giving t\vo bodies 

 or by giving the queen access to a super, 

 both of which practices have drawbacks. 

 Both increase the capital necessary, both 

 double the number of frames to be handled. 



and the super plan introduces that vexa- 

 tion, two sizes of brood frames. 



An alternative is to use larger brood- 

 chambers, either wider or deeper. To use 

 wider makes useless all present supers, ex- 

 cluders, escai)e boards, floors, and covers. 

 Even that quarter inch added to the width 

 in the last few years has been a costly nui- 

 sance. To make dee{)er only demands new 

 brood frames, for hive bodies may be pieced 

 down quite readily. 



There is little in the way of hives which 

 I have not tried as to shai)e, size, and 

 protection. For a long time the Quinby (or 

 Jumbo) seemed much too big for our moder- 

 ate flows, but in recent years a careful 

 comparison of results with it and with L's 

 in the same territory, has caused me to 

 change to the Jumbo entirely, the L 's being 

 used for extracting supers. I have stuck 

 to the standard 16-inch width and use 

 nine frames in a " 10-frame ' ' hive with a 

 1%-inch spacing and a %-inch offset of the 

 outer combs from the hive sides. The off- 

 set is very valuable. The results are the 

 most satisfactory of anything I have en- 

 countered in beekeeping in many years. I 

 would not change a single point in them. 

 Arthur C. Miller. 



Providence, E. I. 



A BRITISH COLUMBIA BIG RECORD 



One Colony FUled Nine Supers from Fireweed and 

 Did it in a Hurry 



I enclose to you photo of a "stack" of 

 supers from the apiary of W. H. Turnbull, 

 about 20 miles from Vancouver. Mr. Turn- 

 bull is standing in the middle of the picture. 

 He is young in beekeeping years, but is al- 

 ready one of the most practical and success- 

 ful beekeej)ers of this country. The first 

 supers of this lot were put on Julj^ 3. Up 

 to that time all were in single-story ten- 

 frame L. hives, the season 's outlook being 

 very discouraging; but welcome showers and 

 warm weather, so essential to nectar secre- 

 tion, made a. great change. From that time 

 (July 3) two ten-frame supers, partly foun- 

 dation, were jnit on the highest "stack" 

 and filled about every week. The lot was 

 taken off and extracted on Aug. 10. The 

 highest stack, seven supers, yielded 304 

 lbs. of honey. The entire yield from everj' 

 hive was from fireweed. Since Aug. 10 the 

 high-record colony has filled two full ten- 

 frame suf)ers additional, making nine for the 

 season. 



You will notice that there is no excluder. 

 The surplus supers were put on just above 

 the brood-chamber in every case, which, as 

 I have stated, was a single ten-frame hive, 

 and were filled so quickly as to completely 

 prevent the queen from working above, a 

 circumstance which is unusual in British 



