September, 1916. 



American Hm Journal 



sists in understanding bee nature, and 

 the hives are only our tools. 



The question of the selection of a 

 hive must be left with the individual 

 himself. He or she must study the 

 conditions prevailing in the locality, 

 and adopt a hive suitable to their re- 

 quisites. For the average man, or the 

 farmer beekeeper, the standard Lang- 

 stroth is probably the best; but if one 

 has had considerable experience with 

 bees and wishes to manage a series of 

 outyards for the production of either 

 comb or extracted honey, with a mini- 

 mum of labor, he would possibly do 

 well to look into the merits of the sec- 

 tional or divisible brood-chamber hive. 



There are many types of sectional 

 or divisible brood- chamber hives. These 

 hives are shallower than the Lang- 

 stroth, but the frames are generally 

 close-ended and standing. In the sec- 

 tional hive introduced by James Hed- 

 don in 188.5, each section consists of 

 eiijht closed-end close-fitting frames 

 5^8 inches deep by 18 1-16 inches 

 long supported at the bottom by strips 

 of tin on the ends of each section. The 

 whole set of eight are squeezed firmly 

 together by means of thumb-screws as 

 shown in the photograph (Fig. 1). The 



ter of the end-bars by means of a rivet. 

 This allows the frames to be reversed. 



Fig. I.— The Heddon Sectional Hive 



bottom-board will be seen to have a 

 raised rim on two sides and an end to 

 allow for a bee-space under the brood- 

 chamber. 



In another type known as the Dan- 

 zenbaker hive (Fig. Ill and IV), the 

 frames are 7}4 by 17 inches; the hive 

 holds ten frames, and they are crowded 

 together by a follower. On the inside 

 of the ends of the hive a cleat is nailed, 

 and ©n this support the closed-end 

 frames hang, being pivoted at the cen- 



or comb supers are alike. 



The principal claim made for the 

 sectional hive is that nearly all the 

 necessary manipulations are performed 

 by handling the sections of the hive in- 

 stead of the frames individually. This 

 necessarily entails a different system 

 of management from that followed 

 with single brood-chambers. Unless 

 this is understood and taken advantage 

 of it would be folly to use divisible 

 hives because it would require more 

 work to obtain the same results that 

 could be obtained with single brood- 

 chambers. Perhaps one may say that 

 this principal of hive manipulation 

 may be applied to other hives. That is 

 true, but at the same time not so easily 

 or so well. There is quite a difference 

 between handling shallow chambers all 

 day and deep ones. The ease of hand- 

 ling the sectional hive makes it particu- 

 larly adapted to lady beekeepers. 



This hive is also claimed to possess 

 the particular advantage of being a 

 large or small hive at the option of the 

 owner. It can be enlarged for the 

 strongest colony or reduced in size for 

 the weakest. It also permits of a more 

 gradual expansion to keep pace with 

 the increasing size of the colony. Sec- 

 tional hive beekeepers claim that bees 

 do more and better work if less room 

 is given at a time, and given oftener; 

 also, the room given is in the most ac- 

 cessible form for use, shallow and 

 spread out wide, as near to the brood- 

 chamber as it is possible to get it. 



Louis Scholl says: " A satisfactory 

 hive must be so constructed that it can 



Fig. 2.— The Heddon Sectional Hive- 

 Underside 



The sectional hive used by J. E. Hand 

 is similar to the Heddon in principle. 

 The frame is iVs inches deep by 17;s 

 inches long. Instead of thumbscrews 

 one side of the section is made with a 

 removablefollower board which is held 

 in place with Van Deusen hive clamps, 

 but this follower board is only three- 

 fourths the depth of the section. The 

 remaining space is taken up by a perm- 

 anent wooden strip which holds the 

 ends and sides in position. 



The type of divisible brood-chamber 

 hive which is used by Louis H. Scholl 

 (Fig. V), consists of the ordinary shal- 

 low extracting supers 5->8 inches deep. 

 It is fitted with Hoffman frames byi 

 inches deep with >^-inch top-bars % 

 inches wide. All the sections whether 

 for brood-chambers, extracted honey 



Fig. 3.— The Danzenbaker Hive 



be enlarged or contracted at will, and 

 this can hardly be done with the Lang- 

 stroth." The force of this claim comes 

 home during the early breeding season 

 when a large hive is often necessary to 

 give room for the rearing of a large 

 number of workers; and, again, there 

 may be a colony, in early spring, not 



FIG. 4.-THE DANZENBAKER FRAME 



