408 



December, 1916. 



American fiee Journal 



AMONG EASTERN BEEKEEPERS 



The Second of a Series of Articles by the Editor on His Trip 



Through a Portion of the East 



EARLY in the afternoon of Aug. 3, 

 Mr. and Mrs. Latham and I, ac- 

 companied by a neighbor bee- 

 keeper, started for Storrs, in the Ford. 

 We arrived a little late, for the meeting 

 was open. 



Storrs is the Agricultural College of 

 Connecticut, the site of which was 

 donated by the philanthropist whose 

 name it bears. It is away from 

 either railroad lines or cities and has 

 to be self-sufficient. The students are 

 boarded and housed on the grounds. 



The active and courteous president 

 of the Beekeepers' Association, Mr. D. 

 D. Marsh, of West Hartford, had al- 

 ready informed me by letter that they 

 expected me to be the guest of the 

 institution. The convention lasted 

 until noon of the following day. The 

 secretary, Mr. L. Wayne Adams, is a 

 young man with as much energy as 

 their president. Haifa dozen live sub- 

 jects were discussed, foulbrood of 

 course, wintering, marketing, requeen- 

 ing, etc. Here friend Latham made a 

 statement which was a revelation to 

 me. While showing at the meeting a 

 large hive which he calls the " let-alone 

 hive," he made the statement that the 

 ordinary spacing of frames, in the 

 brood-chamber, of 1^ inches from 

 center to center is the "greatest pro- 

 moter of s-warming." We have always 

 succeeded better than the average in 

 preventing swarming, and we have 

 often given a number of reasons for 

 our success. But here was one addi- 

 tional reason which we ought to have 

 known and mentioned, for we use \%- 

 inch spacing in our brood-frames. We 

 had never thought of the convenience 

 and greater ease given to the bees by 

 this additional Js-inch space between 

 all the brood-combs. 



If you go to the bees themselves, for 

 information upon how far they wish 

 to place their combs, you will have but 

 little satisfaction. According to the 

 best authorities, capped worker-brood 

 needs but 34 millimeters, 1 11-32 inches, 

 including the passage between the 

 combs. But drone-brood requires 44 

 millimeters, or lyi inches. If all combs 

 could be kept exactly 1 11-32 inches 

 from center to center, the bees could 

 not rear both drone and worker brood ; 

 it would be necessary for them to leave 

 the worker-comb empty, facing the 

 drone-brood in order to have room for 

 the sealing of this. 



All beekeepers know how irregularly 

 spaced the bees build their combs when 

 left to their own devices. In some in- 

 stances honeycombs are built two 

 inches and more in thickness. So if 

 we wish regularity, we must attend to 

 the matter ourselves. 



Regarding the usual spacing of 

 frames, I will quote three authorities. 

 Only one of them gives reasons for 

 any particular spacing : 



Quinby's " Mysteries of Beekeeping " 

 says: " One and a half inches is the 



right distance for combs from center 

 to center." 



The "A B C of Bee Culture " says : 

 "Some prefer 1>^ inches, but the ma- 

 jority, supported by the best of reasons, 

 prefer l^s inches." 



The Langstroth-Dadant " Hive and 

 Honey Bee" says: "Greater spacing 

 facilitates the taking out of the frames 

 and aids in interchanging them. It 

 gives more room between brood-combs 

 for the bees to cluster in the winter." 



And now here comes this statement 

 of Allan Latham, which I consider of 

 enough importance to write it again in 

 .capitals: "THE ONE AND THREE- 

 EIGHTHS INCH SPACING OF 

 COMBS FROM CENTER TO CEN- 

 TER IS THE GREATEST PROMO- 

 TER OF SWARMING." This mat- 

 ter is worthy of consideration. 



Another of friend Latham's ideas 



plans are good.) 



On wintering bees, a novel idea for 

 me was given by President Marsh who 

 uses a wire screen on a K-inch frame 

 over the combs, to give room for the 

 bees to move from one comb to an- 

 other. He places the absorbing cush- 

 ions on top of this frame. 



Dr. Burton N. Gates arrived at Storrs 

 shortly after the opening of the first 

 session. He was asked to give a dem- 

 onstration in the apiary. A half-tone 

 of this is shown here. The Storrs 

 apiary, as will be seen, is on the edge 

 of a piece of timber, in a very sheltered 

 location. 



At this meeting I met L. C. Root, 

 whom I did not recognize at first, for 

 he looked so much younger than the 

 75-year-old man whom I expected to 

 find. But a successful operation, men- 

 tioned in February, page 47 of our 



DR. GATES DEMONSTRATING AT THE MEETING OF THE CONNECTICUT 



BEEKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION AT CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURAL 



COLLEGE AUG. 3. 1016— Photograph by J. H. Menter. 



was brought out at the Storrs meeting. 

 It is the use of lemonade as a cure for 

 European foulbrood. The formula is 

 10 ounces of sugar, one lemon and half 

 a pint of water for one colony. It ap- 

 pears that the difficulty lies in getting 

 the bees to accept it. When honey is 

 used in place of sugar, they take it 

 more readily. It is not expensive. Try 

 it yourself. Mr. Latham is a man of 

 very forcible and convincing argu- 

 ments. 



(Later — Since the above was written, 

 I have received a testimonial in favor 

 of the lemonade plan. Mr. S. Powers, 

 of Wading River, N. J., writes me that 

 he has tried the lemonade cure, as well 

 as a modification of it, consisting of 

 one ounce of citric acid to a gallon of 

 sweetened water, and that he cured 

 eight cases in six days. He says both 



Journal, has made a young man of him. 

 He invited me to visit him and I later 

 accepted. 



Returning to the home of Allan 

 Latham in the afternoon of the 4th, 

 accompanied by Dr. Gates, I enjoyed 

 again their hearty hospitality, and the 

 following morning we started for the 

 meeting at West Boylston., Mass., a 

 distance of about 65 miles. 



To a westerner, accustomed to the 

 orientation of every house, every field, 

 every road, almost without exception 

 in line with the cardinal points of the 

 compass, the New England way of 

 making roads or building houses in 

 the most convenient position, without 

 regard to the exact location of the 

 North star, has a quaint character and 

 a pleasing appearance, reminding one 

 of European landscapes. Probably our 



