February, 1910. 



American ISee Journal | 



1) it has two pieces 1x8x21 inches for 

 floor. Two end cleats lx2xl(i inches 

 are placed at each end. Six penny wire- 

 nails, (5 at each end — 3 to each end of a 

 board — are driven right through these 



Fig. 



-N.\RROW .-VNO WniE Toi'-B.'iR 



Kkames. 



and the cleats, and are then clinched 

 underneath. The ^ thick cleats for the 

 hive to rest on are then nailed on the 

 upper surface as shown, and the whole 

 receives thorough painting. 



The cover (Fig. 2) is made of the 

 same material, 1x8x24 inches long, and 

 has the same kind of cleats at the ends, 

 only that one is placed above as well 

 as below the ends of the boards. Long, 

 slim, 10-penny wire-nails are nailed 

 through the ends, cleats, board and all, 

 and then clinched underneath. To 

 tighten these up they are placed on an 

 anvil. This makes the strongest cover 

 I know of, as the cleats hold the boards 

 with such a grip that they cannot zvarf' 

 or twist in anyway. With a piece of an 

 " O. G." batten nailed over the central 

 joint, and the whole well painted, I 

 have the best cover I have had after 

 trying nearly all. 



Now for the hive or super — which? 

 It is all the same. Fig. 3 shows one on 

 end, and also the frames. I advocate 

 the 10-frame size as the best for all 

 purposes, especially for my purpose, as 

 I have tried them side by side 

 with 8-frame sizes ; and I would not 

 hesitate to advocate the 10-frame size 

 with my system of management for 

 comb honey in the North as well as here 

 in the South, as I believe that I could 

 get better results, with less swarming, 

 even there, than are obtained with the 

 too small 8-frame hives. These supers 

 are nothing other than the standard o%- 

 inch deep shallow super with frames 

 5^8 deep of Hoffman self-spacing style. 

 They are just idea! for bulk-comb- 

 honey supers, for extracting supers, 

 and for divisible brood-chamber hives. 



My frames have narrower top-bars 

 than the regular ones put out, and are 



Fig. 5-— Scholl's Xi'clei. 



widely known as the " Scholl " frame, 

 as has been mentioned before. The 

 difference in the passage-way between 

 the two kinds of frames is an impor- 

 tant item, as one hinders the bees and 

 queen passing from one story to an- 

 other, while with my frames this is ob- 



viated. The difference shows plainly 

 in Fig. 4. 



Now these shallow stories are not 

 only used as supers ; 1 use them singly 

 with a bottom and cover fertile nucleus 

 of a colony. Add another to it later 

 with empty combs or honey, and brood 

 perhaps, and my, how they build up to 

 full colonies! Then one story after 

 anotlier is piled on, as so many supers 

 after the honey-flow has begun until I 

 And that the colony, as shown in Fig. 

 5, has grown into that enormous stack 

 of the finest sweetness on earth — 280 

 pounds of the very prettiest bulk comb 

 honey from one colony, in Fig. 6. That 

 was the record kept of my best colony, 

 and meant a surplus that brought 

 $33.60 from that one colony of bees. 



So much for the description of t!ie 

 kind of hive I would adopt and advo- 

 cate when starting anew for the pro- 

 duction of bulk comb honey. 



In the next issue will be shown what 

 is in that stack of shallow stories. 



Fig. 



-One of Scholl's Sentinels. 



No Advantage in Producing Bulk Honey 



I have been readint< and studyint; the writ- 

 ings on bulk comb honey, and I am not able 

 to see any advantage in the production of it 

 at all. We bee-keepers are not supposed to 

 go back to where our forefathers stood, 75 

 or more years ago, before the movable-frame 

 hive was known, when they kept bees in 

 box-hives, and handled the honey in chunk, 

 or bulk, as you may term it. If we are going 

 to do away with our section-comb honey 

 and produce bulk-comb honey, what do we 

 want with the movable-frame liives? We 

 are living up to a fast day now. and the in- 

 dustries of our country are progressing 

 more and more each year. Then, why do we 

 bee-keepers want to produce a cheaper 

 grade of honey to take the place of our nice, 

 attractive section-comb honey. I say. if our 

 Southern bee-keepers want to cut their 

 noses off to spite their own faces, let them 

 go. Suppose the farmers of this country 

 want to go back to the old way of farming, 

 our country would be bankrupt within two 

 years. So it would be if all of our bee-keep- 

 ers were to produce bulk comb honey— our 

 bee-industry would be ruined. 



Then let us look at the disadvantage we 

 would have in handling it over our section 

 honey. We would have to cut the combs, 

 so there would be a loss by the honey drip- 

 ping from the combs where they were cut. 



We also would have to handle it several 

 times, which would be another loss, saying 

 nothing about the smear we would have 

 from beginning to end. We can take our 

 section honey off the bees, case it. and 

 haul it to market without getting one 

 comb broken. 1 live 8 miles across two 

 mountains to my nearest station and mar- 

 ket, and if I were to produce chunk comb 

 honey and take it to market, by the time I 

 would get there with it vou would not be 

 able to tell whether I had comb, extracted 

 honey, or what not. and I would not be able 

 to sell one pound of bulk honey to where I 

 sell 50 pounds of section honey. With sec- 

 tion comb honey I can haul it 8 miles over 

 the rough road to market without a single 

 comb bfing broken. 



So. my bee-keeping friends, it is no diffi- 

 cult matter to sec tlie advantage we have of 

 section comb honey over the old style of 

 bulk honey. I think wo bee-keepers should 

 stick to the production of section comb 

 honey, as we have an article we need not be 

 ashamed of. and that we should go hand in 

 hand to get our section honey to a higher 

 standard, that we may be able to get better 

 prices than we ever have had heretofore. I 

 trust that we bee-keepers will take more in- 

 terest in the production of section comb 

 honey, that it may take the lead over all 

 other grades of honey that are put on the 

 market. T. A. Crabili.. 



St. Davids Church. Va. 



If you had given my method of comb 

 honey production a trial, Mr. Crabili, 

 I believe you would have found that 

 there are at least some advantages in it 

 over the production of section honey. 



I am not surprised at the attitude you 

 have taken, because there were many 

 Texas bee-keepers who criticised the 

 method, even denounced it with dis- 

 favor, when the production of " chunk " 

 honey was first advocated. But do they 

 still do so? Nay! Instead, some of 

 them are today the most extensive pro- 

 ducers of this article. Their claim, at 

 first, was the same as yours, but finding 

 that they would be left badly in the 

 background, which, both from a social 

 and financial standpoint, became very 

 serious, bulk comb honey production 

 soon became to them as easy, if not 

 an easier matter than producing either 

 section or extracted honey. 



Neither does such a change mean 

 going back to the ways of our fore- 

 fathers. It involves just as much study 

 and systematic work to attain the 

 highest results in bulk comb honey 

 production as in any other, and the 

 movable-frame hive is just as essential. 



Neither can it be said that the honey 

 produced is of cheaper grade, for if 

 gathered from the same source, it must 

 necessarily be the same in quality, 

 whether produced in sections or frames. 

 Of the two, the comb honey in frames 

 is only the better in that it is ripened 

 better — the combs are thinner in this 

 case, and the ventilation in the process 

 of ripening the honey can only be bet- 

 ter on account of the continuous pas- 

 sage-ways between the combs. 



After I have described the methods 

 I employed in bulk comb honey pro- 

 duction, and given a better idea of it 

 all, and the advantages, the demand, 

 and the profits over other kinds, I am 

 sure that you will also look upon it 

 with more favor. 



Of course, it is needless to say that it 

 is not my object to drive sections en- 

 tirelyoff the market, for there is a place 

 for them that must be filled, and the 

 same can be said of the place for ex- 

 tracted honey. At the same time I 

 know that bulk comb honey will find a 

 good place also in time, and it will re- 

 place section honey to a great extent 

 just as it has in Texas. 



