1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



8 



low chambers, for, as I have explained, colo- 

 nies in them are, at the end of the main flow, 

 unless it is of unusually short duration, weak 

 in bees, and short of stores, and the latter 

 condition would be present if the flow were 

 short. Of course, feeding could be done to 

 overcome this ; but one of these sections is 

 too small to contain stores and allow a colony 

 to build up or even hold its own So with 

 feeding, two sections would have to be used, 

 which would make a full (or more than full) 

 depth brood-chamber, and the work and ex- 

 pense of feeding would, I think, more than 

 offset the extra amount of surplus that could 

 be obtained by using one shallow section dur- 

 ing the main flow. 



Southern Minn. 



[You have aroused a curiosity in me to 

 know more about your shallow brood-cham- 

 bers. What kind do you use ? style of frame 

 and the depth of it ? Then you say there are 

 other things in this connection that you would 

 refer to but can not for lack of space. I hope 

 j'ou will in another article or two cover all of 

 this ground.— Ed.] 



HIVING SWARMS ON SHALLOW BROOD-CHAM- 

 BhRS NOT SATISFACTORY. 



BY E. F. ATWATER. 



T have had some experience with the meth- 

 ods of producing comb honey by hiving natu- 

 ral and artificial swarms in contracted brood- 

 nests, as practiced by Harry Lathrop, Danzen- 

 baker, Stachelhausen, and others. In this lo- 

 cality we have a long, slow flow from sweet 

 clover, followed by goldenrod, at no time rap- 

 id, commencing abou' June 1st to 13th, and 

 lasting well into September. In such locali- 

 ties I am firmly convinced that the above 

 methods do not pay. To illustrate, the past 

 summer I hived a strong natural swarm in a 

 single section of the Heddon hive. The frames 

 contained foundation starters Yt, inch wide. 

 The hive was put on the old stand. The three 

 Ideal supers were taken from the parent colo- 

 ny and placed on the swarm. Work in the 

 supers went on for about two weeks. By that 

 time the colony was so weakened by loss of 

 old bees that super work was almost entirely 

 discontinued. A little over half as much comb 

 honey was taken from this colony as from col- 

 onies of like strength that did not swarm. 

 Had the swarm been hived on full sheets of 

 foundation, the results might have been much 

 better, as enough bees would have been reared 

 to gather the late summer and fall crops. 



About June 15, 1889, I shook two colonies 

 having cells built for swarming. Each colony 

 was given a frame of unsealed brood, accord- 

 ing to Danzenbaker's method. Supers were 

 taken from the old hives, and put on the new 

 swarms. Both colonies swarmed out about 

 10 A. M. the next day. The swarms were re- 

 turned. One colony settled down to work, 

 completing about 40 sections. The other loaf- 

 ed during the best part of the season, complet- 

 ing about 30 sections. Now compare these 

 yields with the average from that yard, of over 

 60 lbs. per colony. 



A strong colony having made no prepara- 

 tions for swarming was shaken on starters, and 

 given a frame of drone brood. They gave less 

 than 40 completed sections in a yard where 

 the average was 60 lbs. 



Swarms hived on starters in a single Heddon 

 brood-nest, or in a Langstroth hive contracted 

 to five or six frames, have invariably stored 

 pollen in the sections, regardless of the use of 

 a honey-board. Despite the arguments of S. 

 A. Deacon in the Atnerican Bee Journal, and 

 others, I know that I secure far better results 

 in comb honey by hiving natural or artificial 

 swarms on full sheets of foundation, because, 

 as I have said before, I have a honey-flow last- 

 ing from 8 to 10 or even 12 weeks ; and, fur- 

 thermore, pollen in the sections is the great- 

 est objection to the use of a very shallow 

 hive. 



I have had little opportunity for experiment 

 during the past season, as less than three per 

 cent of the colonies swarmed. You say, Mr. 

 Editor, that " putting the bees on starters has 

 decidedly a tendency to check swarming;" 

 but I have shown that sometimes it serves to 

 hasten swarming, apparently making the bees 

 the more determined to swarm. 



Yankton, S. D., Nov. 24. 



[Your conditions, friend Atwater, are per- 

 haps a little peculiar. In your first paragraph 

 you speak of having hived a swarm in a single 

 section of the Heddon hive on half-inch start- 

 ers, and then placed thereon three Ideal supers. 

 You say the work in the supers went on for 

 two weeks, anS about that time the colony was 

 so weakened by the loss of old bees that the 

 super work was almost entirelj^ discontinued. 

 A little lower down you speak of preferring to 

 hive on full sheets of foundation in a contract- 

 ed brood-nest. Now, I fail to see how, if you 

 had done this in the case under consideration, 

 the swarm would have been any better oflf. 

 You say that in about two weeks' time the 

 colony was weakened by the loss of old bees. 

 Even if you had hived the swarm on full sheets 

 of foundation it would have taken a month, 

 at the least calculation, to have gotten a force 

 of field bees, so that your remedy would not 

 have helped the matter at all. If, however, 

 the colony^had not swarmed, and they could 

 have had the new blood, or, rather, a new 

 force of field bees from the brood in the parent 

 colony, then I can see how work might have 

 continued in that super. 



In your locality I should say it was an ad- 

 vantage not to have any swarming. While 

 that is true of any locality to a great extent, 

 yet it seems to be particularly so for yours. 

 The only argument, then, it seems to me, that 

 you advance against shallow brood-chambers 

 is in the pollen going up into the sections. 

 We have had a great many reports of this with 

 brood-chambers as shallow as the Heddon ; 

 but only two, so far, I believe, were brood- 

 chambers 7 inches deep. I am not advocating 

 shallow hives ; but we must be sure not to let 

 one swallow make a summer, or base our con- 

 clusion on the work of three or four colonies. 



I still think that hiving on starters has a ten- 

 dency to discourage swarming. Any swarm, 



