l'K)l 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



853 



over it. I even succeeded to the extent of 

 having- automatic-hived svvanns store honey 

 in their new quarters. Now, having said 

 all this, as time goes on I am free to ac- 

 knowledge that automjitic hiving, as well as 

 I succeeded in carrv'ing it out, was not a 

 practical success in every sense of the 

 word. It means a double hive-stand, an 

 extra exyiense; it requires the use of a 

 complicated trap or box inade of perforated 

 metal — another expense; it does not save la- 

 bor as one might expect. If one counts the 

 time necessarj^ to arrange hives on double 

 stands, the further time of finishing up hiv- 

 ing by dumping the rest of the bees that 

 did not go down into the new quarters, as 

 mentioned by Mr. Cyrenius, he will see 

 that labor is not very appreciably econo- 

 inized, if at all. Automatic hiving at best 

 means doing the work over again. About 

 the only thing that can be said in favor of 

 it is that the swarm is taken care of auto- 

 matically whenever it arrives at the swarm- 

 ing-pitch, independently of the apiarist, 

 who may be absent. But there are other 

 methods of handling swarms, averting them, 

 or controlling them, which I believe to be 

 more economical of labor. 



Perhaps Mr. Cyrenius may say that I am 

 talking about one thing and he another — 

 that he has improved on the methods that I 

 used. From his description, and the trap 

 he has sent, I used practicallj" the same 

 principle, and succeeded as perfectly as he. 

 My conclusion is, then, that automatic hiv- 

 ing is possible but not practicable. Mr. E. 

 L. Pratt, now known as Swarthmore, then 

 of Beverlj', Mass., devised one or two of the 

 best automatic hivers I ever saw; but I think 

 his conclusions, if I am not very much mis- 

 taken, were about the same as mine. Mr. 

 Henry Alley, the veteran queen-breeder of 

 Wenham, Mass., went all over this ground 

 years ago, and he likewise has abandoned 

 it.— Ed.] 



DEEP VS. SHALLOW BROOD^FRAMBS. 



BV F. GREINER. 



After an experience of many }^ears with 

 both styles of brood-frames I have at last 

 come to the conclusion that, all things con- 

 sidered, the frame of normal depth gives the 

 best satisfaction in the end. Under shal- 

 low frames I include such as are less than 

 7 inches deep. The Langstroth frame is 

 regarded as of normal depth. For a long 

 time I have been on the fence — undecided 

 which one to choose. Each kind seemed to 

 possess some advantages. I did not want 

 to give up, so I kept using half-stories and 

 full stories, shallow and deep (11 inches) 

 frames in equal numbers. I can get along 

 very well in my home yard with the shal- 

 low hives; but when it comes to outyards, 

 give me deep-frame hives every time. In 

 stocking up an outyard I was obliged to 

 make out the desired number with half- 

 storj' hives partly. I anticipated difficul- 

 ties at the time, and I found them when it 



came to managing the hives. When two or 

 more sectional hives are used as one, the 

 combs or frames of the upper section will 

 generally be more or less fastened to the 

 lower one by bits of comb or otherwise, 

 making it unpleasant to separate the two ; 

 then it requires so much more handling of 

 frames to get through a hive just when time 

 is most valuable that it almost seems like 

 wasting it. When using only one shallow 

 chamber as a hive, the bees have a way of 

 boiling over as soon as opened up, which is 

 very annoying. 



I used to think that the shallow frame 

 would be very nice for nuclei; but after try- 

 ing it for years by the side of deep frames 

 it does not suit me nearly as well as the 

 latter. I can find queens much quicker on 

 a deep frame, because they are not so apt 

 to hide in the space between the lower edge 

 of the brood-comb and the bottom-bar of the 

 frame. Particularly is this so with black 

 bees, as they are inclined to run ofi^ the 

 comb and take the queen with them. When 

 taking a deep frame out of a hive the bees 

 have not time enough to run off, while with 

 a shallow one they would. I have decided 

 to decrease my shallow-frame colonies grad- 

 ually, and change back to the deep frame. 



The most vicious colony may be handled 

 with ease as follows: Approach the hive, 

 give smoke liberally at the entrance, and 

 close it up. Proceed to drum on the hive 

 for half a minute; give more smoke, and 

 drum again. After a few minutes the bees 

 will have filled themselves with honey. If 

 the hive is now opened up in the usual man- 

 ner the most difficult operation may be per- 

 formed without any material resistance on 

 the part of the bees. We learned this trick 

 during the first years of our bee-keeping 

 when driving and transferring bees. Even 

 without smoke it is possible to conquer a 

 colony of bees by this method if one is quick 

 enough to close the hive without any bees 

 escaping. The drumming alone will have 

 the desired effect. Fr. Grkiner. 



Naples, N. Y. 



[This is a very knotty question; but most 

 of those who have tested the two depths of 

 frames seem to incline to the shallow depth. 

 Certainly this is true: That if the stan- 

 dard, or L., frame is just as good, we 

 should by all means use it because it is 

 standard. If we can say that of a frame 

 we have advanced one of the strongest argu- 

 ments we can for it. — Eel 



RAMBLE 193. 



A Visit with Mr. 0. W. Stearns, of San Joaquin Val= 



ley, Cal.; How he Manages to Work his Apia= 



ries Without any Tools or Building in them. 



BY RAMBLER. 



I formed the acquaintance of Mr. O. W. 

 Stearns, of Selma, in the San Joaquin Val- 

 ley, some seven years ago. He then owned 

 some 200 colonies of bees. Upon a recent 

 visit to Selma I found he had increased con- 



