226 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



close of season. Our first contracting- for comb 

 honey was in the season of 1873 or 1874, and the 

 swarms were brought down to four of our combs, 

 10^x16 inside. P. H. Elwood. 



Question 114.— How many pounds additional sur- 

 plus do you think is gained by contracting? 



I do not know. O. O. Poppleton. 



1 have never had any experience in that line. 



E. France. 

 With my method, no additional surplus. 



Dr. A. B. Mason. 

 Not an ounce, hut more honey will be brought to 

 the surplus box. Dadant & Son. 



I could not give an estimate. 1 think the gain 

 pays for the trouble, and more. A. J. Cook. 



If by this question contraction during the honey- 

 How is meant, not enough additional to pay for the 

 trouble. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



In some localities I have no doubt but that there 

 is some gain by contracting; but here our colonies 

 are so 6trong at the time of the flow of honey that 

 there is no gain. P. L. Viallon. 



Possibly as many pounds as they would store in 

 the additional combs, say 15 or 20; but taken for a 

 series of years, I'm not so sure they would store 

 anj T more, and in any case it necessitates feeding 

 usually. C. C. Miller. 



Many stocks that would be lost if the number of 

 combs were not reduced, are saved by contracting, 

 and are in condition for gathering surplus. In such 

 cases the gain equals the difference between entire 

 loss and what proper management will secure. 



L. C. Root. 



I do not practice the manipulation in question. 

 As excessive swarming is the main difficulty with 

 me, I think (if I do not know) that getting an extra- 

 large colony, and then crowding them above, would 

 only make them swarm directly with no gain in 

 pounds of honey whatever. E. E. Hasty. 



I don't believe that any additional surplus can be 

 gained by contracting the brood-chamber during 

 the honey season, unless the bee-keeper's time is 

 worth nothing. Honey or sugar has to be fed again 

 if a dearth or a cold wet spell follows the season, 

 and honey or sugar has to be fed again for winter 

 stores. Chas. F. Muth. 



I do not know, because I never weighed carefully 

 to get at the exact number of pounds; but I get 

 more surplus and less honey uselessly consumed by 

 the bees; get that surplus in better and more at- 

 tractive condition, and handle my colonies more 

 easily and safely during the fall, winter, and spring, 

 by practicing contraction. James Heddon. 



I have not practiced contraction long enough 

 through good and bad seasons to answer definitely. 

 I can recall instances where it seemed to me that 

 contraction secured 25 pounds of honey more than 

 would have been had without it. Doubtless this is 

 more than could be expected on an average, but I 

 feel very sure that contraction pa3S well when 

 properly managed. James A. Green. 



Contraction is now having a run. It is carried to 

 extremes, and its benefits overestimated. With the 

 inexperienced, and with honey-boards, particularly 

 the queen-excluding board, it may make quite a 



difference. In any case a part of the early honey 

 that is usually stored in the brood-combs will be 

 stored as surplus. This is the honey that bees usu- 

 ally winter best on. P. H. Elwood. 



Not any more, if you leave the colony as much as 

 it ought to have. It may be different in other lo- 

 cations, but with me I find it safest to leave a col- 

 ony all the white honey it has stored over and 

 around the brood in an eight-frame Langstroth 

 hive. Of course, if I should crowd them they would 

 have to store part of this as surplus; but I do not 

 find it safe policy bei-e. as I have no fall honey to 

 fill up on. Geo. Grimm. 



In some seasons probably nothing is gained by 

 any system of contracting the brood-chamber. The 

 amount additional gained depends upon the season, 

 strength of the colony, manner, and extent of con- 

 tracting, etc. When honey is coming in steadily it 

 can all or nearly all be forced into the surplus 

 chamber for a period of about 20 days; but we 

 must not lose sight of a most valuable fact, that 

 hives or fixtures, or methods, however perfect, will 

 not produce honey. H. R. Boardman. 



Not any. if you call winter stores a surplus. Bees 

 will store all the honey they can gather if they have 

 sufficient room, no matter whether that room is in 

 a nail-keg, barrel, old box hiv^e, or one of the latest 

 improved hives. All we accomplish by contraction 

 is to get the most of the surplus, or the most of all 

 of the honey gathered by the bees, stored in our 

 neat sections, instead of in the body of the hive. 

 If I have ever made it appear that bees would gath- 

 er more honey according to their numbers where 

 contraction was used, I wish to ask pardon, and 

 correct the mistake. By contracting at the right 

 time, or allowing contraction of the brood to be 

 done by swarming, we save the amount of honey 

 that an extra amount of brood would use, to go 

 into our surplus. As this brood, when hatched into 

 bees, would become consumers, this item is worth 

 looking after. G. M. Doolittle. 



Well, friends. I have been for a good 

 many years rather of the opinion that con- 

 traction did not amount to very much, any 

 way. Of course, colonies do well where the 

 brood-nest has been contracted according to 

 the latest and most approved theory ; but I 

 am afraid we lose sight of the fact that they 

 also do well where no contraction is prac- 

 ticed. To make it a little plainer, I have 

 seen a colony of bees build up, raise brood, 

 and prosper at a tremendous rate, when 

 they were in two-story Langstroth' hives, 

 with 10 frames below and 10 above. When 

 more room was wanted they took it at the side 

 or overhead, just as they chose. They did 

 not have any dysentery nor spring dwin- 

 dling, nor any thing of the sort ; and I have 

 seen this happen when colonies that were 

 fussed up and fixed up did not do nearly as 

 well. At the same time, I have known a 

 tolerably fair colony that was raising brood 

 at a very good rate, apparently killed by re- 

 moving the quilt over them to put on a feed- 

 er. The openings made by turning up the 

 quilt so as to give the feeder a place, per- 

 mitted the warm air of the brood-nest to es- 

 cape. They were found dead after a severe 

 cold spell in the fore part of April. .Other 

 colonies that did not have the 'quilt over 



