A I' GUST 1' 



Conversations with Doolittle 



At Borodino, New York. 



HI SI\r, TWO-STORY BROOn-CH AMBERS 

 " In using brood-ehanibers two 

 stories high, which is better — the 

 eig'ht or ten frame Ijongstroth 

 Iiive? I am told that, for section 

 honey, two-story eight-frame hives, 



or sixteen frames, are best until 

 the time to put the supers on; then one 

 story is to be taken off, reducing them to 

 one story or eight frames. Tn this locality 

 the honey harvest oi>ens and supers should 

 be put on somewhere about June 5, and up 

 to that time the queen rarely occupies or 

 fills more than eight frames with brood, 

 lender such circumstances would it be nec- 

 essan' to put on the second story*? " 



If a single story gives all the room the 

 queen will occupy, and if no more room is 

 rieeded, then there can hardly be any advan- 

 tage in giving a second story so far as the 

 part of the queen is concerned. But no one 

 can be perfectly sure in these matters if he 

 has never tried it. You can hardly be sure 

 that none of j'our queens will occupy more 

 than eight frames until you give them a 

 cliance. Bees do not freely use either of the 

 (wo outside combs for brood, but use them 

 mostly for honey and pollen. If brood is 

 found in either (and it may be found in 

 lK>th) they are .somewhat crowded forbrood- 

 I'oom. If you find eiaht combs occupied 

 with brood in an eight-frame liive, the prob- 

 al)ility is that more than eight frames would 

 be used if the bees had two stories. A 

 strong colony in two stories may have from 

 ten to twelve frames of brood. Some colo- 

 nies do not need the second storj-, even with 

 an eight -frame hive, but many more do. If 

 you practice using two stories you will find 

 a good many more of your colonies needing 

 them than you thought. Giving all the room 

 needed results in stronger colonies. 



But wliy be confined to an eight-frame 

 hive? With a ten-frame hive a good queen 

 will give eight frames of brood and some 

 brood in the (wo outside combs, as much 

 usually as is found in the two outside combs 

 of the narrower hive. This will satisfy most 

 of the queens you are likely (o have, and 

 put a largei- force of bees in the fields at 

 the time of your surplus flow of nectar. If 

 you wisli (() '-ontract so as to tlirow morr 

 of (he bees and honey into tlio .sections, pm 

 a ilunuiiy in i)lace of each outside foiiib al 

 (h(^ opening of (lie suijilns flow. This will 

 nn.swer (he same purpose as reducing (lie 

 (wo-story eiglit-frame hive to a one-story. 

 In order to secure honey we must have 



bees. As a rule, the more bees the more 

 honey. If a queen has filled all the avail- 

 able cells in eight frames, two more addi- 

 tional frames will give more bees, and, con- 

 se(iuently, more honey. Then if, at the be- 

 ginning of our main nectar flow, we prefer 

 honey stored in the sections instead of the 

 two outside combs, let two dummies take the 

 l)lace of these, and we are brought back to 

 an eight-frame hive again with approxi- 

 mately one-fourth moi-e laborers to work in 

 the nectar harvest than if we had used only 

 an eight-frame hive all the while. 



Now as to the two stories. A qneen that 

 has eight combs well filled with brood just 

 at the approach of the honey harvest will 

 not fill eight more as completely as another 

 queen would have if she had had them early 

 iu the spring. What extra brood she does 

 put in the upper story will hardly give bees 

 that will labor to advantage in that harvest. 

 Bee.s in their prime as laborers when the 

 honey harvest is at its prime are the ones 

 wliicli make the profit. 



The profitable keeping of bees does not 

 depend so much upon having each queen 

 occupied to her full capacity as it does in 

 having th.e combs and hives occupied to 

 (heir full capacity, and that at just the time 

 when the flowers wliich generally give sur- 

 plus honey are in bloom. Taking advantage 

 of this thought, and by using the ten-frame 

 hive as a single story up to within twenty 

 days of the opening of the surplus bloom, 

 and then putting a quegn-excluder on toji, 

 and on top of this another ten-frame hive 

 filled with good worker combs, a two-story 

 hive can be made a paying investment. 

 Swarming can be kept back till the lower 

 hive is nearly filled solid with brood, and 

 quite a start in lioney made in the upper 

 hive by way of storing honey, which stai't 

 accustoms the bees to storing above. 



As the surplus bloom arrives, reverse the 

 hives, put a sui)er of sections between, and 

 see that the queen is in the now lower hive 

 with the queen-excluder under the super. 

 The bees will remove the honey that has 

 lately been stored there to give place for the 

 eggs fi'om the queen, and this honey, togeth- 

 er from that coming from the fields, will go 

 into (he secdoiis almost at once. Ten days 

 htler, shake llic bees fiom seven of the 

 combs now in I he npi)er storj', at the en- 

 liance below, and set the upper hive on a 

 .lew stand, thus ge((ing' a new colony. By 

 adding supei*s as needed, success is yours 

 in good seasons. 



