1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



563 



about the first of June; but the ever present 

 Gulf breeze was decidedly refreshing' to- 

 ward night. 



There is hardly a State in the whole 

 Union for which there is a greater future 

 for bees than Texas. I say this after hav- 

 ing visited nearly every State in the Union, 

 and studied the conditions as they existed. 

 But no one should go to Texas, or any State, 

 without first making careful inquiry, then 

 going' and making' a personal visit, and 

 looking' the ground over; and no bee-keeper, 

 I hope, will ever locate on or within range 

 of another. But I am sorry to say there 

 are bee-keepers who, because there is no 

 law to protect the old resident, have gone 

 in, in some localities in the West, and sim- 

 y>\y divided the profits in the field discover- 

 ed by another, and v.hich w^s ri^^'hty I'e 

 field of tiie first uccuprint. — Ed. J 



SHALLOW HIVES 

 And Divis bte Brood^chambers. 



BV W. K. :\rORKISON. 



Reference has been made in Gleanings 

 to the use of shallow-chambered hives, and 

 several writers seem disposed to condemn 

 them. A <^nr,r\ many seem to labor under 

 the impression that, if shallow hives Jire 

 used, they must be manatred on the Heddon 

 plan, and herein lies the difficulty that has 

 confronted not a few who have been dispos- 

 ed to try these things. I have tried the 

 Heddon plan, and my experience leads me 

 to sa}' that a brood-chamber in one compart- 

 ment is infinitely preferable to one combin- 

 ed in two chambers. In the latter case the 

 work of handling the brood-chamber is con- 

 siderably increased, with no compensating 

 advantages. The case, however, is far dif- 

 ferent if the brood-chamber is large enough 

 to contain an ordinary colony of bees, sav 

 the equivalent of seven or eis^'^ht Langstroth 

 frames. To arrive at a fair understanding 

 of what the proper size is, we must do some 

 calculating, prefacing- this with the obser- 

 vation that the ordinary thick-top-bar L. 

 frame contains eight inches depth of comb. 

 8 frames 8 in. deep=64. 

 10 " 6 in. " =60. 



The above calculation seems to indicate 

 that the shallow hive is -^^r; smaller than the 

 ordinary eight-frame hive. In actual prac- 

 tice, however, there is really no difference 

 in capacity. There is always a considera- 

 ble amount of honey in the deeper brood- 

 chamber, and little or none in the shallow- 

 er — I mean in the working season; and in 

 practical experience there are as many bees 

 in one hive as the other. And when it comes 

 to getting the surplus honey in sections the 

 shallow hive leaves its riviil hopelessly be- 

 hind, and this without the use of baits or 

 any other of the devices usually practiced. 

 In most places the bees will start work in the 

 shallow hive two weeks sooner; and in the 

 tropics, bees are not inclined at all to work 

 in section* above a deep frame. Rambler 



remarks that this is due to the cool evenings 

 of the tropics. Rather it is due to the long-, 

 steady, easy honey-liow which inclines the 

 bees to store the honey just in the cells 

 where the brood hatches, leaving the super 

 untouched. 



Shallow hives— 6 inches and under — re- 

 quire different management altogether from 

 the deeper sorts. For example, it is better 

 to use drawn combs than starters in hiving 

 a swarm. There is no trouble in getting 

 the bees into the sections when combs are 

 used, and it insures no pollen in the sections. 

 Such a colony makes very rapid progress. 

 There is no dwindling, as in the case of a 

 swarm hived on starters. 



The section-super in the case of an older 

 colony should be placed on the hive earlier 

 .1 ibe >eaa.>n th.m is ihe case with ordina- 

 ry hives. 



If rightl}' handled, three Ideal supers 

 make a verv good hive, hard to beat, at 

 least in the hotter regi'jns of the earth. 

 Durini;' the off' season the colony is kept in 

 a sh'HllOM- extract ing-super fitted with shal- 

 low frames, which, for convenience' sake, I 

 term the Ideal. When the honey season ap- 

 proaches, another Ideal super with combs 

 is added, and the queen is allowed to lay 

 therein if .'■o disposeil, which is g'enerally 

 the case. As the s.eason adviinces, the bees 

 will store honey in the upper chamber. 

 When it is nearl}' full it is raised, and a 

 super of sections placed under it. The col- 

 ony being large, and their brood-chamber 

 so shallow, the sections are worked out and 

 finished with celerity, and ever}' comb-hon- 

 ey man knows that this means nice full sec- 

 tions. For the tropics this is an exceller.t 

 plan, and, so far as I can see, would suit 

 northern countries almost equally well, par- 

 ticularl}' in poor honey districts. 



Another point that must be observed when 

 shallow hives are used, no matter wh.'it 

 kind, is this: Full sheets of foundation must 

 be used in the sections, otherwise there is 

 trouble. The best hive of all, in my opin- 

 ion, is one of 12 shallow frames, with six- 

 inch Combs — body 6?'S inches. Such a hive 

 presents great opportunities to the comb- 

 honej' specialist. With such a hive, 48 or 

 50 sections can be placed on the hive at 

 once, which is a good deal easier than put- 

 ting on two of 24 sections each. The frames 

 are the same as used in shallow extractin;r- 

 supers, but one inch deepc'-- Two fence 

 separators are used in the brood-chamber 

 to facilitate work on the outside combs, in 

 which case the sections are all worked out. 

 This makes a cheap hive, and, for the be- 

 ginner, easy to understand. The special- 

 ist will see that it suits him just as well. 

 For Rambler in Cuba I think it will be just 

 the thing. He, as well as the rest of us, 

 will vote for handhole cleats on supers as 

 well as brood -chambers, in which case this 

 hive will be hard to beat. 



This hive can also be made up of 6X6-in. 

 sections, and will be found to be useful to 

 queen-breeders, those who move their bees 

 much, and those who wish to ship bees long 



