Dec. 17, 1903. 



THt: AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



805 



Dr. C. C. Miller (Ills.) — I don't know. If I had only one api- 

 ary, or didn't care for the weight of hives in moving, I would use 10 

 frames, because there is less danger of going into winter short of 

 stores. On account of greater uase in lifting and moving the smaller 

 hives, I now prefer S frames. 



.]. M. IIambaooh (Calif.)— I am not good comb honey authority, 

 not being a specialist in that line. I am sure, however, I would not 

 use a brood-chamber of less than :iOOO cubic Inches capacity. You can 

 contract a large brood-chamber, but you can not expand a small one. 

 I would want a lU-frame hive, but locality has something to do with 

 this (luestion. 



Adrian Getaz (Teun.) — Not more than 9. With more than that 

 the supers are too heavy. Furthermore, when giving the first super 

 to the colony, the weather is not very warm yet, and giving too much 

 space then is injurious, as the bees can not keep up the proper tem- 

 perature in a too-large space. The frames should be deep enough to 

 make up what they lack in number, so as to have the brood-nest of 

 the proper size. 



E. .Whitcomb (Nebr.) — The colony will in no case begin to store 

 comb honey until the brood-chamber is first well filled. I deem it 

 better to tier up than to spread over the ground too much. The 8- 

 frame hive is easier to put into winter quarters; it isn't so hot to 

 work over in summer; it costs less money to make, and with the 

 present price of lumber, all these questions must be taken into ac- 

 count lest we come out on the wrong side of the ledger. 



J. A. Green (Colo.)— Either 8 or 10 of my shallow frames, ac- 

 cording to circumstances. To explain fully the " why " of this would 

 require a long article, or several of them. Briefly, because one sec- 

 tion of the brood-chamber, or frames, is enough for the most profitable 

 production of comb honey at certain times; while two sections, or 10 

 frames, are large enough at any time, and just right for profitable 

 wintering and the building up of good colonies in the spring. 



G. W. Demaree (Ky.) — No answer to this question can be made 

 to apply to all conditions in so great a country as this. Each bee- 

 keeper should study his own environments, and work in accordance 

 with Nature's laws that are immovable. In the Middle States, where 

 the spring bloom may begin as early as March 20, giving the bees time 

 to build up strong by the time the white clover harvest begins, the 10- 

 frame Langstroth hive will give from 10 to 35 percent more comb 

 honey than an S-frame hive will, under the same management. Why? 

 Well, the honey will show why ! 



L. Stachelhausen (Tex.)— I would use 10 frames in one story. 

 For comb-Loney production this gives a larger top surface than S 

 frames, consequently more room for sections. In winter and spring I 

 would use two stories; this gives plenty room for the development of 

 a strong colony. When the honey-flow commences, and the sections 

 are given, 10 frames containing the most brood would be crowded 

 into one story. The other combs without bees are used elsewhere in 

 the apiary. This forces the bees at once to commence work in the 

 sections. Larger hives (for instance, 12 frames) are not as handy to 

 manipulate; smaller hives (8 frames) are out of shape, and cost more 

 per frame. 



S. T. Pettit (Out.) — The hive full until after swarming. For 

 best results the hive must be practically full of brood from side to side 

 when the sections are put on. I would not weaken the bees on any 

 account by removing brood before swarming. At swarming, I would 

 put them on one full frame near the center; then five or six dummies 

 about one-half at each side of the hive; then fill up the center with 

 starters. The full comb catches the pollen and carries a part of the 

 weight of the bees, thus relieving the starters and the newly- built 

 combs. If the bees are up to the mark in strength, and the top-bars 

 thin, and if an all-metal queen-excluder, wedges and dividers, be used, 

 I never could see but that the work over the dummies was just as good 

 as over the brood, and I have taken many thousand sections in this 

 way. These directions apply to a 12-frame hive; other hives may be 

 treated similarly. 



R. C. AiKiN (Colo.)— With my shallow 5x16 frames, I would use 

 8 to 16, usually 10, during the flow while storing siirplnii : but all the 

 rest of the year, where out-door wintering is practiced. I would use 

 24, especially immediately before the surplus flow came on. Of these 

 frames 8 are equal to 4 Langstroth frames, 16 to 8, and 34 to 13. The 

 w/i?/ is, that a large hive in the fall gives breeding-room, and store- 

 room, too, so that at no time need the brood be unnecessarily reduced 

 in quantity, thereby, in most cases, and particularly with young 

 queens, insuring a good force of bees to start into winter. I would 

 keep the brood-chamber large in spring because it gives more encour- 

 agement to breeding (note that the surplus room would be beneath 

 the brood with such a hive), and tends to discourage swarming. When 

 the flow arrives, contract to about s-Langstrotn-frame capacity— some- 

 times less. With a small chamber— 6 to 8 Langstroth frame— during 

 the flow, better finish and better results all around with small cham- 

 ber, and more so with light flows or weak colonies. 



Why Not Help a Little— both your neighbor bee-keep- 

 ers and the old American Bee Journal— by sending to us the 

 names and addresses of such as you may know do not now 

 get this journal ? We will be glad to send them sample 

 copies, so that they may become acquainted with the paper, 

 and subscribe for it, thus putting themselves in the line of 

 success with bees. Perhaps you can get them to subscribe, 

 send in their dollars, and secure for your trouble some of 

 the premiums we are constantly offering as rewards for 

 such effort. 



I Convention Proceedings J 



THE LOS AN GELES CONVENTION. 



Report of the Proceedings of the 34th Annual 



Meeting of the National Bee-Keepers' 



Association, Held at Los Ang-eles, 



Calif., Aug. 18, 19 and 20, 



1903. 



[Continued from page 791.) 

 OVERnONENBSS OF BEE-KBEPING. 



" Is bee-keeping overdone ? Is all territory occupied ?" 



John F. Crowder— No, it has not begun yet. Up in th e 

 San Joaquin Valley the country is improving all the time ; 

 new alfalfa fields are growing all the time, and the bees 

 don't quite keep pace with the increase. There are new 

 fields in my territory. 



T. O. Andrews— If they get into the fashion of cutting 

 the alfalfa as they do here— they cut it eight and ten times 

 — don't give it a chance to bloom. I doubt if there is 100 

 pounds, or 1000 pounds, of honey produced in three or four 

 counties in this part of the State. 



J. P. Ivy— I think the people that live in a locality have 

 a great deal more to do with it than the locality. I have 

 yet to know a community where a bee-man would be vvel- 

 come with bees. 



OVERSTOCKING A LOCALITY. 



"What can be done to keep bee-keepers from imposing 

 on each other by placing a large apiary close to another 

 one ?" 



Dr. Miller— However difficult that question is, it is a 

 question that will come up practically to many of your 

 minds. A good many years ago I called down the anathe- 

 mas of nearly the entire bee-keeping fraternity by saying 

 that I believed that every man should, in some way, have 

 some legal title to his locality. They asked me whether I 

 meant it. I did mean it. I believe that a man should have, 

 and if the thing proceeds far enough, it will some time come 

 to that, and I stand here, with the risk of being called crazy 

 again, to say to you that if bee-keeping is conducted on a 

 safe basis, as other business, a man must have some kind 

 of assurance that the territory he occupies will remain his. 



George M. Wood— I wish to say to the bee-keepers here 

 that this is one of the most vital questions that can be 

 brought before this Association. We have been in this 

 business, some of us, for years. I have been keeping bees 

 in this county for 25 years. I first commenced in Sacra- 

 mento, buying a lot of bees in Mr. Harbison's hives. I had 

 peaceable possession of a range for 20 years. It is due to 

 every man that his own earnings be protected. Are we 

 going to let one man, or two men, come on either side of us 

 with 100 or 200 colonies of bees, and put them on either side 

 of my apiary, or your apiary, just as he sees fit, asking no 

 questions whether it is right or wrong, whether it is bene- 

 fiting you or injuring you ? What are we going to do with 

 this ? Are we going to conduct this business on a peace- 

 able principle ? If we are, we want to know it. Will there 

 be some resolution adopted in this Association to protect 

 every man's interest in his bees? I do not care who he is. 

 That is the law. All men need to protect themselves. If 

 you are going to be infringed upon, protect yourself. 

 You will be respected for protecting your house and your 

 family, your property and your civil rights. Let this ques- 

 tion be brought up, and let it be read in your households, 

 by your firesides, by every bee-keeper in the land, and let 

 the principle be lived up to. This is a question that is too 

 little thought of in this Association, or in the United States, 

 You can infringe on one man more than another. There is 

 a little range over there. He has been there a number of 

 years; he has a right to that range. If he owns a good 

 location there, he has a right to a good range. Let us bring 

 this question before the Association, and try to have some 

 action taken on it in the future. What do you say about it, 

 gentlemen ? Such is going on all the time. 



Delos Wood— I do not agree with Dr. Miller, nor with 

 the man who has just spoken, who has the same name as I 



