1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



1431 



questions on which light is wanted; and, as one 

 of the program committee, I will try to find some 

 "live wire" bee-man to furnish the power. 



LECTURES AT FARMERS INSTITUTES. 



Pres. Collins, of the State Association, has 

 been engaged to lecture before the Farmers' In- 

 stitutes conducted throughout the State by the 

 Agricultural College located at Fort Collins. 

 Mr. Collins' subject is " Bee-iceeping for Profit." 

 He will do a great deal to raise the standard of 

 bee culture in the State and the West. The 

 bee-iceepers certainly appreciate the work the 

 College is doing for their benefit; and Prof. Gil- 

 lette, who initiated the woric, is to be thanked 

 for his interest along this line. Mr. Collins is 

 well fitted for the work. He is a forceful public 

 speaker, arousing interest quickly, and he has 

 made a success of bee culture. 



COMB-HONEY GRADING, EASTERN AND WESTERN. 



I agree with the editor that the illustration of 

 comb-honey grading on page 1316 is interesting. 

 Now, according to the rules adopted by the Colo- 

 rado State Bee-keepers' Association last year, the 

 top case and section would be in the No. 1 grades, 

 either white or light amber. The middle section 

 is not evenly capped. The unevenness was like- 

 ly caused by a lull in the honey-flow while the 

 section was being filled. This unevenness would 

 place the middle case in the No. 2 grade. I 

 have not mentioned weight here, for I can not 

 tell weight from a picture. The lower section 

 is not sufficiently capped to be put in any grade, 

 and would be called cull honey. There are over 

 one hundred unsealed cells on the visible side of 

 this section, exclusive of the outside row. I in- 

 fer that the sections represent the contents of 

 each case beside which they stand. 



CROWDING BEES TO SECURE ENTIRE CAPPING OF 

 SECTION HONEY. 



I would not say it is practicable, that it pays, 

 or that it is very necessary to crowd the bees to 

 secure better capping of honey. Tiering up su- 

 pers, if understood, will result in much of the 

 honey being capped as is the top case in the il- 

 lustration on page 1316, Nov. 1. 



The editor says the tendency is to boost the 

 gradings, putting them a little higher than they 

 deserve. Conscientiously following the rules, 

 and when in doubt putting the doubtful section 

 in the lower grade, will start the tendency toward 

 the other and better way. 



DROUTH INCREASING THE FLOW OF NECTAR. 



I notice occasional reports of short crops on 

 account of drouth. The season of 1908 is the 

 dryest I have ever known, and yet I averaged 

 133 4x5 sections to the colony, which is the best 

 yield I ever had. At the beginning of the sea- 

 son I had given up all hope of much surplus; 

 but as the weather continued dry the bees kept 

 working until the aster and goldenrod ceased to 

 blossom. I can't see that the drouth had any 

 effect except to increase the flow. 



Ashtabula, O. Thomas Clark. 



General 

 Correspondence 



WHAT HIVE TO ADOPT. 



A Discussion of the Merits of Different- 

 Sized Hives, Taking into Consideration 

 the Man, the Methods, and the Locality. 



BY E. D. TOWNSEND. 



Continutd from last issue, page 1373. 



The size of a hive is much more important than 

 the shape. A well-shaped hive is important only 

 because it is more convenient for the apiarist. In 

 outyards every hive should be the same, for a 

 variety of sizes and shapes is an abomination. I 

 have had experience with different sizes; but eve- 

 ry one of my extracted-honey colonies is now in 

 a ten-frame factory-made Dovetailed hive, and 

 every super is the same as the lower story or body, 

 so that all are interchangeable. I use ten Hoff- 

 man frames in the bodies, and eight loose hang- 

 ing frames in the upper stories, the eight frames 

 in the ten-frame super making 1^-inch spacing, 

 so that all combs are bulged. 



Mr. J. N. Harris, of St. Louis, Mich., has two 

 or three outyards in the northern part of the 

 State. A part of the colonies are in eight-frame 

 hives, and the rest in twelve-frame, these twelve- 

 frame hives being the only ones I know of in the 

 locality. Mr. Harris is an old veteran at the 

 business, and he is very thorough in his work 

 with his bees. For instance, every comb that he 

 has is built from wired foundation; and if it hap- 

 pens there are too many drone-cells in any one 

 comb, that comb is replaced with a full sheet of 

 worker foundation. Now, if he goes to this 

 trouble to keep his combs in good condition, it 

 is evident that all the other work around the bees 

 must be done in the same thorough manner. 

 Since he winters the eight and twelve frame colo- 

 nies in the same cellar, and manages them through 

 the season as nearly alike as possible, Mr. Harris 

 is in position to tell which hive is the best to 

 adopt with his system of management in his lo- 

 cality, especially as he has only one object in 

 view — the securing of fhe most extracted honey 

 with the least expenditure of labor and expense. 



Mr. Harris says that colonies in the twelve- 

 frame hives go into winter quarters with more 

 bees than those in the eight-frame hives, and also 

 that they come out much stronger in the spring. 

 He has found that he can count on having about 

 eight combs of brood in the twelve-frame hives, 

 and only six in the eight-frame; so that the twelve- 

 frame colonies have about 25 per cent more brood 

 than the eight-frame. I wish Mr. Harris could 

 have tested the ten-frame hive in connection with 

 the eight and twelve frame, for it would seem to 

 me that if he got 25 per cent more brood in the 

 twelve-frame colonies than in the eight-frame, 

 then the ten-frame hive with the same manage- 

 ment should give him only one comb of brood 

 less than the twelve-frame, and one more than 

 the eight-frame. The best point in favor of the 

 twelve-frame hive is that it is so large that he 

 does not need to do so much "fussing" with 

 them as with those in the smaller hive, and he is 



