1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



695 



General 

 Correspondence 



HIVES. 



Size, Shape, and Methods of Manipulation 



the All-important Factors in 



Choosing a Hive. 



BY J. E. HAND. 



Continued from page 660. 



In fitting the hive to the man we must bear 

 in mind that the bee-keepers of this country 

 are divided into three classes. The first 

 class is composed of specialists who produce 

 extracted honey on a large scale. They are 

 wide awake, up-to-date business men having 

 a natural love for the occupation aside from 

 the almighty dollar, and wno for the most 

 part winter their bees in cellars. They need 

 a hive of sufficient size to accommodate a 

 colony of bees, and sufficient stores to carry 

 them through the winter. An eight-frame 

 hive will afford room for 25 pounds of stores, 

 and still have empty combs enough to accom- 

 modate the winter cluster. Twenty pounds 

 of honey will carry a colony of bees from 

 Oct. 1 till June 1, if wintered in a cellar; 

 hence we shall have 5 pounds left at the be- 



f inning of the honey-flow, besides what the 

 ees have gathered from fruit-bloom, tulip, 

 locust, willow, and maple; therefore we shall 

 have from 5 to 15 pounds of honey in the 

 brood-chamber at the beginning of the hon- 

 ey-flow. 



However, the bee-keeper should visit his 

 bees about May 10, and equalize his colonies 

 by uniting weak colonies with those that are 

 stronger, and place upon each hive a super 

 of half-depth brood-combs. This is impor- 

 tant. The bees will begin at once to remove 

 the honey from the brood-chamber and store 

 it in the super, and the queen will fill the 

 empty combs in the brood-chamber with 

 brood from side to side and from top to bot- 

 tom. This moving of the honey creates an 

 activity within and without the hive which 

 can be approached only by a natural honey- 

 flow, and it stimulates the bees to greater 

 activity. 



We now have a hive equal in capacity to 

 13 L. frames, and in the best shape possible 

 for rapid breeding up early in the season. 

 When the first white clover begins to ap- 

 pear, extract the honey from these supers; 

 place an excluding honey-board on the brood- 

 chamber, placing the super from which you 

 extracted the honey upon the honey-board, 

 and another half-deptn super on that. At 

 the next visit, which shoula be in about ten 

 days, raise up the whole hive, placing a su- 

 per of empty combs under it. If the honey- 

 ilow is a good one it will be necessary to put 

 on another shallow super of empty combs; 

 next to the brood-chamber we have our early- 

 gathered and our old honey separated from 

 our white honey, which will be A No. 1. We 

 have no swarms; our hives being deep, the 



honey will be better ripened. The hives will 

 be light to carry into tne cellar, and will oc- 

 cupy less cellar room; therefore the eight- 

 frame hive fits class A. 



The second class includes all producers of 

 comb honey as well as those who keep bees 

 for profit in connection with some other 

 business. This class represents by far the 

 greater number of the bee-keepers of the 

 country. To such the possibilities along the 

 line of simplifying methods by compelling 

 the bees through their unerring instincts to 

 do the things that heretofore have been per- 

 formed by the slow and tedious methods of 

 frame-handling offers great inducements, 

 and especially appeals to those whose time 

 is too much occupied to admit of frame ma- 

 nipulation. By the rapid manipulation by 

 hives for which the sectional hive is espe- 

 cially constructed, they will be enabled to 

 keep twice as many bees with a given amount 

 of labor, and at the same time have better 

 control of their bees at all times. We have, 

 therefore, fitted the second class with a hive 

 that is suited to their needs. 



The third class includes those specialists 

 who are keeping bees solely for the almighty 

 dollar, and who care little and know less 

 about the instincts of bees. They have eyes, • 

 yet they see none of the beauties of nature 

 as revealed by a study of the habits of bees. 

 'Ihey are rightly named "honey-slingers," 

 for about all they ever do with their bees is 

 to extract the honey. These are the ones 

 who are caUing loudest for a hive that will 

 stand lots of neglect. Since this is one of 

 the strong points of the twelve-frame Lang- 

 stroth hive we have fitted the third class 

 with the hive. 



I regret to say that I am unable, from my 

 point of view, to conceive of a class of bee- 

 keepers whose best interests are served by 

 the use of the ten-frame L. hive, since it is 

 not constructed with a view to the natural 

 requirements of bees. 



In order to control our bees by scientific 

 labor-saving methods, the fertility of the 

 queen must be in excess of the room in the 

 brood-chamber proper; therefore, bees can 

 not be controlled with any degree of certain- 

 ty in ten-frame hives. The word "control " 

 has a broader meaning than the mere pre- 

 vention of swarming. It includes the con- 

 trol of bees with respect to where the honey 

 shall be stored. 



Some seem to think that no one but an ex- 



Eert should attempt to use the sectional hive, 

 ut such is not the case. Without a correct 

 knowledge of the instincts of bees it is im- 

 possible for any one to secure best results 

 from his bees, and this all that is required in 

 order to manipulate the sectional hive intel- 

 ligently. While it is an easy matter to com- 

 pel bees through their instincts to remove 

 every pound ofhoney from an eight-frame 

 brood-chamber by simply placing a half-depth 

 super of empty combs above it, allowing the 

 queen to have access to both divisions, yet 

 perfect swarm control is not to be attained 

 with a frame as deep as the L. frame with- 

 out manipulating the frames at least twice 



