NOVEMBER 1, 1913 



767 



be glad to do any thing he can, and we 

 suggest that all specimeiis of diseased bees 

 be sent to Dr. E. F. Phillips. Bureau of 

 EntomologT, Washington, with a detailed 

 description of all ihe symptoms. — Ed.] 



LOCALITY AND HIVES 

 The Danzenbaker a High-pressure Hive 



BY W. 0. ROUDABUSH 



I read with much interest the article on 

 page 699. Xov. 1, 1912. by C. A. Stevens, 

 on " How Locality Affects the Question of 

 the Choice of Hives." I don't know that 

 I would have had more than passing inter- 

 est in this communication if his experience 

 had not been given with Danzenbaker hives. 

 In my imagination I can see Mr. Stevens 

 with a woe-begone expression on his face 

 when he lost virtually all his bees the first 

 winter. It is no small wonder to me that 

 he ever put more bees in Danzenbaker 

 hives; but he seems to be a "sticker;" and 

 as stickers ai'e the only ones who will win 

 out with any hive. I take off nw hat to Mr. 

 Stevens. 



I have used the Danzenbaker hives for 

 about ten years. Prior to this I kept bees 

 in the old beveled-edge Simplicity hives. 

 Then the ten-frame dovetailed, and later 

 the eight-frame dovetailed hives; and from 

 what experience I have had with the Dan- 

 zenbaker hives I w^ould say that location 

 m.ay have something to do with the question 

 of success; but management has a great 

 deal more. The Danzenbaker hive is adapt- 

 ed ideally. I think, to what I would term 

 high-pressure beekeeping. High pressure 

 in bee culture, as in any other vocation or 

 business, calls for constant attention to 

 details. With a hive the brood-frames of 

 which are only IVo inches deep, and a good 

 prolific queen to keep the brood-chamber 

 full of brood during the honey-flow, one has 

 the best combination I knoAv of for the 

 production of fancy comb honey. 



Com.b-honey production, after all, is noth- 

 ing more nor less? than crowding the bees to 

 s*^ore this honey where we want it — in the 

 supers. With the Danzenbaker hives I have 

 had as many as eight frames of brood solid 

 from top to bottom, clear out to the end- 

 bars — a thing I never could accomplish with 

 any other hive except once in a while Avith 

 an extra good queen — say one in a hun- 

 dred; and at the end of the honey-flow, 

 after removing the supers, T have had colo- 

 nies that had given me over 100 lbs. of 

 strictly fancy honey that would die of star- 

 vation in one week on Avhat stores were left 

 in the brood-chamber if left to their own 



devices. This is why I call it high-pressure 

 beekeeping. 



In the hands of an industrious, expeii- 

 enced beekeeper, one who has a system and 

 follows this system to the letter, never wait- 

 ing to do to-morrow what ought to be done 

 to-day, and who may wish to work his bees 

 for all they will do, I don't think a better 

 hive than the Danzenbaker can be found. 

 On the other hand, with the man with no 

 sys'em, who puts colonies out to "go it," 

 is usually rewarded by seeing them go away 

 and never return. 



With plenty of stores of sugar syru];) 

 which costs me about four cents per pound, 

 and which I tiade to the bees for 15-cent 

 honey, I never liad any trouble in wintenng 

 my bees in Danzenbaker hives on summer 

 stands; and w'hen it comes to building u)i 

 in the spring, I think this hive is far ahead 

 of any otlier I have ever used. 



I have seen some writers in the bee-jour- 

 nals complaining of the ditBculty they ex- 

 perienced in handling the closed-end frames 

 of the Danzenbaker. This frame-handling 

 also comes under the head of " Know how." 

 Several years ago I bought some queens of 

 a neighbor who was kind enough to see that 

 they were safely introduced. He is an ex- 

 perienced beeman, and no tenderfoot in the 

 business, and after opening a hive and 

 having several frames upset he looked at 

 me and said, " If I had to keep bees in such 

 hives I would lose my interest in the busi- 

 ness." After showing him how the frames 

 were handled he said nothing more to me 

 about it. He came one day when I was 

 aw^ay from home to see if the queens were 

 laying, and told Mrs. R. he believed he 

 could learn to like the hive very well. In 

 August of that year I had ten new Danzen- 

 baker hives set up that I had no immediate 

 use for. My neighbor came to me and said 

 if I would let him have those ten hives he 

 would transfer some bees into them that 

 were in hives that, through age, had given 

 out. The next spring he transfei-red 60 

 colonies to Danzenbaker hives, and likes 

 them better than the ones he previously 

 used; so in this it is to unders+and first tlie 

 hive. T can handle Danzenbaker frames 

 faster than than I can handle the hanging 

 frames, because I can handle them in twos, 

 threes, and fours, and never kill more bees 

 than with the open-end hanging frames. 



After taking all the honey the bees have 

 been able to make, if one Avill see that they 

 are well supplied wnth stores for winter, 

 and will understand that the object of the 

 inventor was to use a frame so shallow that 

 it would force the honey into the supers, 

 and learn to use the closed-end frames 

 properly, I consider the Danzenbaker hive 



