AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



595 



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, DEEP FRAMES VS. STORIFYING. 



A Possible Compromise Between Eight and Ten Frame 

 Hives. Locality ^ot Enough Considered. 



BY F. L. THOMPSON. 



On page 367 of " Gleanings," the editor suggested increasing the capacity of 

 the 8-frame hive when desired by adding another 8-frame story. I tried the scheme 

 on about a dozen colonies the past season, adding the additional stories about May 

 1st. At the opening of the honey-flow more than half had considerably more brood 

 than they could have had in a single 8-frame story. One had 12 frames of brood, 

 one 11, and two or three 10, while the average could not have been less than 7, 

 and was probably more. But such hives are very cumbersome to look into, or to 

 handle in any way as a whole. Storifying with half-depth frames throughout would 

 be better. 



I experienced one objection to storifying, however, which I have never seen 

 stated in print. In raising up an upper story, I broke open as fine a queen-cell as I 

 ever saw, which had been built so as to be fastened to frames in both stories, I 

 found the queen failing, and not another cell in the hive. Later another cell was 

 started, and a queen reared, but egg-laying was suspended for some time, and the 

 colony is not now so strong. 



These colonies were given work to do in building brood-combs by inserting 

 empty frames after the flow had commenced. I do not see how they could profitably 

 be used for comb honey. The average capacity of a queen, when the flow is not too 

 early, may exceed that of an 8-frame chamber, but cannot attain to a 16-frame one. 

 Some of the crop would have to be in the form of extracted honey, and the bees 

 would be loth to go above. For producing both comb and extracted in the same 

 hive, shallow extracting-frames would be much better, so as to allow of tiering. 



Now this experience of mine with vertical expansion is in line with what Mr. W. 

 C. Frazier says, on page 546 of " Gleanings :" " A colony will do about as well on 

 8 as on 10 Langstroth frames, and I don't know but they will do better, as a 10- 

 frame colony's brood-nest is in the wrong shape. But make the 8-frame hive the 

 same capacity as the 10-frame, by adding two inches in depth to the frames, and 

 they will rear as great a percentage of brood in it as they did when It was only the 

 Langstroth depth." I have been waiting with much interest for the veterans to 

 arise and say either "Them's my sentiments," or "Fiddlesticks," on this point. 

 Surely, it is an important matter. Just think of it— with a frame 11?^ inches deep, 

 there should be over li more brood, at the same time of year, with the same queen, 

 and the same bees ! But even the editor did not bestow a foot-note upon it. I 



