536 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



outlay of hives and fixtures, and less 

 honey. 



He says that queens cost nothing 

 during 'the swarming season. Yes, 

 they cost the colony 80 days without 

 breeding; and in practical bee-keep- 

 ing it is cheaper to buy dollar-queens 

 than to rear them. Our hives, con- 

 taining the equivalent of 12 Lang- 

 stroth frames, cost but little more 

 than an eight-frame liive, and can be 

 reduced to suit the size of the colony, 

 or rather tlie laying-capacity of the 

 queen, if necessary ; but as a general 

 thing a queen that cannot lill ten 

 Langstroth frames during the breed- 

 ing season, at the times wiien eggs 

 are most valuable, is not flt to keep. 



Mr. H. wishes to have it understood 

 that he reduces the breeding-room to 

 five frames. This would give the 

 queen room for only a little more than 

 1,G00 eggs daily, indeed, it looks as 

 if he tliought that the less bees we 

 have, the better. 



He speaks of Mr. Adam Grimm, in 

 support of his views. Mr. Grimm 

 lived in a time when bees were high, 

 and he found that it paid better to 

 rear bees for sale, than to produce 

 honey. The eight-frame hive will 

 give plenty of swarms, as I said be- 

 fore, for the queen is soon crowded 

 for room. I can bring as high au- 

 thority in support of my views as can 

 Mr. Heddon. About a week ago I 

 visited Mr. Langstroth, and in dis- 

 cussing this subject, he told me that 

 he had noticed that colonies whose 

 hives contained 1." Langstroth frames, 

 produced more honey, on the average, 

 than those whose hives contained only 

 ten frames. Mr. C. F. Muth was of ex- 

 actly tie same opinion. 



To the beginners, who read our dis- 

 cussions, I would say : Do not rely 

 altogether on any one bee-keeper's 

 advice. \'ou may try an eight-frame 

 hive, and even a (ive-frame one, but 

 please try a twelve-frame hive also, 

 on a sufficiently large scale to make a 

 test. You will tiud it better for win- 

 tering, better for the prevention of 

 swarming, and better for the produc- 

 tion of both comb and extracted 

 honey. Perhaps the queens will not 

 last quite so long, but the returns will 

 be greater. 



These are facts, not theories, long 

 and thoroughly tried on hundreds of 

 colonies, and the test is still going on 

 with me. 



Hamilton,*© Ills. 



For the American Bee JournaL 



That Contraction Method. 



W. II. STEWAUT. 



Since reading Mr. Heddon "s article 

 on pages 213 and 214, I have been 

 anxiously looking tor his promised 

 expliination of bis new method of 

 changing sugar syrup for natural 

 winter stores, '" without cost, danger, 

 or even the trouble of opening the 

 hives ;" and on page 487 he gives 

 sometliing of his promised article, 

 which I eagerly read over and over 

 again. 



I must say that I am somewhat dis- 

 appointed, for I there liiid little that I 



would dare to put into practice. I 

 also think that Mr. Heddon's bees 

 must work very differently from the 

 way bees do in this locality. Mr. H. 

 says : " I find that the queen uses 

 these five combs [in his contracted 

 hive] to that extent that I get as 

 much brood in them as in any seven 

 combs where the whole eight are 

 used." I am now working my bees 

 in hives 17x17 inches, and fiij inches 

 deep, ten frames to the hive, and I 

 find that the bees store the two out- 

 side combs with bee-bread and honey, 

 which they use and must have to feed 

 tlieir brood. That leaves eight frames 

 of brood, and now In the height of 

 the breeding season I have the hives 

 from two to four stories high ; and in 

 many of the second stories there are 

 six combs of brood besides the eight 

 frames below. 



When these frames of brood in the 

 second story are sufficiently advanced, 

 I give them to nuclei, and thus, in a 

 short time, those small colonies are 

 built up to full strength, and ready for 

 a surplus story. Any one must see 

 that a colony on tive, or even eight 

 frames, in the brood-chamber, and 

 the queen kept there by a honey- 

 board, and only sections above that 

 board, there cannot be more than }4. 

 or ?3 the brood in the hive that the 

 queen is able to produce. 



I have tried the same sized hive 

 that I now use, with one side of the 

 hive so arranged that it could be 

 moved inward so as to contract the 

 brood-chamber to any size all the way 

 from ten to three combs, and I have 

 found that the queens do not deposit 

 eggs in the two outside combs next to 

 the hive. It is true that we may so 

 change the frames as to place full 

 frames of brood next to the board, 

 but in this locality the bees will allow 

 the brood in those outside combs to 

 hatch out, and then they fill them 

 with honey and bee-bread as at first. 

 They did this every time when I was 

 using the adjustable hive, whether I 

 had in few or many combs. Thus it 

 is, that if I were to adopt ]Mr. Hed- 

 don's "contracting" plan, and have 

 only five frames in the brood cham- 

 ber', there would be but three frames 

 of brood, which I think undesirable. 



In the fourth paragraph on page 

 4.S7, Mr. Heddon evidently gives us to 

 understand that his system works 

 best with (ierman bees. Thus, if we 

 would get ttie full benefit of his sys- 

 tem, we must stop Italianizing and go 

 at once to (iernianizhig. • 



It is well known by every well- 

 posted bee- keeper, that when the 

 stores run short in the latter part of 

 the season, the rearing of brood is 

 discontinued in proportion, and when 

 once stopped will not be resumed ; 

 and Mr. H's plan would give us noth- 

 ing but old bees to put into winter 

 quarters; and if he jiuts up none but 

 old bees next winter, he may give 

 them what food he thinks best, and 

 keep tliem as warm as he will, still he 

 will have to report a loss again next 

 spring. 



lie says that what little floating 

 pollen isnecessarily in honey, renders 

 it less fit for winter stores than is 

 sugar syrup. Every observing bee- 



keeper, located where the bees have 

 access to the orange-colored asters 

 that are found in great abundance 

 along the streams late in the fall, 

 knows that they gather a large 

 amount of pollen from that plant, 

 and if the brood and honey are kept 

 out of the combs, they will be filled 

 with this pollen ; and if the combs 

 that contain it are not taken away 

 (and the hive opened for that pur- . 

 pose), there will be much more pollen 

 in the brood-chamber where he has 

 reduced them to " a perfect starvation 

 condition,'' than would be found in a 

 hive full of ordinary honey. 



But Mr. H. says that bee-bread will 

 not be eaten by the old bees, if they 

 are warm enough. Perhaps that may 

 be true ; and perhaps this aster pollen 

 (or bee-bread made from it) will prove 

 to be harmless. 



In November, before it is late 

 enough to put the bees into the cellar, 

 they are at times subjected to quite 

 cold weather, and sometimes we look 

 anxiously for several days, for a day 

 warm enough for the bees to have a 

 flight before we put them into winter 

 confinement. But that day does not 

 come, and we have to put them up 

 and take our chances. Mr. Heddon's 

 " contracting method " does not take 

 all the bee-bread out of the hive, for 

 he says that his "little brood-cham- 

 ber contains but little honey and 

 pollen, " and his theory indicates that 

 when cold, they will eat that pollen 

 (or bee bread, which ever happens to 

 be present) ; and now that they have 

 been cold, have warmed up by exer- 

 cise, wasted tissue, and finally eaten 

 bee-bread, how are we to get that bee- 

 bread out of their intestines in steady 

 cold weather, without a warm day for 

 the bees to fly 'i 



When Mr. H. says that he is abso- 

 lutely certain that he will lose no bees 

 next winter, he, according to his 

 theory, virtually affirms that he is 

 absolutely certain that when he gets 

 ready to put up his bees next fall, the 

 last day that he leaves them out will 

 be warm and pleasant, and not turn 

 cold enough to reduce the tempera- 

 ture in the hive so low as to prompt 

 the bees to make extra exertion to 

 warm up the hive. And furthermore, 

 does not the exercise of a day's flight 

 create an appetite in the bee for 

 another meal of nitrogenous food ? 

 Again, how are we to know that all 

 bees that have made an effort to 

 warm up a cold hive, fly out the same 

 day V If not, would they not spot the 

 inside of the hive soon after put into 

 the cellar. 



If we reduce our colonies in the fall, 

 to a " perfect starvation condition," 

 would we not have a busy time in 

 trying to keep one colony from plun- 

 dering another V "Would not those in 

 a starving condition be found swarm- 

 ing out and forcing their way in with 

 other colonies 'i 



I admire the energy and the inves- 

 tigating disposition of ^Nlr. Heddon ; I 

 wish to thank him for many good 

 thoughts ; I wish that he may success- 

 fully winter all his bees ; and that he 

 may be able to make ns all under- 

 stand how to "go and do likewise." 



Orion, p Wis. 



