THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



585 



As we have had so much on the 

 cause of losses of bees in winter, let 

 us now have a little on bee-houses 

 <and foul brood, as " an ounce of pre- 

 vention is better than a pound of 

 cure." 



Muir,0 Mich. 



For the American Beo JoumaL 



Hives with 8. 10 or more Frames. 



C. p. DADANT. 



Mr. Heddon is surprised that I dif- 

 fer so widely from liiui in regard to 

 the capacity of liives. lie says, lirst, 

 that location and climate may have 

 much to do with it. Our manage- 

 ment with large hives has been tesied 

 in the north, south and west of 

 France, in Switzerland, and Italy, as 

 well as in the United States, and has 

 given the same results, i. e., a larger 

 per cent, of honey and a largely de- 

 creased percentage of swarms. 



Do not think that these large hives 

 were adopted without contest. My 

 father, Chas. Dadant, had to contend 

 for years with men who, like Mr. 

 Heddon, thought that tlie small hives 

 were best, but would not stop to rea 

 son on tlie laying capacity of the 

 queens and the room required to keep 

 them busy. These same parties 

 argued that our better success was due 

 to our better location ; that Europe 

 could never produce such crops as the 

 United States, etc. In spite of all 

 this, the large improved Dadant- 

 Quinby hive, as large as a 12 or 13- 

 frame Langstroth hive, has won the 

 day wherever it was tried ; and this 

 success is due nearly altogether to 

 the greater room it gives to the devel- 

 opment of the colony. 



Mr. Heddon agrees that most queens 

 can lay 3,0(J0 eggs a day, and even 

 more. If we suppose tiiat we have, 

 in tlie same apiary, an S-trame hive 

 besides a 12-frame hive, we will see 

 that, about April 20, sooner or later, 

 according to the season, in a properly 

 conducted apiary, the two hives will 

 be about tilled witli brood and pollen 

 with sufficient honey to carry them 

 until the June crop From this date, 

 or. In an ordinary season, the queens 

 will lay to their utmost capacity till the 

 crop begins, say June 10. Thus about 

 June 10 the hive which gives its queen 

 the most room, will have some 50.000 

 more bees, hatched or hatching, tlian 

 the other ; or in other words, tlie 

 larger hives will have a popula- 

 tion one-half larger than the smaller 

 one. If the crop of the smaller hive 

 is -50 poundsduring the clover harvest, 

 the crop of the larger will be 75 

 pounds, of which 25 pounds may be 

 placed in those lower combs, to which 

 Mr. H. objects so much. 



Mr. Heddon wants all the honey in 

 the upper story, and says that he will 

 feed sugar syrup for winter. How 

 long does he intend to follow that up? 

 and how many of our practical bee- 

 men does he think will follow that 

 method V 



This matter of taking all the honey 

 for sale, and feeding back sugar syrup, 

 is indeed very nice in theory, and can 



be carried through, as I have no doubt 

 Mr. H. will do it, since we tried it 

 ourselves on a small scale ; but it 

 will never be a practical method, and 

 all our large honey-producers will 

 prefer wintering tlieir bees on good 

 clover honey harvested by the bees 

 without the use of the reversible 

 frame. Remember that we (Mr. H., 

 myself and others) are here writing 

 for farmers who are willing to follow 

 the best methods of producing the 

 most honey from the least number of 

 bees, provided these methods are 

 safe, expedient and prompt. 



To recapitulate: With a large 

 hive we need not feed so often in the 

 spring, as there is more room in the 

 brood-cliainber, and we can leave 

 more honey, or return more combs. 

 We need not reverse the trames, as 

 we are willing and anxious that bees 

 should put a part of their clover crop 

 ill the breeding apartment to winter 

 on. 



We d(i not have so many swarms, 

 as the queen is not cramped for room; 

 hence, do not have to keep so many 

 empty hives on hand. VVe produce 

 more bees from the same number of 

 colonies, and have less handling for 

 the same amount of production. After 

 the clover crop is over, we do not 

 have to watch or feed our bees for 

 fear of starvation between this and 

 the fall crop, since we have plenty of 

 honey in the breeding apartment of 

 the hive. 



When winter comes we do not have 

 to buy sugar and feed, and give a 

 chance to the malicious part of the 

 community to say that we are buying 

 sugar to make honey. When winter 

 comes we can reduce the hive with a 

 division-board or contractor, leaving 

 the best frames of honey for the bees 

 to winter on, filling the empty space 

 with chaff or leaves, or some other 

 nonconductor. At all times our hive 

 is stronger, and can better stand 

 through the " ups and downs " of the 

 business. 



Hamilton,*© Ills. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Prevention of Swarming, etc. 



W. A.' SHEWMAN. 



Believing that I have been success- 

 ful in the management of a few colo- 

 nies of bees, in the production of 

 honey, and prevention of swarming 

 during the honey-flow, this summer, 

 it may be of interest to some if 1 de- 

 scribe my methods, although not en- 

 tirely new, yet a different practice 

 from anything I have noticed in the 

 Bee Journal. 



I began in the spring with 7 colo- 

 nies in Simplicity hives, only 4 of 

 them being average colonies, and the 

 others weak and did not bid fair to 

 amount to anything. They were all 

 fed liberally in the spring, on sugar 

 syrup, one as much as the other, and 

 in due time they were bred up from 

 seven-frame colonies to full ones. 



Heretofore I have given all the 

 frames that a hive would hold, being 

 an average of twelve, but it seemed 



to me that that number was more 

 than could ever be used to advantage, 

 so I made false frames for each end 

 of the hive, leaving room for only 

 nine frames; these were tilled with 

 brood in due time, and the four best 

 colonies were ready for business when 

 the white clover flow arrived. It did 

 not take long before tliey were ready 

 for the sections ; and I was ready for 

 the bees with plenty of upper stories. 

 The weak ones were not ready for the 

 sections until the basswood was well 

 along. 



From all that I have read, there 

 has been no sure method found to 

 prevent swarming, and my experience 

 in years past was that swarms issu- 

 ing in tlie midst of honey-flows greatly 

 decrease the surplus honey crop. I 

 attempted a plan to prevent swarm- 

 ing, and it has been a complete suc- 

 cess ; but what has been true in one 

 season in manipulating bees, may not 

 hold good in other years, hence my 

 method may not do to adopt ; never- 

 theless I am so well satisfied with it 

 that I shall repeat it until it fails, or 

 something better is discovered. It is 

 as follows : 



During the white clover season, and 

 about the time I thought the bees 

 might be making arrangements to 

 swarm, the upper stories were re- 

 moved and a frame of sealed brood 

 taken from each hive, shaking off the 

 bees, and a frame of foundation in- 

 serted in its place. This gave the 

 queen a chance to work in a large 

 number of new cells, and by the time 

 she had filled it with eggs, cells in 

 other frames were made vacant by 

 young bees hatching out, and she 

 ifound all the work she wanted at 

 home. 



Whether that was so or not, — 

 there was no inclination to swarm, 

 and the bees were all kept together 

 and filled the sections with a ven- 

 geance. Then again, when the bass- 

 wood came on in full flow the same 

 treatment was given the four best 

 colonies. The weak ones I knew 

 would not swarm, and they were only 

 given top stories. The frames of 

 brood taken from the hives were 

 placed in empty hives, two and three 

 in a place, to form nuclei. I had some 

 doubts about the brood hatching, as 

 it is said by those "old advisers," 

 that it requires bees to take care of 

 the hatching brood. But I never saw 

 brood hatch better ; they all got along 

 as well as could be asked, and soon 

 made nice, young colonies. When 

 they had all hatched, I procured fer- 

 tile queens, and found no trouble in 

 introducing them into their new 

 homes. 



Now what was the result of non- 

 swarming y If some of the bee-keep- 

 ing fraternity could take a peep into 

 my honey-room, I do not think they 

 would be long in deciding. But as I 

 cannot show all, a few figures will 

 present the result to many who cannot 

 come in and see. It might be proper 

 here to say that the weather durmg 

 the white clover season was cold, and 

 the larger amount of surplus honey 

 was secured from basswood, which, 

 in this vicinity, lasted for eleven days. 

 The following numbers will represent 



