1903 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



223 



THE DEPTH OF FRAMES. 



(Dr. L. E. Kerr.) 



IX THE APIARIES of bee-keepers 

 extensive and uniiretentioiis, there 

 are in use at the present time an 

 ahiiost endless variety of styles and 

 sizes of brood-frames. There are, in 

 truth, vastly too mm-h variance along 

 this line for tlie accomplishment of the 

 most good to the bee-business. The 

 really good ones, however, it must be 

 admitted, are not in too great evidence, 

 unfortunately. Thougli we can make 

 them answer our purpose, w^here we 

 have no other choice, our best frames 

 are far from perfect; while the vast 

 majority are intolerable and have hin- 

 dered much the advancement of the 

 pursuit. 



Perhaps, in determining upon the 

 value of a frame, one of the foremost 

 considerations is the depth; for upon 

 this the amount of honey secured will 

 depend to a very great extent. All 

 are aware that, in the gj-oduction of 

 comb-honey, there is a depth which 

 can be overstepped only by an accom- 

 panying decrease in surplus. Not to 

 show where this line should be prop- 

 erly drawn, but to point out why it is 

 a mistake to use a frame of too great 

 a depth, Avill be the aim in this arti- 

 cle. 



In the production of comb-honey it 

 is an indisputable fact that the npper 

 part of the Itrood-nest should, while 

 surplus is being stoi'ed, be kept im- 

 mediately next the honey contained in 

 the super. This, rest assured, will not 

 be the existing condition if the frames 

 used are deeper tlian at least the 

 Langstroth. 



With a prolific queen, the amount 

 of honey stored oelow, in a hive the 

 depth of the Langstroth, will be small; 

 still, there will always be some. Ow- 

 ing to these circumstances there 

 seems to be a tendency, just now, to- 

 ward a frame even more shallow than 

 the Langstroth. A frame is wanted 

 of a depth tlint there will be no honey 

 whatever stored below during the sea- 

 son in which the surplus receptacles 

 are on. 



Some one has said that a deep frame 

 winters best where the climate is a 

 cold one. So will an old box winter 

 the bees in a still better condition- but 



no one would thiidc of going liack to 

 the old-fashioned box liive on that ac- 

 count. Luckily, however, this talk of 

 deej) frames being best for winter is 

 all nonsense, and a colony on Lang- 

 stroth frames, if they have suflRclent 

 honey, will stand an equal chance 

 with any in the world. 

 ■Germania, Ark., Aug. 24, 1903. 



NONSECTIONAL BROODCHAMBER 

 HIVES. 



(W. W. McNeal.) 



WITH THE added experience of 

 another honey harvest I reaf- 

 firm my l»elief in tlie eificieucy 

 of large non-sectional brood-chamber 

 hives. 



My conversion to tlie big hive and 

 system was against my will, for I was 

 an ardent admirer of the little hive 

 and its supposedly superior merit. 

 The written story of it was delight- 

 fully fascinating to me. For years, 

 long since past and gone, I clung to 

 the principles embodied in the section- 

 al brood-chamber. But that, too, is 

 past and gone. Dissatisfaction with, 

 and the abandonment of the sectional 

 hive, in part, was but the natural re- 

 sults of hope long deferred by the re- 

 peated failure of this hive to give that 

 nmnerical strength of colony early in 

 the season that is so necessary to suc- 

 cess. 



Neither climatic condition nor floral 

 surroundings here favor the hive an3 

 system of management. Recourse to 

 the sugar barrel is the real life of the 

 method and though the privilege may 

 l)e accorded the user under cei'tain 

 conditions, the privilege is one that is 

 very apt to be abused. It is a question ^^. 

 whether the feeding of anything to 

 liees except honey can be pursued 

 along perfectly legitimate lines. "DF- 

 luted sin is not virtue," and if it is a 

 moral right that a little syrup may 

 be stored in the supers to be sold as 

 so much honey the complexion of the 

 case should not l>e changed when in- 

 stead of 1 ])er cent, or 20 per cent, the 

 contents of a package labeled "Honey" 

 were 100 per cent, fed syrup. 



Yes, to me, the sectional brood-cham- 

 ber hive has lost its lustre. The big 

 single story brood-chamber has shown 



