THE AMEBIC AN APICULTURTST. 



43 



STORIFYING HIVES AND TIIIO USES 

 OF THE QUEEN EXCLUDER. 



In the economical and profitable pro- 

 duction of comb honey it was shown in 

 my last article that a modified liiv^e from 

 those in general use embracing tlie stor- 

 ifying princii)le is needed, that a small 

 brood chamber is alone adapted to the 

 use of the queen excluder. After near- 

 ly ten years of practice in contracting 

 the brood '^est, beekeepers have gener- 

 ally decided that six Langstroth frames 

 or its eciuivalcnt is the limit of profita- 

 ble contraction. The various reasons 

 why this is so it is unnecessary to dis- 

 cuss here, but it is certain that on a 

 shallow brood nest of this capacity such 

 as we need in the best farm of the stori- 

 fying hive we must use a queen excluder 

 to keep the queen out of the sections. 

 With frames as deep as the Gallup and 

 American it is true that there is less ten- 

 dency for the (jueen to enter the sec- 

 tions when the brood nest is contracted, 

 but the difficulties of supporting on such 

 frames are so great that a storifying hive 

 of this kind cannot be successfully op- 

 erated and this same trouble exists to 

 some extent with the standand L. frame. 

 In other words, the contracted brood 

 nest must present a suitable surface on 

 top to place a sufficient number of sec- 

 tions for the bees to work to advantage. 

 This number is not less than twenty- 

 four one-pound sections. A brood cliam- 

 ber of the capacity of six standard L. 

 frames must therefore of necessity be 

 flat and shallow and it is this that has 

 brought me to the use of eight brood 

 frames 7 inches deep and about 17 

 inches long for a brood nest. On this 

 we are obliged to use the queen exclu- 

 der below the sections and without it a 

 storifying hive of this description for the 

 production of <;omb honey is impracti- 

 cable. 



But the matter of keeping the queen 

 out of the sections is only one of the 

 many valuable uses of the queen exclu- 

 der. At the same time that by its use 

 we keep the queens out of tlie sections, 

 w^e are able to so far prevent all burr- 

 combs that this trouble which is com- 



mon to nearly all the standard hives in 

 use ceases to exist with this hive. It en- 

 ables us to take apart the hives quickly 

 and easily in all needed operations with- 

 out great disturbance of the bees when 

 actively storing honey, and what is most 

 important of all, it enables us to get the 

 largest possible yield of comb honey and 

 compels the bees to use economically 

 any siu-])lus the beekeeper may leave 

 them for winter so that feeding for win- 

 ter is seldom required. 



Add to these facts the great advan- 

 tages in successful wintering over other 

 hives when two stories of these shallow 

 brood chambers are used and the fur- 

 ther fact that two stories are needed in 

 the most successful spring breeding and 

 we begin to see some of the reasons for 

 modifying the hives in general use if we 

 are ever to have an econouical and 

 profitable system of beekeeping. 



As to burr- combs the queen excluder 

 will prevent them whenever we place a 

 set of empty combs, or combs partly 

 built, or combs on which the bees are 

 at work above them. Tiiis grand fact 

 was first made known in the Api, Feb. 

 issue of 1890. In commencing to build 

 new comb the instinct of the bees is to 

 extend the work from the combs of the 

 brood-nest, but *if we extend the work 

 for them in the manner indicated to be- 

 gin with they build no burr-combs. 



Hence, if we take a two story hive 

 full of brood at the beginning of the 

 honey flow, and put a queen excluder 

 and a case of sections between the sto- 

 ries with the queen in the lower story, 

 there will be no burr-combs built as long 

 as plenty of surplus room is provided 

 between the stories. Now at the be- 

 ginning of the honey flow, or as soon as 

 a colony is ready for the sections, I rec- 

 ommend this practice in putting on all 

 sections. We may either smoke the 

 queen down into the lower storv to be- 

 gin with, or we may put on the sections 

 as advised, placing the upper story of 

 brood on top ; and then, in four days, 

 take out a central frame and if eggs are 

 seen hunt up the queen and run her in 

 at the entrance to the lower story. When 



