70 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



harvest on brood-chambers of the size 

 stated. It seems that where all sealed 

 honey is placed above the brood and 

 is quite out of reach of the queen that 

 a less amount of brood is reared in 

 the latter part of July and first of 

 August, but there is sufficient brood- 

 rearing later on so that there will be 

 as many bees in the hive with small 

 brood-chambers as in the one with a 

 large brood-nest. Such are the gen- 

 eral facts in regard to the use of the 

 queen-excluder and the necessity for 

 a modified hive suited to its require- 

 ments in the production of comb honey. 

 New Philadelphia, 0, 



Large or Small Hives. 



BY WM. G HE WES, 



Whether we use a large or a small 

 hive when working for extracted 

 honey depends on the way the bees 

 are managed. There are two systems 

 of management most in vogue. 



First — Extracting every week or 

 ten days, or as fast as the combs are 

 filled. 



Second — By adding supers filled 

 with empty combs whenever more 

 room for storing is needing, and ex- 

 tracting all at one time when the 

 honey flow ends. 



The first method is the one almost 

 universally followed in California, 

 and a ten-frame Langstroth is gener- 

 ally considered the proper size. 



When tiering up is practiced the 

 bees will swarm too much if the hive 

 is small. Ten-Quinby frames for the 

 brood-nest is better than any other 

 size. The surplus frames should be 

 half depth, or about six inches. There 

 are objections to having two sizes of 

 frame in the same hive, but they are 



more than counterbalanced by the 

 advantages. Full depth frames are 

 more apt to break when extracting or 

 to melt down in hot weather. The 

 bees, too, go to work more readily in 

 a small-sized super than in a large one. 



To sum up: If you have but little 

 time to devote to your bees adopt the 

 tiering up system and large hives, but 

 if able to give them much attention 

 the small hive will do, and if not cer- 

 tain that you will ever want to pro- 

 duce any section honey let it be the 

 eight-frame Laogstroth hive, as that 

 style is the one to which some of the 

 best appliances for producing section 

 honey are adapted. 



There has been much vigorous 

 English amployed in our bee journals 

 advocating certain styles of hives and 

 systems of management. I am some- 

 times tempted to think the whole 

 thing foolish when I see fellows with 

 no other knowledge of bee-keeping 

 than to put a swarm in a box, and 

 when the box is filled rob it, getting 

 big crops of honey. The largest crop 

 of honey of which I have heard being 

 taken in California the past season 

 was produced by a man who does not 

 use frames in the brood-chamber — 

 simply a couple of crossed sticks. He 

 has some seven hundred stocks and 

 produced forty odd tons of extracted 

 honey. 



New Hall, Los Angeles Co., Cal. 



The Central Michigan Bee-Keeper's 

 Association will be held at Pioneer 

 Room Capitol, Lansing, on Wednes- 

 day, May 6th. An invitation is ex- 

 tended to all. W. A. Barnes, Sec, 



Lansing, Mich. 



