THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



141 



com])s. A frame less than six 

 inches in depth inside is too shal- 

 low for anything. It is not a ques- 

 tion of wintering on snch frames, 

 for I think that bees can be suc- 

 cessfully wintered on combs three 

 inches deep ; nor is it a question of 

 breeding when the hive is once full 

 of bees ; but the trouble is in mak- 

 ing the start at breeding in the 

 early spring. The whole season's 

 operations are dependent on this 

 start. A very shallovv frame is not 

 deep enough to allow a cluster of 

 reasonable size to rear sutBcient 

 brood to push on the work at fruit 

 bloom. From April 1 to 10 are 

 laid the eggs that will hatch out 

 the nurse becb for the greater part 

 of the brood reared during fruit 

 bloom and early May that we rely 

 upon to gather the harvest. We 

 must have these early nurse bees 

 or fail. We cannot get them on a 

 frame less than six inches in depth 

 in the clear, which is about the 

 depth of the cluster on the cold 

 days of early spring. 



With a deeper frame, inverting 

 becomes a practical measure that 

 may be depended upon in extend- 

 ing the brood area and for the re- 

 moval of the honey to the supers 

 at any time before the queen be- 

 comes exhausted by egg-laying. 

 After that it is of no use to invert 

 brood combs. But in any case, if 

 the queen continues to lay exten- 

 sively after the time when the eggs 

 laid would hatch out non-produc- 

 ing workers, I should confine the 

 queen on the case of brood contain- 

 ing the most sealed honey by the 

 use of the honey-board, placing tiie 

 other case above it with the brood 

 as near the supers as it is possible 

 to get it. Or, if the combs are not 

 too old and dirty, I would place the 

 case on the top of the supers, in 

 which case the drones will find their 

 way out of a very small i)assage 

 near the top of the hive if they can 

 see the light. 



THE SYSTEM OF CONTRACTION. 



In hiving swarms into iiives with 

 a contracted brood space, we have 

 a measure at once simple, practical 

 and efficient for ihe purpose of in- 

 creasing the production of comb 

 honey. The system originated 

 with and was first made known to 

 the public by Mr. G. M. Doolittle. 

 In developing it there is, perhaps, 

 as much credit due to the writer, as 

 to any one, who first gave the 

 outlines of the modern sj^stem of 

 producing comb honey, from exper- 

 iments made in 1883 and in 1884, 

 with queen-excluding honey boards 

 in connection therewith, in the 

 "•American Bee Journal," Vol. xxi, 

 l)age 101. As I now practise it, a 

 brood case of the proper size 

 (wliich may contain anywhere from 

 750 to 850 square inches of comb 

 surface), a wood and zinc queen-ex- 

 cluding hone3'-board (which is also 

 my invention but now given to the 

 public), and one or more sec- 

 tion cases are used in which to hive 

 all swarms. It is only by the use 

 of such a hive that we can take full 

 advantage of natural swarming and 

 turn it at once to practical account. 

 In my experience the work going 

 on in the supers of the old colonies, 

 when transferred to the new ones 

 after swarming has been accelera- 

 ted and a larger product is ob- 

 tained from those that swarm than 

 Irom those that do not swarm. 



The brood frames in all cases 

 are provided with starters as 

 advised originally by Mr. Doo- 

 little. They are cut from brood 

 foundation one to two inches 

 wide and fastened in the frames 

 with melted wax. As there are i'evf 

 combs to build we have never had 

 much drone comb built, certainly 

 not more than every colony should 

 have ; and as the combs are shal- 

 low they are always built straight 

 and regular, the s[)acing being al- 

 ways 1| inches from centre to cen- 

 tre of frames. 



