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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March IS, 1906 



6— Dadant Methods of Honey-Production 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



BEFORE I leave the subjects of making artificial divisions 

 and of queen-rearing, I wish to mention something 

 which has" a hearing on both questions. 



With the new method of queen-rearing, the Doolittle 

 method, with its different improvements made by queen- 

 breeders, the apiarists have devised baby nuclei, in which they 

 hive only abo*ut 200 bees, and which are intended to be used 

 as a receptacle, or rather a home, lor young queens until they 

 are impregnated. Much opposition is made to the use of these 

 nuclei, which often prove inadequate. I believe the greater 

 part of the fault found is true, and I see that there is a ten- 

 dency to make larger nuclei. This is right. 



I would now suggest a method which we formerly used, 

 and which would enable the queen-breeder to save those nuclei 

 which turn out to be the best, for artificial increase. It is by 

 using a divisible frame such as we have described in "Laug- 

 stroth Revised," and which was devised by my father about 

 1870. He introduced it into Italv. on his trip to that countrv 

 in 1872. 



The frame is made in tun separate sections which join 

 together with a staple to form a frame of regular size. A 

 certain number of these frames are made and inserted in dif- 

 ferent hives — populous colonies. If it is desirable to use them 

 promptly, worker-comb may be transferred into them, and if 

 they are given in the center of strong colonies, they will soon 

 be filled with brood. ( Itherwise they may be built up with 

 foundation and given to the colonies during the spring months. 

 Small hives, in which these combs will fit, are built at the 



same time and are used for nuclei. These, of course, are 

 more expensive than the baby nuclei now used, but they are 

 also very much better. 



The advantage of these hives is that you can build nuclei 

 out of good combs with brood in them. One ordinary frame, 

 when divided, will make two combs, side by side, in one of 

 these small hives. If two ordinary combs are taken, a nucleus 

 can be formed of them that will have 4 combs of half length, 

 and the nucleus is as good as anybody can wish. If the 

 young queens are reared for sale, but are not sold at once, 

 many of them will breed, and these small colonies will build 

 up so as to make fairly strong ones before the summer is 

 over. So, with this method, which is certainly more ex- 

 pensive than that of the baby nuclei, you can rear better 

 queens, and in case they are not sold you may be able to 

 make quite an increase in your apiary. 



Many of our colonies in early times were built in this 

 manner : Whenever the small colony filled its hive, which 

 was made for 8 halves, or 4 full combs, we would transfer it 

 into a larger hive, by uniting the half combs together and 

 would build it up with combs of brood from other colonies. 

 Nuclei that were not wanted, at the end of the season would 

 be redistributed among the different colonies, and there was 

 no loss either of bees or combs. The empty nucleus hives 

 were put away to be used again the following season. 



This was intensive bee-culture, and lasted only as long as 

 we were desirous of increasing our colonies in number. In 

 an apiary wdiere it is desired to rear queen- for -ale. and good 

 queens only are wanted, the Langstroth frame could be di- 

 vided into three parts, each frame adjustable to any other 

 part. The trouble witli our top-bars was that we must get 

 the two parts of a pair together, or we were unable to adjust 

 1 With this top-liar, used by the Swiss apiarists and de- 

 scribed in the French edition of "Langstroth on the Honey- 

 Bee," any section of frame ma\ be ioined with any other sec- 

 tion, when they are put back together at the end of the 

 season. 



J he success of queen-rearing depends, of course, on the 



methods, but it depends much more on the energy and perse- 

 verance of the apiarist. I do not believe that there is a single 

 pursuit that requires more persistent attention and more 

 vigilance than this one. I am satisfied that there is more- 

 profit in rearing bees for honey than in rearing queens for 

 sale. At the same time, it is well for the energetic apiarist. 

 who can devote enough time to it, to rear the queens that he 

 wishes to use. in his own apiary. We have never bought as 

 good queens for honey-production as we were able to rear in 

 our own apiaries. I believe, also, that it is a good plan to 

 make exchanges of breeding queens from one apiarv to 

 another to prevent a too-continued in-and-in breeding. 



Since writing the above. I have received, from the Depart 

 ment of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 55. of the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology, on "The Rearing of Queen-Bees, by E. F. Phillips." 

 In this is an engraving of a Langstroth frame divided into 

 three parts, devised by Mr. Benton. From the cut, I judge 

 that when the frame is divided, each section is provided with 

 an added top-bar, and hung in the box with the long way 

 horizontal instead of vertical, as we do it. This Bulletin is 

 very interesting, and we trust it may be sent broadcast among 

 the bee-keepers. Hamilton, 111. 



• 



Among the Bees in the Spring 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



THE warmth of spring will soon he here, which brings life 

 and activity to the bees. This condition of things will 

 arouse us to action, and a feeling will steal over us to 

 see how great the amount of fun and cash can be gotten out 

 of our bees by dint of hard work and untiring energy, which 

 feeling, if rightly used, will tend greatly to make the days in 

 heat and sun more easily endured, and such as will be looked 

 back upon as clays of pleasure. As a little help along the line 

 of the right use of our energies, I thought a few words under 

 the above heading, would not be amiss with many of the read- 

 ers of our beloved American Bee Journal. 



The first thing to be done in the spring is to get each hive 

 or colony in as good shape as possible for the comfort and 

 prosperity of the bees. As soon as spring fairly opens I go 

 over all the hives in the apiary, and. to do this intelligently, 1 

 begin on one side of the yard and open the first hive. If the 

 bees have wintered well I may find that the colony has brood 

 in three or four combs, while the sealed honey along the top- 

 bars of the frames, and more still in the combs next the out- 

 side of the hive, tells me that they have an abundance of stores, 

 so that all this colony needs is to see that the hive is made as 

 tight and comfortable as possible, except the entrance, which 

 should be about 3 inches long by fg deep. When thus fixed a 

 little stone is placed on top in the center of the cover, which 

 tells me that the colony is a good one and needs no further 

 looking after till the fruit-trees bloom. 



The next 2 or 3 colonies prove about the same as the first, 

 so are fixed and marked the same. The fouth or fifth colony 

 may prove to be only a fair one, with some dead bees on the 

 bottom-board, which are either removed or a clean board sub- 

 stituted. , As they have brood in 2 or 3 combs, they are treated 

 similarly to the first, except that a frame of honey is placed 

 on either side of the brood, as such colonies are apt to get 

 short of stores, or a cold snap may come to keep them from 

 going to the outside of the hive where their honey is the 

 most liable to be. Then, such a colony does not have the 

 number of bees to go to the fields to secure the little early 

 honey there may be, as do the stronger ones in bees, so it is 

 always best to make sure that all will have honey enough, and 

 that close to the brood, to last till the bloom from fruit-trees 

 opens. The stone to mark this one is placed on front side of 

 the cover, which says "fair." 



As I pass along I find more good colonies, with now and 

 then a fair one; or a poor colony may be found. When such 

 an one appears on opening a hive. I will find it has brood in 

 only 1 or 2 frames, and only small patches at that, while the 

 little honey there is. is scattered throughout the hive. To fix 

 such a colony best. 1 take the two frames having the brood in 

 and set them near one side of the hive, and then take all the 

 other combs, after brushing the bees off which may be stran- 

 gling on them, to the bee-house. After getting 2 combs quite 

 well filled with honey, which were left over from the previous 

 season, I return with them, and place one each side of the 2 

 combs of brood, drawing all as near the side of the hive as is 

 consistent with the necessary bee-space, after which a division- 

 iard is nicely adjusted to suit the requirements of the little 

 colony, with a quilt carefully tucked about them on top. under 



