May 10 19(6 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



405 



for themselves. That is the best way to settle the matti r of 

 -worth and value of the Caucasians. 



[n conclusion, I wish only to say that all the yellow 

 that have come to us from the warm climates have proi I 

 to be worthless. Only the Italians have stood the test. In 

 the test for 45 years the Italians, in my experience, 

 good as we want. I mean, by "the Italians," the hardy yellow- 

 banded strains of bees. Essex Co., Mass. 



10— Dadant Methods of Honey- Production 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



I HAVE already described how we came to use large hives 

 and the extracting system. I will in another article tell 

 about the management for the crop. But before I go on, 

 I wish to say to the reader that I am not trying to push this 

 hive. Those who have Langstroth io-frame hives can pro- 

 duce honey and suceed with them. Even those who have 

 S-frame hives can succeed by following methods similar to 

 those of Dr. C. C. Miller, with whose system I lately became 

 acquainted, and who is certainly one of the most thorough 

 comb-honey producers. But for the production of extracted 

 honey on a large scale by the methods that give the least 

 labor, with the least swarming, I believe there is none that 

 will produce as good results as the hive of which a cut was 

 given on page 344. This hive is not patented. It is not 

 difficult to make in any carpenter shop. The frames are the 

 only part of the hive that requires circular saws, and they may 

 be bought at small cost. Hives of this system, if well made, 

 will last for 30 years. That is our experience. 



Our hive is not very portable. It is rather heavy and 

 cumbersome, and does not admit of tiering up bodies. The 

 only thing in it that is expected to tier up is the super, and 

 we have had enough of these on top of one another to raise 

 the hives to almost a man's height. A friend who has read 

 my previous articles asked me the other day: "What sort of 

 a derrick do you use to lift one of those hives and carry it 

 around?" Well, the truth is, we don't carry our hives around 

 like so many bushel boxes. We' don't think of moving our 

 hives of bees around, from one place to another, any oftener 

 than our chicken coop, our barn or our dwelling. There 

 are times when it is necessary to move, but those times are 

 to be avoided, whether it be bees, chickens or human beings. 



One thing you may depend upon, these hives are suffi- 

 cient for a large colony, and we get large swarms from them, 

 because the bees are never cramped. When the European 

 agent of the Root Co. (Mr. Bondonneau) came to America, 

 lie visited me. He had seen our hives in Europe, but only in 

 comparison with the old straw skep. He was astounded to 

 find colonies so strong, and said to me that he had not seen 

 such stroing colonies at any other apiary he had visited in 

 America, or Europe, either. It was in the month of August, 

 and the colonies were strong indeed. Don't understand 

 that we always have strong colonies. We have reverses as 

 well as any one else. There is no royal road to success in 

 anything. It takes perseverance and attention to get re- 

 sults and no hive, no system, will Sive the slovenly and 

 •careless a positive success. But the base and foundation of 

 successful bee-keeping is to keep colonies strong and this 

 may be done only by having room enough in the brood- 

 chamber for bees, brood, honey, and pollen, in plenty. 



It is held that there is something in location, as to the 

 advisability of using large hives. It would be an error to 

 deny the influence of location on any system, but I do not 

 think location has as much to do with size of hives as man- 

 agement has. The least number of manipulations is required 

 when the largest hives are used. 



Two enquiries have just reached me concerning the 

 division-board or dummy, which we use in our hives. The 

 dummy used by most small-hive apiarists is just a thin board 

 put in at the side, which is removed to give space when 

 handling the frames. This, to my mind, is the least neces- 

 sary use of a dummy. The reason why we call these boards 

 "division-boards," is, they were intended originally to divide 

 the hive into several compartments, and that we use them 

 yet for separating the part of the hive that is used by the 

 bees, from the empty space, whether large or small, at the 

 side. True, in an out-apiary, where no divisions arc mada 

 where the colonies are all in good shape, the dummy is 

 hardly ever moved. But when we have weak colonies, or 

 have made nuclei, we dislike to place them in a large 

 brood-chamber. It seems to us they feel about like human 

 beings housed in a church or in a large hall — they v> to 



have some sort of cozy cornet where they can huddle to- 

 gether and keep warm. 



The ordinary dummy is made free from all sides, so 

 that the bees may not glue it last. We don't want our dum- 

 mies to allow the heat to ]uss off around each end, for, 

 in that case, they are only equal to an ordinary comb in a 

 frame. We think there is loss of heat in this space on the ends, 

 and so we devised an end to our dummies that may fit 

 without ever being tight, and without ever being glued fast 

 in a way that would cause a jerk and a jar when the dummy 

 is moved. This is achieved by nailing a strip of oilcloth 

 or enamel cloth on the end of the dummy, so that it may 

 make a soft half-circle, which rests well against the end of 

 the hive, but which gives, and gets loose, at the least exer- 



tion. In this way we have a dummy that effectually en- 

 closes the colony of bees within the limits we desire. The 

 bottom of the dummy might be fixed in the same way, but 

 heat never goes down — it rises — so there is no deperdition 

 of heat at the bottom, and we find it advisable to leave a 

 bee-space at the bottom, so that the most active bees make 

 the police of the empty room at the side. 



When a small swarm or a nucleus is confined to, say about 

 half the usual number of combs, until it gains strength, when 

 combs are added to suit its need, the dummy is placed up 

 against the last comb and there remains until more combs 

 are added. A small colony may winter on six of our combs. 

 The space behind the dummy is then filled with dry leaves. 

 There is no necessity of explaining to the- reader the ad- 

 vantage of such a wall of warmth-keeping material. The 

 hive always faces south, with us, so that this heavy wall is on 

 the most windy side, which is always west or northwest 

 here. The hive being double on the back, the bees are very 

 well protected against the high winds, and we ascribe a good 

 part of our success in wintering to this method. We may say 

 all we please about a cluster of bees keeping warm anywhere 

 if they have enough to eat. We all know that there is a limit 

 to their endurance, and we know, also, that the colder they 

 are the more they consume. So it is a good plan to shelter 

 them as much as possible in out-of-door wintering. 



The space behind the dummy, when the colony is reduced 

 in number of combs, may be used for feeding. Sections 

 partly emptied or a saucer full of feed, or any kind of feeder 

 maybe put down behind the dummy in easy reach of the 

 bees. They soon find it, and if the entrance is reduced so 

 as to leave only the opposite side open, there is no danger of 

 robbers. 



We make our dummies of 7 s lumber. We find that they 

 are stronger than thin ones, and there is but little expense 

 to them, as they are made of refuse or knotty lumber, and 

 are cleated on the ends to prevent splitting. We. leave a 

 full-frame space for the dummy, and this gives us a good, 

 big space when it is removed. 



In another article or two, I will describe our method 

 of producing extracted honey. Hamilton, 111. 



A Queen-Bee Free as a Premium. — We are now book- 

 ing orders for Untested Italian Queens to be delivered in 

 May or June. This is the premium offer: To a subscriber 

 whose own subscription to the American Bee Journal is 

 paid at least to the end of 1906, we will mail an Untested 

 Italian Queen for sending us one new subscription with 

 $1.00 for the Bee Journal a year. Or, we will renew your 

 subscription to the American Bee Journal for a year, and 

 send a fine Untested Italian Queen — both for $1.50. Now 

 is a good time to get new subscribers. If you wish extra 

 copies of the Bee Journal for use as samples, let us know 

 how many you want and we will mail them to you. Address 

 all orders to the office of the American Bee Journal. 



