Nov. 8, 1906 



American Ttee Journal 



No. 20-Dadant Methods of 

 Honey-Production 



BY C. P. DADANT 



Mr. C. P. Dadant: — While traveling among 

 the New York State bee-keepers this summer, 

 I found a tendency among a lot of them to go 

 to big hives. Some had adopted hives with 

 14 Langstroth frames in the brood-chamber; 

 also using an extracting super the same depth 

 with 14 frames. They claimed that these big 

 hives were best for out-apiaries— no swarm- 

 ing, etc. 



I have become a convert to the big hive, but 

 I am in doubt concerning a few things, and 

 as you and your respected father had a large 

 experience in such matters, I would appre- 

 ciate it if you would advise me on the follow- 

 ing points: 



1. Would it not be best for me to adopt the 

 Jumbo hive, with its deep frame, rather than 

 a hive with 14 frames of Langstroth regular 

 depth? I believe the deeper Jumbo frame 

 makes the queen lay better than 14 frames 

 spread out so shallow. Am I right? 



2. In using an extracting super, Dr. 

 Phillips says if he adopted a Jumbo brood- 

 chamber he would also U6e a Jumbo body and 

 frames for an extracting super, as he would 

 not be bothered by two different sized frames 

 in his apiary. I notice you use a frame for 

 extracting that is shallower than your brood- 

 frames. Now, would you advise me to use a 

 Jumbo body and frame for extracting super? 



We can get from 100 to 120 pounds of ex- 

 tracted honey per colony here, and I think 

 the Jumbo 6uper wouldn't be too large, espe- 

 cially if the Jumbo brood-chamber were full 

 of bees. I don't want to have two kinds of 

 frames in a hive if I can avoid it.— D. E. L., 

 Sept. 26, 1906. 



Replying- to the above enquiries, I 

 wish to say that we long ago made a 

 thorough trial of both deep and shal- 

 low frames for extracting. We had at 

 one time something like 110 regular 10- 

 frame Langstroth hives occupied with 

 bees, and we considered that it might 

 pay to use double stories. We had 

 already, for years, used the 6j$-inch 

 super with a frame having a side-bar 6 

 inches deep. We made 60 or 80 full- 

 depth supers, but after a few years of 

 trial we discarded them. Mind, these 

 were of Langstroth depth, conse- 

 quently more shallow than our large 

 frames of Quinby size. The main ob- 

 jection to these frames was that the 

 super gave too much of an increase of 

 space at once, and caused too much 

 loss of heat in cool seasons, when com- 

 pared with the shallow supers. 



It sometimes happened that supers 

 were needed in May. At that time the 

 nights are cool, and a shallow super 

 does not cause the deperdition of heat 

 that a deep super makes. The bees 

 are slow to go into a deep super, very 

 probably for that same reason. But 

 when they go into the super they are 

 much more likely to draw the queen to 

 it with them. The frame being of the 

 same size as that of the lower depart- 



ment, there is more of a tendency for 

 her to lay in the super. It is certainly 

 for this reason that many extracted- 

 honey producers find it necessary to 

 place an excluding honey-board be- 

 tween the two stories. Excluding 

 honey-boards are unnecessary with our 

 management, and I have a dislike for 

 them because of the trouble they cause 

 when glued fast by the bees. It is 

 quite probable that there are not many 

 places where propolis is as plentiful as 

 it is here, for our bees literally fill all 

 the cracks and crevices with it at times 

 when there is no crop. It seems as if 

 their leisure hours in the dry summer 

 time were all employed in gathering 

 propolis. This is added to from year 

 to year. It is not objectionable in or- 

 dinary management with plain hives, 

 but honey-boards are usually so glued 

 that they are difficult to handle with- 

 out damaging them, and the bees 

 sometimes even stop up some of the 

 holes in a zinc excluding-board with 

 this sticky substance. We find that 

 with the shallow super, such as we use, 

 the bees take possession more readily, 

 and place honey more evenly through 

 it, leaving but little room for the 

 queen to lay ; and as she naturally pre- 

 fers deep combs, she remains down- 

 stairs more willingly. It is only when 

 she is short of drone-comb, and there 

 happens to be drone-comb in the super, 

 that she is readily induced to move up 

 to it. On the other hand, we found 

 that when we gave a full-depth super 

 the bees often filled only a part of the 

 depth with honey, and the queen was 

 more readily induced to move up and 

 stay there. 



There are some other advantages to 

 the shallow super. One of them is the 

 ease with which the comb may be un- 

 capped. The honey-knife will uncap a 

 6-inch comb with only one stroke. The 

 combs are less likely to break when ex- 

 tracted, if they are of new construction 

 and heavy. A deep comb, especially 

 in Quinby size, is quite fragile when 

 new and heavily laden. 



Another reason for our preference, 

 is that a deep super is of great weight. 

 Our 6>6-inch supers usually weigh over 

 SO pounds each when full. They are suf- 

 ficiently cumbrous, and we do not wish 

 anything deeper. The shallow combs 

 are also more readily cleaned of bees. 



Taking it all in all, we can not see 

 that there is any advantage to deep 

 supers, but we see several disadvan- 

 tages which seemed very weighty to 

 us in actual trial. 



On the other hand, the reader will 

 bear in mind that we are not in favor 

 of an extracting super as shallow as 

 the 4 '4 -section super. A much greater 

 crop may be expected when running 

 for extracted honey, and supers that 



would give satisfaction in producing 

 comb honey are entirely inadequate 

 for the harvesting of extracted honey. 



The only possible use to which super 

 combs may be put is the feeding of 

 destitute colonies, and in that case 

 only would deep combs be serviceable. 

 But with our large hives there are 

 always enough spare combs in the 

 lower story of very heavy colonies to 

 feed the destitute ones. In years of 

 scarcity feeding has to be done in the 

 ordinary way, with liquid food in a 

 feeder. 



We certainly think the "Jumbo "a 

 good hive for the production of ex- 

 tracted honey, and much prefer it to 

 the shallow Langstroth ; but we rec- 

 ommend with it the use of shallow 

 supers, additional stories of these 

 supers to be given as occasion requires. 



Hamilton, 111. 



Testing Swarms Before Hiv- 

 ing Them 



BY C. W. DAYTON 



I would remind those who are so often 

 expressing the wish that bees would not 

 swarm, that the probability is that if 

 bees would not swarm they would breed 

 only enough to keep the colony intact — 

 that is, enough bees would be reared to 

 protect the queen and store only enough 

 honey for the wants of the small colony. 

 In other words, if they would not swarm 

 they would not prepare for swarming. 

 Like the dogs in Massachusetts, when 

 shorn of their tails there became a race 

 of dogs which neglected to grow tails. 

 So when we call swarming "the bane 

 of bee-keeping," we are not sure that it 

 would not be a greater bane not to have 

 swarms. 



It appears reasonable to me that 

 swarms and honey-gathering should go 

 hand in hand, and, as one may not 

 always balance the other, it is for the 

 hand of man to render the due assis- 

 tance or correction. Some colonies run 

 too much force or quantity of bees, while 

 others, which appear to be somewhat 

 deficient in bees, turn out to be what 

 we are pleased to call great rustlers 

 for honey. The populous colony will 

 get more honey than the other at a 

 time when honey is plentiful and easy 

 to get, but when there is a scarcity, the 

 other colony may " hold their own " by 

 far the best. At least that is the way 

 we often find it in watching colonies 

 one year with another. The breeding 

 line is situated somewhere between the 

 extremes of these characteristics, and 

 it requires an accurate understanding 

 of the particular locality in the matter 

 of honey-producing flora to locate this 

 most desirable line. 



It will not be proper to give this 

 matter of breeding our bees entirely 

 over to breeders, lest we get a race of 

 bees which are better fitted to produc- 

 ing queens than of providing stores 

 for a time of scarcity ; and this trait 

 can not be developed except by work 

 in the open fields. Of course, there 

 always will be breeders who are con- 

 scientious, and will breed bees for the 

 points of greatest utility in the hands 

 of their customers rather than for 

 their own immediate advantage. 

 This will build up a substantial and 



