AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



497 



Proper Size Brood-Chamber for 

 Comb Honey Production. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY GEO. F. BOBBINS. 



I read with eager interest the replies 

 to Query 857 — " How many cubic inches 

 should there be in the brood-chamber of 

 a hive for the successful production of 

 comb honey." 



The drift of those replies is pretty 

 much as I would have predicted. No 

 less than nine of them — the most of them 

 among the most prominent and success- 

 ful comb honey producers in the coun- 

 try — favor a brood-chamber of 2,000 

 cubic inches or less, at least during the 

 honey harvest. Four others use the 8- 

 frame Langstroth hive, which contains 

 about 2,070 to 2,205 cubic inches, ac- 

 cording to the length of frame and the 

 width of spacing allowed. 



Another four recommended the 10- 

 frame hive, only one of whom, I think, 

 has been especially a comb honey pro- 

 ducer — Mrs. Atchley. Prof. Cook and 

 others may, by " standard Langstroth," 

 mean the lO-frame hive. But neither 

 Prof. Cook nor Mr. Pond, I believe, have 

 ever made bee-culture a means of liveli- 

 hood particularly. 



Mr. Stone, with whom I have a more 

 intimate acquaintance than with any 

 other in the list, is a farmer, and does 

 not make honey-production a very 

 special pursuit. Only a few months ago 

 I heard him say, in substance, that he 

 did not take up bee-culture as a money- 

 making occupation, but simply because 

 he liked it. On hearing the remark, I 

 said to him, •' You would be a poor hand 

 to instruct one who wanted to make a 

 living by it." He answered frankly, " I 

 know I would." None of these, then, 

 are in any sense specialists in honey- 

 production. 



Dr. Miller, who chafiged from 10- 

 frame to 8-frame hives, is not sure that 

 he made anything by the change; but 

 you know he is never sure he knows 



anything ! It is evident, though, that 

 after having tried both sizes, in his own 

 mind the preponderance of argument Is 

 in favor of the smaller. So far as I 

 know. Dr. Miller is the only prominent 

 bee-keeper who ever advocated a small 

 brood-chamber, or contraction of the 

 same, that ever wavered in his adhesion 

 to that system. 



Mr. Hambaugh and the Dadants are 

 the only ones who recommend a very 

 large hive, and they are extracted-honey 

 producers. The Dadants do claim to 

 have tested the matter before the ad- 

 vent of the honey-extractor. How thor- 

 ough that test was, I do not know, but 

 it was certainly before contraction or 

 small brood-chambers were systematic- 

 ally tried and adopted by comb honey 

 producers. 



These replies strongly, if not conclu- 

 sively, indicate that producers of comb 

 honey find sooner or later that they 

 want a brood-chamber more or less con- 

 tracted, at least during the honey-flow. 

 More than that, I will assert that the 

 more one studies and works to get every 

 pound of honey his bees will store, and 

 every pound his field will yield, the more 

 pronounced contractionist he will be. 

 This is a rule to which there may be 

 exceptions, but they are rare. 



Understand, it is the comb honey 

 specialist who usually wants a small 

 brood-chamber. In discussing this 

 question of hives, we must always In- 

 quire what one wants a hive for. Bee- 

 keepers may be divided with respect to 

 the size of hive best suited to them, into 

 three general classes, viz. : The comb 

 honey specialist, the extracted honey 

 specialist, and the general bee-keeper. 

 It is not always easy to apply arbitrary 

 distinctions. It would be hard to tell to 

 which class some bee-keepers may be- 

 long. 



The third class, however, would in- 

 clude the generality of farmer and lady 

 bee-keepers, amateurs, and others who 

 devote less time and thought to bee-cul- 

 ture than to one or more other kinds of 

 business, or who do not make it particu- 

 larly a dollar-and cent occupation — all, 

 in fact, who are not pronounced special- 

 ists. 



Bee-keepers of the first class want a 

 small hive — not over 2,200 cubic inches, 

 generally less— those of the second clsss 

 want a large one of 3,000 cubic inches 

 or more ; while those of the third want 

 one of a mean between these two — about 

 2,500 or 2,600 cubic inches. 



The one who runs chiefly for ex- 

 tracted honey may work on the non- 

 swarming system. Bees will not swarm, 



