102 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



July 



brood chamber, but of course six or 

 seven frames are uot enough in them- 

 selves for the building up of a good 

 populous colony for comb honey 

 building. So in order to gain this 

 essential point a shallow chamber of 

 eight closed and half depth frames 

 made same as the dovetailed section 

 holder with a top bar added, the end 

 bars If x 5-16, top and bottom bar 

 one inch by 5-16 are used. We now 

 have the equivalent of ten frames in 

 his or eleven frames in ours. These 

 same frames are placed over the brood- 

 chamber without excluder or honey- 

 board, they being placed there to give 

 the colony a chance to store all sur- 

 plus from early spring sources away 

 from the brood, thus giving the queen 

 ample room to fill below the frames 

 well up with brood. She also has the 

 privilege of these small frames should 

 she desire to enlarge her colony to 

 such an extent. 



At the commencement of white 

 clover broom we lift this shallow su- 

 per of frames, first seeing that the 

 queen is in the lower brood section, 

 placing the excluder on the hive, then 

 placing one or more supers or section 

 boxes above or the excluder, ending 

 up by setting the shallow super of 

 frames above all thus giving a storage 

 room between honey above and brood 

 below. 



We have had from two to seven of 

 these section box supers besides the 

 shallow frame supers on the same hive 

 at one time, while other bees were 

 spending precious time swarming and 

 our colonies were working their best 

 during it all. 



The eight frame hive is far better 

 if used in the above way than on any 



other one plan we have ever experi- 

 mented on, giving a larger percentage 

 of comb honey and also a fair crop of 

 extracted honey. 



Not wishing to tire you longer I 

 will close for this time, knowing full 

 well how different localities " pan out" 

 in regard to success. There are a 

 thousand and one different modes of 

 bee-keeping. We are ready for any 

 criticisms that may be made, and it 

 may be possible that our methods 

 have been used by others. 



Wishing all a bountiful return for 

 their labors for the season of 1894, I 

 remain, Yours &c, 



Chas. L. Hill. 



Dennison, 0. 



Editor American Bee-Keeper, 

 Dear Sir : — I will give you some of 

 my experiences with bees. They may 

 be of interest to some of your readers. 

 Five years before our civil war broke 

 out my father kept a swarm of bees 

 in one of the gums. We could not 

 in those days catch on to the Lang- 

 stroth hives. I have the same crude 

 hive yet and the same combs are still 

 in it. The colony which it contains is 

 the largest and stongest I have. I 

 have heard it said that combs are 

 worthless after a few years. I find 

 that they are good for 25 years, and I 

 know that they are often good after 

 12 or 15 years. So what is the use of 

 interfering with them as long as they 

 are all right. If any one has had any 

 experience in this line I would like to 

 hear from them through the columns 

 of the Bee-Keeper. 



Last year the colony of which I 

 have spoken gave off one good swarm 

 and about 25 lbs. of honey. They are 

 the black or German bee and today 



