THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



month in the Review I was depending 

 entirely upon my memory, and this in- 

 stance is only another illustration of 

 many that have come to me in the past 

 two or three years, showing that that 

 once almost infallible memory of mine is 

 not what it was once. It is true, as Bro. 

 Root says, that this kind of contraction 

 has been abandoned; and it has been 

 abandoned so long, or so thoroughly, 

 that I had realh' forgotten it; but the 

 kind of contraction that I advocated, that 

 of contracting the brood nest of a newl}' 

 hived swarm, has not been abandoned by 

 those who live where it can be used to 

 advantage and who use it rightly. Bro. 

 Root quotes from the American Bee 

 Journal the experience of two bee-keepers 

 who have tried contraction of the brood 

 nest when hiving swarms, and who have 

 given it up. One of them, a Mr. S. H. 

 Hovis, says that he secured not a pound 

 of surplus honey from swarms hived on 

 six frames, while those hived in box 

 hives gave him some surplus. It is very 

 evident that there is something wrong 

 nere. On the face of it, it seems almost 

 senseless. The idea! that a swarm given 

 six brood frames and presumably a super 

 or supers above, will not store anj^ honey 

 in the supers, while a swarm hived in a 

 box hive gives some surplus. There is 

 no explanation as to whether supers were 

 given the swarm in the box hive or not. 

 If not, then the surplus may have come 

 from the body of the hive. As it appears 

 in the quotation, no practical bee-keeper 

 can believe the statement unless some 

 explanation is given. The case of Mr. 

 C. A. Bunch is entirely different. I can 

 well believe him. I have been through 

 the same mill. His trouble is that the 

 bees swarm out when hived on only five 

 Langstroth frames in the brood nest. He 

 does not say that he put on supers at the 

 time of hiving, but I presume he did. If 

 contraction is too .severe when a swarm is 

 first hived, at least half of the swarms will 

 swarm out the next day and abscond; at 

 least, that has been mv experience. This 

 trouble is worse some years, and .some 



parts of the season than in others. The 

 remedy is not to contract the brood nest 

 until about the third day. By this time 

 the swarming fever has abated and the 

 bees have settled down to business and 

 will not swarm out, no matter how severe 

 the contraction. When using eight-frame 

 hives I give the bees the whole brood nest 

 at first, arid then on the morning of the 

 third day I contract to five or six frames; 

 the number depending upon the size of the 

 swarm. In using the Heddon hive I put 

 the swarm in the two sections of the brood 

 nest, and then the third day I take away 

 the lower section of the brood nest. With 

 this management I have never had any 

 swarming out. 



Bro. Root says that he has tried using 

 two or more eight-frame hives as a brood- 

 nest when working for comb honey, and 

 he has secured more honey than he has 

 from a single-story, eight-frame hive. I 

 do not doubt that; but to make the matter 

 right he ought to get tzvice as much. Here 

 is an eight-frame hive sitting this side of 

 the apple tree. On the other side is 

 another eight-frame hive. Let them 

 alone as they are, put on the supers, and 

 we get fifty pounds of surplus comb honey 

 from each colony. Set one of these on 

 top of the other, and if we don't get loo 

 pounds we have lost. Bro. Root is a 

 bright man, and I like him and respect 

 him, and I hope that I may be spared 

 the shock that will come to me if I find 

 him advocating the idea that the more 

 we get per colony the better filled will be 

 our pocket books. I cannot believe that 

 of him. I prefer to think that I have 

 misunderstood him. Don't you see, 

 Ernest, that our capital is in the hives 

 and combs. It isn't in the queens. 

 Queens don't cost us anything. We 

 could have a queen to each comb if it 

 were going to be any advantage. As I 

 have just said, the capital is in the hives 

 and combs, and the more completely they 

 are occupied the greater will be our profit. 

 I would have a brood-nest of such a .size 

 that an ordinary queen will fill it with 

 brood at the proper season of the year; 



