THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



243 



one of the two hives in which his colon}' 

 has been, when he puts on the caps for 

 comb honey, contraction. He is incHned 

 to think it should be termed substitution. 

 I wish he would be so good as to define 

 exactly what he understands by contrac- 

 tion. Is Doolittle's method of taking 

 out one, two, or more, combs from the 

 brood chamber, when he puts on section 

 supers, contraction or substitution ? My 

 practice till lately has been to hive swarms 

 in one section of the Heddon hive for a 

 brood chamber. If taking away one 

 half the brood chamber is not contraction, 

 why should that practice be called con- 

 traction ? There will be little profit in 

 discussing these points, if, in order to 

 get out of a tight place, we wrest words 

 from their usual significations. 



SIZE OF BROOD-NEST IS NOT SIZE OF COI^- 

 ONY. 



Again, the editor, on the same page, in 

 reply to the editor of the Review on using 

 two or more stories for brood nests in work- 

 ing for comb honey, says: "This is no the- 

 ory of mine, fori have tried it at our out- 

 yard and the results showed decidedly 

 more honey than I could get from single 



eight-frame colonies If the colony 



is very strong I let them [it] have the 

 two stories clear through the season. If 

 they are of medium strength I take away 

 one of the stories and give them the same 

 room in supers with section honey-boxes. ' ' 

 This is tantalizing. I presume it is my 

 stupidity, but I cannot understand it. 

 As he says, "perhaps we are not so far 

 apart," but I cannot say as to that, till I 

 understand his position. Is he compar- 

 ing those "very strong" colonies that he 

 allows two stories with those "of medium 

 strength" that he contracts to one .story? 

 If so, we are very close together. But if 

 he means that one of the very strong 

 ones when allowed two stories would 

 be more profitable for the production 

 of comb honey than the same one 

 would be if allowed but one story for 

 a brood nest, then we are very far 

 apart. But let me add, whether near 



together or far apart, there is no danger 

 of animosity at this end of the line. I 

 wonder why the editor takes space to in- 

 timate, page 517, there might be danger 

 of it somewhere ? Again, he quotes my 

 statement, page 519, that it is evident 

 that the editor would have us believe that 

 in some occult way those extra stories 

 add to the numerical strength of the col- 

 onies, and replies: "Now Bro. Taylor how 

 could you read so much between the 

 lines ? Such a proposition is ridiculous. I 

 might just as well try to clain: that big 

 shoes make big feet." I did think I un- 

 derstood the editor this far, viz., that the 

 extra stories added to the strength of the 

 colonies but this denial mystifies me. 



CONTRACTION, CONTRACTION, CONTRAC- 

 TION— I,ET US KNOW WHAT IT 

 REALLY MEANS. 



' To show the ill results of hiving swarms 

 in contracted brood chambers, and that 

 that plan is being abandoned, the editor 

 quotes two instances from the "first vol- 

 ume of the American Bee Journal that he 

 picked up." (Gleanings, 518). The 

 first instance is that of C. A. Bunch. He 

 hived swarms on five L. frames with 

 starters. He says they ' ' began to 

 swarm and at one time four of these 

 swarms came out at once." He was 

 obliged to give them more room, when 

 scarcely a swarm issued. I suppose Mr. 

 Bunch refers to "swarming out," or the 

 refusal of swarms to stay hived. The 

 other instance is that of Mr. Hovis. He 

 hived swarms on six frames and expected 

 "nice honey in sections," but got none; 

 while he got "some surplus" from those 

 in box hives. He does not say whether 

 those in box hives were old colonics or 

 swarms; nor, if swarms, does he give 

 the size of box hives, nor any of the 

 particulars that would be necessary to 

 know to enable one to form a judgment 

 concerning the cause of the results. 

 These cases are fair samples of most of 

 those in which contraction is given up. 

 The apiarists gave it up with almost no 

 trial, not to say no reasonable trial. They 



