1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



:.'(;5 



method that will give promise of any definite 

 result. R. L. Taylor. 



Iiape(>r, ^Mii'h., Feb. 1. 



[Dr. Miller replies:] 



As I believe this to be a matter of general in- 

 terest, friend Taylor, I take the opportunity to 

 reply to you on the pages of Gr.EANiNGS. And, 

 first, I return to you unopened your thanks that 

 I am " beginning to take a little interest in the 

 experiment business.'' I'm too indignant to ac- 

 cept them. •' Beginning," forsooth! If there's 

 any one who has taken a keen interest in the 

 affair from the very first start, I'm the man. 

 But I haven't time to quarrel with you about 

 that just now. 



Yes, you've guessed exactly what I want — a 

 practical answer to the question, '• Which is 

 best for comb honey, S or 10 frames'?" And I 

 want the answer from the bees. Others may be 

 as well situated to ask them the question as 

 you, but I have a good bit of faith in the facil- 

 ity you have acquired to rightly interpret in 

 plain English the replies given by the bees. 



You ask, '■ Don't we know something about it 

 now?" Candidly, I don't know. Some years 

 ago nearly all comb-honey men changed to 

 eight frames, in the belief that they were the 

 gainers; but if in any case the question was 

 fairly submitted to the Lu'es I don't remember 

 to have seen any account of it. Y'ou know very 

 well that, time and again, very pretty theories 

 have been started, every thing clearly proven 

 ■on paper, winding up with a decisive Q. E. D., 

 and then, when the bees were politely request- 

 ed to accept the theory and act upon it, they 

 would none of it. 



I will now consider the points you commend 

 to my consideration, and shall be glad to coin- 

 cide with you wherever I can. 



" We want plenty of bees in good season." 

 Agreed. 



'• More bees will be produced early in an eight- 

 frame hive" is an assertion, and I'd rather 

 take the bees' word for it than yours. You 

 give as a reason, " Because there is less space to 

 be kept warm." If that counts for any thing, 

 then a six-frame hive is still better, " because 

 there is less space to be kept warm." 



"We want all the bees we can induce the col- 

 ony to rear up to the point of time when new 

 bees will fail to return a profit." Agreed. 



Your statement thiit. in our latitude, we'll 

 ^et all the bees we want by June 1,5th in an 

 eight-frame hive, and after that the ten-frame 

 hive will raise a lot of wasters, reads very 

 smoothly; but I'd like to know what the bees 

 say about it. \''ou say the bees will increase 

 faster early, having less space to warm, and 

 there may be truth in that if the same number 

 ■of bees is in each hive; but have you settled 

 positively that colonies in eight-frame hives 

 ■will average as strong at the close of winter as 

 "Colonies in larger hives ? And if there's enough 



honey in the larger hive, may not the empty 

 space be less than in the smaller hive? 



For fear of bringing a storm about my ears 

 from a good many quarters, I want to be just 

 as quiet and meek about it as possible, but still 

 I want to suggest very gently that, if any one 

 were inclined to be inquisitive, he might ask — 

 mind you I'm not asking the question— whether 

 the bees had ever stated, in a positive manner, 

 that a lot of brood late in the harvest was a 

 damage. A young man may get ahead faster 

 in laying up this world's goods after he has a 

 wife to support than when he was all alone. 

 He has something to try for. Is it not possible 

 that, with a large number of mouths to feed, 

 the bees may buckle down a little harder? 



"The bees must take possession of the sec- 

 tions promptly, and all the bees not required to 

 care for the brood destined to be useful must 

 join.'' Agreed. 



'■ The ten-frame hive, having more space be- 

 low, and, as a rule, more brood that will prove 

 a damage, and greater accumulations of honey 

 in the brood-chamber, all of which circum- 

 stances have a powerfully restraining influence 

 to keep the bees from going into the sections in 

 full force, is manifestly at a great disadvan- 

 tage." How do you know all that? Do the 

 bees say so? Is it a fact that a greater amount 

 of brood and honey below restrains from going 

 into the sections? If you take away all the 

 brood and all the honey from below, will the 

 bees go up into the sections with a rush? If 

 the brood -chamber be chock-full of brood and 

 honey, will the bees be entirely restrained from 

 going up? Isn't the truth exactly the oppo- 

 site? 



I don't object to " circumstantial evidence." 

 If more men were hung on circumstantial evi- 

 dence, I believe human life would not be so 

 cheap as it now is. But if there's any way to 

 secure positive evidence, I do think it should 

 take precedence. It is with no little diffidence 

 that I make any attempt at suggesting meth- 

 ods. I much prefer merely to suggest the ques- 

 tion, leaving you to work out your osvn meth- 

 ods. I think you are more fertile in that direc- 

 tion than I. If I were to suggest any thing, it 

 would be something in this line: 



Take ten colonies in eight-frame hives, and 

 an equal number in ten-frame hives. Aside 

 from the difference in the size of the hives, let 

 them be as nearly alike as possible. To make 

 the test satisfactory they should have been in 

 the same hives last summer, and wintered over 

 therein. This not being practicable, the colo- 

 nies in the ten-frame hives should be put in 

 the same condition as if they had wintered 

 on ten frames. It would be manifestly un- 

 fair to take a colony out of an eight-frame hive 

 and give it two empty frames or combs on put- 

 ting it into the larger hive, unless you prove 

 that all ten-frame hives have generally two 

 such frames or combs in spring. If any feed- 



