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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



which one employs when he says, "In the 

 realm of mathematics I can say I know; but 

 outside of that, my knowledge all breaks down, 

 and I can not say I know any thing;" but this 

 is agnosticism. 



REASONS WHY THE EIGHT-FRAME HIVE IS BET- 

 TER THAN THE TEN-FRAME. 



As I have already said, the bees have spoken 

 on many of the material points of this matter; 

 but I am disappointed to find that you are in no 

 way inclined to listen. I find you agree with 

 me in nothing but in those points relating to 

 the things we want. You agree that we want 

 plenty of bees early, and that, at the proper 

 time, we want all the bees that can be spared 

 from the brood-chamber to go to work with 

 alacrity in the supers: but not a step further 

 will you go. You will not even admit that, 

 other things being equal, more bees will be pro- 

 duced early in the smaller hive than in the 

 larger one. That there is less space to be kept 

 warm has litile or no weight with you. I just 

 said that, though the bees lalk, yon are not dis- 

 posed to listen; but perhaps i/our bees do not 

 talk. Mine do. 



My bees say, and have reiterated it a thou- 

 sand times in the most unmistakable manner, 

 that, the smaller the hive, the more comforta- 

 ble and healthy they are, and, consequently, the 

 more rapidly they increase at the opening of 

 spring. But, half convinced, you ask if I have 

 settled positively that colonies in eight-frame 

 hives will average as strong at the close of win- 

 ter as colonies in larger hives. I have had 

 much experience with hives of different capaci- 

 ties. For a number of years I used only ten- 

 frame hives; then eight and ten together. 

 Now I use the eight-frame hive; the two-story 

 Heddon, equal to the ten-frame hive; and the 

 one-story Heddon, equal to live L. frames; and 

 the answer my bees have all along given to the 

 question is, that you can not increase the 

 strength of the colony— i. e., at the end of win- 

 ter, by increasing the size of the hive after a 

 certain limit is reached, which in most seasons 

 is about that of the eight-frame hive; that 

 other circumstances are more potent in that 

 matter than the size of the hive, and that even 

 the one-story Heddon, if the previous fall was 

 favorable to it, \v\\\ contain colonies nearly as 

 strong as those in the ten-frame hive, and 

 strong enough for profit. They say that, in 

 seasons favorable to the larger hive, the colo- 

 nies may average a little stronger than those in 

 the eight-frame hive; but they do not say that 

 they are, therefore, better. They have told me, 

 time and again, that it is not safe to wager that 

 those strongest in early spring will produce the 

 most surplus; and I venture to add that, as it is 

 cheaper to keep a cow warm in winter with the 

 aid of a good roof and tight walls than with 

 grain, so it is more economical to aid in the pro- 

 tection of the brood in spring by sawdust pack- 



ing than by an otherwise useless wall of live 

 bees. 



Then you further ask: "And if there's 

 enough honey in the larger hive, may not the 

 empty space be less than in the smaller hive ? " 

 To that my pocket-book speaks up and says 

 pine boards make cjieaper dummies than do 

 combs of honey. 



Again, you suggest that one "might ask 

 whether the bees had ever stated in a positive 

 manner that a lot of brood late in the harvest 

 was a damage." After again turning over this 

 expression I can not escape the conclusion that 

 by "lot" you mean an unusally large amount 

 — or, as the schoolchildren say, a "big lot;" 

 and my heart sinks when the proper words 

 come to my mind to characterize your argument 

 as it seems to deserve, for you fall into a device 

 used by those who argue for victory, not for 

 truth. Whether it was intentional or not, I 

 admire the ingenuity of the false logic. You 

 first use "lot" in the sense of an unusually large 

 amount, and then, with exceeding skill, drop 

 it, but carry it along by implication in the 

 sense of a " small lot," for a wife is the small- 

 est lot in the way of a family a man can well 

 have. It would at least have been a fairer 

 statement if you had said, "A young man may 

 get ahead faster after he has a wife and twelve 

 or fifteen young children to support." though 

 that might have interfered with the hoped-for 

 effect. 



But hear what my bees say to the supposed 

 question. They say the extra brood requires a 

 large amount of food; that to prepare food, to 

 feed and otherwise care for that brood, requires 

 a considerable force of bees, which are detained 

 from work in the supers; they say that the first 

 lot emerges from the cells a little before the 

 end of the early harvest, too late for use then, 

 and too early to be of much use in the fall har- 

 vest, if there should be one; that, as the first 

 extra brood emerges while nectar is still coming 

 in, its place will be taken by a second extra 

 brood which requires the same expense of food, 

 and which, having hatched about the first of 

 August, will cut no figure the ensuing spring, 

 havina. in the mean time, furnished no reason 

 for their being, unless in exceptional cases 

 where there is a fall harvest, and that they are 

 not even of use in keeping up the strength of 

 the colony, as the bees reared in an eight-frame 

 hive are abundantly sufficient for that. With- 

 out going further into details, I think most 

 bee-keepers would have no difficulty in finding 

 that those two broods of extra bees have been 

 no small damage, and that it could not well be 

 otherwise where the honey harvest comes as it 

 does pretty generally in this latitude. 



Further on, in response to my remark, " The 

 ten-frame hive having more space below, and, 

 as a rule, more brood that will prove a damage, 

 and greater accumulations of honey in the 

 brood-chamber, all of which circumstances 



