1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



653 



hive. She will feel so crowded that she will go 

 down; whereas, if she had two more frames 

 above she would be content with that rather 

 than go below. 



Some years ago I had a lot of combs to be 

 taken care of, and I put them in hives and set 

 them nndnr hives containing full colonies. 

 They were left there till the honey harvest 

 was on, and a number of them— I can't now tell 

 how many — had brood in them. There, you 

 see, was a case in which the queen went from 

 the second story down to empty combs in the 

 first story. I've had a good many cases since 

 •of queens working in two stories, but not al- 

 ways with empty combs below. Wait just a 

 minute and I'll go and examine a colony that I 

 know has been occupying more than one story. 



Well, I've been and examined No. 10, and I'll 

 tell you what I found. First I'll tell you what 

 shape it was in at my previous visit; for, for 

 some reason, I put it down in my record-book. 

 Here's the entry: "July 20, 7 br below, 4 above; 

 only eg tS: sbr below." Tiiat means there were 

 7 frames of brood in the lower story and 4 

 frames of brood in the upper story, and that 

 there was no unsealed brood in the lower story 

 — only eggs and sealed brood. There being no 

 unsealed brood below, the queen must have 

 spent about five days upstairs on her last visit 

 there. 



To-c'ay, July 25, I find, on looking through 

 the upper story, four combs crammed with 

 honey, and four of brood in all stages; but very 

 few eggs. In the lower story, six frames of 

 brood in all stages, and eggs abundant; but 

 very little honey. It seems pretty clear, that, 

 in this case, the queen goes up and down quite 

 freely, doesn't it? 



You two disputants disagree on one point — 

 Ernest thinking that a colony having eight 

 frames of brood in a ten-frame hive will have 

 the same amount of brood in an eight-frame 

 hive, while friend Hatch thinks it will have 

 only six in the smaller hive. According to my 

 ■experience (and on that point it is large), the 

 truth lies between the two, but not midway, 

 for it is nearly as friend Hatch says. Bees 

 seem to prefer to have the two outside frames 

 without brood, and one or both of them will be 

 found laigely filled with pollen. In a ten- 

 frame hive you will often find eight frames 

 tilled with brood; and while you may find brood 

 in each of the eight frames of an eight-frame 

 hive, it would be a remarkable thing to tind 

 those eight frames tilled. 



I feel pretty safe in saying that bees will not 

 put brood in either of the outside combs except 

 under pressure. When I had ten -frame hives I 

 never knew a case in which there were ten 

 frames of brood, although it seems nothing 

 unusual to have ten and even eleven and twelve 

 when plenty of room is present. Occasionally 



some brood would be put in the ninth frame of 

 a ten-frame hive; but I think I never knew it 

 to be tilled. 



I am inclined to the opinion, Ernest, that in 

 those hives at the basswood apiary, where you 

 found a hive with brood in eight of the frames, 

 if the same colony had had eleven frames you 

 might have found brood in nine frames, and 

 very likely each one of the nine frames tilled. 

 Some other points I will touch another time. 



Marengo, 111. 



[As Dr. Miller has already sent in a second 

 ariicle, to be printed in our next issue, we will 

 reserve our own reply till then; but for the 

 present we may state that our experience, so 

 far as brood is concerned in two stories, is dif- 

 ferent from Mr. Hatch's, and quite in line with 

 Dr. Miller's.— Ed.J 



THE EIGHT VERSUS THE TEN FRAME HIVE. 

 THE EFFECT OF LOCALITY ON THE QUESTION. 



By E. S. Alexander. 



I am one of that contemptible class of small 

 bee-keepers, keeping from twenty to forty colo- 

 nies. I otfer, as an argument in favor of ten- 

 frame hives as against the eight-frame, for the 

 South, the following: 



My tirst hives were mostly eight-frame, using 

 only a few ten-frame hives by way of experi- 

 ment. The increased honey from the ten-frame 

 hives was not represented by the ratio of 10 to 

 S, but nearer that of 84 to 24, or, at least, .56 to 

 24. My swarms from ten-frame hives are 

 stronger, and commence storing surplus sooner. 

 As I am keeping bees for money, rather than to 

 demonstrate theories, this is sufficient reason 

 for me to prefer the ten-frame hive. I am now 

 making only the latter, using my old eight- 

 frame hives to hold weak swarms. 



SMALL HIVES THE CAUSE OF BEES CLUSTER- 

 ING OUT. 



Many people have so much of the spi^-it of 

 scientific inquiry that they will not believe a 

 fact is a face unless it is substantiated by a 

 formidable array of more or less plausible theo- 

 ries; so, here is my theory: 



While our maximum summer temperature 

 here is not so high as in the North, the sultry 

 part of the day is much longer, giving the heat 

 a chance to be oppressively penetrating. Asa 

 small thin- walled house or joom is more un- 

 comfortable in hot weather, so^is a small hive. 

 That bees aie susceptible to the heat can be 

 demonstrated by placing equal amounts of 

 honey in an open dish and under glass (as in a 

 Mason jar laid on its side so as to be easily 

 accessible) on a hot day. In the o\)*:i\ dish only 

 a few, if any, dead bees will be found in the 

 evening, while in the glass jar will be almost, 

 if not quite, as much in bulk of dead bees as 

 there was of honey in the morning. The only 

 inference I can draw is, that the bees get sun- 



