1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



time you want to see how your queen is doing! 

 Is that easier than lifting olT a cover and lool<- 

 ing at a frame or two? You may say I do not, 

 as a rule, lift the top hive. How do you know 

 the queen uses both hives then? Can you got 

 the queen to go into supers until the second 

 story is full? How does a queen naturally 

 want her brood-nest? Is it lil<o a long-drawn- 

 out cylinder or like a globe? Which would 

 economize heat most? You say. use half-story 

 hives, and save heat, and have something light 

 to handle. Suppose you have your colony in 

 four half-story hives, equal to two whole hives; 

 is it easier to lift ofT half a hive three times 

 than to take out a few frames? No. I have 

 tried that. You have to go clear down to the 

 bottom frames before yo>i can really lenow just 

 how your colony is doing; and that is one rea- 

 son for condemning the Fleddon hive. 



You make an objection to ten frames for an 

 out-apiary on account of the extra weight of 

 hives and frames to haul and handle. Let us 

 see about that. Suppose you iiave to haul 

 them to the out-yard in the spring, and back in 

 the fall. This makes two handlings. IIow 

 much would it cost to hire a man of good strong 

 muscle to do this? Suppose you have 100 to 

 move, and it takes two days to move them. 

 You can hire such a man for i^LS.') to $1..50 per 

 day; and is $3.00 worth considering when one 

 colony might mak(^ that up ? And think of the 

 work saved at swarm ing-ti me. 



There is one point urged in favor of an eight- 

 frame hive, viz., that it is better for comb 

 honey, which I have not seen answered, whicii 

 it seems to me is one of the most important 

 that concerns bee-keepers. Now really, friiMid 

 Root, if you were a comb-honey producer 

 wouldn't you rejoice to get one of those large 

 "boomer" swarms to put your comb honey 

 supers over? and how are you going to g(!t that 

 extra room just over combs full of brood by pil- 

 ing them one over the other? 



Doolittle has given his reason for a hive hav- 

 ing only KKK) inches of comb surface; but he 

 does not say how he gets around the tiering-up 

 to get the number of frames of brood recjuired. 

 Let me quote something from his own pen that 

 gives me strong argument against it, found on 

 page 293 of the A'lnerlrdu Bee Journal: "Then, 

 again, these thick top-bars, which are used to 

 do away with these brace-combs, place a har- 

 rier between the brood -combs below and the 

 sections above." If a barrier to the bees, how 

 much more to the queen! for where the queen 

 leads, no bee fears to follow. The italics are 

 mine. 



Ithaca, Wis. 



fl had expected, on mv last bicycle-tour, to 

 plan my route so as to get to C. A. Hatch's; 

 but I was delayed on my way by various causes, 

 and the country so hilly and sandy, that I was 

 obliged, against my inclination, "to pass him 

 by. I had hoped that, inasmuch as we had 

 argued the matter through the pages of 



Gleanings,, I could ''talk it out"\vith him 

 face to face. Howevcn-, I am glad that the dis- 

 cussion can b(i carried on furtlicr, even on pa- 

 per, even if I do appc^ar to get the worst of it, 

 for truth is what I want. 'I'luit friend Hatch, 

 or any one else, may g(^t stronger colonies in a 

 ten-frame hive than in an (>ightframe, we may 

 hav(^ to admit; but 1 think Ik^ will also have to 

 admit that we can get stronger colonies in a 

 tw<>lve-fiame hive than in a t(Mi frame. The 

 fact is, friend Hatch, as I hav(^ said hcd'ore, I am 

 afraid the (>ight-frame body alone is not large 

 enough for a good (^xtracting-colony at its best; 

 and I feel almost as sure that the ten -frame 

 is still deficient, though perhaps to a less ex- 

 tent. For the purpose of extracting, I am 

 coming to believe that the Dadants. in their 

 advocacy of large hives, or a brood-nest not 

 less than twelve frames, \j. size, are not far 

 from right. IJy th(Mr fruits y{\ shall know 

 them. Now. a single (Mght-franu^ bidy is as 

 much as I want to lift personally; and I am 

 sure that two (iight-frame bodies will contain as 

 large a colony as can be worked to advantage. 

 So much for extracting. 



In the production of coinh honey, I am not 

 sure thai the tMghtframe brood-nest standing 

 alone is too small. Indeed. I know of viM-y 

 many who have changcnl from the t(Mi-frame 

 down to the eight-frame ; but very few do I 

 know who have clianged th(^ oth<ir way. 

 Again, by their fruits ye shall know them; for 

 then^ are a Iar2<> number of bee-keepers who 

 secure large crops of comb honey from eight- 

 fram(» hives. Fn looking over th(i whole field 

 I think, if I could make the change as easily as 

 not. without expense, I would hesitate, a good 

 whil(^ bef(>r(> I would jump to a ten-frames 

 body. I might l)e cont,ent to accept the twelve- 

 frame for extracting were it not for its extra 

 weight; hut its weight — there you have it. 

 For the production of (extracted honey, I am 

 becon\ing more and more convinc(>d that th(^ 

 two stories of eierht-frame hives gives about 

 the right capacity. Indeed, no less an author- 

 ity than E. France himself concurs in this. I 

 had come to the same conclusion ix^fore I went 

 to his |)lace; and when he incidentally remarked 

 that two eitrht-frame bodies were just about 

 right for holding his colonies, I was quite ready 

 to believe him. 



There, now, fri(md Hatch, you sen I not only 

 believe what you say in regard to the advantage 

 of a larger colony, but I would csven go two or 

 three steps further; and those " steps further " 

 bring us back again to the eight-frameliive; 

 so in one sense I agree with you, and yet in an- 

 other I am a long way from doing so. 



I hav(^ never tried 'welve Langstroth frames 

 all in one iirood-nest. I have tried the ten- 

 frame hive, and think that, whf're I desire to 

 go in for strong colonies and an <sxtra amount 

 of t)rood-rearing. I can do better in the two 

 horizontal tic'rs than in one brood-nest long 

 spn^ad out. If I were to have a large brood- 

 nest all in one hive-body, I would adopt the 

 Quinby frame, a la Dadant; i)ut her(\ again, 

 whenever I wiuit to moves hiv(>s I do not wish 

 to be under the necessity of hiring an extra 

 man, or k(se])ing him around. I do not know of 

 any way how / can manag(> bees for extracting 

 without iM'inff under the necessity of doing 

 considerable lifting: and that beinu the case, I 

 want huKe hives, but in such shape that I can 

 lift them in iialves. You may b(s able. for|i3.00, 

 to g(>t all thr> heavy lifting: but it is the (x.'fta- 

 shnial lifting as well as thts last straw that 

 breaks tlie camisl's back. It (loesri't j)ay to 

 hire a man to do occasional lifting. If I want 

 to get a heavy super oir a hive I do it myself, 

 and eight coml)s f\ill of honey is all I care t» 

 handle. 



