864 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15. 



bee-keeping, and all four of us this year had a 

 lighter yield than did nearly all who kept their 

 bees in the same locality all the time. This 

 differs from our experience during the four pre- 

 ceding seasons. Of course, our yields can not 

 be compared with the stay-at-homes, so far as 

 the influence of certain hives is concerned. A 

 comparison of the yields of us four migratory 

 folks proves nothing in that same line, as no 

 one of us occupied a locality similar to the one 

 occupied by either of the others. Part of the 

 mangrove field was much more congested with 

 bees than were other parts, there being in the 

 immediate vicinity of Hawk's Park some three 

 times as many colonies to the same space as 

 were in other localities. Conditions in each 

 apiary differed from conditions in other api- 

 aries. Thus, one apiary was as large as the 

 owner wanted, and nearly all colonies were old 

 ones, and strong early in the season. Another 

 was the reverse of this, but had all young 

 queens as an offset. Another bee-keeper was 

 sick during part of the early harvest, and was 

 forced to neglect his bees at an important time, 

 etc. 



You say you hardly know what is a big record 

 for extracting. While in Cuba we had a native 

 Cuban do our extracting, and his average work 

 was about 250 lbs. per hour. He did all the un- 

 capping, extracting, and cleaning burr-combs 

 off' the top of the frames, using a six-frame non- 

 reversible extractor. This is about the same 

 as Mr. Brown did; but I hate to think that a 

 young active American, like Mr. Brown, can 

 equal only one unskilled Cuban in such work. 



Potsdam, Fla. 



[The record of the Cuban was accomplished 

 with a six-frame non - reversible extractor, 

 while Mr. Brown's was performed with only a 

 ttwo-frame machine. True, it was a reversible, 

 but here is the secret of the rapid work. A 

 small machine starts and stops quicker, is easi- 

 er handled in every way, and when it is made 

 reversible it will equal the work of a six-frame 

 non-reversible and a six-footer Cuban. Mr. 

 Brown is not a large man, and that Cuban was 

 probably his equal if not superior in strength. 

 Therefore I think our American, Brown, really 

 holds the record. 



A comparative study of the sizes of hives may 

 not be entirely satisfactory, but I think some 

 facts may be gleaned nevertheless, and hence 

 I'd like to see an attempt at it. Regarding the 

 Long-idea vs. the two and three story 8-frame 

 hives, let me refer you to the article of M. A. 

 Gill, just following.— Ed.] 



THE TIERING -UP PRINCIPLE OF THE EIGHT- 

 FRAME HIVE ; THE "EIGHT AND TEN FRAME 

 TRIED SIDE BY SIDE, WITH RESULTS IN FA- 

 VOR OF THE FORMER, AND WHY. 



By M. A. Gill. 



What has become of the tiering-up principle 

 of the movable-comb bee-hive? It seems to 

 have become one of the lost arts to at least 

 some bee-keepers, for they have forgotten that 

 they can tier up and thus meet the requirements 



of an increasing colony, but are taking up the 

 old "long idea" plan, not back of the brood- 

 nest with the Adair or Gallup frame, but off 

 sidewise with the Langstroth frame. 



Where one writer suggests from eight to ten, 

 another from ten to twelve, and another sug- 

 gests fourteen frames, what is it but the old 

 " long idea," and that off sidewise, as though 

 they had forgotten both principles— that of tier- 

 ing up, and the true long idea. I have not been 

 without both eight and ten frame Langstroth 

 hives side by side for the past ten years; and I 

 must say I decidedly prefer the eight-frame 

 hive for my locality, and I live less than thirty 

 miles from Bro. Hatch; but I am aware that 

 our forage is somewhat different. My surplus 

 comes from basswood, having only three times 

 in eighteen years secured a small crop of clover 

 honey, but nearly always enough to build up 

 on, ready for the basswood flow. 



Now, if any ten or twelve frame advocate 

 were in my location, and would agree to use no 

 dummies in the spring, and only one super in 

 the harvest, I think I could convince him that 

 his hive was too large in the spring and too 

 small during the harvest. Our spring seasons 

 are usually cold and backward, and bees do not 

 build up fast until after May 30. That leaves 

 us only three weeks to secure our basswood- 

 workers. Like Doolittle, I do not want them 

 any sooner, for there is nothing for them to do 

 but consume; and I have always noticed that 

 a colony whose queen has exhausted herself 

 early in the season comes up to the honey sea- 

 son much behind the colony that has reserved its 

 force until the proper time; and bees in ten- 

 frame hives are not so provident in early breed- 

 ing, on account of the extra honey the hive 

 will contain. I find that, in any size of hive 

 containing L. frames, after bees have six or 

 seven frames well filled with brood, they would 

 much rather occupy two frames directly over 

 the seven than one at each side of the seven. 

 Heat rises, as any one can see by watching a 

 burning brush-pile. One will notice, too, that 

 the heat will seem to come to a point at a lim- 

 ited distance, the outside heat being drawn to 

 the center by its intensity. To illustrate, go 

 out some morning when the hives are covered 

 with frost, and look at the size of the melted 

 spot on a one-story, two-story, and three-story 

 hive. My bees, at least, much prefer to econ- 

 omize this heat for breeding-purposes than to 

 warm up more room at the side. 



Candidly, it seems to me that eight frames is 

 the "happy medium" between too much and 

 too little; and with that splendid feature added 

 (tiering up), all that could be asked in a bee- 

 hive is obtained. 



Right here I wish to go on record as saying 

 that I do not consider any colony in prime con- 

 dition for the basswood flow with less than 24 

 L. frames. Going farther, I know that the 

 same colony will gather as much surplus in five 



