1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



86.1 



to six days, when given two sets of comb, as 

 will take it eight days on one set. 



Hold on! I have got to fix up the fence a little 

 (not Dr. Miller's), or Bro. Hatch will sharpen 

 this point 1 have made, and ruthlessly stick 

 me with it by saying, "There, Gill, you are ad- 

 mitting your hive is too small." I plead guilty. 

 It is too small when I want a large hive; but I 

 can tier it up till I need guy-ropes, if necessary; 

 but your hive is too big when I want a small 

 hive, and too small when I want a big hive; 

 for you will certainly admit that it would be 

 no fun lifting off any thing more than one 

 super holding ten frames. 



Viola, Wis. 



[It is natural for us to indorse the opinions 

 of one whose experience has been in line with 

 our own; and so I agree with friend Gill, be- 

 cause his experience has been mine. I can't 

 understand why friend Hatch should find that 

 queens are loath to enter the top story, espe- 

 cially as he is only 30 miles from you. Then 

 there is E. France, who finds brood in two sto- 

 ries of eight-frame bodies, and he is not much 

 over 100 miles away. About 100 miles south of 

 Mr. Hatch is Mr. Harry Lathrop, a strong ad- 

 vocate of the eight- frame size, and his crop of 

 honey this season was large. I said I couldn't 

 understand why there should be this difference; 

 but upon second thought, ten miles, as we all 

 know, sometimes makes a big difference in the 

 locality. — Ed.] 



L. COGGSHAI.L ON EIGHT VS. TEN FRAME 

 HIVES; A FEW INTERESTING FACTS AND FIG- 

 URES, IN WHICH THE EIGHT-FRAME COMES 

 OUT A '• LEETLE " BIT AHEAD OF THE TEN- 

 FRAME HIVE. 



By Harry S. Howe. 



During a recent visit to Mr. W. L. Coggshall, 

 the subject of Dr. Miller and the fence came 

 up. At my request, Mr. Coggshall referred to 

 his complete honey-house record to see whether 

 or not he had any thing which would help the 

 doctor down from his seat on the top rail of the 

 eight vs. ten frame fence. 



Smith's 

 Pine Woods 



V aina 

 Bacon's 



h;nis 

 Lansing 

 Brown's 

 Etna 

 Forest Home 



Totals 



Just a word here in regard to those records. 

 They consist of pieces of smooth boards, nailed 

 up in each honey-house, on which are written 

 all items of importance regarding the yard as a 

 whole, such as date of unpacking, amount of 

 honey, etc. From the copy of these records 

 kept at home, the above analysis of the re- 



sults of the yards is compiled. The yards are 

 numbered in the order in which they were 

 established. The honey is largely buckwheat, 

 and very fine. 



From the above table it would seem that lo- 

 cation makes more difference than any thing 

 else. The two ten-frame yards averaged 93 lbs. 

 of extracted honey. The seven eight-frame 

 yards averaged m% lbs. This would lead me 

 to think that, so far as extracted honey is con- 

 cerned, the fence is the place yet awhile. 



There are some things not shown by the 

 table, which may have some influence upon the 

 results. The colonies run for extracted in num- 

 ber four were, perhaps, a trifle weaker than 

 those run for comb; but to balance that, is the 

 fact that there was no increase in number sev- 

 en, as there was no winter loss. In fact, there 

 has not been over one per cent of loss there 

 since the yard was established. Yard number 

 four also seems to winter very nicely. The dif- 

 ference is probably partly due to the difference 

 in location, as there was considerable variation 

 in chat respect in yards which were apparently 

 just the same last fall. The yards all received 

 nearly the same attention. There is no home 

 yard and no pet yard to get extra work. Hoff- 

 man frames were used in the Eclectic hive. 



The conclusion reached by Mr. Coggshall 

 was that, so far as extracted honey is concern- 

 ed, there is no material difference. They win- 

 ter slightly better in the ten-frame hives. 

 There are two more combs to handle in each 

 hive to get the same honey in extracting, and 

 the ten-frame hives are not so apt to swarm. 



Kings Ferry, N. Y. 



[Coggshall's table of figures is interesting and 

 valuable because it is evident that it was not 

 fixed up to prove that either the eight or ten 

 frame was the better size; but it does show 

 pretty clearly that the smaller hive holds its 

 own against the larger. The table shows^ also, 

 that it was a no one or two hive record, but one 

 that is made up from over .500 colonies. Cogg- 

 shall is and has been one of the successful ones. 

 He doesn't write much, but he knows much 

 about getting big crops of honey.— Ed.] 



EIGHT AND TEN FRAMES; A COMPARATIVE 



TEST, WITH THE DIFFERENCE IN FAVOR 



OF THE LARGE Iin'E. 



By S. (\ Goiwhi. 



Two-Story brood eight-frame hives won't 

 work. I started 10 years ago here in Florida, 

 with 3."> two-story Simplicity hives, with 7 wide 

 frames for comb honey. A few years after you 

 brought out the T super I made 20 hives, taking 

 9 frames and a T holding 34 one-pound sections. 

 Soon after, I got 30 hives, 8-frame. I ran these 

 one season for comb honey, using one story and 

 T supers. At the end of the season my crop 

 from those hives convinced me that eight frames 

 was too small. The next season, when the 

 lower story was full of brood, I gave a second 



