

37th Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., APRIL 29, 1897. 



No. 17. 



A Full Description of the " Dadaut Hive." 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



We have received the following questions concerning the 

 hive we use : 



" Will you please give me through the columns of the 

 American Bee Journal, the dimensions of the large hive you 

 use? Also, does the brood-chamber have to be reduced with 

 dummies during the honey-flow, and to what extent? — H." 



The large hive that we use, and which has been called the 

 " Dadant Hive," altho it is only a modification of the original 

 Langstroth-Qulnby hive, is intended for our climate. A num- 

 ber of its features make it desirable in this cold region, and 

 we believe a great part of our success with bees is due to the 

 greater safety with which we can winter bees in the open air 

 with such a hive. The frames are deeper than the regular 

 Laugstroth-Slmpllclty frame, and can therefore allow of more 

 honey over the cluster. This is quite a point, for, altho it is 

 well known that bees do move sidewise, in very cold weather, 

 to reach the honey, yet in test winters, in such winters as we 

 have had, in which half of the bees in the country perish, it Is 

 often noticeable that many colonies die with honey only a few 

 inches from them on the same comb, because the cold is so in- 

 tense that they cannot reach it after they have consumed ev- 

 erything above the cluster. 



This hive is not a cheap hive, and therefore will never be 

 popular. But it has one advantage — It may be manufactured 

 easily by any one with the least knowledge of carpenter work, 

 and without other tools than a square, saw, hammer, and two 

 or three planes. 



At the present day, it looks as if inventors of new hives 

 took particular pains to get up some contrivance that can 

 only be manufactured in factories and with special tools. This 

 hive is not patented in any of its features and is consequently 

 free to all, without royalty or farm right. In truth, there are 

 no features in it that would be patentable. 



Fig. 1 shows the diagram of the hive. The two support- 

 ing cross-blocks on the underside are now made to lie length- 

 wise instead of crosswise, as in the engraving, and give a 

 support to the slanting apron-board in front. The size of the 

 blocks is 2x4x28 Inches, cut slanting in front. They may be 

 done away with and replaced by light cleats ; but we prefer to 

 have our hives pretty well off the ground, in this way. The 

 bottom-board is cut crosswise of the hive, and made of raatcht 

 lumber — size 17'nx24 inches. In giving the dimensions we 

 take it that the lumber used of ordinary one-inch thickness 

 has been drest down to 13/16. 



If it is desirable to make the hive last as long as a colony 

 of bees can occupy it, the underside of the bottom and the 

 blocks may be painted with heated coal-tar. We painted some 

 40 hives in this manner in 1870 — 2i years ago — and those 

 bottom-boards are all good yet. One would imagine that the 

 smell of the coal-tar would cause the bees to leave, but such is 



not the case. If the tar Is heated before it is applied, It soaks 

 so well into the wood and dries so thoroughly that but little 

 smell is noticeable after a few weeks. 



By looking at Fig. 2, the reader will notice that the hive 

 is made so as to fit the bottom inside of it on the sides and 

 back, the sides being rabetted and the back doubled. This 

 fitting serves two or three purposes. In the first place, as a 

 hive Is always supposed to slant slightly forward, the sides 

 and back efficiently shed the water froTi the bottom-board 

 which is kept at all times perfectly dry. The double joint that 

 it makes, keeps out insects most thoroughly. Another advan- 

 tage is that there can be no admittance of cold air through the 

 back, since it is double and at break joints. These matters 

 may be of small importance, but, as Heddon said, "Bee-cul- 

 ture is a business of details." It Is these small points that 

 save the weak colonies, and we believe it is far better to have 

 less hives and better ones, than to have a big stock of boxes 

 that are constantly getting filled by swarming, and getting 

 empty again — by winter losses, owing to bad joints ; by rob- 

 bing, from the same cause; by starvation, from not having 

 room enough for a good supply of stores, etc. If our bees are 

 worth taking care of, let us do it right. 



The apron, C, Is intended to help the heavily laden bees 



Fig. 1 — Diagram of Dadant Hive. — From Laiigstroth Revised. 



that have mist their footing, to gain the entrance without hav- 

 ing to take flight again, and It also keeps the grass and weeds 

 away from the entrance, if the bee-keeper happens to over- 

 look his hives for a few days in warm, weed-growing weather. 

 The size of this apron is 7x17M inches ; body of hive, D, D, 

 front and rear, 12!ixl6M ; rabbets at top to support frames, 

 }4x}4, unless a metal frame-spacer is used as in the "St. Joe" 

 hive, when the rabbet may bo a little deeper. Sides of body, 2 

 pieces 13x21, rabbeted at the bottom as in Fig. 2. Depth of 

 rabbet H ; width 5/16. 



F, rear board used as stated before, to shed water and 



