American ^ee Journal 



April 11, 1907 



the bees clean out the brood that does 

 not hatch — unless the colony is not 

 strong enough or the combs are too 

 badlj' affected — and make them clean 

 for honey. In badly diseased combs 

 the bees usually cover some of the dead 

 larvs with honey. This makes the 

 honey nasty if extracted. 



After the season is over and the 

 honey has been extracted, the combs are 

 put back on the same colony where they 

 were first stacked, and left for the bees 

 of that colony to clean up all the drip- 

 ' pings of honey that remain in the combs. 

 We are ver}- careful to let no honey drip 

 from these combs where bees of other 

 colonies can get it. The bees of our 

 apiaries never have access to those 

 combs as they come from the extractor, 

 nor to honey that in any way is liable 

 to carry disease. 



I have yet to find a treatment that 

 will always be successful. Formalde- 

 hyde treatment has been quite suc- 

 cessful with us in saving combs, 

 but we use other treatments more, 

 as we run our bees for comb 

 honey, and prefer comb foundation in- 

 stead of combs for new swarms, as they 

 work in boxes more readily when put 

 on foundation, and there is less danger 

 of disease. 



We produce about one ton of ex- 

 tracted honey per year, of which about 

 % is taken from the unfinished sections 

 and sold to our neighbors and private 

 customers. We can not supply our 

 home trade, and I don't think we have 

 ever received a complaint about our 

 honey. 



Middleburg, N. Y. 



Construction and Manipula- 

 tion of Hives 



BY DR. G. BOHRER. 



I kept bees in Indiana from 1863 to 

 1873, and during that time I had bees in 

 13 different styles of hive, that I can 

 still recall. Among them was the square 

 hanging frame — the Langstroth frame 

 in shape, but hung with the long dia- 

 meter of the frame perpendicular in- 

 stead of hanging with the long diameter 

 transversely, as it does in the Langstroth 

 hive-body. The standard Langstroth 

 hive was also among my lot, and most- 

 ly what I depended upon. The Quinby, 

 or Jumbo, frame I regarded as equal 

 to the Langstroth in every respect, ex- 

 cept that the frames were deeper, and 

 I thought slightly more troublesome to 

 handle, especially at that time. The 

 custom of wiring frames had not then 

 been introduced to bee-keepers, hence 

 these larger combs were more liable 

 to break in handling. 



I also had a shallow hive consisting 

 of a bottom-board and frames made of 

 a top-bar and a bar at each end; and, 

 if memory serves me correctly, the ends 

 and top-bars were close-fitting. There 

 was no bottom-bar. A slot was cut in 

 the sides of the top-bar to let the bees 

 pass up into the surplus-honey recep- 

 tacles. The depth of this frame was 

 5 1-2 or 6 inches. There was a box that 

 telescoped over the frames, and rested 

 on the bottom-board, with a cleated cov- 

 er. I left this colonv on the summer 



stand to winter, and would have lost 

 it had I not moved frames containing 

 honey from the outsides of the hive up 

 to the cluster, the bees having consumed 

 about all the honey in the frames they 

 occupied when severe cold weather came 

 on, which being protracted, would not 

 permit them either to shift quarters to 

 full combs, nor to go after and carry 

 honey to the cluster. 



The above facts will point out to the 

 beginner the danger attending the use 

 of a shallow hive in outdoor wintering, 

 especially in a country whether very 

 much zero weather is common. In a 

 warm climate a shallow hive may be 

 trusted in outdoor wintering. But there 

 is one other difficulty attending the use 

 of a shallow hive which, to me, seems 

 insurmountable, in case we place a due 

 estimate upon time. I refer to the mat- 

 ter of handling frames in extracting 

 honey. Each frame must be handled 

 separately; and. as I have shallow sup- 

 ers or extracting frames, standard 

 Langstroth, and Jumbo frames, I have 

 by actual test learned that I can not by 

 any means possibly rid 2 shallow frames 

 of bees, uncap, and extract honey from 

 them as quickly as I can take one stand- 

 ard Langstroth or Jumbo frame through 

 the same process. And as the use ol 

 the extractor will become more com- 

 mon, and especially so since the Na- 

 tional Pure Food Law has gone into 

 effect, this difference in the time re- 

 quired in handling the different depths 

 of frames should not — and it seems, 

 when viewed from a logical standpoint, 

 can not, with consistency — be overlooked 

 and ignored. For people are rapidly 

 learning that glucose dare not be com- 

 bined with honey, and labeled and sold 

 for pure honey, and that honey in the 

 extracted form renders it the most 

 wholesome as food. The fact is also 

 gaining ground that extracted honey 

 can be produced in larger quantities and 

 cheaper than comb honej-. 



I am aware of the fact that it is 

 claimed that bees frequently become 

 frost-bound, and perish of starvation 

 with plenty of honey in the hive. This 

 is true in either a deep or shallow hive. 

 But in outdoor wintering it will occur 

 much oftener in a shallow hive than in 

 a deep one, for the reason that there is 

 less honey in shallow frames than in 

 deep ones, so that as bees go into winter 

 quarters, in the front and lower part ol 

 the hive, they will reach the back part 

 of the hive in less time (of course, con- 

 suming the honey as they move back) 

 than they will in a deep hive of the 

 Langstroth or Jumbo pattern. I am not 

 unmindful of the fact that an expert 

 can winter bees in almost any shaped 

 hive, but for the beginner to adopt a 

 shallow hive of any name or form is a 

 mistake. 



I was in Mr. Langstroth's apiary in 

 1864 and saw a ring suspended bet\veei> 

 the top and bottom bars, about 3-4 of 

 an inch in diameter, which was to enable 

 the bees to pass from one part of the 

 hive to another during cold weather. 

 In Indiana I have bored a hole in one 

 side of the hive and with a warm iron 

 rod sharpened at the point, passed it 

 through all the combs, being careful 

 to perform the operation quite slowly, 

 and turning the rod as I would an 



auger. Here in central Kansas I have 

 a dry cellar, and put most of my Dees 

 away during the three winter months, 

 and have never lost a colony. So I am 

 not fully prepared to state in positive 

 language how much merit to attach to 

 the matter of having openings through 

 the combs near the center as a means of 

 enabling the bees to reach their stores 

 during zero weather. But I am of the 

 opinion that while it maj-, and no doubt 

 does, afford a source of relief to an ex- 

 tent, it is not a positive guarantee of 

 salety. and nothing short of a frost- 

 proof depository is. And in the light 

 of my present amount of experience and 

 observation I can not say any more in 

 favor of any other form of hive than 

 the Jumbo and Langstroth. 



I see that the sectional or transverse- 

 ly divisible hive is held in high es- 

 teem by J. E. Hand, of Ohio, and J. 

 E. Chambers, of Texas. These gentle- 

 men say in Gleanings that with tnis 

 hive, enlarging or contracting the 

 brood-nest, supplying the bees with 

 honey, and finding queens and queen- 

 cells, are much more expeditious than 

 with the deeper frame, or Langstroth 

 and Jumbo hives. Now, while a section 

 of this hive containing honey or brood 

 can be placed over another section re- 

 quiring food or reinforcement, I am at 

 a loss to know how these gentlemen 

 manage to find a queen, or learn be- 

 yond doubt the presence or absence of 

 queen-cells without ocular inspection of 

 every part of every comb, whether deep 

 or shallow ; and how they can make an 

 ocular inspection without handling each 

 frame separately. All persons at all fa- 

 miliar with the habits of a queen know- 

 that, as a rule, to secrete and absent 

 herself from view is one of her strong- 

 est instincts, and that one of the sec- 

 tions, being only from 5 to 6 inches 

 deep, affords ample opportunity to carry 

 out her inclination to absent herself 

 from view, does not admit of a doubt. 

 Hence there is a mistake about this part 

 of their argument. I do not desire 

 to place a wrong construction upon 

 their language, and if I misinterpreted 

 their teaching, I will gladly stand cor- 

 rected. 



But, again, such a hive I see by 

 prices quoted costs more than either 

 the Langstroth, the Quinby, or Jumbo 

 hives. And while I shall not at once 

 condemn this hive, being in favor of 

 investigation and experiments careful- 

 ly conducted, I will say that I was per- 

 sonally acquainted with Mr. Langstroth 

 (the greatest inventor of them all), and 

 also with Mr. Quinbj-, that staunch old 

 veteran bee-keeper. I learned from 

 them in personal conversation their rea- 

 sons for constructing the brood-chamber 

 of their hives as we see them. The dif- 

 ference between them is but little, 

 while the success of all who have adopt- 

 ed them in the largest apiaries in the 

 United States, and elsewhere among the 

 nations of the earth, can not be called 

 second to any. But instead, very many 

 who began bee-keeping with both deep- 

 er and shallower hives than either of 

 these old, reliable stand-bys, have en- 

 dorsed their use and adopted either the 

 Quinby or the Langstroth hive. In 

 fact, all the 13 or more different hives 

 that I have tested were claimed bv 



