VOL. LX— NO. 5 



HAMILTON, ILL., MAY, 1920 



MONTHLY, $1.00 A YFAR 



THE EVOLUTION OF BEEKEEPING PRACTICE 



BY G. S. DEMUTH 



THERE are certain well-defined 

 eras throngh which beekeeping 

 has passed in its development. 

 The changes in beekeeping practice 

 are reflected in the development of 

 the beehive. In order to understand 

 fully the reason for the present-day 

 construction of the standard hive and 

 its adaptation to modern beekeeping 

 practice, it is necessary to trace the 

 changes that have been made in ^hive 

 construction and search for the rea- 

 sons for each of them. It is my pur- 

 pose in this discussion to point out 

 briefly the different eras in the de- 

 velopment of beekeeping in this coun- 

 try, and at the same time trace the 

 more important changes in the devel- 

 opment of the beehive. 



The Box Hive Era Previous to 1853 



Previous to the Langstroth inven- 

 tion was the box-hive era, or the an- 

 cient history in beekeeping practice. 

 During this era, honey for human 

 use was secured by "taking up" or 

 brimstoning in the fall the heaviest 

 colonies, and during the latter part of 

 the era by using a small box or "cap" 

 placed on top of the hive over an 

 auger hole through which the bees 

 could pass into the box. Beekeeping 

 was quite general, but the number of 

 colonies for each beekeeper was rela- 

 tively small. The honey produced 

 was largely for home use, though 

 during the latter part of the era con- 

 siderable quantities of honey began 

 to find its way into the markets. 



The most remarkable feature of the 

 bo.x-hive era is the fact that it pro- 

 duced the great leader and teacher, 

 Moses Quinby, whose book, "Mys- 

 teries of Beekeeping Explained," is a 

 classic in American beekeeping litera- 

 ture. In the first edition of this book 

 Quinby described in detail the con- 

 struction of the Quinby box hive and 

 the system of management which he 

 had evolved for its use. 



The size of this box-hive had been 

 carefully worked out and it is inter- 

 esting to note the reasons given by 

 Quinby for a brood-chamber of 2,000 

 cubic inches, which he used and rec- 

 ommended. In this connection he 

 wrote: "We must remember that the 

 queen needs room for all her eggs, 

 and the bees need space to store their 

 winter provisions; for reasons before 

 given, this should be in one apart- 

 ment. When this is too small, the 

 consequence will be their winter sup- 

 ply of food is liable to run out. The 

 swarms from such will be smaller and 

 the stock much more liable to acci- 

 dents which soon finish them off. * 

 * * Suppose you locate a swarm in 

 a hive the size of Dr. Bevans' (1,200 



Box hive with shallow cap. the first step in the 

 development of our present system of taking 

 surplus honey. 



cubic inches), the bees would occupy 

 nearly all of this room with brood- 

 combs; now, if you put on boxes and 

 as soon as filled put on empty ones, 

 the amount of surplus honey would 

 be great; very satisfactory for the 

 first summer, but in a year or two 

 your little hive is gone. * * * If 

 too large * * » they last a long 

 time and are but little profit in sur- 

 plus honey and swarms." — (Moses 

 Quinby, 1853, "Mysteries of Beekeep- 

 ing Explained," pp. 42-43). 



The Box-Honey Era, 1853-1867 



The Langstroth frame and hive was 

 patented under date October 5, 1852. 

 "Langstroth on the Hive and Honey- 

 bee" was published early in the sum- 

 mer of 1853, thus appearing simul- 

 taneously with Quinby's work. "Mys- 

 teries of Beekeeping Explained." Up 

 to this time neither of these great 

 leaders knew of the work done bj' the 

 other. The invention of the movable 

 frame by Langstroth marked the be- 

 ginning of modern beekeeping and 

 ushered in the box-honey era. Dur- 

 ing this period surplus honey was 

 I^roduced in boxes, each holding 5 to 

 10 pounds of honey, which was built 

 in the boxes by the bees. These 

 bo.xes were usually made with glass 

 on one or more sides to show the 

 honey advantageously when it was 

 ottered for sale in the markets. It 

 was a development from the old cap 

 of earlier days. There is evidence 

 in the early literature indicating 

 that Langstroth, after much careful 

 experimenting, chose the particular 

 depth of his hive because this depth 

 of the brood-chamber caused the bees 

 to enter these empty l)oxcs and fill 

 them with honey more readily than a 

 lecper brood-chamber. 



The e.xtra shallowness of the Lang- 

 stroth brood-chamber in comparison 

 with the familiar tall box-hive or 

 gum, brought a storm of protest from 



