322 



have I seen equipped hives sent, from 

 those who professed to knovif what 

 was correct, with foundation so im- 

 properly put in that the entire foun- 

 dation was a waste of good beeswax. 

 Only this spring I had occasion to be 

 called by a wealthy woman to stock 

 her hives with package bees. She 

 had six hives ready for the bees. I 

 had to put in about two houi-s of hard 

 work undoing improper work and do- 

 ing the work propei-ly. She had hired 

 a professional (?) supply dealer to 

 put full sheets of foundation into her 

 hives. In some, the sheets were not 

 fastened in any manner to the top- 

 bars. In others the sheets were fas- 

 tened by drips of wax at the ends 

 and in the middle. In some hives 

 the wires were not imbedded at all, 

 while in others they were caught 

 here and there by melted wax. In 

 none of the hives were the wires 

 tight. Had I put the bees into those 

 hives as I found them, there would 

 not have been one hive in which an 

 inspector could have easily removed 

 the frames for inspection. 



And Pennsylvania expects that, by 

 forcing her beekeeping farmers to 

 use movable-comb hives, they will at- 

 tain movable combs. 



And, after all, is the box-hive a 

 menace? Is the movable-comb hive 

 not more of a menace? When bees 

 die in a box-hive the hive is usuahy 

 left to stand unmolested. It may be 

 robbed out, or it may not. Frequent- 

 ly, before it does any harm the wax- 

 worms have put it beyond danger. 

 When, however, bees die in a mov- 

 able-comb hive the owner will gener- 

 ally pull the hive to pieces. He will 

 either toss the combs about or will 

 lay them helter-skelter on the adja- 

 cent stone wall. I put it up to Penn- 

 sylvania law-makers whether such a 

 hive is not more dangerous to the 

 beekeeping industry than the unmo- 

 lested box-hive 



Owners of frame-hives are quite 

 likely to get their bees to robbing 

 and, if any disease is present, the dis- 

 ease is spread and the menace in- 

 creased ten-fold. Owners of box- 

 hives seldom get their bees to rob- 

 bing, and disease may exist for a long 

 time without becoming dangerous. 



I say without fear of any argu- 

 ment that can be brought forward, 

 that the box-hive bugaboo is seen 

 through a microscope. Look at a 

 louse Through a microscope and see 

 what a horrible thing it is. As with 

 lice, so with box-hives; keep them oft 

 your own premises, but let your 

 neighbor tolerate them if he will. 



The trouble in this whole matter 

 lies in the method of procedure. Penn- 

 sylvania has gone "Dutch." Prohibi- 

 tive legislation is not what is needed. 

 Education is what is needed. Teach 

 the value of the frame-hive. Teach 

 how to make use of this value. Teach 

 that unless the frame-hive is treated 

 as a frame-hive its value ceases. Most 

 people can be approached from the 

 money point of view. If the dullest 

 person is shown that he can make 

 more money by this thing than by 

 that, he will adopt the money-making 

 scheme. Let Pennsylvania spend as 

 much money in educational activity 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



August 



as it will have to spend in carrying 

 out its absurd prohibitive laws and 

 the end sought will be achieved much 

 sooner. 



I realize that many of my readers 

 will be surprised at the side I have 

 taken in this matter, and because 

 they have set their hearts upon the 

 eradication of the box-hive, will dis- 

 agree with me decidedly. I am right, 

 however, and the sooner the friends 

 of beekeeping are brought to realize 

 that it is only through education that 

 we shall ever clean this country of 

 bee diseases, the more quickly shall 

 we reach that distant goal. 



Connecticut. 



SMALL AND LARGE HIVES 



By V. Dumas 

 Much has been said upon the above 

 question. But in giving the follow- 

 ing personal observations, my aim is 

 to draw the attention of the reader 

 upon a neglected point. I hold that 

 the value of observations reported is 

 not only depending upon the knowl- 

 edge of the man who made them, but 

 also upon the number, comparison, 

 frequency and generality of those 

 observations. 



Not all the methods of apprecia- 

 tion are logical. We see a beginner 

 buy a style of hive; during a few sea- 

 sons he has no crop; then he changes 

 the style and suddenly he secures an 

 immense crop of honey. Does that 

 prove that the first style used was in- 

 ferior? He may have had poor sea- 

 sons at first, with a better honey pe- 

 riod later. 



Another man buys a large hive and 

 puts a fine swarm in it. While his 

 other colonies harvest a good crop, 

 this one may make barely enough to 

 live. Does this prove anything 

 against the hive? Perhaps it had a 

 poor queen, or she may have been 

 superseded at the wrong time, for 

 such a supersedure at the time of the 

 crop may endanger the result. 



Many similar accidents may hap- 

 pen to the novice, and even to the 

 experienced beekeeper, and influence 

 them in their judgment. We must 

 not forget, therefoi-e, that <ill inci- 

 dents and observations must accom- 

 pany our statements, if we wish to 

 give the reader an o casion to pass 

 judgment upon the comparisons. 



With this point in mind, I wish to 

 exhibit the conclusions drawn by me 

 from a practice of ten year, bearing 

 upon the annual experience of keep- 

 ing some 250 colonies in hives of dif- 

 ferent models and sizes; besides the 

 observations furnished by the trans- 

 fer of a large number of colonies, 

 from buildings or trees into hives. 



My home apiary was composed of 

 104 colonies divided as follows: 

 ■ A — 70 Dadant-Modified or Dadant- 

 Blatt hives, 12 frames, inside length 

 16% inches, inside height 10% 

 inches. 



B — 2 Dadant-Modified, Long Idea 

 hives, 28 frames, inside length 16% 

 inches, inside height 10% inches. 



C— 8 small hives, 10 frames, inside 

 length 9Vi inches, inside height 14 

 inches. 



D — 2 small hives, combs across en- 

 trance, 18 frames, inside length 9V2 



inches, inside height 14 inches. 



E — 6 Box-hives, 8 combs, inside 

 length 7% inches, inside height 24 

 inches. 



F — 16 De Layens Long Idea hives, 

 18 to 24 frames, inside length 12% 

 inches, inside height 14% inches. 



These varied styles, though incon- 

 venient side by side, have supplied 

 me with the following evidence: 



A is the best hive for extracted 

 honey production. C is the best for 

 wintering weak colonies. E fur- 

 nishes the greatest number of nat- 

 ural swarms. F has inconveniences 

 which overbalance its good qualities. 

 D offers no advantages whatsoever. 

 B might be advantageous in a large 

 apiary for the rearing of queens, as 

 it would supply, at the beekeeper's 

 choice, either combs of honey or 

 combs of brood. 



In France, the shallow frames are 

 not desirable for wintering. I have, 

 however, ascertained that this is the 

 case only with weak colonies. I have 

 also noted, in the Dadant hives, some 

 30 desertions, in spring, with no 

 other cause than the weakness of the 

 colonies, which were unable to keep 

 warm on ill-supplied large frames. 

 This might have been avoided, for 

 one should not allow colonies to be- 

 come weak. But I have never seen 

 desertions in the styles C, D and E, 

 however weak the colonies may have 

 been. This is an aside of beekeeping 

 which might be avoided. 



It is evident to me that, on the 

 whole, the 12-frame Dadant hive is 

 most desirable. The fault found with 

 it in England is probably the result of 

 a lack of comparative experience. 

 This fault is undoubtedly applicable 

 to the Long-Idea Dadant or DeLayens 

 hives, as there is too much room, and 

 the queen may extend her laying in 

 an undesirable way, when her laying 

 should be reduced. I had one of 

 those hives, supplied with full combs 

 in its entire length, to furnish 14 

 combs of brood in August; so that 

 when I transferred the bees into an 

 ordinary 12-frame hive, I had to put 

 on a super to contain the immense 

 population of that colony. At that 

 date, not one of my small colonies 

 had swarmed, though well supplied 

 with bees. Their crop averaged only 

 33 pounds, while most of the large 

 hives yielded an average of 88 

 pounds. Yet, at the opening of 

 spring these small hives had seemed 

 to be in better shape than the larger 

 ones. Independently of all other 

 causes, the size of the combs and 

 their number have the greatest influ- 

 ence upon the honey production. 



I consider those large frame hive 

 colonies as the best balanced, keeping 

 a middle road between the hives that 

 are too small and cannot produce 

 enough bees, and those that are too 

 large and wear themselves out by 

 raising too many bees when they 

 should be filling with honey. 

 Toulouse, France. 



Arizona had 28,174 colonies of 

 bees in 1919, as against 23,770 in 

 1909, and the honey crop for 1919 

 was 926,621 pounds, or a per colony 

 average of 33 pounds. 



