88 



GLEANINGS I'N BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



AN ESSAY READ AT THE OHIO STATE 

 CONVENTION BY DR. TINKER. 



THE SECTIONAL BROOD CHAMIJEK. 



Tip CCORDING to the published i)r()j4i'aiiimt' of 

 gil^ this convention, it appears that I am to dis- 

 jS»^ CU8S the advantag-es of sectional brood-cham- 

 "*• bers. If it had been announced that I was 

 to discuss the advantages of sectional hives, 

 we should be dealing- with a practical subject, one 

 with which every bee-keeper in the land should be 

 familiar. But the subject in hand is one in sore 

 need of discussion, since, for some cause, very little 

 has appeared in our bee-journals to enlighten us 

 concerning it. 



My first season's experience with sectional brood- 

 chambers seemed very favorable. It happened to 

 be an extraordinary season with us, and any hive 

 With good management would have made a fair 

 record. The past season was not a good one, and 

 the defects of the new hive wore apparent in many 

 things. As compared with the Simplicity hives, 

 of which I had seven in use, they were a marked 

 failure. The bees in the Simplicity hives of my 

 -neighbors also did better. They not only had more 

 bees all through the season, but made more sur- 

 plus, and stored enough for winter, while the bees 

 in the sectional brood-chambers had to be fed for 

 winter. 



I am reluctantly compelled to make this confes- 

 sion, partly because of my own disappointment in 

 these hives, and partly because of the kindly feel- 

 ings I entertain for the inventor. 



Now, my friends, I will give in detail my experi- 

 ence with the sectional brood-chamber, and my 

 reasons for abandoning it. In the first place, the 

 horizontal half of a brood-chamber is too small for 

 a swarm, too small tor a colony in the fall, and too 

 small for wintering. It is too small for a swarm, 

 since, with a queen-excluding honey-board, the 

 bees will store much pollen in the surplus sections, 

 and soon dwindle down to the size of a good nucle- 

 us. It is too small in the fall, since the bees are 

 limited in space for stores and brood, and become 

 too weak in numbers to winter to the best advan- 

 tage. It is too small for wintering, since it will not 

 contain sufficient stores to winter the colony and 

 make a respectable start in brood-rearing in the 

 spring. Thus it will be seen that one of the cases 

 of such a hive, by itself, is of no value in the hands 

 of the practical honey-producer. It is required that 

 both parts of the brood chamber be used together 

 to make any thing like a success of it. But if they 

 are so used, the following difficullies arise: In the 

 spring, the colony breeds up slowly, and without 

 much attention will not get ready for the harvest. 

 When at last it does get ready, if the honey-How is 

 extra good the bees proceed to fill up the horizon- 

 tal space with brace-combs, and fill in with honey. 

 The bee-keeper now thinks to interchange the 

 sections aad bring the brood to the top, but finds a 

 strong lever is required to pry the hives apart. He 

 quickly finds he can neither interchange the parts 

 nor close the hives without killing hiindrcds of 

 bees. They pile upon the broken surfaces, and a 

 smoker is required in ordei- to cut away the honey. 

 If robbers are troublesome, It becomes a serious 

 matter, and the bee-keeper soon gives up the inter- 

 changing business as a bad job. It seems that bees 

 do not build brace-eombf? to the sanje extent: l)e- 



tween whole brood-chambers, tiered one upon the 

 other, as between these shallow cases. After all, 

 there is no advantage from interchanging the sec- 

 tional parts, since bees will carry the brood upward 

 and breed just as rapidly where no interchanging is 

 done, as where it is. As the season advances, the 

 bees put all the honey, or nearly all, in the upper 

 case, so that the whole bi"Ood-ch amber is required 

 for winter. 



The " shake out " function is a good deal easier to 

 talk about than to carry out in practice. With 

 black bees and a little smoking it may be done, as it 

 does not take much shaking to get them out. With 

 Italians, Syrians, and Cyprians, it is a ver-y ditflcult 

 matter, and the bee-keeper is easily persuaded not 

 to try it again. 



Finally, sectional brood-chambei's are objection- 

 able because of the extra expense of so much rig- 

 ging for the amount of honey they contain, and 

 there are no advantages to compensate the extra 

 cost. 



My friends, the sectional, or storifying hive, will 

 be the hive of the future. By this I do not mean a 

 hive with a sectional brood-chamber, for one of the 

 parts of such a hive is only half as large as the 

 standard brood-chamber, whose capacity, as fixed by 

 fathers Langstroth and Quinby, is 2000 cubic inches 

 of space, which will contain, in suspended brood- 

 frames, about 13.50 square inches of comb. I have 

 already shown that the half of such a brood-cham- 

 ber is too small to be of any jn-actical use by itself. 

 Nothing less than a capacity for 800 square inches 

 of brood-comb is deserving the name of brood- 

 chamber, and such a one may be successfully used. 

 I mean instead, a hive made up of two. three, or 

 more brood-chambers tiered up one upon the other, 

 or, as our English brethren term it, " storified." As 

 this latter term is more elegant and expressive, I 

 shall use it. 



Storifying hives have many advantages over 

 other kinds of hives. 1 have no doubt that the pop- 

 ularitj- of the Simplicity hive is due more to this one 

 feature than any other. We have had them in use 

 in this country for many years, but it is only within 

 the last few years that we have fully api>i'eciated 

 this admirable function. It is highly significant 

 that our English friends are placing so much stress 

 upon this point. Of late they have given no premi- 

 ums to any but storifying hives. 



In this connection I have but one suggestion to 

 make, and I am done. It is, that, if the Simplicity 

 hive were cut down to take a 7inch brood-frame, it 

 would be nearly perfect as a storifying hive. It 

 would then be just right for a swarm with a queen- 

 e.vcluding honey-board; it would be just right 

 for wintering, and it could he storified at any 

 time in the working season, to make a large 

 hive according to the necessities of the bee-keeper. 



New Philadelphia, O. Dr. G. L. Tinker. 



Thank you, doctor, for the very faithful 

 report of your experience with the shallow 

 brood-chambers. 1 would suggest, hoM'- 

 ever, tiiat I think friend Heddon has some 

 arrangement for preventing the building of 

 brace-combs between the upper and lower 

 sections. At the Ftica Convention we had 

 a friend present who has used 41 of the 

 Heddon hives during the past season. He 

 used, also, about tlie same number of hives 

 with the large Quinby frames, if I am right. 



