1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



625 



that the ladder term i nates in a single pole, 

 which can be very easily lodged in the fork of 

 a limb where a two-pronged ladder would not. 

 The three prongs below the laddrr are sharpi-n- 

 ed at the ends, and secuiely pushed into the 

 ground: and the perfect lodgment of the other 

 end in the crotch of the limb makes it a safe 

 means of ascent. Aside from this, the ladder 

 will be lighter and less top-heavy, and this lat- 

 ter is quite a di'sirable feature. Erxkst. 



CONTRACTION. AGAIN. 



O. W. l)AYTOX"S AKOf.MIONT FOR IT: I-.\KGE VS. 

 S.MAl>L IIIVE.S. 



Friend Root:— On page ICu is an article on 

 contraction, on which you and I differed, and 

 from which you appeal to Messrs. Uadaiit and 

 France to tell why contraction is not advanta- 

 geous. Mr. Dadant replied on page 3.")4. To 

 show, fi-oin a coniiaction sttmdpoiiit. how the 

 opponents of contraction numipulate that sub- 

 ject, is my excuse for again encumbering your 

 columns with an article on the above subject. 



First, Mr. Dadant says, " A queen from 

 July to August can lay very little in a small 

 hive." 



There is nothing strange about this assertion 

 but the dates. By reading my article it will be 

 seen that the dates I gave were to contract on 

 '• June 1.5 to 20.'' and continue during the honey 

 harvest, which lasts "scarcely 30 days." That 

 the date should be jogged along 40 or (iO days is 

 deserving of a row of Mr. Heddon's "guide- 

 boards" (lately described in the American Bee 

 Journal, so thickly posted around the assertion 

 and its promulgator that the inexperienced can 

 not see through them. 



Mr. D. should understand that a contractible 

 hive is an expansive one also: and that the 

 last time around, to extract or remove sections 

 is the season when this expansion is applied: 

 and this expansion continues onward, as much 

 as possible, for 340 to 3.50 days, or until the ap- 

 proach of another honey harvest. 



Mr. D. also says, on page 3.54. that his '"hives 

 are larger than a twelve- frame Langstroth; 

 and when white clover begins to bloom, nearly 

 every one of them is full of brood, and of bees 

 ready to bring honey into the upper story." 



This' statement carries with it a strong in 

 ference which thousands of bee-keepers have 

 demonstrated to be a fact: which is, that 

 •• ready to bring honey into the upper story " 

 happens only after those capacious brood- 

 combs are packed with brood and honey: al- 

 ways later than the beginning of the harvest. 



Mr. D. estimates the number of bees in the 

 brood state as 7o,(XX) to 80.000. Now. I ask what 

 Grant could have done before Richmond if 

 75,000 of his soldiers had been in their cradles, 

 and had to be rocked by the remaining 35.000. 

 But Grant said he would fight all summer 

 there; where, on the contrary, the bees have 

 " scarcely 30 days." It should be remembered 

 that brood does not gather honey, neither are 

 honey-gathering bees propagated in less time 

 thanSO days. 



On page 3.55 it says, " The new doctrine which 

 advises bee-keepers to contract " is " laborious." 

 Let us see. The principle of " the new doc- 

 trine " consists of the insertion of two sheets of 

 perforated zinc in a twelve-frame hive, so as to 

 confine the qtieen in an apartment containing 

 four or six brood-combs. This is done at the 

 opening of the honey-harvest. These six combs 

 the queen is allowed to fill solid with brood, 

 while the six combs remaining on the outside 

 will gradually have all the brood hatched out, 

 and be filled solid with honey — probably 35 



pounds. These six combs may be set away for 

 winter, and wide frames filled with sections put 

 in their places: whereas, if the queen were al- 

 lowed to travel througli the whole hive it 

 would be impossible to remove a comb without 

 taking brood also: because, as Mr. Hoolittle 

 says. •' then! is much brood and iioney through- 

 out the hive. l)ut not much of either in any 

 single comb." But suppo-^e the extractor is 

 used, then it is less labor to extract 35 pounds 

 of honey from six combs than twelve, and then 

 it i>i a teilious job to ttu-n tlu; exti'actor when 

 extracting the twelve combs so slowly as to 

 avoid throwing out the young larvie. ^lany 

 consumers do not know that the black putrid 

 worms they skim from the barrels were once 

 voinig bees. It is next to impossible to strain 

 thick honey, and that is the kind most apt to 

 contain yotmg bees. Mr. Dadant's wholesale 

 manageiiient may not involve these points so 

 closely: but nine-tenths of the bee-keepers 

 manage exactly as desciibed. While Mr. D. 

 amas-ed his whole article against the "new 

 doctrine" as "stopping the laying of the 

 queen." it was neai'ly a total miss shot, as that 

 is not the most valued function. This valued 

 one is the consolidation of honey and brood in 

 the HK'eptacles provided to receive them. This 

 saves labor, saves combs, saves hives, saves 

 time and vexation. 



There is one advantage which the large hives 

 possess over the old "doctrine" of contraction, 

 and which advantage is admissible, and in- 

 scribed entirely within the range of the " new 

 doctrine " of contraction. 



By the old "doctrine" of contraction by us- 

 ing '" dummies," the bees were to be forced or 

 driven, at the beginning of the harvest, 

 through a honey-board into a dry uninviting 

 super or chamber, where, on the other hand. 

 Mr. Dadant's supers are not an upper story, and 

 ai'e full of combs more enticing than "baits." 

 But then, instead of the bees coming up into 

 them immediately they are coaxed along from 

 comb to comb, close by the side of the brood in 

 the lower hive until they have stored one- 

 third to one- half a crop, and the duration of 

 the harvest half gone. 



Now. it is a rule that, when the honey-har- 

 vest has been on hand ten days, many colonies, 

 though filled with brood and bees at first, are 

 twice as large as then; and the hive, even if of 

 large size, literally boiling over with bees. 



At this time of the harvest no one complains 

 that bees are not in the supers: but the com- 

 plaint is. that they do not begin in the supers 

 until the harvest has partly gone by. By old 

 •• doctrine," the sections were drawn and filled, 

 then the winter stores looked after, when, with 

 large hives, it is just the opposite. 



\Vhatever the hive may be, the successful op- 

 eration is to get the receptacles for honey near 

 to the brood: and this " new doctrine." which 

 Mr. D. may have mistaken for the old, admits 

 the sections and extracting-combs into the low- 

 er story so close by the brood that thirty-five 

 pounds of large^hive winter stores may be ob- 

 tained in marketable shape, besides saving the 

 propagation of a host of young bees which are 

 of no use except to help crowd the old working 

 bees from the brood-chamber into the super. 



Without contraction many colonies crowd 

 the honciv into the brood-nest so compactly 

 that the "queen can not find cells in which to 

 propagate a sufficient colony for winter, while 

 a few queens will keep so much brood that a 

 hive full of combs does not contain enough hon- 

 ey for winter. This difference is very much 

 owing to the manner of the queen's laying eggs. 

 Some queens appear to prepare their colony for 

 the harvest, while others use the harvest for 

 the enlargement of their colony. Contraction 



