is'.t-: 



(ii.i:ANiN(;s IN iJKK < ri/rrin:. 



.S7 



tnioU'd li> six and s('v<'ii frames facli. while 

 some of tlie stl'oii;;est were left t lie wliole ti'll 

 frames. The iii\es taeed south, and those' oon- 

 triuMod had their fiames shoved to the east 

 side of the hive; a pieee of hiiilai) was put over 

 the flames, reai'liiuir to the hdttom-board, and 

 the spare on the west side tilled with clialT. A 

 t'Mi-ineh supv'i' was i)laeeii on each hive, and 

 lilled nearly to tlw lid with ohafT. 



Now. although the wiiiti>r was excpodingly 

 mild. Ix-es llyinsi almost eveiy day during l)e- 

 cetnher and .lanuaiy. and exeeptionally ilry, 

 there heinsr no lain of any i'onse(iuenee. tin; 

 hives were all somewhat damj) inside — tliose 

 witli the least chatT oviM' the frames being tiie 

 dryest. The ten-frame hives, with nearly ten 

 inches of ehatf over tlie frames, were no better 

 off tlian tho.se in the double-walled liives, while 

 the ehalV next the frames was damiier — in faet, 

 the burlaps, which were sound and good when 

 put on in the fall, were .so lotlen that, in most 

 cases, they pulled to pieces wlien taken fr'om 

 the frames. Still, the colonies were generally 

 strong, excejiting three that were attacked with 

 paralysis, blind - staggers, or whatever yon 

 clioose to call it. and left to go it alone, " pe- 

 tered out." 



I am now tirmly convinced that absorbents 

 next th(> bees are a detriment, for the reason 

 that they take up and irt(tiii the moisture that, 

 from the adverse action of the heat and cold, 

 will accumulate on the inside of hives wintered 

 outdoors in this latitude. I believe they also 

 absorb, and hold for a time, the nitrogenous 

 gases emanating from the cluster; and when 

 they became saturated they precipitate both 

 moisture and poison upon tlie occupants of the 

 hive. I believe hives should be packed, but 

 tliat a i)ine board, and not a chaff' cushion, 

 should go next to the bees. W. .1. Cui-LINAN. 



yuincy. 111., Jan., ^S9^2. 



[Your experiments only negatively confirm 

 the sealed -cover non-absorbent idea, tf you liad 

 tried, alongside of tliose colonies packed with 

 chaff abxirbents. others also packed in chaff, 

 but with a sealed cover over them, the experi- 

 ment might liave been more conclusive.] 



CONTRACTION. 



ITS THKOKY, OIJ.JECT, AND RESULTS. 



Some years ago. at a convention in Chicago. I 

 was sitting talking with E. J. Oatman before 

 tlie opening of the session. I told him I would 

 give a good deal to know of some way to pre- 

 vent swarming when working for comb honey. 

 A little to my surprise he replied,"! would 

 rather have every colony cast a prime swarm." 

 Then putting his hand to one side of his mouth, 

 and speaking in a very low tone, he said. "The 

 secret of it is to hive each sw arm on four frames, 

 and let them store for all they're worth, and then 

 double up in the fall." That was th(> first I had 

 heard of contraction. 



Contraction ists have been a good deal mis- 

 understood. Some of the theory is easily under- 

 stood. Su[)pose a queen i< capable of keejiing 

 seven frames full of brood. It seems very easy 

 to understand that, if the colony of that queen 

 be kept in a hive of six frames all the year 

 round, wlien the harvest comes, if the queen 

 keeps the whole six frames tilled with bniod. 

 the bees can have no lielp foi- it but to put all 

 their surplus in the supers for want of any oth- 

 er place. Without taking tim(> to give reasons, 

 let it suffice to say that, in actual practice, a 

 six-fi-ame hive all the year round is a faihiic. 

 and no genuine conlractionist stops his theory 

 in that bound. Yet that is about all the idea a 



great many seem to have of contraction, that it 

 simply means to ki'ep tiie room for lirood-rear- 

 iiig reslrict-ed. 



As Doolittle has so vehemently urged, the 

 most important part of contfaction is expansion. 

 I'se all metiiis t(i lia ve as strong a I'oi'ce as pos- 

 silile at the beginning of the liai'vesi. and no 

 six-frame hive will t\i) for that. '/Vm/i, when the 

 harvest commenco. limil llie room in the 

 brood-chamber, and that is the contraction of 

 coiitfactionists. 



Contraction or rm rontraction. few will (jues- 

 tion the wisdom uf getting the strong force 

 ready for the haiAcst. Heyoiid this tlieri; is 

 room for difference of o|)inifMi. Crowding the 

 (pieen awakens the swaTming impulse, unless, 

 indecMi. there can be awakened such a gr<'ed for 

 storing that queen and all hands may turn their 

 attention in that direction. Is there not nat- 

 urally a tendency that way in any heavy hai"- 

 v(>st? Still, there can be no (piestion that un- 

 limited laying room t<'iids to discourage swarm- 

 ing, and hardly more question that a colony 

 that never has the ilcxhc to swarm is the better 

 for storing, other things being eciual. So. on 

 the whole, it is prol)al)ly right to set down the 

 tendency to swarm as a pretty serious objec- 

 tion against contraction. 



" Contraction stops raising a horde that will 

 be too late to be of service in the harvest, and 

 will help consume that harvest after it is gath- 

 ered." I confess I have been gradually losing 

 faith in that till I have come to the point that 

 I do not believe it at all. Mind, I don't say 

 that I fc/ion' there is nothing in it. only I don't 

 believe there is. The argument is something 

 like this: Suppose the harvest stops July 1.5. 

 It is clear that all eggs laid in the 21 days next 

 preceding July 15 will raise bees that can not 

 touch that harvest; and as workers do not take 

 to the field till Ifi days old. we can add that 10 

 to the 21, making 37. so there's no use in having 

 the queen lay after June 8, which is 37 days 

 before July 15. But, is it true that bees do not 

 become field-workers till 10 days old'.' Al- 

 though that luay be what ordinarily happens, 

 is it not governed by the needs of tlie case? I 

 have seen bees live days old cairying in pollen, 

 and I suspect that those same bees might have 

 been kept from field work till they were much 

 more than 16 days old. Even if they do not go 

 to the fields for i(j days, they can do housework 

 during that time and allow just that many oth- 

 er bees to go, that but for th((m would be oblig- 

 ed to stay at home. But. tlieoretically, there 

 ought to be a gain on that harvest, to stop the 

 queen laying to her full capacity 31 days before 

 the cessation of the flow: for during that 21 

 days none of the eggs will hatch into bees, and 

 it costs honey to feed th(> brood and hoes to 

 nurse it, which bees might otherwise he at 

 work in the field. You see that the argument 

 that bees may work in the Held before Kidays 

 old works in favor of contraction at this point. 



But then comes the question: "' If the queen 

 is limited at this time, will it not work against 

 the futures prosperity of the colony V VVhen I 

 have practiced caging queens, time and again 

 my assistant has insisted that this colony and 

 that colony had sw ai'ined. when I knew that it 

 was nothing but the rapid depletion taking 

 place without any young bees to replace the 

 older ones that had worked themselves to 

 death. Will not such colonies continue to be 

 weaker? — weaker for winter? weaker for the 

 next spring ? 



But for all that I have said, contraction may 

 be right, and I don't think theory would have 

 made me give it u)>. I had the theory all 

 straight, and expected good results from it: but 

 somehow the liees wife so stupid they didn't 

 seem to see the advantages I was offering them. 



