1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



591 



that the food has less to do with successful 

 wintering than we formerly supposed it had ; 

 for we have for years wintered our bees suc- 

 cessfully on all sorts of stuff, even including 

 the vile "bug juice," of which we had so 

 much in our hives during the winter of 1SS4. 

 The loss that year was only 5 per cent, and 

 there were heavier losses that year, attributed 

 to honey -dew, than any year since 1881. 



CONTRACTION AND TWO - STORY COLONIES, 

 AGAIN. 



"Open confession is good for the soul," 

 says the editor of the Review; "and," he 

 adds, " I am going to admit that bee-keepers 

 have practiced control of the brood-nest at the 

 beginning of the harvest. The editor of 

 Gleanings shows most conclusively by refer- 

 ence to articles right in the Review that such 

 ihings have been done. ... It is true, as 



Bro. Root says, that this kind of contraction 

 has been abandoned, and has been abandoned 

 so long and so thoroughly that I had really 

 forgotten it." 



In referring to what I have said in regard to 

 the use of two or more eight-frame brood- 

 nests when working for comb honey, that I 

 had secured more honey from them than from 

 a single eight-frame hive, he says : 



I do not doubt that ; but to make the matter right 

 he ought to get ticice as much. Here is an eight-frame 

 hive standing this side of the apple tree. On the 

 other side is another eight-frame hive. Let them 

 alone as they are ; put on the supers, and we get 50 

 lbs. of surplus comb honey from each colony. Set 

 one of these on top of the other, and if we do not get 

 100 lbs. we have lo.st. 



The point is well taken, Bro. H.; but I had 

 it in mind, though I am not sure I called 

 attention to it. I will give one instance to 

 show why I based my preference as I did. In 

 the north row at our basswood yard, during 

 the season of 1897, was a one-story eight- 

 frame hive. This secured 2-"i lbs. of sealed 

 honey, but no more. Just back of it was a 

 two -story colony that filled one set of extract- 

 ing-combs and one super of 28 sections. The 

 last named produced somewhere about three 

 times as much honey, but at the time I did 

 not think it had more than twice as many 

 bees. The first-mentioned colony swarmed, 

 and then secured 25 lbs. of comb honey. The 

 parent hive did almost nothing, doing hardly 

 more than to fill its brood-chamber with brood 

 and a little honey. The other colony did not 

 swarm, and was wintere<l as a double-story 

 colony, and this spring it was the best work- 

 ing stock, and by all odds the strongest, of 

 any thing we had in the apiary, having win- 

 tered perfectly. 



Now, I will be frank, and state that some 

 colonies in the double-deckers did not do 

 twice as well as some of the single-story stock. 

 But the average of the double-deckers did 

 better than the average of the singles. In the 

 case of the two and three story colonies, we 

 have only one cover and one bottom; but in 

 the case of the one-stories we have one cover 

 and one bottom for every brood-nest. But 

 suppose a two-story colony produces only 

 twice as much as a single story. "We have 



eliminated in part the swarming propensity, 

 and we have saved the expense of one cover 

 and bottom, and the value of one queen. 

 But, over against this, my friend Vernon Burt, 

 who lives only about four miles north of us, 

 is of your way of thinking, as you will see by 

 our last issue. 



AUTOMATIC NON-SWARMING APIARIES. 



No, not exactly that, for there is no such 

 thing as an absolutely non-swarming colony 

 nor a non -swarming apiary; and there is no 

 such thing as a colony nor apiary that will 

 take care of itself without &ny help from the 

 apiarist whatever; but in these days of low 

 prices it behooves the bee-keeper to cut down 

 the one item of labor as far as possible. In 

 my advocacy of double-decker colonies I have 

 had in mind something that would be as near- 

 ly automatic as possible, taking into considera- 

 tion bee nature and man nature. Bro. Hutch- 

 inson, in previous column, thinks we have 

 gained nothing if a two-story gathers no more 

 honey than two one-stories. In the generali- 

 ty of cases I am firmly of the opinion that one 

 double will give a greater amount of honey 

 than two singles. But let us assume, for the 

 sake of argrment, that the big colonies will do 

 no better. They are not as subject to being 

 robbed, are far less liable to starve in spring 

 or fall; winter better, and are much less in- 

 clined to swarm. Now, if this is true it is 

 plain they will require less labor in caring for 

 them; and assuming, as at first, that they will 

 secure no more honey than the two singles, 

 we have expended a great deal less labor for a 

 certain amount of honey, and saved the ex- 

 pense of one bottom-board and cover, and of 

 one qvieen. 



For several seasons past, our basswood api- 

 ary has been managed almost entirel}' by my- 

 self. If I had tried to take care of them on 

 the single-story plan, I should have had to go 

 down there nearly every day, and, worse than 

 all, been present at that time of the day when 

 swarms are liable to come forth or else lose 

 quite a number. As it is, I go once a week' or 

 once a month during the season — sometimes 

 twice a week; for I know that an apiary man- 

 aged on the double-decker plan is very largely 

 non-swarming. Why, I believe such a yard 

 requires about one -half the labor of an apiary 

 run on the other plan. One of the principal 

 items in the cost of honej' is labor. If we can 

 cut down half of that item, or a large part of 

 it, we have reduced a large part of the cost of 

 producing honey. On the double-decker plan 

 one man should take care of four or five apia- 

 ries, where it might hustle him to take care 

 of two on the one -story plan. 



This is an interesting question, and needs 

 to be considtred in connection with one's 

 locality. I do not, therefore, claim that the 

 running of double-deckers is the way for all 

 localities ; but I do feel that the average bee- 

 keeper has been trying to get along with 

 stocks that are too weak. 



Mr. Burt agrees with me exactly on this 

 point ; but by feeding in the spring, a la 

 Boardman, he thinks he can secure stocks 

 strong enough for his purpose in a single 

 eight-frame brood-nest. 



