r54 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15. 



them into the furnace. In any event, it is not 

 safe to leave them around where bees can get 

 at them. — Ed.] 



It's tantalizing that so many bright bee- 

 keepers in other lands persist in burying their 

 lights in languages so hard to unriddle. Why 

 couldn't they write every thing in plain Eng- 

 lish? But it's some comfort to know that 

 they're sometimes floored by some of our 

 English expressions. A late French journal, 

 quoting a "Straw " from GIvEANINGS, p. 378, 

 translates the sentence, "Then smoke like 

 sixty till bees rush out of hive, ' ' after this 

 fashion : ' ' Then smoke till about sixt}' bees 

 rush out of the hive ' ' ! 



" I HAVE SOMETIMES thought that, when 

 suddenly deprived of their mother, they are in 

 such haste to supply the deficiency that they 

 start with any thing they can get," quoth ye 

 editor, page 726. Yes, that's what we've all 

 been taught to think; but are you sure the 

 thought isn't wrong? I think I never knew a 

 strong colony made queenle.ss to have a young 

 queen emerge sooner than 10 days or later 

 than 12 days. If you will read with care p. 

 725, column 2, paragraph .S, I think you will 

 see that in such case the bees must have chos- 

 en a larva of proper age. [No, I am not sure 

 that the thought is right or wrong. Perhaps 

 your reasoning is correct. — Ed.] 



W. A. Pryal, page 729, is puzzled to know 

 why exchanging a paralytic colony with a 

 healthy one cures. The explanation that has 

 been given is that the bees are loath to cast out 

 their sick sisters of their own blood, but the 

 strangers make no bones of casting them out. 

 [I do not see, doctor, why you are puzzled. 

 When yellow fever breaks out, the authorities 

 make an attempt to remove or isolate every 

 case. The bees, instead of isolating the sick 

 ones, simply pick them up and carry them 

 out of the hive. A sick colony left to itself is 

 inclined to let the diseased bees and the 

 healthy ones remain together ; but when, on 

 the other hand, it receives an infusion of new 

 blood (healthy bees from another colony), 

 that new life proceeds at once to carry off all 

 the sick, thus removing the cause of infection. 

 —Ed.] 



There ! just what I was afraid of all the 

 time, that friend Dadant would say as he 

 does, page 71'J, that two stories of Langstroth 

 frames don't work the same as the big Quinby 

 frames. But his reasoning doesn't apply "in 

 this locality," and I don't see why you don't 

 follow ni}' plan at Medina. Put 3'our second 

 story under, and then you'll have it perfectly 

 " contractible and expansible," for the brood- 

 nest will be gradually extended downward. 

 The addition of the second story will make 

 the brood-nest warmer instead of colder. But 

 after the section supers are taken off, I put 

 the second story on top. If I wintered on 

 summer stands, I'd put second story under. 

 [My plan was generally, I think, to put a 

 second story on top. That the brood-nest 

 will be warmer when your plan is practiced, 

 there can be no question. Perhaps your way 

 is better. I will endeavor to try it next sea- 

 son. — Ed.] 



LARGE HIVES. 



A Historical Resume; Small Hives Not Advised 



for Short Seasons; Small Hives, Small 



Colonies. 



BY c. P. dadant. 



In my previous article I told you how Mr. 

 Dadant, senior, came to the use of large hives. 

 I will now explain how he succeeded in intro- 

 ducing them in France, Switzerland, Italj', 

 Belgium, etc., while living in America. 



In 1867 a neighbor of ours went to the Paris 

 International Exposition, and my father asked 

 him to get for him the address of the French 

 bee journal, L\Apiculteur, which had then 

 been in existence for twelve years. On re- 

 ceipt of the sample copy of this magazine, he 

 discovered that bee culture in Europe was 

 very much behind, the hives in use being the 

 old-fashioned straw skeps. The inventions of 

 Berlepsch, Debeauvoys, and others were too 

 primitive to make movable-frame hives prac- 

 tical. He at once began writing articles for 

 L'Apiculteur, advising the use of the Lang- 

 stroth invention of hanging frames with mov- 

 able honey-boards, and at the same time ad- 

 vised the use of much larger hives than were 

 then in use. The reader will remember what 

 I said in a previous article, on the capacity of 

 the hives used in France, and of the opinion 

 expressed by their leading apiarists as to the 

 laying capacity of queens. The hives were 

 much smaller than those used here at present, 

 and the results were correspondingly smaller. 

 Bastian, who used a hive similar to the Ber- 

 lepsch, wrote that there was no necessity for 

 a super containing more than 6 to 12 lbs. of 

 honey. 



Thus the ideas advanced by Mr. Dadant, 

 senior, were considered unreasonable, both as 

 to size and shape. Movable-frame hives were 

 fit only for experimenting scientists, and large 

 hives were worse than useless. 



It is really amusing, at this date, after a 

 lapse of thirty years, to read the arguments 

 given by the supporters of a dying routine 

 against the new methods which slowly but 

 finally superseded their now obsolete methods. 

 I have before my eyes an article written by 

 my father, and inserted in L' Apiculteur of 

 December, 186S, very nearly thirty years ago, 

 in which, as an argument in favor of larger 

 hives and better methods, he translates a re- 

 port of A. I. Root, given in the A)iierican Bee 

 Journal for October, 1S68. As it is much easi- 

 er to quote the English itself, instead of re- 

 translating, I will take this passage as I find 

 it in the American Bee Journal, Vol. IV., 

 page 64: 



"In the spring we selected a strong stock, 

 with a very prolific queen, and first removed 

 every bit of drone comb from the breeding- 

 apartment, and supplied its place with clean 

 straight frames of worker comb; second, we 



