1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



791 



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-"ipjEsm^^^ 



LARGE HIVES. 



Swarming with Large Hives ; How a Queen Lays 

 Her Eggs ; Importance of Plenty of Room. 



BY C. p. DADANT. 



In considering this question of the adoption 

 of large hives, one of the principal tilings we 

 have had in view was the prevention of swarm- 

 ing. With some apiarists this is a matter of 

 small importance. Either they wish to in- 

 crease their colonies in numbers, or they have 

 sale for the swarms, as used to be the case 

 some twenty-five years ago ; or perhaps they 

 expect to make up for winter losses with the 

 natural swarms harvested. 



With us the case was different. We have 

 had 's many hives of bees as we cared to man- 

 age, for twenty years or more ; and even from 

 the beginning we foresaw that swarming would 

 always be an annoyance to us that would not 

 be compensated by whatever advantages there 

 are in natural swarming. In the first place 

 we have a number of out-apiaries, and the 

 farmers are not always on hand when the bees 

 swarm, so that the bees are not as well taken 

 care of as we might wish at swarming-time. 

 In addition, when the average amount of nat- 

 ural swarming is expected, one has to keep on 

 hand quite a stack of empty hives, ready to 

 receive the bees. Then it very often happens 

 that, when the bees get the swarming-fever, 

 they swarm themselves to death, and cast oflf, 

 at the last, such puny swarms that they must 

 either be returned, or fed for winter. With 

 large hives there is less swarming, as the 

 queen more readily finds cells in which to lay 

 the eggs that are produced so rapidly that she 

 must lay them in cells or drop them on the 

 floor of the hive. And while I am on this sub- 

 ject, let me suggest that it is at least a mistake 

 to figure up a certain number of cells for the 

 use of a prolific queen, and to expect that she 

 will fill all these if she is sufficiently prolific. 

 The queen works in the dark, as do all the 

 bees ; and, although she can probably see in 

 the dark, she surely does not know where all 

 the empty cells are located. It is certain that 

 she lays as the bees work, with a great deal of 

 method ; but for all that, if she has been al- 

 lowed just the space that she can fill, and no 

 more, do not my readers think that she will 

 lose a great deal of time in hunting for empty 

 cells? W'e all know in what manner a queen 

 lays. She starts in the middle of the cluster, 

 in the warmest portion of the hive, puts her 

 head into a cell to make sure that it is empty 

 and clean, then inserts her aVjdomen into this 

 same cell, remains a few seconds motionless, 

 then withdraws and goes to the next. She 

 keeps on circling around this center till she 

 comes to the edge of the comb or to the edge 

 of the cluster, if the weather is cool. In warm 

 •weather she is not disturbed in her circle till 



she gets to the edge of the comb, when she 

 quite often lo=es considerable time in regain- 

 ing the thread of her work. Any one who has 

 opened hives often has seen how regular the 

 patch of brood is as long as it is round. But 

 they have also noticed how irregular the lay- 

 ing often is at the ends of the comb. Shallow 

 hives have a decided disadvantage in this re- 

 spect, as in several others, and that is one rea- 

 son why we preferred the deeper frame, Ouin- 

 by style. 



But when the combs have been more or less 

 filled with brood, it is then that the queen is 

 apt to lose considerable time in hunting for 

 more cells, and thus wastes valuable eggs, 

 which, as our old authors used to say, "drop 

 like ripe fruit when they are mature." Yet 

 are we not all agreed that we need those eggs 

 in the early part of the season ? We can not 

 too often repeat with Hutchinson, " We need 

 to raise all the bees possible before the open- 

 ing of the main harvest. We must have the 

 workers, or the harvest will be in vain." Thus 

 w^e came to the conclusion that we must have 

 plenty of empty cells, enough so our queens 

 would not get overcrowded, at least until the 

 bees begin to bring in the honey. When a 

 queen has plenty of room, one of the biggest 

 incentives to the prevention of swarming is 

 removed. 



Don't understand me to say that, with large 

 hives, you will have no swarms, for this is in- 

 correct ; but if you want to prevent swarming, 

 to the greatest possible extent, you must, first 

 of all, have large hives. Other things are re- 

 quired, such as the removal of the excess of 

 drone combs, plentiful ventilation, a supply of 

 surplus combs, etc. ; but the sine qua uoii, in 

 our eyes, is large hives. 



With a little care it is not difficult to keep 

 swarming down to such a point that the natu- 

 ral swarms will barely make up for winter 

 losses. In our case we find it insufficient, and 

 we resort to artificial swarms or divisions, 

 which we find much more satisfactory, for we 

 can breed from the queens that we prefer, 

 and, at the same time, keep our best colonies 

 for producing honey. Every practical bee- 

 man will agree that it is the large colonies 

 that give the large crops, whatever may be his 

 opinion as to the size of hive needed. 



But if we niusl have swarms, with large 

 hives they will be large, take my word for it. 

 They will be none of Colin's six-pounders. 

 Dare I say that they will even be larger than 

 those harvested by our supporters of the eight- 

 frame Langstroth hive ? If they are not large, 

 the queens are to blame. Allow me to re- 

 mark that the bee-keeper with a large brood- 

 chamber has a much better chance to judge 

 and compare the prolificness of his queens 

 ihan has the apiarist or even the scientific 

 man who makes his hives just large enough 

 for the average queens, or, rather, what he 

 thinks to be average queens. The very best 

 queen in the cotmtry may be kept in a one- 

 frame observing-hive, and yet may not fill it 

 full of eggs. Will that condemn her? Put 

 this same queen on ten or twelve frames, with 

 a good retinue, and see what she will do. It is 

 only by giving her a chance to expand her 



