1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



LARGE HIVES FOR COMB HONEY AS WELL AS 

 FOR EXTRACTED. 



The Laying Capacity of Queens Adapted to Large 



Hives; Position of Doulittle and Hutchinson 



Criticised ; Relative Value of Large and 



Small Hives for Wintering. 



BY CHAS. DADANT. 



As I have been the promoter of large hives, 

 not only in America but especially in Europe, 

 I desire lo add some explanations to the arti- 

 cles of my son. 



When I came from France to this country, 

 36 years ago, I had already owned bees and 

 studied bee culture in the books and in the 

 apiary; so I was convinced that, if I resided 

 outside of a city, I could easily live and sus- 

 tain my family on the product of the bee 

 business. 



The friend, a Frenchman, who had given 

 me some information about this country, and 

 to whose home I came, had four or five colo- 

 nies of bees in box hives. One of these hives 

 was immense, made of lumber 18 inches wide 

 and 2 feet high. The combs were prevented 

 from breaking down by two sticks intersect- 

 ing one another. To take out the surplus the 

 board of the top was unnailed, and the honey 

 was cut out after sending the bees below with 

 smoke 



My friend had begun by buying this large 

 hive, and had from it a crop of honey every 

 year. 



The number of bees in this hive was so large 

 that you could see as many workers going out 

 of it as out of the three or four other hives 

 together. 



I had already noticed the superiority of 

 large hives in the old country, and my per- 

 suasion was enhanced by observations in other 

 apiaries around me here. A few yeais later I 

 went to the auction sale of a farmer, to buy a 

 cow. There were also six different-sized box 

 hives. It was in March. The temperature 

 was cold, so I tapped every hive with my 

 finger to know whether the)' were alive. The 

 bees in five of these hives answered to my 

 tapping, with a short trill ; the other, which 

 was very large, answered bo o-o-o-m. I was 

 fixed. I bought this large hive for $7.00, but 

 I did not care for the small ones, each of 

 which was sold for three or four dollars. 



At that time I was already transferring box 

 hives into movable frames. This large hive, 

 after having been transferred, gave me, the 

 same season, 160 lbs of comb honey, which 

 was sold at 27 cents a pound in St. Louis. So 

 this colony paid, in the same year, for the 

 cow bought, $35.00, and for itself. Of course, 

 this colony- had been transferred into a large 

 (not Ouinby but King) hive ; for as I had to 

 save every cent I could I had bought first the 

 book of King, since its price was but 50 cer.ts, 



instead of $1 25 or $2.00, the prices of the 

 books of Ouinby and Langstroth. 



But I had already enlarged the King hive 

 to twelve frames instead of ten, to give enough 

 space to the queen ; for, after noticing the 

 superiority of large hives, I had made an 

 observatory hive, and noticed that a queen 

 lays about six eggs per minute, 360 per hour, 

 and 3600 in 10 hours, 75,000 in 21 days. A 

 little later, after having bought the Ouinby 

 book I made some Quinby hives, enlarging 

 them also. 



These large hives gave me excellent results 

 in comb honey, for the extractor was not in 

 use yet. BesHes, in the beginning extracted 

 honey was difficult to sell, as it had to com- 

 pete with glucose. 



A bee-keeper, living not far from here, hav- 

 ing been told by a neighbor that I had bees that 



CHAS. DADANT. 



gathered 100 lbs. or more per colony, answer- 

 ed that I was a braggart. His bees did not 

 give him more than seven pounds per colony^ 

 on the average. Of course, he had small 

 hives. I told my neighbor to invite this bee- 

 keeper to come and see my bees. He came, 

 and I have never seen a man more amazed 

 than he when I raised the cap of one of my 

 hives to show him three boxes full of honey 

 piled upon one another. These boxes were 

 six inches high, and of the size of the top of 

 the hives. For years we raised comb honey 

 in frames six inches high, joined together to 

 make boxes, Adair fashion, with glasses at 

 both ends, before using the extractor. 



We now raise extracted honey only, not be- 

 cause we can not produce comb honey with 

 our large hives, but because extracted honey 

 does not need so much work as comb honey, 

 and we have some other business on hand. 



While the large ten-frame Ouinby hive is 

 our hobby, the favorite hive of Doolittle is 

 the small nine-framer of the Gallup hive. 



