1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



611 



roof, and keeps them cool, besides furnishing 

 them all the air they need. 



Were I starling again I would use the shal- 

 low Dadant super with the Hoffman frame. If 

 it is full of honey it is enough for any one to 

 carry into the honey-house. It is enough 

 space to add early in the spring. The queen 

 will not leave the large brood nest to go up 

 there to lay unless there is drone comb there 

 and none below. There is no sorting of combs 

 ever necessary. I have never known of a case 

 where the bees would not have honey enough 

 below to winter on. I have not the least 

 doubt but that the Dadants have surplus 

 combs that are from 25 to 30 years old that are 

 good yet, and have never had brood or pollen 

 in them. I should like to hear from them in 

 regard to their surplus combs, and how they 

 take care of them when not in use. 



Upper Alton, 111., July 25. 



[As the evidence begins to pile in, pro and 

 con, on this subject, it seems light is surely 

 breaking. From all that has been said, if I 

 can interpret correctly from the reports, it 

 would appear that for northern localities the 

 eight frame capacity is about the right size 

 when running for comb honey ; and it does 

 not matter whether that is in the shape of an 

 eight-frame Langstroth or Danzenbaker ten- 

 frame or two Heddon eight-frame brood- 

 chambers, all three being ot about the same 

 capacity. For other localities, and particular- 

 ly in the South, a larger hive seems to be 

 better for the production of extracted honey. 

 Some think a ten-frame Langstroth is quite 

 large enough. Others, like our friend Draper 

 and the Dadants, believe that a ten-frame 

 Quinby, or what has recently been introduced 

 as the Draper barn, is the thing. 



It was O. O. Poppleton, one of the most 

 careful and conservative bee-keepers there is 

 in our whole land — one who has produced 

 honey in Illinois and Florida both by the ton 

 and by the carload — who says that a comb- 

 honey hive can not also be a good extracting 

 one, or something to that effect ; that the one 

 designed for liquid honey should have a large 

 capacity, and that for comb smaller, so that 

 this question of large and small hives after all 

 simmers itself down to a matter of locality 

 and condition of market. If there is more 

 money in producing extracted honey, then it 

 is folly to produce comb ; and one should 

 study well his locality, and then decide on the 

 style of hive. 



It is P. H. Elwood who began with the 

 Hetherington-Quinby, ten of which frames 

 would make a very large hive, and now I 

 believe he uses only five or six such frames in 

 the production of comb honey. These would 

 give an equivalent capacity, if I am not mis- 

 taken, of an ordinary eight-frame Langstroth. 

 On the other hand, the Dadants started with 

 a Quinby, pure and simple, and they have 

 been producing extracted honey, and have 

 continued along with the original Quinby, 

 nine and ten frames. 



It has been only within the last month or 

 so that all of this mass of conflicting testimony 

 seems to have centered itself down to a point 



so that we can know, to adopt a slang phrase, 

 "just where we are at;" and it is no little 

 pleasure to me to believe that all of this dis- 

 cussion has at least led to something practi- 

 cal.— Ed.] 



FEEDING BACK 



UNFINISHED 



A Seasonable Article; Artificial Heat. 



BY F. GREINER. 



It is, I believe, a fact conceded by all, that 

 bees will do better work in warm weather 

 than in cool. Quite often we have it rather 

 cool during the early part of the clover-honey 

 season, and again during the buckwheat- 

 honey flow. Work sometimes comes almost 

 to a standstill on account of a cold night. 

 Fortunately, during our basswood-honey sea- 

 son it is nearly always warm, including the 

 nights. Then we have ideal bee weather — 

 ideal weather for honey secretion, and work in 

 the hive. When feeding back to have section 

 honey finished up, the work will be done a 

 great deal better when it is sultry, and a sec- 

 tion finished up during such a time presents a 

 much better appearance than another one fin- 

 ished during cold weather. By packing the 

 supers we may retain much heat generated by 

 the bees, and make a gain sometimes. Dan- 

 zenbaker attaches much importance to this 

 point, which, I believe, has a good deal to do 

 with his having his sections so well filled and 

 finished. 



The time when I feed back comes always 

 after the buckwheat ceases to yield, or about 

 September 1 ; and at this time it is more often 

 cool than warm, particularly nights. It used 

 to annoy me to have so many such sections 

 look so rough and uneven. To use a compar- 

 ison, they looked like a field roughly plowed, 

 while I wanted them to look like one all har- 

 rowed d )wn nicely with a smoothing-harrow. 

 I studied and experimented along this line 

 with hot soapstones, blankets, tenement hives, 

 and kerosene-lamps. Any ore not having a 

 fall honey-flow will not have the trouble I 

 have, for he can (yes, ought to) get this work 

 done when it is still warm. He ought to have 

 it done just as soon as his bees cease working, 

 not alone because it is then still warm, but 

 because the bees are in better shape to do the 

 w r ork then than after they have been idle for 

 a time. I always select such colonies for the 

 work as were working well at the end of the 

 harvest. If such a colony is not already in a 

 contracted hive I reduce the size of the brood- 

 chamber previous to feeding, or much honey 

 will go into the brood-nest. It is a well-known 

 fact that bees are -more apt to store in the 

 brood-chamber late in the season than they 

 are during the fore part. I prefer half story 

 hives, or such colonies as are in other shallow- 

 frame hives. 



Of all the means tried, I like the kerosene 

 best, as it is the handiest and most effective 

 in assisting the bees in keeping up the tem- 

 perature necessary for doing nice work in the 



