1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



135 



1^ " Yes, I know all about this line of reason- 

 ing ; but when I saw that amount of nice 

 white honey in those frames, certainly 25 

 pounds more than was necessary for the colo- 

 ny before May 1, I could not help the feeling 

 coming over me that such white honey, if in 

 the sections, would be a salable article, while 

 that coming later on would be just as good 

 for wintering, but not so salable, on account 

 of its darker color, as ' while-clover ' honey 

 (all very white honey being called such in 

 market), brought fully a third more in price 

 than that from buckwheat and fall flowers. 

 So I concluded that the next year I would try 

 some hives with dummies, in the place of 

 three combs ; and if there was not honey 

 enough to supply the bees' wants, without 

 their having fears of starvation, I would feed." 



" Well, how about the results?" 



"The result has been that, with the excep- 

 tion of three seasons, I have not had to feed 

 at all, and two of these but very little. One 

 year I not only had to feed in the fall, but had 

 to feed several barrels of sugar in the spring ; 

 but during the nearly 30 years I have used 

 these small brood -chambers, I have not had 

 to feed more than an average of one pound of 

 sugar to the colony, if it were spread out into 

 years." 



"But that is not just the part which I do 

 not understand. You say that j'ou not only 

 secured the 25 pounds that was placed in the 

 three outside frames, in the sections, by using 

 three dummies in the place of the three 

 frames, but that the 10 colonies so worked 

 averaged over 40 pounds more comb honey 

 than those left with the 12 frames as at first. 

 Do you mean to say that the nine frames pro- 

 duced 40 pounds more than the 12 frames? " 



"No, not just that. Frames never produce 

 honey, any way. What I did mean to say 

 was that, by using only nine frames in a hive, 

 the bees and queen were placed in such a con- 

 dition relative to their surroundings, that these 

 10 colonies were enabled to give me 40 lbs. of 

 honey in the sections, on an average, over and 

 above what those did which were still left in 

 12-frame hives." 



" But how did you get those 25 pounds that 

 were in the three frames (substituted by dum- 

 mies) into the sections ? " 



" I did not get just tliat honey into the sec- 

 tions at all ; for after it was once stored in the 

 combs I could not touch it toward placing it 

 in the sections (nor as extracted honey, for 

 the extractor was little known at that time), 

 only as I priced frames of honey in hives when 

 I hived new swarms, in which case very likely 

 some of it found its way into the sections, 

 mixed with that coming in from the field. 

 However, the most of these filled combs were 

 used in colonies which were bent on building 

 drone comb, where such filled combs were of 

 the worker size of cell." 



" You say that, when 3"ou used 12 frames in 

 a hive, your average queens would occupy only 

 about 800 square inches of comb with brood, 

 but with the 9 frames, all were nearly filled 

 and occupied by the queen. This would be 

 1050 occupied, when using the 9 frames. How 

 is this? I can not understand it." 



" I presume I was not quite explicit enough 

 in what I said on page 49. It is almost im- 

 possible to get all the minutiae of a thing into 

 one article. If you will read the article again 

 you will note that the 600 square inches of 

 comb in the 12-frame hive, not occupied with 

 brood, was 'filled with honey and polleti.'' 

 And as no pollen should ever go into the sec- 

 tions, a part of the 1050 was occupied with 

 that, say from 50 to 150 square inches, accord- 

 ing to the time of year and yield of pollen 

 from the flowers." 



" But what about the other 150 to 200 still 

 not accounted for? Did the three inserted 

 dummies increase the capacity of the queens 

 that 150 inches?" 



"Yes partly. When bees commence to 

 store honey in the brood-combs to any great 

 extent before they go into the sections to work, 

 they will crowd with honey the room the 

 queen would otherwise occupy with brood ; so 

 where bees do thus commence, we will, as a 

 rule, have less brood in the hive than where 

 the bees commence in the sections at the very 

 commencement of the honey-flow. The other 

 ' partly,' is accounted for by the fact that bees 

 will always have a few cells of honey scatter- 

 ed about among the brood, as well as pollen, 

 and also some little honey in the extreme up- 

 per corners of the frames. There are very 

 few frames indeed that are absolutely full of 

 brood ; but with the 9-frame hive very many 

 approach very nearly to the absolute." 



' ' But if the three outside combs were full 

 of honey in the 12-frame hive, how could there 

 be any diflference regarding empty cells? In 

 other words, how could the substitution of 

 three dummies for three combs of honey pro- 

 duce less empty comb in the hive for the bees 

 to deposit honey in at the beginning of the 

 harvest? " 



" If you are conversant with the interior of 

 the hive in the spring of the year, and during 

 winter, you have noticed that, during every 

 warm spell, the bees will break cluster and 

 stampede over to the outside of the outside 

 frames or combs, and carry honey from them 

 and place it in the cells immediately surround- 

 ing the cluster. This they do to insure, as far 

 as possible, their not being caught during 

 some cold spell without honey within their 

 immediate reach. And thus we always find 

 that during spring, or up to the honey-flow, 

 the outside combs have many empty cells in 

 them, and these are the cells into which the first 

 honey from our flow of nectar goes, if they 

 are allowed to remain there. Having once 

 commenced to store in these cells, the result 

 is a continuance of the same, and a brood- 

 chamber crowded with honey, as I have before 

 stated. Perhaps I put it rather strongly when 

 I allowed the impression to go that these three 

 outside frames were always full of honey, and 

 I wish this explanation to be taken together 

 with the other. If the combs were always 

 full of honey, there would be no loss, over the 

 dummy plan, after the first filling of the three 

 combs. The loss comes more from the prov- 

 ocation toward the crowding of the queen 

 than otherwise, though I now see I did not 

 make that matter quite plain on page 49." 



