684 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



vSEPT. 1. 



HIVING SWARMS IN SHALLOW BROOD-CHAM- 

 BERS. 



Hives for Producing Comb Honey ; Keeping Down 

 Increase ; Dispensing with Movable Frames. 



BY HARRY I.ATHROP. 



Friend Ernest : — In response to your re- 

 quest I send you herevdth some views taken 

 in my Monroe apiary where I use the eight- 

 frame Dovetailed hive. These views show 

 the hives from which swarms have issued, 

 while the supers are on a shallow brood-cham- 

 ber in which the swarms were hived on the 



the frames enough shallower to allow the 

 usual bee-space on top. 



To get these frames filled with comb, I at 

 first began hiving comb-honey swarms on 

 them ; but it is so satisfactory that I would 

 make and use them, even if I did no extract- 

 ing. We fasten a starter of medium brood 

 foundation in each frame, enough to half fill 

 the frame. The bees soon build them clear 

 down, and nearly all worker cells. When I 

 hive in these I usually place a spaced queen- 

 excluding honey-board under the sections, and 

 I do not think it retards the bees any. 



I have another arrangement, very similar, 



H. I^ATHROP'S MONROE APIARY. 



Swarms from Dovetailed hives worked for comb honey in shallovsr temporary brood-chambers; very little 

 honey stored below in the shallow frames ; outside depth of brood-chamb r 7 inches. 



old stand. As I said to you recently, with our 

 short season of honey-gathering it will not do 

 to hive swarms in ordinary brood chambers, 

 as it takes too long for the bees to get things 

 filled up in shape below. I do not like side 

 contraction, because we want bees and brood 

 under all the sections. Furthermore, when a 

 bee-keeper has as many colonies as he wants 

 on his field he must arrange to double back at 

 the close of the working season. 



I wdll explain briefly how I got to working 

 with temporary brood-chambers. I had a lot 

 of old brood chambers, the same size as the 

 eight-frame Dovetailed, but much deeper. I 

 had them ripped up to make shallow extract- 

 ing-supers. They are just seven inches deep. 



which I have used to some extent, and like 

 first rate too. It is a shallow brood-chamber 

 made of common fencing, and having com- 

 mon lath nailed in the top — no frames. The 

 lath are planed smooth, placed only a bee- 

 space apart, and a close bee-space (X inch) 

 below the top edge of the brood-chamber. 

 The supers of finished honey come off from 

 these as clean as they were when they went 

 on, even when used without queen-excluders. 

 It is the same with the Dovetailed hives as 

 you make them. There is no trouble from 

 burr or bridge combs, while the Grimm-Lang- 

 stroth hive is very bad in this respect. 



After the honey season is over, these shal- 

 low brood chambers with frames are handy to 



