1904 



GLEANINGS IN BtE CULIURE 



23 



When I was present at one of Co!;(j^shairs 

 extractings the bees were very cross, es- 

 peciallj' so when Mr. Coggshall began kick- 

 ing off the supers. But he told me after- 

 ward he was having a little fun at m}' ex- 

 pense — that he wanted to warm a bee edi- 

 tor with a few stings, and he did. I thought 

 there was something sinister in his move- 

 ments at the time, but I was not sure. I 

 shall be glad to know that the " kick ofl" " 

 can be worked so professionally as not to 

 stir up the bees. — Ed.] 



THE SECTIONAL BROOD=CHAMBER. 



A Retraction by One who has Advocated the Shal- 

 low Brood^chamber. 



BY F. GREINER. 



The subject of shallow sectional brood- 

 chambers has been brought up again of 

 late bj' such prominent writers as A. C. 

 Miller. F. L. Thompson, W. K. Morrison, 



To overcome the trouble in poor honey 

 seasons I have of late put the dummies over 

 to one side of the brood-chamber; and when 

 I noticed the bees neglecting the sections 

 over the dummies I turned the section-case 

 half way around, which manipulation re- 

 quired but a moment's time, and brought 

 the nearly finished boxes over the dummies 

 and the neglected ones over the brood. I 

 would also state here that 1 have gone back 

 on extreme contraction. Even when ex- 

 cluding honey- boards are used with less 

 than seven L. frames or their equivalent, 

 pollen is not unfrequently stored in sec- 

 tions; and when no excluder is used, brood 

 is reared in them. When absolutely no 

 drone comb is allowed in the brood-cham- 

 ber as practiced or advocated by Mr. Morri- 

 son, the bees seem to be determined to 

 rear their allowance of drones in the sec- 

 tions; and although they may build comb 

 or draw out the drone foundation in the su- 

 per, this comb is left empty for a long time. 

 Evidently the bees do not comprehend why 



LOUIS F. WAHL IN HIS EXTRACTING-KOOM. 



in different bee-periodicals. I have myself 

 been singing the praises of the half-story 

 brood-chamber, and been very enthusiastic 

 over the advantages it offered. But while 

 seeing them I somehow overlooked or under- 

 rated the disadvantages. They, however, 

 have made themselves felt late, and my en- 

 thusiasm lias worn oft. I am about ready 

 to go back to the full-depth frame, ordinari- 

 ly using a single story for brood-rearing, 

 and contracting by dummies when desira- 

 ble. It is very true that the sections over 

 the dummies are sometimes not finished up 

 as quickly as those directly over the brood; 

 but when the season is gooi, we don't ex- 

 perience an}- trouble along this line. 



the queen does not use it for depositing 

 eggs in, and keep waiting and waiting. 

 Mr. Morrison's theorj', therefore, does not 

 seem plausible to me. When bees build 

 drone comb for the purpose of rearing 

 drones in the same, they do not use it for 

 storing very soon, and thej' also use a 

 greater or an undue amount of wax in con- 

 structing it. Both are undesirable. Mr. 

 Morrison is also compelled to use a queen- 

 excluder, another undesirable thing. Con- 

 sidering the top surface of his hive, this 

 queen-excluder must of necessity be more 

 expensive. The same would hold true of 

 the hive-cover. 



The shallow brood-chamber Mr. Morri- 



