1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



67 



chaff packine^ outside has done. But I mis- 

 trust that Mr. Jones did not come over to 

 talk about wintering bees. What was on 

 your mind to night?" 



"I have been thinking of making some 

 long hives for next summer, and came over 

 to have a little talk with you about the mat- 

 ter. Why do not those working for extract- 

 ed honey use a long hive, holding the same 

 number of frames that they wish to use in 

 one stor}-, instead of tiering up several hives, 

 one on top of the other, as is advised by the 

 bee books and papers?" 



"I do not know just why others do not 

 use long hives; but my experience with 

 them was not in their favor." 



"That is contrary to what I expected. 

 From what thought I had given the matter 

 I was of the opinion that a long hive would 

 be more convenient, and that less time 

 would be consumed in the manipulation of 

 it." 



"This matter was gone over quite large- 

 ly years ago, and it might serve your pur- 

 pose if I told you something regarding it." 



"That is right; I shall be glad to hear." 



" Some twenty- five or thirty years ago 

 Mr. D. L. Adair, of Kentucky, was quite a 

 prominent bee-keeper and writer for our bee- 

 papers. He used and advocated a long 

 hive, to be used on the principle of spread- 

 ing frames out horizontally, instead of tier- 

 ing one hive above the other, claiming that, 

 thereby, a colony of b"es could be kept in a 

 normal condition, and while in said co edi- 

 tion no swarming would be the result. 

 This he termed the 'Long-idea' hive." 



"Wait just a moment Was he right in 

 claiming that a colony which did not swarm 

 was in a normal condition? I had always 

 supposed that the colony which swarmed 

 was in a normal condition. How else would 

 bees, in a natural, condition keep from be- 

 coming extinct?" 



"My idea would run along the same way 

 yours does; for in all my trials to prevent 

 swarming, which have been many, colonies 

 hi.ve to be thrown out of a normal condition 

 in order to obtain success, unless a very 

 large hive, filled with comb, is given. 

 Where as much as 5000 cubic inches of 

 drawn comb are given to a colony in early 

 spring, few swarms will be the result; and 

 I judge that Mr. Adair was cogn zant of 

 this fact, and for this reason he concluded 

 that any colony, having to the number of 

 from twenty to twenty- five Langstroth 

 frames full of comb, was far more likely 

 not to swarm than to swarm, therefore the 

 colony which did not swarm while in one of 

 his long- idea hives was in a normal condi- 

 tion." 



"Excuse my brealiing in. Go on with 

 3-our story." 



"Being always ready to test all 'new 

 ideas' I made two hives, each four feet long, 

 putting colonies in them, by setting the 

 frames over from other hives, early the next 

 spring. One of these I worked for extract- 

 ed, and the other for comb honey, on the 

 Adair plan. The one worked for comb 



honey swarmed, soon after taking out one- 

 third of the combs at either end of the hive, 

 and substituting frames of sections, either 

 because the 'idea' was faulty or because I 

 did not know how to manage fully such a 

 hive, or both; so after repeated trials to 

 keep them at work in the four-foot hive I 

 let them have their own way, and hived the 

 swarm in a new hive after they had swarm- 

 ed some five or six times." 



"Just as I should have expected, after 

 you took out two thirds of the combs, and 

 put sections in their places. That is the 

 wa}' such a change always works with me, 

 and I often wonder how others are still rec- 

 ommending such or a similar plan, of giv- 

 ing a top story of combs till the honey-flow 

 arrives, aud then substituting said story 

 with a super of sections, claiming that the 

 bees will at once go to work in them be- 

 cause they have been used to working ' up- 

 stairs. ' Unless this super is supplied with 

 sections containing drawn combs it always 

 results in swarming with me What is 

 your experience along this line?" 



"The same as yours, unless something 

 else is done by which the colony is thrown 

 out of a normal condition. But we are wan- 

 dering!" 



"Yes, I see. Excuse me again. How 

 about the colony worked for extracted hon- 

 ey?" 



"That did splendidly, and did not swarm; 

 but another, worked on the tiering-up plan, 

 did nearly or quite as well; and by practi- 

 cal knowledge 1 learned that I could work 

 a two, three, or four story hive much more 

 easil}^ than I could this long one." 



' • How was this? This part of easy work- 

 ing I thought was to be the best of all. If 

 they are not as easily worked as the tiered- 

 up hive, it shows that my opinion was 

 faulty." 



" To take the frames out of these long 

 hives, the person's back must be bent just 

 right, or enough to make it the hardest kind 

 of work, unless the hives are set on stilts, 

 which is not advisable; and the bees which 

 are shaken off the combs will crawl all over 

 the sides and top of the hive in such num- 

 bers as to make it almost impossible to close 

 it again without taking much valuable time, 

 or killing them by the score or hundred. 

 With the two or three story hive, the bees 

 shaken down at the entrance will not get 

 up to the top storj' before you are through 

 with your m^nipulation, and the operator 

 can stand erect, or nearly so, while doing 

 all the work." 



"This is something that had not entered 

 into my calculations, and I am quite sur- 

 prised; but at the same time my reason tells 

 me that you are right." 



"But the worst thing about those hives 

 was that I lost both colonies during the 

 winter, and during every succeeding winter 

 that 1 tried to winter bees in them. Of 

 course, they were too unwieldy to carry in- 

 to the cellar; but, so far as I could see, they 

 were prepared for winter as well as any of 

 the other hives which were left out, which 



