234 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1 



re pointed out the earlier name and de- 

 scription. Prof. Com stock and the authors 

 of the terms in the dictionaries had not hap- 

 pened to notice the change, or else they had 

 not looked into the reasons for it. A com- 

 parison of the facts just mentioned, with 

 the laws of nomenclature quoted above, 

 shows that we have no other way than to 

 accept as valid the name Apis mellifera. 

 And actually we find that specialists in 

 hymenoptera, both in this country and in 

 Europe, who have occasion to mention the 

 honey-bee by its scientific name, use the 

 term mellifera and not niellifica. 



After a careful examination of this sub- 

 ject I adopted the scientific name mellifera 

 in the third edition of my " Manual," which 

 appeared in the early part of 1899, and a 

 brief statement of the reason was given by 

 me in the American Bee fournal for July 

 20, 1899, page 456, and also in the Ameri- 

 can Bee keeper for July, 1899, page 128. A 

 year or so later Prof. A. J. Cook, when re- 

 vising his "Bee-keepers' Guide," for an 

 edition which appeared in 1900 or 1901, 

 wrote to this Department to learn our rea- 

 sons for the change in the scientific name 

 of the honey- bee. The matter was referred 

 to me, and I gave a full explanation with 

 the references to the publications. This 

 information he made, later, the basis of an 

 extended article on the subject, which was 

 published in the American Bee Journal iox 

 June 13, 1901, page 372. Prof. Cook also 

 adopted the name mellifera in the next edi- 

 tion of his book. 



U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 



Washington, D. C, Jan. 22, 1904. 



SECTIONAL BROOD-CHAMBERS OR SHALLOW 

 HIVES. 



Methods of Management. 



BY ARTHUR C. MILLER. 



On page 23 Mr. F. Greiner writes on the 

 sectional-brood- chamber hive. The editor 

 follows with a footnote on shallow hives. 

 This is confusing. 



A sectional-brood-chamber hive may have 

 two or more sections, and may have frames 

 of anj' depth. It is the habitual use of two 

 or more chambers that is concerned, not 

 the depths thereof. In practice it has been 

 found best to use sections about 5'2 inches 

 deep. In "shallow " hives, so called, 7>2 

 inches seems to be the limit, and with such 

 but one chamber is, as a rule, used for the 

 brood-nest. Because two of these may be 

 used does not necessarily make it a " sec- 

 tional-brood chamber " hive as that term is 

 understood by the advocates of them. 



Mr. Greiner is usually so very thorough 

 and careful that I felt sure he must have 

 discovered some vital defect in sectional 

 hives; but on careful perusal of his article 

 I was surprised to find that the fault seems 

 to lie with him. 



Certain general methods of management 

 are in use with all single-chambered mov- 



able-comb hives of whatever depth. To 

 reap the advantages of such hives over the 

 ancient boxes, we found it necessary to de- 

 vise and use some such methods. Mr. Hed- 

 don leading, and others following, believed 

 that these methods involved too much labor 

 and took too much time. To lessen these 

 difficulties Mr. Heddon devised his section- 

 al hive and evolved a system for it. 



With the sectional hive it is a system of 

 manipulation of " chambers " or " sec- 

 tions." With other hives it is a system of 

 manipulation of combs — two radically dif- 

 ferent things. With sectional hives, combs are 

 not to be removed except in rare instances (as 

 in looking for disease or for study). With 

 other hives the comb is the unit of manipu- 

 lation. Mr. Greiner, in common with many 

 others, has mixed the two systems, trying 

 to manipulate combs in sectional hives. 

 The result is, of course, disastrous to his 

 hopes and enthusiasm. 



Sectional hives were devised to minimize 

 manipulation; to save time; to reach ends 

 quicker or more perfectly than was possible 

 with other hives. But there are sectional 

 hives and sectional hives. Some are good, 

 some are bad. Some fulfill most require- 

 ments, others are almost useless. The im- 

 portant factors are: 



1. All chambers must be perfectly inter- 

 changeable. 



2. All frames must be securely held in 

 those chambers. 



3. Top and bottom bars of frames must be 

 of such width and thickness as to offer as 

 little obstruction as possible. 



4. A desirable though not essential fea- 

 ture is having supers of same size as a 

 brood-section. 



The three first of these were embodied in 

 Mr. Heddon's hive. Unfortunately the close- 

 fitting frames in his cases are not adapted 

 to many parts of our country where exces- 

 sive dampness so swells the frames as to 

 force the sides asunder. More room be- 

 tween the frames and the case, and some 

 form of yielding clamp (instead of the set- 

 screws) are necessary. There are many 

 ways these ends may be reached; but which 

 are the best, only time will determine. 



Granted a suitably constructed sectional 

 hive, it may be asked wherein we are to se- 

 cure any material advance over the use of 

 single-chamber hives. First and chief of all, 

 we must acquire the ability to diagnose the 

 conditions of colonies from views of top, 

 bottom, and middle. This is not difficult, 

 but takes a little time to learn. It is also 

 important to learn to " size up " a queen by 

 the external appearances of the colonj'. 

 Another valuable matter is to learn to get 

 the queen without removing the combs. 

 There are several ways in which this may 

 be accomplished. Often she may be driven 

 on top of the combs of one section or the 

 other by the judicious use of a little smoke. 

 By separating the hive sections the bees 

 will quickly tell us which one is without the 

 queen, then the bees may be shaken out and 

 the queen readily found; and it is by no 



