278 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Mar. is 



that a great deal of comb honey in the mar- 

 ket was manufactured. A protest was 

 made b3' Mr. G. W. York, President of the 

 Chicago Bee keepers' Association, and also 

 by our Mr. A. 1. Root. The latter called 

 attention to the fact that he had had for 

 years a standing offer of $1000 for a single 

 pound of manufactured comb honey, without 

 a taker; that the Department of Agriculture 

 through its apiculturist, Prof. Frank Ben- 

 ton, had repeatedly denied statements of 

 this kind. The publishers wrote a very 

 nice letter, acknowledging the receipt of 

 the correction, sending a copy of their pa- 

 per, giving the letter of A. I. Root in full. 

 In the letter received the editor said he was 

 guided by an old farmer of experience, who 

 believed that manufactured comb honey was 

 on the market; but in accordance with a 

 rule of the hiter-ocean, long since in force, 

 to be fair to all parties, he thought it but 

 proper to make the correction. 



Prompt denials, couched in courteous lan- 

 guage, will go a great way in nullifying 

 the damage made by these false statements. 

 Whenever statements of this kind appear 

 they should be promptly answered. 



THE SHALLOW HIVE AND FRAWE. 



Objections to Such Hives Not Due to the System 

 but to Faulty Construction ; Their Advantages. 



BY J. E. HAND. 



I notice on page 24 \ou ask for reports 

 from those who have tried the shallow sec- 

 tional brood-chamber hives. I have used 

 such hives for the past fifteen years in the 

 successful production of comb honey. At 

 the present time I have 130 in use. I am a 

 firm believer in the preat superiority of the 

 shallow frame, and the very shallow frame. 

 A frame six or seven inches deep is too 

 deep for the best results in my location. 

 One reason is that they do not admit of that 

 extreme contraction which forces all the 

 white honey into the sections; and another 

 reason is that the queen is not inclined to 

 pass so readily from one section to another 

 in so deep a frame. The frame I use and 

 prefer is 4/s X 17)^ , outside measure. Brood- 

 chambers and supers are alike and inter- 

 changeable. Wide frames and fences are 

 used in the supers, with full sheets of foun- 

 dation in the sections, and only inch strips 

 of foundation in brood-frames. 



I have proven to my entire satisfaction, 

 by a comparison of shallow and deep frames 

 used side by side for the past fifteen years, 



that the very shallow frames not only win- 

 ter better, and build up faster in spring, 

 but they will produce more bees to the 

 square inch than any deep-frame hive; and 

 by their extreme contraction the bees are 

 compelled to put all the honey in the sec- 

 tions. 



I believe most of the objections to these 

 hives have been due to the improper con- 

 struction of the same, and not to the system 

 itself. 



I am well aware that these hives would 

 not be best for the careless bee-keeper; but 

 for the practical honey-producer who will 

 take advantage of the principles for which 

 these hives are especially constructed they 

 stand without an equal. Especially is this 

 true in the production of comb honey where 

 the honey-flow is short and sharp, or rather 

 poor. 



The use of these hives practically does 

 away with all handling of frames, enabling 

 the honey- producer to handle more bees and 

 to produce more honej'. I clip all my 

 queens, cut out queen-cells, and perform all 

 necessary work, without removing a single 

 frame. I have no time to handle frames or 

 dummies, followers or wedges The proper 

 manipulation of these shallow brood-cham- 

 bers at the right time will practically pre- 

 vent swarming. 



Should there be any swarms they are 

 hived in a sing'e section of shallow brood- 

 frames, with plenty of section room for the 

 largest swarm, and practically all the hon- 

 ey will go into the sections, not next week, 

 but right now. These hives are in pairs; 

 and as soon as the surplus is removed they 

 are united by simply placing one on top of 

 the other. This gives plenty of workers for 

 any fall honey that may come, and rarely 

 has to be fed for winter. 



A frame of dry comb should be placed in 

 these contracted hives to prevent pollen in 

 sections, and a queen-excluding honey- 

 board will prevent brood in sections. I 

 have no trouble along these lines. In hiv- 

 ing swarms in these contracted brood- 

 chambers an empty section should be placed 

 underneath for a few days to prevent 

 swarming out, as they are liable to do if 

 given only one section at first. 



By expanding these hives to the fullest 

 capacit}' of the queen, up to the hone}'- flow, 

 a large force of workers is produced; and 

 by extreme contraction at the beginning of 

 the honey- flow all the honey is forced into 

 the sections. 



Expansion and contraction are the prime 

 factors of successful comb honey production 

 in my location, which is a very poor one. 



Birmingham, O. 



[Along in the early 80's, about the time I 

 first took charge of the bee department of 

 this journal, the subject of sectional brood- 

 chambers (or, as some called them, shal- 

 low hives) was discussed pro and con. 

 Many of the arguments that you advance in 

 favor of them were advocated then. So far 

 as I know, all or nearly all who used the 



