1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



925 



the lai-K'e ]na\\, and only four exhibits staged thereon. 

 Surely liee-kcepers failed to realize the opportunity 

 these large shows have given individual bee-keepers of 

 establishing a market for their produce. The honey- 

 buyers of large firms attend these exhibitions, hoping to 

 secure a supply, not only for their immediate require- 

 ments, but a continued supply for the sea.son so long as 

 honey is in demand; and I myself may affirm that sec- 

 tion honey in the comb is in demand at all seasons of 

 the year, when it can be had in good quality, and pre- 

 served in liquid condition in the combs. That has been 

 my experience for many years past. I have secured 

 regular customers, and we send off consignments of 

 such sections every week throughout the year. It may 

 be asked how I obtained these customers. My reply is: 

 When I took up modern bee-keeping I put in an appear- 

 ance on the show-bench at .South Kensington, and trade 

 began to flow in. This was a quarter of a century ago, 

 and I still supply the same firms to-day. My " trophy " 

 at the Confectioners' Show this week was sold two 

 months ago (or, rather, was ordered in advance) to one 

 of my oldest customers, whom I almost look on as 

 friends after so many years of honorable dealing. To 

 others who produce honey, and have difficulty in finding 

 a market, I say, " Go and do likewise." London is a big 

 place, and requires a large quantity of food of all kinds 

 every day. I do hope our bee-keepers will pay a visit 

 to the exhibition, and see not only the British section 

 but also the grand exhibit staged by the Canadian Gov- 

 ernment, among which is a large parcel of section hon- 

 ey; and, what is of greater interest to them, is the fact 

 that, I was told, an English firm had bought all the 

 honey staged before the show was opened ! Here we 

 see the value of enterprise on the one part, and the 

 breadth of London's requirements on the other. 



Probably three-fourths of London's inhab- 

 itants never taste honey. 



If any of the readers of Gleanings can 

 make use of an Itahan bee-journal we will 

 mail one free. We will also send one 

 printed in Spanish, Dutch, Flemish, Danish, 

 Swedish, Bohemian, or Esthonian as long as 

 we receive the present supply. 

 vb 



In writing for the press it is desirable on 

 the part of the printers to have the work 

 done with a pen and ink instead of a lead- 

 pencil. Before mailing the article, let some 

 of the family read it aloud to you in order 

 to supply the missing words. 



LARGE HIVES AND NO SWARMING. 



' ' What do you think of the idea a neigh- 

 bor advanced to me yesterday?" 



' ' How can I tell until I know what that 

 idea was ? ' ' 



"I did not tell you, did I ? Well, it was 

 this : He said that, if I would use large 

 hives, I would have large colonies when 

 working for comb honey, with no swarming. 

 If that is a fact, would it not be well for us 

 to drop all of our former notions regarding 

 the contraction of the brood-nest, when 

 working for comb honey, and give all colo- 

 nies a great big hive, and so let the bees 

 take care of themselves very largely ? " 



"You know, friend Jones, that I have 

 been the advocate of a brood-chamber as 



small as or smaller than nearly anyone else, 

 when working for comb honey, the same 

 holding only nine Gallup frames." 



"Yes, I am familiar with this." 



' ' Those nine Gallup frames give a capac- 

 ity about the same as 6J Langstroth f rameS' 

 would; and from a brood-nest of that capac- 

 ity I secured an average yield of 100 pounds^ 

 of comb honey from each colony for eleven, 

 years in succession during the later seven- 

 ties and the early eighties— a record which 

 has rarely if ever been excelled, covering 

 that term of years. ' ' 



"I believe that is right." 



' ' Now, while that is so, I am free to con- 

 fess that, without doubt, more labor is re- 

 quired in rightly managing such hives than 

 is needed in the management of large hives. 

 But with me it has always seemed that, 

 from the extra amount of honey obtained, I 

 always secured enough to pay fully for the 

 extra labor expended ; and, if so, could the 

 plea of letting the bees take care of them- 

 selves enter into the problem ?" 



" I had hardly thought of that." 



"The question, it seems to me, is, which 

 will give the best returns for the amount of 

 labor expended ? and not how little labor is 

 it possible to run an apiary with and secure 

 any returns at all ?" 



"Then you do not think as good returns 

 can be secured with the large hives with 

 little labor?" 



' ' That is right. But let us look a little into 

 that matter of large hives giving large colo- 

 nies with no desire to swarm, and another 

 claim put forth by some— that swarms from 

 the large hives are so much larger than 

 those from the small hives. I believe there 

 is something overlooked here; for, with those 

 nine-frame Gallup hives, I have had fully as 

 little swarming as I have had with the ten- 

 frame Langstroth hives, and the average of 

 the swarms was not materially different as 

 to size in either case." 



' ' I hardly see why that should be so. ' ' 



' ' I am free to admit that, were each 

 placed side by side, with no sections on, the 

 ten-frame L. hives would probably be later 

 in swarming, and send out larger swarms; 

 but no one working on the contraction plan 

 treats his colonies in that way." 



"He would be a strange bee-keeper if 

 he did." 



' ' Then we have that, with the small hive 

 or brood-chamber, the sections are put on as 

 soon as the honey-flow commences, and the 

 brood-combs are manipulated till the whole 

 are solid full of brood; and when in this 

 shape, if any honey is stored, it must go 

 into the sections, for there is no other place 

 for it to go. Is this as you understand it?" 



' ' Very nearly. ' ' 



"Thus started early in the sections, the 

 bees become accustomed to their surround- 

 ings, and these fully occupied combs of 

 brood entertain the best queen to her full 

 capacity as to egg-laying; and, if we have 

 made no mistake, how could a larger hive 

 give any larger colonies ? Large hives do 

 not give large colonies beyond any hive 



