1058 



CLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15 



the truth is that, when the bees are at work 

 nicely in the sections, with a proper-sized 

 brood-chamber, there will be very little hon- 

 ey in the combs under the sections." 



" How about that proper size? what should 

 it be, in your opinion?" 



"The bee-keepers of fifty years ago con- 

 sidered a hive containing from 2000 to 2500 

 cubic inches as the right size, and we find 

 that some of them recommended the feeding 

 of inferior honey a week or two before the 

 honey-flow, so as to have the space in the 

 brood-chamber, not occupied with brood, fill- 

 ed with this poor honey, this compelling the 

 bees to put the honey gathered from the 

 harvest in the boxes." 



"Well, that would be strange from my 

 standpoint. I should think such a coui'se 

 would stand right in the way of a crop of 

 comb honey." 



' ' It did not. It was a help, but not nearly 

 so much so as would be the reduction of that 

 brood-chamber to one containing only from 

 1.500 to 1600 cubic inches." 



"Please explain how it helped." 



"By thus feeding they gave the bees no 

 place to put the hon<-y they gathered except 

 in the boxes, thereby losing the use of this 

 inferior honey for half a year or more, be- 

 sides having the boxes separated from the 

 brood by more or less distance of sealed 

 stores for the bees to pass over, which was, 

 of course, a detriment; yet, even with these 

 faults they secured more honey than they 

 would otherwise, because the first honey 

 gathered from the fields went into the box- 

 es instead of into the brood-combs." 



"I think I begin to see the matter in a 

 new light. But how differently do you man- 

 age?" 



"My plan to accomplish this object has 

 been to have the hive or brood-chamber of a 

 size that an average queen will keep filled to 

 the exclusion of honey, thus keeping the 

 section boxes close to the brood. If you will 

 try this you will find that the queen will keep 

 the combs in a hive of 1500 to 1600 cubic 

 inches filled with brood, except, perhaps, 

 the extreme upper corners; and if any honey 

 is to be had from the fields, the bees will put 

 it in the sections, as there is nowhere else 

 to store it. This is one of the secrets of suc- 

 cessful comb-honey production. ' ' 



"But this does not touch the extracting 

 part, does it?" 



"Let us see. Suppose you should extract 

 all the honey from the brood-combs in the 

 2500-cubic-inch hive every week or so. as you 

 seemed to suppose was necessary, it would 

 be doubtful about your getting more than a 

 few pounds of honey in the sections, if you 

 got any at all. Bees will not enter the sec- 

 tions and build comb therein so long as there 

 are plenty of combs containing empty cells 

 close by the brood for them to store the hon- 

 ey they gather. ' ' 



' ' I had not thought of the matter in this 

 light, and it certainly does look that way. ' ' 



"Yes; and let me say further, you may 

 take a hive of 1500 to 1600 cubic inches, and 

 fill it with frames of sealed honey, and put 



on the sections, and then put a strong swarm 

 in it, made by the ' " shook ' ' plan ur natural 

 swarming, the same having a good prolific 

 queen, and in two weeks' time you will have 

 nearly all of said honey in your sections (pro- 

 vided the bees are gathering some from the 

 fields), and the combs below nearly filled 

 with brood." 



"But how about the old hive? Will not 

 the combs therein become filled with honey?" 



"If you allow a first swarm to issue, or 

 make a shook swarm from any hive, and pre- 

 vent all after-swarms, by the time the young 

 queen becomes fertile every available cell 

 in the brood-chamber will be filled with hon- 

 ey if the time is during the honey harvest, 

 with a good flow on, and still no start will be 

 made in the sections. But just so soon as 

 she commences to lay, the bees will go to 

 work in the sections, and in 16 to 20 days, 

 if we examine them, we shall find scarcely 

 a cell of honey in the brood-combs, and as 

 nice a lot of brood as we ever saw. Now to 

 get at the point you wished to know, we will 

 suppose that, just as this queen was fertilized, 

 we had extracted all the honey from the 

 brood-chamber, to give the queen room for 

 her eggs, what would have been the result?" 



" I will return the question back to you for 

 an answer, for you have upset all of my 

 former notions on the subject." 



/'The probability would be that we should 

 not get a single section completed on that 

 hive, unless the season was long continued, 

 or the fall flowers gave a good supply; for 

 the bees would go to storing in the cells 

 made empty by the use of the extractor, be- 

 fore the queen had filled many with eggs; 

 and, having plenty of room for the present 

 in the brood-combs, and not entering the sec- 

 tions when they should, they would have re- 

 stricted the room of the queen, which would 

 result in no honey in the sections, combs 

 crowded with honey, and a weak colony for 

 winter— or, at least, this has been my expe- 

 rience. " 



"Well, I am near enough convinced that 

 you are right to try this plan another year. 

 But may 1 ask what frame and hive you use 

 to give the 1500 to 1600 cubic-inch brood- 

 chamber?" 



" When I was conducting the most of my 

 experiments I was using the Gallup hive and 

 frame exclusively. These hives, as originat- 

 ed by Mr. Gallup, held 12 frames; but I 

 soon made hives to contain only 9 of the 

 frames. With the purchase of an out-apiary 

 containing ten-frame Langstroth hives 1 was 

 led, gradually, to adopt said hive, so that I 

 now use these more largely than the Gallup." 



"But a ten-frame L. hive is larger than 

 was the twelve-frame Gallup, and either con- 

 tains more than 2000 cubic inches, while you 

 have been talking about a hive containing 

 from 1500 to 1600 cubic inches." 



"Yes, 1 see an explanation is needed. In 

 connection with the ten-frame L. hive, I use 

 dummies so that I can reduce the hive to 

 any capacity which the queen is occupying 

 with brood at the time the harvest begins. 

 A few of the hives are reduced as low 



