270 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May, 1920 



feeding a small amount of syrup every day. 

 This feeding starts up breeding, with the 

 result that the colony will prepare to swarm 

 by building cells or accepting artificial 

 grafted cells. 



At our queen-rearing yards, during a hon- 

 ey flow, we have always had a great deal 

 of trouble from swarms coming out -of our 

 cell-building colonies (usually two-story ten- 

 frame) just at a time when there is no extra 

 help to take care of them. Mr. Pritchard 

 has often been driven to the point of des- 

 peration by having five or six swarms come 

 out of his regular two-story Langstroth 

 hives in one day and cluster up among the 

 basswoods 20 or 30 feet from the ground. 

 After one such exasperating experience he 

 came to me one day about three years ago 

 and said he would like to try that Long Idea 

 hive for cell-building. He had read what I 

 said of it, and he had come to the conclu- " 

 sion that swarms would not issue from it 

 as they would from two- and tliTce-story 

 hives when tiered up one above the other. 

 I said: 



' ' Mell, give me your reasons. ' ' 

 "Bees swarm," he said, "because in an 

 oidinary ten-frame hive the queen is cramp- 

 ed for room. After filling the eight or nine 

 frames she skips the two outside frames be- 

 cause they are next to the cold sides of the 

 hive. She does not like to cross the one or 

 two inches of honey up above the brood; 

 so she stays in the lower story." 



"But, Mell, when the queen is crowded 

 badly, would she not go up into the upper 

 story and lay there if she could?" 



"She would if you coaxed her up with a 

 frame of brood," he replied. "But unless 

 that is given her she hesitates to cross the 

 two inches of honey, the seven-eighths top- 

 bar, the three-eighths bee-space, bottom-bars 

 of the frames above, a bee-space between 

 the bottom-bar and the comb above. That 

 seems too far away. The queen is, there- 

 fore, practically confined to a circle of 

 brood on eight combs and, as a result, starts 

 cells. On the other hand, when a colony is 

 in a Long Idea hive the queen can occupy 

 a dozen or more combs, the division-board 

 being simply shoved over far enough to per- 

 mit of the queen's largest capacity." 



The upshot of our conversation was that 

 Mr. Pritchard prepared specifications for 50 

 Tjong Idea hives with a capacity of 25 

 frames. The sides of the hive, or what 

 would be next to the end-bars, were double- 

 walled. A deep cap to provide for a large 

 tray to hold packing material during the 

 winter was hinged like the lid of a trunk. 



Now, dear reader, take note that Mell's 

 contention was borne out in actual test for 

 three years. During that time not one of 

 the Long Idea hives cast a swarm, notwith- 

 standing they were crowded to their utmost 

 for cell-building, and nearly every one of 

 the regular two-story hives run for the same 

 purpose swarmed just as they always had 

 done; so you can see that practice bears 

 out the theorv. 



The superintendent of our wood-working 

 shop, a backlot beekeeper, was so impressed 

 with this hive that he had an extra hive of 

 this pattern made for himself. He says it 

 does not swarm, and yet gets more honey 

 than anything else he ever tried. 



I was talking with G. S. Demuth in Cali- 

 fornia a year ago during the progress of 

 those beekeepers' short courses; and, with- 

 out knowing what Mell had said, he ad- 

 vanced precisely the same theory. 



Mr. O. O. Poppleton told me that one of 

 the reasons why he adopted the Long Idea 

 hive was because it eliminated almost entire- 

 ly the swarming tendency on the part of the 

 bees, and because, being an old man, he could 

 not lift heavy supers. He it was who told 

 me some five or six years ago he had dis- 

 covered that a queen will expand her egg- 

 laying capacity laterally from comb to 

 comb more readily than she will expand 

 vertically into a second story. "And then," 

 said he, "Mr. Eoot, the main cause of 

 swarming is a too restricted space for breed- 

 ing. ' ' 



In the February issue I explained a 

 scheme that will go a long way toward mak- 

 ing a queen expand the brood-nest vertical- 



Fig. 4. — A yj-frame Long Idea hive in the apiary 

 of C. F. M. Stone, La Manda Park, California. Mr. 

 Stone, while not an advocate of such a hive, is more 

 than willing to have a few of them put in his api- 

 aries to be tried out. The two side cleats support 

 the telescoping cover, and, projecting out at the 

 ends, make it possible for two persons to pick up 

 the hive. In Mr. Stone's hives the entrance is 

 placed on the side rather than at the end. For the 

 production of honey the side entrance is, no doubt, 

 better. 



ly in a two-story hive without any action 

 on the part of the owner; but even that 

 scheme will not be as good for the queen- 

 breeder as the Long Idea hive. 



One can naturally see, from what I have 

 already given, why the Long Idea hive 

 eliminates swarming; why it is especially 

 adapted to cell-building; why it would be 

 ideal for women and children, and men who 



