526 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



September. 19'2o 



careful attention when the white honey crop 

 is removed. Ample stores are left for au- 

 tumn brooding, plenty of brood-comb space 

 is provided for the queen, and provision is 

 made against the storing of fall honey, or 

 in fact any other honey, in the brood-cham- 

 ber. We produce extracted honey exclusive- 

 ly and use mainly the 10-frame Langstroth 

 hive. To provide stores for the possibility 

 of a dry fall we prefer to leave on each 

 hive a shallow super which has been fille.i 

 Avith honey earlier in the season. This 



Siand of Pettit quatliiiple case in position ready 



for the hives except that shavings are pulled up 



above corner, to show construction. 



"food-chamber," as Mr. Townsend calls it, 

 we have been testing in a small way for sev- 

 eral years and have decided to adopt it gen- 

 erally in all the apiaries. It is never re- 

 moved from the hive but fills up in times 

 of abundance and gives back in time of need. 

 We prefer tliis to a double Langstroth brood- 

 chamber for our conditions. 



Increased brooding space is provitled by 

 using a light top-bar instead of the usual %- 

 inch dej)th. By careful sorting, all but the 

 more perfect combs are eliminated. Some 

 (jueens allow their brood-chambers to be- 

 come "honey-bound." These queens also 



Hives in position on stand of Pettit (luadruple case. 



The bridges are placed and all is ready for the^ sides 



to be set up. 



are eliminated. When the white honey is 

 removed, two or three Langstroth supers of 

 combs are returned to each hive over an ex- 

 cluder whether fall surplus is expected or 

 not. This helps to give brooding space and 

 keeps inferior honey out of the brood-cham- 

 ber. Our policy is entirely at variance with 

 that of removing supers early so as to crowd 

 the brood-chamber with honey and save 

 feeding, as wc believe that work§ a double 



wrong by checking late breeding and en- 

 dangering the winter health of the bees. 

 Kinds of Winter Cases. 



When t-ool days come in September all 

 supers are removed and the hives are placed 

 in winter cases. The aim is to get this 

 done as early in the month as the weather 

 permits the removal of the supers, as we be- 

 lieve the bees set their house in order for the 

 winter better with the packing at least on 

 the sides and bottoms. As no serious at- 

 tempt has been made to standardize winter 

 cases the beekeeper 's imagination here has 

 free play. He can vary the dimensions, the 

 number of hives and their position, the kind 

 of insulating material, and so on, ad infini- 

 tum — almost. If he has much initiative he 

 proceeds to do this from time to time, hav- 

 ing lots of fun out of it and eventually pro- 

 ducing a case which he himself likes better 

 than any other. If he happens to get into 

 print with it he may win fame in an apicul- 

 tural way by conferring his name upon the 

 child of his imagination — or adoption! 



As a result of this experimentative turn 

 of mind we now have seven diiferent kinds 

 of winter cases, three of which have gone to 



Unpacking the Pettit quadruple ease. Note liow 



the shavings are carried away to storage on tlic 



sides of the case. 



the discard and two more are on the wa,v. 

 As a novelty I shall describe one of the 

 earlier tyi>es which we are always intending 

 to remodel, but still use. What we call the 

 AJ yard contains, as I write, nine Vioxes eacli 

 with eight colonies. The hives are placed 

 ( ompactly in a double row in the box with 

 two entrances facing each point of the com 

 pass, the end ones having side entrances 

 provided by special Vjottom-board arrange- 

 ment. They winter splendidly in these cases, 

 as half of them have only one side which is 

 not next to another colony and the other 

 half have as much of that benefit as in a 

 quadruple case; but the arrangement is in- 

 convenient for obvious reasons, and they 

 are to be discarded next year. Several year*^ 

 before Mr. Demuth 's plan of wintering 

 Langstroth combs on end was published, I 

 tested the same principle by placing eight 

 complete brood-chambers on end in a sj)e 

 cially constructed case, with thin division 

 boards between them taking the places of 

 both bottom-boards and covers. Several of 

 these cases were in use at one of the experi- 

 ment stations in Ontario for two or three 



