fti 



GLtlANf^GtS IN BEE CULTURE 



I'ebruary, l§2i. 



HIVES FOR EXTRACTED HONEY 



Increasing the Capacity of the 

 '^rood-chamber by Means of Bet- 

 ter Combs 



WH E N a 

 s c i entist 

 p r o m i- 

 iient in beekeep- 

 ing was asked 

 recently what 

 real advantage a 

 f r a m e deeper 

 than the Langs- 

 troth might 



have, he replied something like this 

 you know most Langstroth combs have an 

 inch and a half to two inches of stretched 

 cells below the top-bar which the queen 

 will not use." "Yes," I said, "and they 

 have at least a quarter inch more wood than 

 they need in the top-bar, and a half inch 

 space above the bottom-bar, which itself is 

 thicker than it needs to be." 



To the elimination of this waste of space 

 in Langstroth frames instead of enlarging 

 them to accommodate both waste and queen. 

 I have devoted much time, thought, and 

 energy for several years. To begin with the 

 frame: it was thought some years ago that 

 the introduction of more wood in the top- 

 bar reduced the burrcomb nuisance in comb- 

 honey production. I know from years of 

 experience in producing exhibition sections 

 that the bee-space is the vital matter and 

 not the wood; but since we are now dis- 

 cussing extracted-honey production, the is- 

 sue need not be raised here except to illus- 

 trate the fact so ably pointed out by De- 

 muth that most beekeepers are producing 

 extracted honey with comb-honey equip- 

 ment. To my way of thinking, the deep 

 top-bar has not one redeeming feature. It 

 is a pure waste of material, which is now 

 so expensive. It is worse than waste, for it 

 crowds the queen needlessly in the brood- 

 chamber which is already too small, and in 

 a double brood-chamber it increases the 

 barrier to a free passage of the queen up 

 and down. The extra quarter inch, over 

 the five-eighths inch depth which we find 

 suflScient, crowds out at least 170 worker- 

 cells, which means a loss of 1700 possible 

 workers per generation in a 10-frame hive. 

 Next, by care in having combs built, and 

 by sorting out faulty ones, we eliminate the 

 inch and a half to two inches of stretched 

 cells and most of the space above the bot- 

 tom-bar. Suppose we gain two inches in 

 depth of breeding comb by this, that would 

 be 1836 cells per comb, on a basis of 27 

 cells per square-inch surface. But to be 

 conservative, say we admit that our combs 

 may not be so nearly perfect, and that the 

 combs in the average apiary may not be so 

 bad, and cut this estimated gain in half. 

 We would still have by careful methods an 

 advantage of 918 cells per comb, and by 

 a better frame an additional 170 cells, being 

 a total of 1088 cells in each brood-comb. 

 This means that by attention to good combs 

 we increase our possible production of popu- 

 lation in each hive by something over 10,000 

 worker bees, that is, two pounds, or a small 



By Morley Pettit 



^Well, 



swarm every 

 three weks at a 

 critical time. 

 Isn 't it worth 

 it? 



Another point 

 in the economy 

 of the brood- 

 chamber is the 

 matter of stores. 

 Our slogan here is, "The brood-chamber for 

 brood." There is not one month in the 

 twelve when we want honey in the brood- 

 chamber! We want 10 good all-worker 

 combs, witli some pollen stores and a mini- 

 mum of drone-cells next the bottom, but 

 otherwise clear for the queen to fill right 

 to the top-bar. As described in September 

 "Gleanings," the honey stores are kept in 

 the food-chamber which is never removed 

 from the hive. This is a standard shallow 

 super, Townsend's "food-chamber," De- 

 muth 's "automatic feeder," automatic be- 

 cause it fills up in time of plenty and gives 

 down in time of dearth. It supplies honey 

 during the whole breeding season, is raised 

 above supers as they go on, and gives the 

 advantage which advocates of the Heddon 

 hive vised to claim for a divisible brood- 

 chamber by removing the honey barrier be- 

 tween brood and supers. So the argument 

 that deeper combs provide more room for 

 stores falls on deaf ears when it comes our 

 way. 



Now after improving the combs we have 

 in Langstroth frames, and adopting a food- 

 chamber to relieve them of responsibility 

 in that direction, we still find that we are 

 able to produce queens which cannot fully 

 display their talents in 10 frames. We assist 

 them by manipulations, biit that is expen- 

 sive. Doubtless the advocates of a deeper 

 brood-frame are right. Among them are 

 men of the highest authority. Their argu- 

 ments have not been convincing to me be- 

 cause they have stressed ' ' room for stores, ' ' 

 which I do not want; the.y continue to use 

 a stick of timber for a top-bar; and in the 

 Jumbo frame they add only about two 

 inches without saying that they save the 

 waste from stretched cells, leaving me to 

 wonder if we have not as much actual 

 brood space as they. We have hesitated to 

 complicate our equipment by adding another 

 size of frame; but that is a secondary mat- 

 ter if expensive manipulation can be saved; 

 so next season 100 Jumbo brood-chambers 

 containing frames with shallow top-bars 

 and combs as nearly perfect as we can get 

 them will be added to our stock and given 

 a fair test. They will have the same food- 

 chambers and receive the same care; but 

 we hope they will need less manipulation. 



Mechanical Features of the Hive Used. 



As far as possible we use factory stand- 

 ard hive parts. Some modifications are made 

 in the assembling. The stock "reversible" 

 bottom-board is not changed, but is never 



