80 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



FEBRTtARY. lOOI. 



COMB HONEY PRODUCTION 



The ^rood Chamber for Brood. 

 How the Industry ^as f'^early 

 Wrecked by Small Brood Chambers 



By Geo. S. Demuth 



necessary 

 supers at 

 incoming 



ONE of the 

 imp ortant 

 require- 

 ments in comli- 

 honey produc- 

 tion is that the 

 brood- chani 

 ber be well filled 

 with brood at 

 the beginning of 

 the honey flow, thus making it 

 that the bees begin work in the 

 once to provide a i^lace for the 

 nectar. While the same condition is desirable 

 in extracted-honey production, it is not so 

 essential as in coiub-honey production, since 

 the giving of a super of empty extracting 

 combs constitutes a strong invitation to the 

 bees to ' ' come up stairs ' ' and expand their 

 work into the supers even tho there may still 

 be some empty comb below. On the other 

 hand, to a certain extent, the bees must be 

 forced into comb-honey supers by a lack of 

 room in the brood-chamber for the incoming 

 nectar. Too often in comb-honey production 

 the honey flow begins before the brood- 

 chamber IS filled with brood, and if storing 

 is begun in the brood-chamber and honey 

 is sealed down close to the brood, the bees 

 usually eiiter the supers reluctantly, being 

 apparently satisfied with the snug and 

 thriftv condition of having sealed honey 

 above' and around the brood area as if pre- 

 pared for winter. Under such conditions the 

 bees sometimes act as if they had finished 

 the season's work, even tho the honey flow 

 is just beginning, and often waste much 

 valuable time loafing even during a good 

 honey flow. Such colonies are usually among 

 the first to prepare to swarm. 



On the other hand, colonies that have 

 their brood-chambers well filled with brood 

 when the honey flow begins, should enter 

 and begin work in the supers promptly and 

 should expand their work into additional 

 supers, building combs in advance of their 

 needs so that, even tho they may be much 

 stronger than the colonies which began their 

 storing within the brood-chamber, they are 

 much less inclined to swarm. This highly de- 

 sirable condition of having the brood- 

 chamber well filled with brood and almost 

 free from honey at the beginning of the 

 honey flow is usually present in only a part 

 of tlie colonies each year and some seasons 

 in but few if any of them, and it has long 

 been well known that these few colonies 

 which do happen to be in this condition are 

 the ones which, if properly managed, give 

 the very best results in comb honey. 



It is not surprising, therefore, that the 

 early masters in comb-honey production rec- 

 ognized this problem and attempted its solu- 

 tion. The methods which they used to get 

 the brood-chambers filled with brood and 

 free from honey just at the critical time— 

 the beginning of the honey flow — have had 

 guch a far-reaching influepce upon thp bee- 



keeping indus- 

 try, and the his- 

 tory of the de- 

 V e 1 p m ent of 

 these methods 

 furnishes such a 

 striking a n d 

 wholesome 1 e s - 

 son for present- 

 day beekeepers 

 that it is well worth while to review briefly 

 this development. 



Early Attempts to Eliminate Honey from 

 the Brood-Chamber. 

 In his early experiments Langstroth 

 found that the storage of too much honey 

 in the brood-chamber previous to the begin- 

 ning of work in the boxes could be greatly 

 reduced by the use of a shallow hive, and 

 in adopting the particular depth of the 

 Laugstroth hive he was greatly influenced 

 by this fact. In effect the shallow hive cuts 

 off the honey at the top and permits placing 

 the boxes down close to the brood, which is 

 so important in inducing the bees to begin 

 work in the boxes. 



Langstroth built his hive to hold 10 

 frames and considered this to be the best 

 size for the production of honey in the 6 to 

 10 pound boxes which were the "supers" 

 of that time. 



In using the Langstroth hive to produce 

 honey in sections, beekeepers soon learned 

 that better results could be secured from 

 the weaker colonies by removing any combs 

 not well filled with brood at the beginning 

 of the honey flow and filling the vacant 

 space with wide frames, each holding eight 

 sections, or with thick division-boards, 

 which came to be known as "dummies." 

 Later, the wide frames and side storing were 

 abandoned and dummies became a part of 

 the regular equipment for comb-honey pro- 

 duction. 



Reduction in the Size of the Brood-Chamber. 

 Since the majority of colonies usually had 

 some combs not filled with brood, at the be- 

 ginning of the honey flow many beekeepers 

 reduced tho size of the hive, cutting it down 

 to eight frames, in order to make sure that 

 most of the colonies would have their brood- 

 chambers full of brood at the beginning of 

 the honey flow. In this ease, if any colonies 

 should become crowded for room before the 

 main honey flow, a comb of emerging brood 

 could be exchanged with an empty comb 

 from some colony with less than -eight 

 frames of brood. In other words, these bee- 

 keepers reasoned that better results could be 

 secured thru a sei-ies of years by using a 

 brood-chamber which averaged a little too 

 small instead of one averaging a little too 

 large. 



These problems were discussed freely in 

 the bee journals from 1885 to 1890, at which 

 time tho eight-frame hive had practically 

 become the standard hive in this country. It 

 should be remembered that at this time comb 



