February, 1921. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



8l 



honey was being produced by a great major- 

 ity of beekeepers. 



Later, however, it was found that the 

 advantage of the eight-frame hives was be- 

 ing lost, for after a few years they in turn 

 were not well filled with brood at the be- 

 ginning of the honey flow. Within a few 

 years beekeepers were reporting the same 

 difficulties with the eight-frame hive that 

 they formerly had experienced with the ten- 

 frame hive. Instead of recognij^ing the 

 cause of the smaller colonies being in the 

 reduced capacity of the brood-chamber, with 

 its attendant danger of a shortage of honey 

 at the most critical periods, many beekeep- 

 ers sought a remedy in a further reduction 

 in the size of the brood-chamber. The dum- 

 mies of the days of the 10-frame hive were 

 again brought into use, and the ' ' contrac- 

 tion" of the brood-chamber was advocated 

 by most comb-honey producers, 



Further Contraction of the Eight-Frame 

 Hive, 



This time the brood-chamber was reduced 

 from eight frames to five frames. This con- 

 traction was done by some at the beginning 

 of the honey flow when the comb-honey 

 supers were put on and by others only when 

 hiving swarms; but since most of the strong 

 colonies swarmed and the weak ones had to 

 be contracted to induce them to work in 

 the supers, most of the colonies were con- 

 tracted to five frames at some time during 

 the season, the contractionist advising that 

 parent colonies be contracted to five frames 

 and supplied with a super in order to utilize 

 them as well as the swarm in honey pro- 

 duction. 



At this time many of the leaders in bee- 

 keeping in this country considered five 

 frames to be sufficient capacity for the 

 brood-chamber except during the period of 

 heaviest brood-rearing just previous ta the 

 honey flow from clover when the brood- 

 chamber was temporarily expanded to eight 

 frames. These things were taught in the bee- 

 keeping literature at the time; and at a 

 beekeepers' convention held in Chicago in 

 1893 when the question was asked as to the 

 proper size for the brood-chamber for comb- 

 honey production, it was found that the ma- 

 jority of those present favored a brood- 

 chamber of five or six frames capacity. 



Poor Seasons Followed Reduction in Size 

 of Brood-Chamber. 



It is not surprising that the beekeeping 

 industry suffered a period of severe depres- 

 sion at about this time, for the small hives 

 and severe contraction of that period, to- 

 gether with the gradual elimination of bass- 

 wood and fall flowers, made the existence 

 of colonies of bees a precarious one indeed 

 unless much feeding was practiced. The 

 series of so-called poor seasons in the clover 

 regions which followed the contraction fad 

 almost wrecked the industry in this excel- 

 lent honey -producing region, and looking 

 back now it seems remarkable that beekeep- 



ing has even partially recovered from the 

 terrible setback of that time. 



In November, 1891, Hutchinson wrote in 

 the editorial columns of the Beekeepers' Ee- 

 view as follows: "In 1888 the average yield 

 in my apiary was 10 pounds per colony. In 

 1889 it was 20 pounds; in 1890 not one 

 pound; in 1891, five pounds. * * ** The 

 honey stored in my apiary the past four 

 jears would not have kept us in food more 

 than one year. I am forced to believe that 

 hundreds of beekeepers could make a simi- 

 lar report." After some remarks about the 

 changes in his location, brought about by 

 better agricultural methods, he continues: 

 ' ' What puzzles me is that we had good crops 

 for ten years then poor crops for four years. 

 It seems as tho the change ought to have 

 been more gradual. ' ' 



Poor Seasons Caused by Lack of Strong 

 Colonies. 



That the management was more at fault 

 than the seasons was well brought out in 

 the same journal the next month by Taylor, 

 who wrote as follows: "In my home apiary 

 the past season, I had one swarm for about 

 every 25 colonies, an average of about five 

 pounds of comb honey to the colony. But 

 there was one colony that cast a swarm and 

 gave a surplus of 75 pounds of comb honey 

 over and above sufficient winter stores for 

 the two colonies. * * * * There was no ac- 

 cession of bees from other colonies nor any 

 robbing. Wherein was the power of this col- 

 ony? Was it from the fortuitous conjunction 

 of conditions at the most favorable times 

 so as to produce extraordinary exertion at 

 the nick of time? Did it possess a secret 

 knowledge of some rich acre of clover in a 

 sunny nook? Or was it possessed of inbred 

 characteristics which gave it powers to ex- 

 cel? If in the first or last, as seems most 

 likel}^, we have in them a rich field for ex- 

 ploration. He who finds out how to time the 

 conjunction of conditions and to perpetuate 

 the most desirable characteristics will abol- 

 ish poor seasons, not simply find a doubtful 

 remedy therefor." 



Early the next year the same writer re- 

 vealed this desirable "conjunction of con- 

 ditions, which has since played such an 

 important part in "abolishing poor sea- 

 sons, ' ' in the following significant state- 

 ment: "In the leanest of the late lean 

 years, every colony that cast a swarm as 

 soon as the first opening of the white clover 

 has given me more than an average amount 

 of surplus comb honey, and by that I mean 

 more than an average in good seasons. Now 

 it has come to be a fond dream of mine 

 that all reasonably good colonies having 

 good queens can be brought to the swarming 

 point by that time." 



The poor seasons continued for many 

 years in the clover region when comb honey 

 wns produced. In 1901 in a personal inter- 

 view with the writer, James Heddon, who 

 at that time was a leader in American bee- 



