358 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



here is the advertising value. One tells his 

 neighbor of the wonderful sight, and so on 

 the news travels like wildfire, until some- 

 times there will be great crowds to see the 

 stunt. Then is the time to advertise and 

 sell honey. Every bee-keeper who retails 

 his own honey should avail himself of this 

 means of advertising, for it can be practiced 

 at any time, winter or summer,— Ed.] 



IF I WERE TO START ANEW, WHAT 

 STYLE OF FRAMES, SUPERS, AND AP- 

 PLIANCES WOULD I ADOPT? 



Prefers a Ten-frame Langstroth Hive, Hoffman 



Frame, and Beeway Sections; has tried Hed- 



don, Danzenbaker, Jumbo, and Dadant 



Hives, Plain Sections, and Fences, 



and has Discarded them All. 



E. F. ATWATER. 



In discussing this subject my experience 

 indicates that, for extracted honey, a ten- 

 frame hive of standard size is as good as 

 any, and the one which I would adopt for 

 that purpose. I admit that the ten- frame 

 hive is not wholly satisfactory to me, and 

 not in every way the best adapted to my 

 system and locality; in fact, a larger hive 

 would be better; but if I adopt a twelve- 

 frame Langstroth the full-depth supers are 

 too heavy to handle all day, and a queen- ex- 

 cluder would be fully as necessary as with 

 the ten- frame hive, as the queen often pre- 

 fers to go up into the super rather than 

 spread the brood-nest out over nine or ten 

 frames in width. If I adopt the ten- frame 

 Draper barn for a brood- nest I encounter 

 several snags— frames above and below are 

 not interchangeable, and more wires are re- 

 quired in the deep frame of the Draper barn 

 to insure satisfactory combs. 



The feature of interchangeable combs 

 above and below is exceedingly valuable in 

 all the newer manipulations for swarm con- 

 trol, making increase or mating queens by 

 the Alexander or other methods, etc. If the 

 colonies in Draper barns could be relied on 

 not to swarm when supplied with plenty of 

 combs in the extracting-supers, one season 

 with another, then I would adopt the Draper 

 bam; but when it is necessary to prevent 

 swarming by shaking or any of the later 

 methods, then the Draper barn is not the 

 most desirable. Colonies in any hive with 

 any amount of comb will swarm some sea- 

 sons here, if not subjected to radical manip- 

 ulation. 



I have one shallow extracting-super, filled 

 with worker combs, for nearly every colony 

 in the extracting-yards; and I find that, in 

 this locality, it is usually best to winter a 

 large share of the colonies with such a shal- 

 low case, perhaps half full of honey on each 

 hive. An outyard so wintered bred up bet- 

 ter than the home yard which was fed with 

 the Alexander feeder, and gave a larger 

 crop. Here we see that the best results 

 came from the yard with large hives, abun- 



dant stores, and strong colonies, rather than 

 from the home yard, which ' ' received the 

 best care." I have enough /«Zi-dept/i ex- 

 tracting-supers, the same as the brood-nest, 

 to make, with the shallow cases, the equiva- 

 lent of 20 Langstroth frames in the extract- 

 ing-supers for each colony. If the combs 

 are capped, the bees are readily driven from 

 the shallow cases by the Coggshall method, 

 and are removed from the hives much quick- 

 er than the deep frames, which must be han- 

 dled singly, while the shallow cases are li f ted 

 off entire. If the combs are not largely cap- 

 ped, the deep frames are more rapidly re- 

 moved for extracting, as in the latter event 

 even the shallow combs must be handled 

 singly. 



With shallow supers above a ten-frame 

 brood-nest of standard size there is far less 

 need of an excluder. The need is still less 

 if the brood-nest be a Draper bam. We use 

 excluders largely after June 10 to 20, each 

 season. 



For a bottom-board I find nothing any- 

 where near so satisfactory as the old thick 

 non- reversible board of a few years ago. 

 If you wish more ventilation it is easier and 

 quicker to pry up the hive and insert blocks 

 or wedges (Pettit), than to reverse the bot- 

 tom-board. Then when the blocks or wedges 

 are removed the entrance is again mouse- 

 proof. 



The lid on our extracting- hives is a plain 

 flat one in three narrow pieces of cheapest 

 lumber, end-cleated. We cover the boards 

 with several thicknesses of newspaper, and 

 cover all with roofing tin painted white on 

 top, and painted any color beneath to pre- 

 vent rust. 



Hives for this western climate (any arid 

 region) must be made with a bee-space both 

 above and below; then when they shrink (as 

 they always do) they will still be 9| to 9^ 

 inches deep. Like Dr. Miller, we now pre- 

 fer an end-cleat ^X2xl6 clear across the 

 top of the hive-ends to reinforce the only 

 weak place on the Dovetailed hive. 



For comb honey we have three yards, most- 

 ly in eight- frame standard hives, and Hoff- 

 man frames with followers. If starting 

 anew, and intending to produce both comb 

 and extracted honey, I would probably use 

 the ten-frame hive throughout, using the 

 full ten frames in brood-nests in the extract- 

 ing-yards, and eight or nine frames with one 

 or more i-thick followers in the comb- honey 

 yards. 



If I were to start anew as an exclusive 

 comb-honey specialist, then the eight- frame 

 hive would be my choice. The eight- frame 

 hive for comb honey suits us very well; but 

 when producing both comb and extracted 

 honey the feature of complete uniformity is 

 very desirable; and with careful selection of 

 prolific Carniolan and Italian queens I feel 

 sure that the ten-frame hive, used as above 

 described, would be all right for comb honey. 



The lid which we prefer on our comb-hon- 

 ey hives is called the ' ' Acme, ' ' and resembles 

 the metal- covered shallow telescope lid. 

 Under this lid we use either a quilt or an in- 



