1906 



GLEA^'LN'GS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1115 



seedless variety, and I do uot believe there 

 xvill be anywhere near that proportion among 

 the trees to be planted hereafter. The apple 

 is of some interest as a curiosity, but in all 

 other i-espec'ts it appeal's to be valuable only 

 to its promoters. 



It has quite I'ecently come to my notice 

 that an eastern branch of the seedless-apple 

 company is advertising cuttings of the Sul- 

 tana seedless grape at the modest price of 

 only a dollar apiece, and representing it as 

 something new. and suited to the climate of 

 their locality. The seedless Sultana is a very 

 desirable grape. We have it in our vine- 

 yard, and appreciate it highly: but it is one 

 of the tender foreign varieties, l^elonging to 

 the Mtis riuifi r<( family, and is entirely un- 

 suited to the climate of the Eastern States, 

 though it might succeed in some localities 

 with careful winter protection. It is nothing 

 new. It has been raised in California for 

 many years, and doubtless for centuries in 

 Southern Europe. The price askeil for cut- 

 tings, in connection with their other claims, 

 shows plainly the character of the company. 

 It is one of the common commercial varieties 

 here, and any one who wanted to experiment 

 with it could obtain all the cuttings he wants 

 for a cent apiece or less, and could doubt- 

 less obtain rooted vines for ten cents apiece 

 or less from any of the nurseries west of the 

 Rockv Mountains. 



HORIZONTALLY DIVISIBLE BROOD- 

 CHAMBERS. 



The Advantages of the Deep Frames. 



BY ('. P. DAUANT. 



[To freshen the memory of our readers I will state 

 that Mr. R. F. Holtermann. onpaKe 36.5, March 1.5th 

 issue, presented a strong array of facts in favor of 

 lar^e hives, of not less than twelve Lanystroth frame 

 capacity. Amony: other things. Mr. Holtermann 

 agreed with Mr. Aspinwall that swarming- was the 

 bane of bee-keeping. Mr. J. E. Hand, on page &58, 

 May 15th issue, strongly took issue with Mr. Holter- 

 mann. arguing in favor of shallow brood-chambers, 

 saying that with ?.uch a hive the natural instinct of 

 bees to Srwarm could be made "a blessing' to the 

 bee-keeper. In the editorial comment I called for the 

 opinion of Mr. C. P. Dadant. Mr. D aiid his father, the 

 late Charles Dadant, had been pioneers in the advo- 

 cacy of large hives, practicing what they preached, 

 and opposed to the principle of chopping up the 

 brood-nest into small divisions such as are required 

 by the divisible brood-chamber. Mr. Dadants com- 

 ments on this interesting iiuestion will be read with 

 unusual interest; and when it is taken into consider- 

 ation that he is a large producer of honey, and has 

 practically no swarming, it will be seen that our 

 correspondent is not basing his argument on mere 

 theory.— Ed.] 



Mr. Editor: — Your kind request on p. 658 

 was duly read by me, and I beg to be ex- 



cused for not replying sooner. I have been 

 very busy: but, l)etter late than never. 



Permit me to give my views on the sub- 

 ject, without any criticism of the views of 

 others. I only wish to state the matter as I 

 see it. The proof of the pudding is in the 

 eating. The tirst impi'oved hives that I saw 

 my father use were Debauvoys movable- 

 frame hives. These he discarded, because 

 they had frames that were fitted in the hive- 

 body without bee-space, and would not work 

 when once coated with propolis. The next 

 hives he used were "eke" hives, "ruches d 

 hausses." These hives were made in sec- 

 tions about five or six inches high, two or 

 three of which composeil the brood-chamber. 

 Additional ekes were supposed to secure the 

 surplus. The eke hive is an old idea. _ In 

 Reaumur's work, published in 1740, I find, 

 on page 280, a description, with plate, of a 

 hive divided not only horizontally, but ver- 

 tically as well, the lower stories being each 

 divisible into halves while the upper stories 

 are shallow tiers of supers. Hamet. in the 

 sixties, recommends the eke hive as the most 

 convenient. It was in favor of this hive, as 

 against the American ideas concerning the 

 Langstroth invention of movable frames, 

 that he took the field in opposition to my 

 father, who was at that time trying to intro- 

 duce American ideas into Europe. You 

 know how well he succeeded. 



Hamet claimed for the eke hive a greater 

 ease in the making of divisions, or in uniting 

 colonies, a greater facility to renew the coml) 

 by removing part of the brood-ekes, and a 

 greater result in removing the surplus honey. 



In practice, when comparing this hive with 

 the movable-frame hive in one piece, we 

 found : 



1. The moval)le-frame hive, such as the 

 Jumbo, which is nearest to our choice, ena- 

 l)les the apiarist to enlarge the hive, one 

 comb at a time, from the very smallest space 

 a colonv can possil)ly fill and keep warm, up 

 to the "largest laying capacity of the best 

 queens. It is useless for us to seek a more 

 gradual increase of space than can be given 

 with such a hive and a dummy. 



2. In the full-depth movable-frame hive 

 the queen has the greatest possible chance to 

 develop her fertility. All of you who have 

 examined combs of" brood have seen that the 

 queen lays eggs in a circle, hardly ever miss- 

 ing a cell, especially if young and vigorous. 

 When she lavs in' a shallow frame, five to 

 seven inches high, her laying is less regular, 

 because at each round she comes upon the 

 wood, at the top and at the bottom. Time 

 is money with vou and me: time is honey 

 with the" bees. If the queen is delayed, her 

 eggs drop to the fioor like so many ripe 

 fruits, for she can not hold them during the 

 best period of laying, and the time that she 

 wastes in hunting for cells is for ever lost. 

 The damage is less in a deep eke, because 

 the circle that she makes is larger than in a 

 five-inch body. But with a seven or eight 

 inch body yo"u i-an not enlarge gradually 

 your breeding-room. You may have it sin- 

 gle or double. Single, it is too little: double, 



