1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1237 



against Bill's taking six frames one after 

 another entirely out of the hive, bureau- 

 drawer fashion'.' 



You discuss the matter of making nuclei, 

 Hro. Stachelhausen. and seem to compare 

 handling a bunch of self-spacing frames with 

 .shallow hives. You say if we take a ten- 

 frame hive and make Ave nuclei of the con- 

 tents, taking the frames in pairs, we'll not 

 have things evenly divided. Sure: but what 

 better off shall we be with shallow hives? 

 for to make a nucleus equivalent to the two 

 larger frames we should have to lift out at 

 least three of the shallow frames. To take 

 advantage of the divisil)le lirood-chaml)er we 

 must take the whole of one section, and if 

 we're going to compare we must consider 

 this one section as against half the frames in 

 a common ten-frame hive. If we split this 

 latter into two e(iual parts, don't you think 

 we are likely to have a more equal division 

 than if we separate the two sections of a 

 divisible brood-chamber? The live frames 

 at eai-h side of a ten-frame hive are likely to 

 lie very much alike, while there is likely to 

 lie no little difference iietween the upper and 

 the lower section of the two-story shallow 

 hive. 



But this last paragraph may be unfair to 

 you. for I suspect that what you had in mind 

 "was to show that, when it comes to making 

 tive nuclei out of a ten-frame colony, there 

 is no advantage in self-spacing frames. I 

 think you are right in that: for I should want 

 lo see just what was on each side of each 

 frame, and so would cai-e little for lifting the 

 two frames together. But when I consider 

 the time I take in the course of a year in 

 handling frames to make nuclei, it is so Ut- 

 ile that it's small matter, and I suspect that 

 I have tive times as much to do with nuclei 

 as bee-keepers on the average. 



^luch more, however, is tJie time taken, 

 for one purpose and another, in lifting two 

 or more frames out of a hive at a time, when 

 each frame is not separately scrutinized, 

 and it's a matter of much importance to be 

 aljle to take moi-e than one at a time. It is 

 true, as you say. that we can handle loose- 

 hanging frames by putting a finger between 

 two frames: liut in my i-ase it is far from 

 true that we can do it " jttst as well." For 

 many years 1 handled such frames by the 

 thousand, and I could take more than one at 

 a time; but as a matter of fact I did not do 

 so except when I wanted to carry two or 

 more from one part of the apiary to another, 

 and could save time by doing all at one trip, 

 and then it hurt my fingers so that I felt like 

 dropping them before reaching my destina- 

 tion. 



To get right down to the gist of the mat- 

 ter, I think your position is that, without 

 spacers on the frame, each frame can be 

 lifted out separately from any part of the 

 hive without touching any other frame. If 

 that be true with you. then you have ground 

 for serious objection to spacers on frames. 

 But it is not trite with me, and I think the 

 tribe to which I belong is a very large one. 

 For many years I itsed loose-hanging Lang- 



stroth frames, and I thought the combs were 

 built quite straight in them: but when I want- 

 ed to lift a frame out of the hive, no matter 

 where it was, I never thought of doing it 

 without first shoving to one side one or more 

 of the other frames so as to make room to 

 lift out the desired frame. It took less time 

 to do that than to take the time necessary to 

 lift out the frame with sufficient care not to 

 do any harm: and even with all the slowness 

 and care possiiile I never felt sure that some 

 inequality in the combs might not injure 

 bees, to say nothing of the queen. The sim- 

 ple fact is that I always crowded the frames 

 to one si<le to make room: and the difficulty 

 would have been increased if there had been 

 spacers on the hive like yours, as there were 

 in a few of my hives. 



Yoti say, "The advantages of such hives 

 with spacers on hives are so many that I 

 have no doubt it will be .popular in a very 

 few years." I doubt. There might be a 

 better chance for it if it were a new thing. 

 Bitt it is many years old. I tried it years 

 ago, and so ditl others. To speak of nothing 

 else, the one advantage of iieing able to 

 crowd along on a smooth-sliding tin rabbet, 

 with one push all the frames of the hive is so 

 great that spacers on frames are likely to 

 continue popular. 



But please understand, Bro. Stachelhau- 

 sen. that, if you can lift any frame out of 

 any hive without in any way disturbing its 

 neighbor, you have my fulf permission to 

 have spacers on yoitr hives, and I'm ready to 

 give you a writing to that effect. 



Marengo, 111. 



[Ordinarily the editor would take a hand 

 in this discussion: but as lioth parties are 

 "heavy weights," as a light weight I have 

 decided to let them fight it out. Go it, 

 raeine guten Briuler. — Eu.] 



HIVES. 



What Bearing they Have on the Que.stion 



of Swariuin^K,-; the Large Versus the 



Small; Do the I.,argest Hives 



Prevent Swarminar"? 



BY E. F. ATWATEK. 



Very interesting to me have been some of 

 the recent articles on the hive-qtiestion — par- 

 ticularly those by Mr. Holtermann, and the 

 one on" page 657, by ISIr. Hand. Let Mr. 

 Hand attempt the management of our nine 

 apiaries, at home, 3^, 4^, 10, 13. 15, 13. 36, 

 and 1^ miles away, and he might no longer 

 doubt that Mr. Holtermann spoke wisely in 

 branding swarming as the bane of modern 

 apiculture. I am a most emphatic lieliever 

 in large hives in extracting-yards, giving un- 

 limited room up to the ffow, and usually 16 

 L. frame capacity during our mild winters; 

 yet of no fact am I much more positive at 

 present than Aikin's dictum, " Large hives 

 will not control" swarming. If Dadant, 

 France. Snell, Post, and others were to ex- 



