1130 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



where else. You always have to depend 

 somewhat on the honesty of a queen-breeder 

 as to what kind of stock you get. 

 Casanovia, Cuba. 



SHALLOW HIVES, AGAIN. 



Advantages in Favor of Having the Brood-nest 

 and Super for Tall Sections One and the 

 Same Depth; Prefers, though, a Brood- 

 nest Slightly Deeper ; Foundation 

 in Fall Sheets instead of 

 Starters. 



BY W. K. MORRISON. 



It seems as though I should have to say 

 another word with reference to the shallow 

 hive, though it seemed to me that my re- 

 marks at the time had about exhausted the 

 subject; at least, so far as my personal feel- 

 ings went the subject had been fully ex- 

 ploited. But the article by Mr. E. F. At- 

 water, June 15, brings up the subject of 

 starters and shallow frames in such a way 

 as to call for a reply on my part. (Messrs. 

 Root and Danzenbaker will have to defend 

 themselves.) 



Now, there are renegades besides myself 

 — Messrs. Stachelhausen, J. E. Chambers, 

 and L SchoU, for example. They are pro- 

 fessionals, while the writer is an amateur. 

 However, I have reasons for the faith that 

 is in me when it comes to the case of start- 

 ers vs. sheets of foundation in a brood-nest. 

 My experience in bee-keeping covers a period 

 of 35 years, in quite a number of countries, 

 with all sorts of hives and appliances, and 

 nearly always a buyer and seller of bees and 

 hives, and my experience leads me to affirm 

 most strongly always to use full sheets of 

 foundation in brood-frames, and also wire 

 your frames — particularly so if the reader 

 be a novice. You may get tired of bee-keep- 

 ing; you may have to move, you may have 

 to give up for many reasons, and then when 

 you want to sell you'll wish these frames of 

 yours had had full sheets and were wired. 

 Oh my! you'll wish many times over you 

 had done so, when it's too late. There are 

 other reasons. It seems like folly to buy 

 fine hives and then waste a fourth of the in- 

 side of them with worse than useless drone 

 comb and transition cells. To some extent 

 this explains why some people get better 

 results with eight frames than others 

 with ten. I am quite well aware that nice 

 -wired combs may be had by using starters, 

 but with a good deal of unnecessary fuss 

 and bother; but most people fail, and get 

 more drone, crooked, and bad comb than 

 they ought to have. That is my experience. 



Not long ago one of these old-fashioned 

 practical men asked me to sell his apiary for 

 him; but such a thing was almost impossi- 

 ble. It was immovable, and it remains- 

 rotting. He used starters in his brood- 

 frames. That's all. I can assure Mr. At- 

 water and any other doubting Thomas that 

 my experience has cost something, and, like 



Aneas, I can say, "The greater part of 

 which I saw, and some part of which I was." 



Yes, I'll say it again, using starters is a 

 step backward — it's ancient history. Don't 

 do it, Mr. Beginner. You will bless me later 

 for the advice. 



All sorts of methods have been proposed— 

 the Barber plan, the "shook" swarm plan, 

 the Townsend plan, the " bait" plan, to get 

 the bees to deposit all their honey in the 

 sections without delay. Now, what I pro- 

 pose is to use a shallower hive, and so cut 

 the Gordian knot. There is no doubt that a 

 hive shallow enough will do the business 

 every time. 



Generally this plan is opposed with the 

 statement that the bees will carry pollen 

 into the sections. My experience is opposed 

 to this; in fact. I found if starters were 

 used in deep frames there was more chance 

 of getting pollen upstairs. It seemed to me 

 the parties who reported this had had a lim- 

 ited experience along this line. They use a 

 shallow frame in England with no bad re- 

 sults, and some of the most enterprising 

 bee-masters in the world follow this method. 

 The new edition of the ABC shows Mr. 

 Louis Scholl in the act of opening just such 

 a hive as I suggest (see page 226). This is 

 not a small hive by any means, though some 

 labor under the misapprehension that I ad- 

 vocate small hives. The Ideal super with 

 shallow extracting-frames forms, to my 

 mind, a very good hive — very much so for 

 out-apiaries. It is capable of almost in- 

 definite manipulation. It is light, and easy 

 to handle. But where it leaves all rivals 

 hopelessly behind is when it comes to the 

 production of comb honey. 



I am of the opinion that it can be im- 

 proved. An inch added to the depth would 

 suit me better, and an inch to the width to 

 allow of 12 frames 11 inches from center to 

 center. The object of this increase is to 

 make one super the equal of an eight-frame 

 hive in brood capacity, and also to get 45 1- 

 Ib. sections in a super. This latter improve- 

 ment reduces the number of under-weight 

 sections; it also reduces the work and the 

 cost of the hive. If one super will do the 

 work, why use two? 



For Cuba, Jamaica, and other hot coun- 

 tries, a shallow hive for comb honey is a 

 necessity; and even for the far North it is 

 no fault if the brood-frame is shallow pro- 

 vided it is large enough to accommodate a 

 fair-sized colony. A divisible brood-cham- 

 ber is somewhat of a nuisance. It just dou- 

 bles the work, with no compensating advan- 

 tages. Personally I have secured fair re- 

 sults with a brood-chamber no larger than 

 an Ideal super, and where poor seasons are 

 the rule it may be a good thing to use it. 

 Where one wants to produce both comb and 

 extracted honey there is nothing better than 

 a hive made up of three Ideal supers. This 

 gives a super of comb and a super of ex- 

 tracted alternately. The queen is restricted 

 to one chamber; but every time an extract- 

 ed super is put on, some of the brood-combs 

 are lifted from below and put on top. This 



