Jaiuiary, 1909. 



Amcerican l^ee Journal 



ri.-arr<l and iiilrodiicfd ii)l(i llu- I Inly 

 Land yard. 'I'liis late iniixirlalicm, uliiK- 

 they proved themselves extraordinary 

 as honey-gatlierers, and were lieaiilifid 

 in their markings, at the sani.- time were 

 tlic most wicked bees to handle tlial 1 

 have ever seen, not even excepting tlie 

 Cyprians. There were times and condi- 

 liiins when these bees could l)c handled 

 with impnnity. At the cessation of the 

 hone\-llow. when brood-rearing wonld 

 wholly or partially cease, those bees 

 could often be handled without smoke 

 or veil, remaining c|uiet on "their combs 

 while being handled by the operator, 

 and, exposed to almost all manipida 

 tions, would keep their temper. 



In comparison with the Italian bees 

 I woidd unhesitatingly say that for an 

 all-purpose bee, considering gentloues.;, 

 honey-gathering, prolificness, beauty in 

 markings, general domestic habits, there 

 is no race or strain of bees that will 

 equal the best strain of 3-banded Ital- 

 ians. 



I will sum up by saying that with 2 

 years' experience with Cyprians, 8 years 

 with perhaps the largest yard of Holy 

 Lands in the United States — 150 colo- 

 nies — I have decided to discard all but 

 llie Italian race, which I recommend as 

 a general, all-purpose bee. 



Bee Co., Tex. W. H. Laws. 



This is a question that has been asked 

 often, and my experience is the same as 

 that of Mr. Laws. 



Length of Queen-Cells. 



Does the length of the queen-cell have 

 anything to do with the queen, as to 



length of life or Inr laying powers? I 

 am of the opinion that it does not. 

 What is the cause of the length of the 

 queen-cell, anyway? 1 reared many 

 ipieens last year and found it to be true 

 in every case witli me, that the age of 

 I lie larva determined the length of the 

 cell. Well, not altogether, cither, as 

 some colonics would natmally make 

 longer cells than others. 



My observation was tliat every cell 

 started on very young larva was drawn 

 out long, while those started on larva: 

 several days old were capped short ; and 

 that those queens started on onc-day-old 

 larvK were fed several days longer than 

 those that were older. The continuous 

 feeding of the younger larv;e necessitat- 

 ed the lengthening of the cells to ac- 

 commodate the surplus amount of feed 

 given before the queens became old 

 enough to seal, while the older-larvae 

 queens required only a short time be- 

 fore they were old enough to seal up in 

 the cell. In every case the queens were 

 properly fed, and all hatched out good 

 queens. 



I also noticed that neither the length 

 of the cells nor the age of the larvae 

 used determined the length or the size 

 of the queens. Many of the queens 

 hatched from the short cells were long 

 and large, while many of those hatched 

 from the long were short. When lay- 

 ing began some of the short queens 

 would beat their long sisters laying. So 

 I determined that a lot of stuff printed 

 relative to queens is all bosh. I am 

 "from Missouri," and will have to be 

 shown. '1". P. Robinson. 



Rartlett. Tex. 



Something About Big Hives 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



Leon, Iowa, Nov. 21, igo8. 

 Mr. C. p. Dadant, Hamilton, III. — 



De-ar Sir; — I wish you would tell in the 

 American Bee Journal the difference between 

 the Dadant hive, the Jumbo hive, the Draper 

 Barn, and the Dadant-Blatt hive. Most bee-keep- 

 ers are probably familiar with the Dadant hive, 

 as its dimensions and construction are given in 

 the revised edition of " Langstroth on the 

 Honey-Bee," I will say here that rabbeting 

 the lower edges of the sides of the Dadant 

 hive is useless work with me, as I am never 

 troubled with the bee-moth in hives containing 

 bees. I make bottom-boards so that the lumber 

 runs tlie long way of the hive, and extends 

 3 or 4 inches in front. My impression of the 

 Jumbo hive is that it is made tlie same as the 

 10-frame Langstroth hive, except that it is 

 made deep enough to take Quinby frames. 



The Draper Barn I have never seen de- 

 scribed, and so have no ideas concerning it. 



My impression of the Dadant-Blatt hive is 

 that it is made one inch shorter than the 

 Dadant hive out of lumber 12 inches wide, 

 and that in other respects it is made like the 

 Dadant hive; but in this I may be wrong. 



I will add here that I believe Dr. Miller at 

 one time tried yne Jumbo hive and that he 

 had a swarm from it the first season. This 



bccnis to have taken away Ihu Doctor's desire 

 for big hives. In the early days of my bee- 

 keeping I had a big swarm from a Dadant 

 hive — so big that I did not know what to do 

 with it, as I was poorly supplied with know-l- 

 edge of bees, and with appliances for handling 

 them. Since that time I have had scarcely 

 any swarming from Dadant hives, and I have 

 had some of them in the yard every season. 

 Kdwin Bevins. 



The Draper Barn and the Jumbo are 

 one, with the only difference, if I re- 

 member right, that the Jumbo is built 

 with dovetail ends and in its details is 

 the same as the Langstroth Dovetailed 

 hive, except that its frames are 2% 

 inches deeper than those of the regular 

 Langstroth hive. These hives have 

 frames of the same size as those of the 

 Dadant-Blatt hive. 



Mr. Dadant senior adopted the Quin- 

 by frame hive in 186;, or about that date. 

 The Quinby hanging frame is both deep- 

 er and longer than the Langstroth. The 

 senior Dadant then added some im- 

 provements, increased the number of 

 frames to 9, with 2 dummies or division- 



boards, one on each side. Wc have 

 since used the hive with only one dum- 

 my and ID frames, but I believe the for- 

 mer number is the best. The ral)bele(l 

 lower edges of both sides and double 

 rear board arc useful in several ways. 

 They exclude dampness, robbers or 

 moths. But they prevent the tiering up 

 of hives which we never practice. Our 

 upper stories are uniformly half stories, 

 which are however a little more than 

 half the depth of the lower, as the 

 frames arc 6Hi inches deep. 



The Dadant-Blatt hive is made almost 

 exactly like the regular Dadant, only its 

 frames are of Langstroth length and of 

 Dadant depth. This was done at the 

 suggestion of Mr. Dadant senior, to be 

 able to exchange supers with Langstroth 

 hives, and also because he thought the 

 Quinliy frame a little too long. Yet we 

 have had better success with those long, 

 deep frames than with any others, for 

 we tried many different styles on a large 

 scale. 



It may be necessary to say here that 

 the Dadant ideas in hives have never 

 been patented, and that everything that 

 we use, or have used, is, and has always 

 been, free for all. That is why I do not 

 feel that I am in any way intruding up- 

 on the reader by giving a description of 

 the hive. 



The Jumbo hive, like the Dovetailed 

 and nearly all the clicap hives sold now- 

 adays, is made in plain stories, which are 

 tiered up as needed, without any covers 

 other than the f^at top. Our hives, like 

 the Dadant-Blatt, are made with a cap 

 telescoping over the body about an inch 

 and resting on cleats. We think so 

 much of this cap with telescope that wc 

 would not accept the ordinary tiering 

 hives as a gift if we had to use them. 

 Yet I am very free to say that not one 

 apiarist in a thousand sees this matter 

 as we do. We think that the telescop- 

 ing cap makes the hives warmer, safer 

 against robbers, mice, etc., especially 

 when they have been in use many years. 

 We are in a great country for propolis, 

 and our bees glue the different stories 

 together so well, during the latter part 

 of summer, that a chisel or hive-tool 

 has to be used to separate them, and 

 after a few years, use the top edge of 

 the hive-body and bottom edge of the 

 super have become damaged enough 

 sometimes to allow robber-bees, ants 

 and vermin, to get through the crack. 

 This also allows the heat to escape. The 

 telescope cover obviates this and makes 

 the hive tight, for the cover is never 

 reached by the bees and glued. The only 

 time when the upper joints are exposed 

 is when we tier up 2 or more supers, 

 and at such times the colonies are al- 

 ways strong and harvesting honey, so 

 that the perfect joint is not needed so 

 badly. We have had some hives in use 

 for 35 years and it is quite important to 

 have a system that permits the use of 

 the same boxes under all circumstances. 



That the system does almost entirely 

 away with swarming is evident, not only 

 frorn our experience and that of Mr. 

 Bevins above recorded, but by the testi- 

 mony of bee-keepers all over the world. 

 The size of the hive alone is not suffi- 

 cient to abolish swarming, but the sys- 

 tem followed, joined to the greater com- 



