1004 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



170 



seen dnrin;;' the present summer a man- 

 atee of at least 1,000 [xinnds weiyht; a 

 sawfish 15 feet long; sharks from 10 

 feet down, scores of stlng-rays from 10 

 to 100 pounds each; sea turtles from 

 10 to 300 pounds each, thousands of 

 large fish and innumtn'able quantities 

 of other things found only near tide- 

 water inlets. 



Several times during the summer 

 personal friends living in town have 

 fre(juently gone over to the apiary in 

 the morning and occupied their time 

 drying the day, while I was at my reg- 

 ular work, in fishing, bathing in the 

 Siu-f, shell gathering, etc. 



Fort Fierce, Fla., Aug. 11, 1904. 



THE SHALLOAV vs. DEEP FRAME 

 CONTROVERSY. 



A Reply to Mr. Miller. 



By W. W. McXeal. 



M' 



R. ARTHUR C. MILLER, in his 



defense of the divisible brood- 

 chamber, Page 30, P>ee-Keeper 

 "1- i-vin-uary. wfites enthusiastically if 

 I' it convincingly of the merits of the 

 ittle hive. 



Shallow hives were a great fad with 

 lit' at one time, and therefore it was 

 vith much interest I read the article 

 if s(i aide a writer as Mv. Miller, rath- 

 '1- iioping that he would disclose ctr- 

 ain practical truths which would en- 

 li|<' me to "revise my theories" con- 

 cientiously. But it seems he has 

 ather suljstantiated the correctness of 

 iiy claim — that hives shallower than 

 ll^^ Langstroth do not properly meet 

 lie requirements of a colony of bees 

 uiiug the cold of winter and early 

 ;fing. Those conditions that favor 

 "'st the welfare of the bees do not 

 i'r\(' the interest of the bee-keeper so 

 ^ell. Either one or the other must be 

 lie loser and usually it is the bees. 



-Man's own convenience has gradual- 

 >■ •ncroached upon that of the bees till 

 1 the construction of the motlern shsl- 

 i\v hive, Mr. Miller tells us it was de- 

 igned for "man's especial benefit!'' 

 'nw that being .so, there remains but 

 ttlc jjround for discussion, for I have 

 I'ver said the hive was not a good 

 arm-weather hive— one that strongly 

 lijieals to the avaricious qualities in 

 uiiian nature. The "i>ersonal ele- 

 lent" or in other words "the man and 

 'anagement" may either modify or in- 

 'nsify unfavorable conditions aris- 



ing from unnatui'al suiii-oundings. P.ut 

 hive manipulation, liowever systematic 

 it may l)e with shallow hives, cannot 

 make t-hose hives as warm as hives of 

 natural built combs. 



The divisible brood-chamber must 

 have outside protection to make it as 

 warm as a large single-story hive of the 

 same capacity would be without out- 

 side packing. And it was this matter of 

 greater warmth of single-story hives 

 that caused me to change firom the 

 shallow^ frames to those that Avere 

 11 inches deep for the brood-chamber. 

 When a colony of bees has weath- 

 ered the bitter cold of winter and its 

 vit.-ility is far spent, the arrangement 

 of the combs for warmth and protec- 

 tion is of the greatest importance 

 when breeding is begun in erx'ly 

 spring. We all know that brood can- 

 not be reared profitably where chilling 

 drafts of air circulate. The brood- 

 chamber that is made up of two cases 

 of shallow frames cannot save the en- 

 ergy of the bees as it should, owing 

 to the great amount of cold air pass- 

 ing around the comlis and through the 

 very heart of the brood-nest. 



One case of combs, containing as it 

 UHist the necessary stores, is inade- 

 quate to the purposes and require- 

 ments of earl.v brood-rearing, and 

 when another case of combs is added 

 the conditions become such that, if 

 they are not bad they are simply 

 worse. The combs in the lower case 

 that come directly under those con- 

 taining brood in the upper one, cannot 

 be warmed as economically as the low- 

 er half of com))s in a large single-story 

 hive. That must be evident to one and 

 all for it is simply a physical impossi- 

 bility for the bees to do it when the 

 heat generated can so easil.v escape 

 through that horizontal air-space be- 

 tween the two sets of combs. The bees 

 must I)e enabled to confine the heat of 

 the cluster at the point of operations 

 in Icood rearing or there will l)e a 

 wanton waste of vitality in an effort 

 to meet the growhig demand for brood, 

 in the lower case. -u 



There must be corresponding means' 

 for maintaining the same degree of 

 warmth in that jtosition of the lower 

 oase of combs which the bees desire 

 to use for Ir-eeding imrposes and if 

 the arrangement of the. combs does 

 not allow of this, then the expense of 

 additional outside protection must be 

 carried to get the benefits of a double 

 case of combs, in numerical strength. 



