1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOLRNAlL^ 



403 



pleasing, it also augments our pleasure, and prevents misun- 

 derstandings and unicindness, and ill-will, to know that we 

 are not subjects of deception by appearances. 



We are in favor of conducting business on the principle of 

 right, and in a way that will increase confidence and faith in 

 each with the other ; we believe that there should be friend- 

 shiD in trade, and are sure it cannot come through the prac- 

 tice of selling an appearance of good and then deliver in fact 

 that which is not good. We have talkt and written many 

 volumes to our honey-shippers to encourage the idea that we 

 desire our shippers to be of that character that it would not 

 be necessary for us to open a case of honey to prove that the 

 back sections in a case were not, just as good as the first or 

 face sections, and we are pleased to report that we have many 

 shippers for whom we have sold honey, and when the ques- 

 tion came up, as it always will from the customer, about how 

 it will run, and if the quality is as good all through the cases 

 as represented by the face of the cases, we at once reply and 

 assure our customer that it will, and then go farther and say 

 if there is one section in the case that they can find which is 

 of a poorer or inferior grade than represented by the face, we 

 will give them two sections for every one of such found. 



It seems to us a matter of no small consequence, and in- 

 volves a very important question in business relations. Ask 

 your correspondent how he would like to send an order for a 

 case of fresh eggs, receive a case, and find a layer on top of 

 choice, sweet, fresh eggs, and all the rest of the eggs in the 

 case old and rotten ! What sort of an opinion would he have 

 of the merchant who sent him the eggs'? And when he 

 wanted another case of eggs, would he send the order to the 

 same merchant ? 



The relation of the commission-man to the producer Is a 

 vital one, and the shipper should encourage honesty, and 

 place himself with the commission merchant in the relation of 

 a partner, and not as a tool or an inferior being who is ex- 

 pected to lie and cheat, and get just as much value and make 

 as quick returns and realize just as much money for a shipper 

 who sends in goods falsely packt or carelessly handled, as for 

 one who puts up his goods — honey if you please — truly repre- 

 sented in quality and weight, showing honest care for the 

 good name of himself and the commission merchant whom he 

 employs, or with whom he has formed a co-partnership to 

 handle his shipment ; also a kind consideration for the custo- 

 mers whom the merchant invites to buy, and recommends the 

 goods to be as represented. 



After a long experience in selling property for others, we 

 find the most diCBculty in giving satisfaction to the shippers of 

 Inferior quality of goods, and it comes from the vicious princi- 

 ple of trying to work off through the agency of the commis- 

 sion merchant property which the shippers find difficulty in 

 disposing of at home, and expect through this agency to ob- 

 tain as much as for a good, salable quality. 



Much more might be written on this subject, but time and 

 space forbid. A. V. Bishop & Co. 



Milwaukee. vw 



Contraction of the Brood-Nest — A Reply. 



BY W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



In a late issue of Gleanings the editor referred to the con- 

 traction of the brood-nest as a "fad;" classing it with self- 

 hivers, etc. From the tone of Mr. Root's remarks it is evident 

 that he has misunderstood the time and manner in which con- 

 traction of the brood-nest has been practiced. For instance, 

 ho says : 



" But, oh, how the bees did swarm, and no wonder ! The 

 whole trouble was that queen did not have brooding space 

 enough ; and the bees were quick to catch on to the fact ; and 

 the result was the queen and bees connived together for 

 larger quarters." 



Mr. Root, so far as I know, do one has practiced contrac- 

 tion of old establisht colonies, those that had their brood-nests 

 filled with bees, brood and honey — it was only in hiving 

 swarms that contraction was practiced. It is possible that 

 some practiced contraction with establisht colonies ; it seems 

 that you have understood it that way, but you are the first 

 man that I have ever met who so understood it or pra3ticed it. 

 I have corresponded with many of the prominent bee-keepers 

 who practice contraction of the brood-nest, have met many of 

 them, and visited the apiaries of many of them, especially 

 here in Michigan, where, as you say, contraction is practiced 

 most extensively, and I have yet to know of a bee-keeper who 

 contracts his brood-nests except in hiving swarms. If there 

 are those who contract the brood-nest of establisht colonies, 

 do it in the spring, or just before putting on the sections, or 

 if there are those who have practiced it and abandoned it, I 



hope they will speak out, for it will be news to me. Accord- 

 ing to my views and experience, it would be a most unwise 

 course to pursue. 



In the first place, we need to rear all the bees possible be- 

 fore the opening of the main honey harvest. We must have 

 the workers or the harvest will be in vain. To rear them 

 there must be cells in which to cradle them while babies. We 

 need all of the cells that an ordinary queen will keep full of 

 brood; and enough other cells for the storing of the honey 

 and pollen to be used in caring for the brood. When the com- 

 ing of the harvest finds these combs all filled with brood, 

 honey and pollen, there is nothing to be gained in taking out 

 some of these combs and putting in dummies. If the brood- 

 nest is full when the honey comes, the surplus must go into 

 the supers. 



I am at a loss to conceive where, how or why there could 

 have been conjured up the idea of contracting the Drood-nest 

 of an establisht colony in the spring or before the opening of 

 the harvest. There is only one instance in which I could 

 think it advisable. If a colony were weak in numbers, and 

 the harvest already present, and it was thought advisable to 

 secure some comb honey from that colony at all hazards, then 

 a taking out of the occupied, or partly-occupied, combs and 

 putting dummies in their places would force the bees into the 

 sections ; but with colonies in which the brood-nest is full of 

 bees, honey and brood, contraction of the brood-nest is wholly 

 unnecessary. 



Contraction of the brood-nest in hiving swarms when 

 working for comb honey is an entirely different thing ; and 

 when practiced Intelligently in the right locality is a most im- 

 portant factor in securing a crop of honey. Here In Michi- 

 gan, and similar localities, the surplus white honey is gath- 

 ered in a short period — never extending over six weeks; 

 usually lasting only a month ; and sometimes the main harvest 

 is all gathered inside of two weeks. Then comes a period of a 

 month or six weeks in which no honey is gathered ; this being 

 followed by buckwheat or fall flowers In some localities. In 

 some localities, like the one in which I am now situated, white 

 clover furnishes the only surplus. Years ago, in localities 

 similar to mine, when contraction of the brood-nest in hiving 

 swarms, and several other " wrinkles," were unknown, how 

 often we heard even the veterans lamenting the issuing of 

 swarms, because, they said, with the swarm went all hopes of 

 surplus. As the business was then conducted there were good 

 grounds for lamentations. The management was about as 

 follows : 



The swarm would be put into a 10-frame hive, and no 

 supers put on until the hive was filled. If they were put on they 

 would not be occupied until the lower hive was filled, and by 

 the time this was accomplisht it usually happened that the 

 white honey harvest was past. If the old colony did not 

 swarm (usually it did) some return might be expected from 

 that, unless the season was nearly over. If a colony is in con- 

 dition to begin work in the supers ai the opening of the white 

 honey harvest, and continues faithfully at work without 

 swarming, as I have already said, no contraction is needed; 

 but, suppose the harvest is half over, the bees working nicely 

 in the supers, there may be one case of sections nearly ready 

 to come off, another two-thirds finisht, and a third in which 

 the work has only nicely commenced ; now the colony swarms. 

 What shall be done ? By hiving the swarm in a contracted 

 brood-chamber, upon the old stand, transferring the supers to 

 the newly-hived swarm, and practicing the Heddon method of 

 preventing after-swarming, work will be resumed and con- 

 tinued in the supers without interruption, and the surplus 

 will be nearly as great as tho no swarming had taken place. 



In brief, contraction of the brood-nest, coupled with the 

 plan of putting the swarm on the old stand and practicing the 

 Heddon method of preventing after-swarming, enables us to 

 throw the whole working-force into the super just at the criti- 

 cal time, and secure a crop of white honey that would other- 

 wise have been stored in the brood-nest or used in the rearing 

 of bees that would have come upon the stage of action when 

 about the only thing that they could do would be hang on the 

 shady side of the hive. 



We all know that white honey brings a higher price than 

 does the dark honey gathered in tho fall; while the latter, 

 unless it may be in some few special instances, is equally as 

 good for winter stores. The contraction of the brood-nest in 

 hiving swarms puts this white honey In the market and the 

 cheaper grades in the hive for winter. 



It has been urged against contraction that it results in 

 small colonies at the end of the season. If it is carried to too 

 great an extent, or too long-continued, it certainly does. If a 

 .man wishes to turn bees into honey, contraction will enable 

 him to accomplish his object. If colonies are too weak in the 

 fall as the result of severe contraction, they must be united ; 



