484 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



take a Mason jar and put the top through 

 a hole of the right size in a thin super- cov- 

 er. This puts the feed directlj' over the 

 cluster. An upper stor3' or cap is then put 

 on top of the hive; and when the feed is ex- 

 hausted, all one has to do is to lift off the 

 cap and put a filled can in its place. 



Your dealer will be prepared to furnish 

 these caps to fit anj' Mason jar. This 

 makes the expense of this kind of feeder 

 merely nominal; for everj' f amil3' is supposed 

 to have, in the spring- at least, a large sup- 

 ply of empty Mason jars that can be utilized 

 for this purpose. 



SHALLOW HIVES. 



A Bit of Experience. 



BY E. N. WOODWARD. 



I am wondering what will be the result 

 of all this talk about shaken swarms, shal- 

 low hives, narrow starters, full sheets of 

 foundation, and all the confusing problems 

 of this new s^-stem of forced swarming. I 

 suppose that manj- bee-keepers are plan- 

 ning and expecting great success along this 

 line the coming summer. I don't wish to 

 enter a protest against any sj'stem of man- 

 agement that has proved to be a success in 

 the hands of a skillful bee-keeper; but I 

 should like to speak a word of caution to 

 the inexperienced, for I know how apt we 

 are to follow some new idea or some new 

 theory, without knowing exactlj' where we 

 are being led or what the result may be. 

 I believe that forced swarming (so called) 

 is a move in the right direction if a person 

 has a large number of colonies, and wishes 

 to produce comb honey; but we must keep 

 close to nature, otherwise we are making a 

 serious mistake. To prove this, I wish to 

 bring in mj' own experience. 



About five years ago an article in one of 

 the bee-journals led me to form the plan of 

 hiving all of my new swarms into shallow 

 hive, with foundation; and the plan looked 

 so plausible to me that I constructed quite 

 a number of such hives, having them leadv' 

 for my first swarms, which usually come 

 soon after white clover comes into bloom; 

 and so, with thoughts of an abundant har- 

 vest, and with visions of a long row of su- 

 pers towering high, I hived mj' best swarms 

 into these shallow hives, placing double 

 supers with 48 sections on top, with queen- 

 excluder, and then waited for results. 



Well, I was having my way so far; but 

 what did the bees say about it. Dr. Miller? 

 In the first place, thej- held an indignation 



meeting, and then for two successive days 

 swarmed out, losing valuable time when 

 white clover was in full bloom; and then 

 they loafed awhile, and finall3' began to 

 dwindle; and when the honey season was 

 over I had a few weak colonies and very 

 little honej'. 



I very soon began to apprehend that I 

 was making a mistake, and so I hived the 

 rest of my swarms into regular Dovetailed 

 hives, full depth, contracted with dummies 

 to correspond to the size of the swarm. 



Shall we consult the bees again? Their 

 actions- speak louder than words, for they 

 immediatelj' went to work with a vim, with 

 no thoughts of swarming out, and I soon be- 

 gan to tier them up; and at the end of the 

 season many of my new swarms hived up- 

 on the deeper frame gave me lOO lbs. of as 

 fine honey as was ever placed upon the mar- 

 ket. 



The conclusion that I came to is this: 

 That a shallow frame and hive is not in 

 harmony with the natural instinct of the 

 bee; and, forced out of their natural form 

 and condition, they fail to do good work; 

 but when placed in a hive which gives 

 them room to cluster in natural form, and 

 when their new home is made agreeable to 

 them, they very seldom swarm out, but will 

 very soon adjust themselves to their new 

 surroundings, and the whole machinery of 

 the hive is set in motion. More than all 

 this, the surplus warmth and energy from 

 this more nearly perfect form or cluster 

 flows up into the super above, and an im- 

 pulse is given that sends the busy workers 

 out into the field, and the hum of content- 

 ment and industry is heard from every side, 

 the occupant of the hive being a better judge 

 than we when our opinion is formed from a 

 standpoint of theory. I am pleading for 

 the depth of the regular Langstroth hive in 

 which to place our new swarms. We may 

 contract, if we choose, down to five or six 

 frames, according to the size of the swarms 

 and the prospective honey harvest. 



So the thought comes to me, "Can we af- 

 ford to place our prime swarms in a shal- 

 low hive, shut down in man3' cases with a 

 queen-excluder, compelling them to begin 

 housekeeping in such a cramped-up place 

 that they must show their resentment by 

 swarming out again and again, and per- 

 haps dwindling until they are almost worth- 

 less, and that, too, in the midst of a white- 

 clover yield of honev'?" This has been my 

 experience with shallow hives. I hope others 

 have been more successful. If so, I should 

 be glad to know it. I for one want the reg- 

 ular Dovetailed hive with full sheets of 

 foundation; for with that management I am 

 sure to get a crop of honey if it is in the 

 field to gather. 



Hillsdale, Mich. 



[Your experience hardly proves much. 

 There are thousands of sectional brood- 

 chamber hives in use; and I do not remem- 

 ber seeing a report similar to yours before. 

 There were some other outside conditions, 

 that would account for your experience. 



