672 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1 



hives ; and perhaps if the editor were to 

 poll a vote he veould find a very large per- 

 centage of the bee-keeping fraternity in fa- 

 vor of shallow chambers, more especially 

 those who are interested in the production 

 of comb honey. Dr. Tinker has long advo- 

 cated his shallow Nonpareil hive; and one 

 of the oldest hives extant is the Bingham, 

 which is, in truth, an extremely shallow 

 one; and in England the standard frame is 

 shallow compared with the Langstroth or 

 Ouinby. The controversy over the large or 

 sm^U hives will probably never end. I for 

 one don't wish to add fuel to the smoldering 

 fires of this disagreement; but having made 

 many experiments along this line I wish to 

 suggest how this dispute can be avoided, 

 particularly by those who wish to follow 

 the golden mean. 



In my experiments I tried all depths be- 

 tween 4 and 13>^ inches, and all spacings 

 between l>s to 1^; and the hives were of 

 every conceivable shape — some of no shape. 

 It is not necessary for me to go into detail 

 regarding these experiments. One of the 

 main points in any experiment is the possi- 

 bility of carrying its teachings into prac- 

 tical execution; and with this end in view I 

 finally decided on a six- frame as the best, 

 for what I consider very weighty reasons. 



1. The probability of making the brood- 

 chamber, the extracting-super, and the 

 comb-honey super all of one size, and per- 

 fectly interchangeable. Men of large expe- 

 rience will agree with me this is a vital 

 point, and well worth sacrificing something 

 to secure. 



2. The desirability of securing a cham- 

 ber which will compel the bees to build 

 comb honey whenever nectar is coming in, 

 without resorting to fussy methods which 

 consume time. The shallow chamber ac- 

 complishes this as nothing else will. At 

 the same time, the super should be large 

 enough to accommodate, say, 48 or 50 1-lb. 

 sections so as to avoid the expense and la- 

 bor incident to the use of two supers. 



3. The value of a frame that can be read- 

 ily handled without fear of comb-breaking. 

 For example, in shaking bees off the comb 

 it is much easier to jar them off a shallow 

 comb than a deeper one; and in the case of 

 shallow-framed chambers it is possible to 

 handle hives rather than frames; and where 

 one man has 300 or 400 hives to manage, 

 this is an extremely important point. Some 

 of our modern hives are regular back-break- 

 ers to an extensive bee-keeper, even if they 

 may not seem so to the small apiarist. 



First, I will tell why 673 inches was 

 chosen as a good depth. 



I arrived, at the end of my experiments, 

 to the conclusion that a hive 20 inches long, 

 20 inches wide, and 20 high, would satisfy 

 all requirements ; and, curiously enough, 

 the lamented Langstroth, in his later years, 

 advocated a hive just the same size. His 

 hive was 20 inches long, 20 high, and 17 

 wide; but in his later years he advocated a 

 hive containing 12 to 14 frames, and I be- 

 lieve he was right in this. 



To divide such a hive in two is all right 

 for extracted honey, but hardly so for comb; 

 besides, the chambers are rather heavy 

 when full of honey. For this reason many 

 have resorted to the eight-frame hive. 



Dadant, I believe, was right in advocat- 

 ing large brood-chambers; but most bee- 

 keepers dislike the heavy hives and un- 

 wieldy frames. I often wonder why so 

 clever a man did not see that two shallow 

 chambers would answer just as well, and 

 avoid the objections. However, Mr, Da- 

 dant and I agree as regards the size of a 

 complete hive. The editor of Gleanings 

 also seems to agree with me, for some time 

 ago he was trying to solve the question by 

 using two regular eight-frame hives as a 

 brood-chamber. The objection to this ar- 

 rangement is found in the height; in fact, 

 the hive is ill proportioned. It is vastly 

 easier to get the queen to use two shallow 

 chambers. Also, in the making of shaken 

 swarms it is much easier to shake the bees 

 from a shallow frame. Fancy shaking 

 bees from a Quinby frame! and I for one 

 don't like brushing. 



The chief objection to shallow chambers 

 has been that one chamber is too small for 

 a lively colony, and two chambers are nec- 

 essary for only a short period each season. 

 The case simmers itself down to this: Any 

 one chamber must be as large in capacity 

 as a regular eight-frame chamber. One of 

 the results of my experiments was, I found 

 the best distance to space the frames is \% 

 inches from center to center. Even lj4 is 

 sufficient; but \% is just right for worker 

 comb, while \y% is the correct spacing for 

 drone comb ; and that is the reason why 

 bees in a natural state adopt the wider 

 spacing. 



Those who do not wish to adopt a wider 

 hive than the ten-frame can, therefore, get 

 eleven frames spaced I'i ; and it is easy to 

 secure twelve frames if the sides are re- 

 duced to >2-inch stuff, and the super wid- 

 ened to 16X inches, which does not entail 

 much of a change, A deep super can use 

 a taller section — in this instance, 6 inches 

 in height; and this is how 48 to 50 sections 

 can be accommodated — no small gain, sure- 

 ly. In the capacity for brood-rearing, or 

 for honey-getting, my shallow chamber 

 equals an eight-frame chamber, at the very 

 least, 



Thewaytouse such ahiveis easy. During 

 the winter or off season one chamber is used ; 

 but when the swarming season arrives, the 

 second chamber with drawn combs is add- 

 ed from below. This is a damper to the 

 swarming fever. Later on, when the upper 

 half has become pretty well filled with 

 honey, it is removed and then a super of 

 sections is put on. Here we have a shaken 

 swarm without the shaking — -at least, the 

 only shaking is in shaking the bees out of 

 the upper chamber. 



Of course, there are other ways of using 

 this hive, which will readily occur to the 

 experienced; but this particular method is 

 suited to hot climates. Where extracted 



