246 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Apr. 18, 



Coj;)tnbuted JKrixcXcs^ 



On. Ixnj>ortaxit A-jyiarian Sulijeots, 



Best Size of Frames for Extracted Honey. 



BY CHAS. DADANT. 



Since the publication of ray article on the size of bee- 

 hives (page 166), I have received several letters of enquiry 

 asking my opinion of the best size of frames for producing 

 extracted honey, and whether I consider the 12-frame Lang- 

 stroth hive as good as the 10-frame Quinby. 



For a number of years I made experiments on the size of 

 hives, and for the past 28 years I have been publishing my 

 views, mainly in bee-journals published in the French lan- 

 guage, and I feel not a little pride in saying that my argu- 

 ments, in favor of the large frames and large hives, seem to 

 prevail in Europe ; for the large Quinby hive is now very 

 largely used in France, Switzerland, and the French-speaking 

 countries, under the name of Dadant, Dadant-Blatt, and Im- 

 proved-Dadant hive. Yet, this hive is nothing but a very 

 plain movable-frame hive, the invention of Mr. Langstroth, 

 who was the first man to make a practicable hanging-frame 

 hive, with movable ceiling. Quinby only changed the size of 

 the frame, retaining the main features of the Langstroth 

 hive. To this I added but a few minor improvements, and in- 

 creased the number of the frames, making a slightly larger 

 hive than either Langstroth or Quinby recommended. The 

 European bee-keepers have set aside the names of the two 

 original and main inventors, to call the hive the Dadant. 



Now another bee-keeper, Mr. Blatt, acted probably upon 

 a hint that I gave in " Langstroth Revised," and which read 

 as follows: "The Langstroth-Simplicity frame is long 

 enough, but hardly deep enough. The Quinby frame is deep 

 enough, but would be better if a little shorter." Mr. Blatt 

 reduced the length of the frames of the Dadant to the exact 

 length of the Langstroth frames, preserving its height. This 

 hive, which agrees exactly with the criticism above-mentioned, 

 is now called the Dadant-Blatt, and I will say that if we had 

 not so many hives of the former style, I would be in favor of 

 adopting it without hesitating. Still, I would decrease the 

 height of the hive so as to be able to make the body out of 12- 

 inch lumber, as it is usually difficult, in this country, to pro- 

 cure lumber more than 12 inches wide in any quantity. Then 

 the Langstroth frame would be enlarged IJf inches in depth. 

 This increase would give 16,860 cells more in a 10-frame 

 hive, allowing the queen a sufficient space to lay about 3,600 

 eggs per day. 



In the editorial on page 172, our friend Ernest Root is 

 quoted, who complains of the nuisance to the manufacturer 

 of being compelled to make special covers, supers and bottom- 

 boards, for so many dififerent hives, and of all the nuisances 

 that would be avoided if we all used the same size hives. Those 

 who wish to try this Blatt hive with their 10-frame Lang- 

 stroth, need change neither cover, supers, nor bottom-boards. 

 They need only deepen the hive by adding a cleat IJ^ inches 

 wide, and changing the depth of the frames. But such an ex- 

 periment to be conclusive, should be made on more than one 

 or two hives. Hamilton, 111. 



[Mr. Dadant will soon continue his series of interesting 

 articles on the production of extracted honey, in these col- 

 umns. He will next describe the methods as practiced in the 

 Dadant apiaries. — The Editor.1 



Spreading Brood — When and How to Do It. 



liY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



As the time of the year is upon us when active work must 

 commence in the apiary, I thought that a few words on 

 spreading brood would not be amiss, especially as some seem 

 prone to think that Doolittle recommends an indiscriminate 

 practice in this matter. If in any article that I have ever 

 written 1 have conveyed the impression that an indiscriminate 

 spreading of the brood would be of value, either to the novice 

 or the expert, I wish to take it all back, for I never wished to 

 convey any such idea. 



In some of my articles I have placed the time of commenc- 

 ing to spread the brood about May first. This was done with 

 the expectation that each one would use judgment, that judg- 

 ment to be based upon their locality, the condition of the bees 

 and the advancement of the season. For instance : One sea- 



son, when the first of May arrived, there was not a particle of 

 brood in any of my hives to spread. For me to have tried to 

 spread the brood at that time would have shown that I was 

 devoid of common-sense. Again, in 1878, when the first day 

 of May arrived, all of my hives were filled with brood and 

 bees, some colonies having eggs and larva; in the queen-cells 

 preparatory to swarming. To have waited till the first of 

 May before touching the bees, in such an early season as was 

 that of 1878, would have shown that I was not up with the 

 times as I should have been. 



Once more : All colonies in any apiary cannot be treated 

 alike. Take an ordinary year in this locality, the date being 

 May 1st. In the first hive we open we find a goodly number 

 of bees, say enough to cover seven combs on a frosty morning. 

 We open the hive and find brood in only five combs. The cen- 

 ter comb of the five has brood in it nearly to the bottom and 

 side-bars, as well as at the top. The two on either side of it 

 are two-thirds filled, while the two outer frames have brood 

 in each, to the amount of one-third of a frame full. Now, 

 practical experience covering a period of more than 20 years, 

 has proven to me that a gain of two days in bees can be 

 secured by reversing those combs of brood, or, in other words, 

 placing the middle combs, or those fullest of brood, on the 

 outside, and those from the outside having the least brood in 

 them, in the center. By this plan we have not really spread 

 the brood, but we have placed it in such shape that we have 

 made an ample number of bees desire all the brood which they 

 could care for, and the result is, that in about a week, or the 

 next time we open that hive, we find those five frames all solid 

 with brood — a state of things which always delights any bee- 

 keeper. 



We now put a comb of honey, having its sealing broken, 

 in the center of these five filled combs of brood, which so 

 stimulates the bees, by its removal, that, should a cold night 

 now occur, the bees will be so active that the required temper- 

 ature is kept right up, and a gain of two or three days more is 

 made. So we keep on with this colony till the hive is filled 

 with bees and brood, and that at the righttimeto take advant- 

 age of the honey harvest when it arrives. Having the bees 

 thus, they will make all the difference between a full crop of 

 honey and half a crop, or in extreme cases or short seasons, 

 no crop at all. Will not this then pay for the fun we have had 

 in thus building up that colony of bees? 



The next hive I come to gives off a light buzzing sound, 

 scattered down between two or three spaces between the combs, 

 thus showing that there are but few bees in the hive, for I do 

 not know that I ever opened a very weak colony without hear- 

 ing this sound. I know that it is weak in bees from this, but 

 am surprised to find that they have brood in three combs, and 

 the wonder is that the bees have held that brood as well as 

 they have. Now should I treat this colony as I did the first, 

 any one would say I was a fool. This colony has all of the 

 brood crowded together, so there is only just space enough 

 between the combs for a single tier of bees to stand, or what is 

 known as " the contraction plan " is used, and the bees are 

 shut on these combs of brood and tucked up as warm as possi- 

 ble, so that they can hold this brood till it matures. Here 

 they are kept till they have these frames filled with brood, 

 clear down to the bottom corners, and till the bees begin to 

 crowd out beyond the division-board, when it is time to treat 

 this colony the same as we did the first, and they should not 

 be so treated any earlier. 



Away back, years ago, after a hard winter, my bees came 

 out very weak in the spring, I having only 46 remnants of 

 colonies left. About May 1st, I went to visit a bee-keeper 

 living in a warm, sunny nook, and found him spreading brood, 

 with his colonies all in a prosperous condition. I came home 

 to my own poor apiary, situated in its bleak location, and 

 when I really saw how poor it was I came nearly being dis- 

 couraged. I sat down and meditated about buying bees, but 

 to do so at that time meant running in debt. I finally decided 

 DO, and went to work with a will to do the best I could with 

 those I had, on the plan above given. I gave the bees atten- 

 tion just when it was needed, according to my best judgment, 

 leaving no stone unturned which I thought would add a far- 

 thing to the success I was striving for, and in the fall I had 

 almost .'51,600 as my pay, the 46 colonies producing an aver- 

 age of a little over 106 pounds of comb honey per colony, 

 spring count. This put an ambition into my life never before 

 enjoyed, and which has had much to do with my love for the 

 work in the apiary that has followed me ever since. 



After 26 years of work in the apiary, I can truly say 

 that there is no pleasure in apicultural life greater than that 

 which comes in making colonies build up in time for the honey 

 harvest, so as to work to the best advantage in it. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



