24 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



the lower ones containiug only empty combs. 

 His next objection is that there are more 

 frames to handle. This looks plausible, but 

 in practice it hardly holds good. Even when 

 it becomes necessary to handle frames, when 

 proper methods are used it is but seldom that 

 any more frames have to be handled than 

 with the larger ones, and these are so much 

 smaller and easier to handle that it is really 

 a saving of time and labor to have the hive 

 divided into two sets of frames. Thus, early 

 in the spring we know that nearly all the 

 honey, the brood, and the queen are in the 

 upper story. We may simply lift it off the 

 lower story and examine it as if it were a 

 complete hive, not paying any attention to 

 the frames of the lower story. In the latter 

 part of the season we know that most of the 

 honey is in the upper half of the hive, and 

 the most of the brood, with the queen, is in 

 the lower story; and if we wish to examine 

 the brood we simply lift off the upper story 

 and set it aside, having to handle separately 

 only the comparatively light frames of the 

 lower story. If it were not for foul brood, I 

 would but very seldom handle the brood- 

 frames at all. I can find the queen by easier 

 methods than by looking for her on the 

 combs. It is an advantage here to inspect 

 the brood frequently, in order to detect dis- 

 ease as soon as possible, so that I do not use 

 these easier methods as much as I would oth- 

 erwise, but hunt up the queen in the time- 

 honored way. A proper knowledge of con- 

 ditions in connection with a divisible brood- 

 chamber enables me in most cases to find her 

 without looking over more than one of the 

 sets of frames. Queen-cells are found, to an 

 extent sufficient for the requirements of most 

 practical bee-keepers, very much easier in the 

 divisible-bi'ood-chamber hive by simply pry- 

 ing the stories apart and tipping the upper 

 one back. It is but very seldom that I want 

 to overhaul frames to look for queen-cells. 



Next comes the question of wintering, and 

 here Mr. Dadant falls into the common erx'or 

 of assuming that the divisible-brood-chamber 

 hive is a shallow hive. On the contrary, it 

 is a deep hive — as ordinarily used, deeper 

 than the Langstroth. Mine, I believe, are ex- 

 actly the same depth as the Dadant. More- 

 over, it is in the best possible shape for good 

 wintering. Right through the center of the 

 hive, and just below a sufficient amount of 

 stores for wintering, is a passage giving free 

 communication to all parts of the hive and 

 making it easy for the bees to form and main- 

 tain the shape of a ball, which, as he says, is 

 essential for the best wintering. For about 

 twenty years I have had bees in both Lang- 

 stroth hives and the six-inch double-brood- 

 chamber hives, and those in the double brood- 

 chambers winter best and build up better in 

 the spring than those on Langstroth frames. 

 There have been exceptions to this, of course, 

 but that is the rule. 



The argviment that the queen is less hin- 

 dered in her laying in a deep frame is all 

 right theoretically; but in practice I find, as 

 I said before, colonies build up better in the 

 double set of shallow frames than in the 



Langstroth frame. I have never used on any 

 extended scale the frame Mr. Dadant recom- 

 mends, except for a part of one season, so I 

 can not compare them with that. I can ac- 

 count for this partly in this way. The queen 

 is, perhaps, held back slightly at one period 

 of her laying, making her till the upper story 

 with brood more compactly than she other- 

 wise would. Then when she bi-eaks over in- 

 to the lower story she has a good force of 

 nurse bees to accompany her, and with an 

 abundance of empty combs she soon makes 

 up for lost time. 



As to the argument that the single set of 

 frames permits a more gradual enlargement 

 of the brood-chamber, I want to say that I 

 long ago quit fussing with the brood-chamber 

 in this way. It may sometimes be made 

 profitable, but in the long run it does not pay. 

 But if one wants to do it he may, by the use 

 of division-boards or dummies, enlarge or 

 contract the double brood-chamber about as 

 easily and even more gradually than he can 

 the single one. I do not consider that I am 

 any less indebted to Langstroth because I 

 use a double brood-chamber. I am using the 

 Langstroth principle in my frames, even 

 though they are shallower than the ones he 

 used, and at fixed distances instead of loose. 



INSPECTORS' MEETING. 



A Report of One of the Most Important 



Meetings ever Held in the Interests 



of Apiculture; the Scientific and 



Practical Side of Bee Diseases. 



The meeting of bee inspectors, called at 

 San Antonio, Texas, for November 13, by the 

 committee consisting of N. E. France, W. Z. 

 Hutchinson, and Dr. E. F. Phillips, has come 

 and gone. The attendance of about fifty 

 persons represented the whole country. No 

 one who attended thought the time ill spent. 

 On the contrary, every one there felt at the 

 close of the afternoon session that it was a 

 day most profitably passed; in fact, many 

 expressed themselves that it was the best bee 

 meeting at which it had ever been their priv- 

 ilege to be present. 



Dr. Phillips, of the Bureau of Entomology, 

 Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. 

 C, called the meeting to order, and in his 

 opening remarks gave the history of European 

 foul brood in this covmtry, and also gave a 

 synopsis of the bee-disease work under con- 

 sideration by the Bureau of Entomology. He 

 then called upon Dr. G. F. White, of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, who gave an ex- 



