200 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 



Changing from Comb to Ex- 

 tracted Honey 



By C. P. Dadant 



MR. EDITOR: I am contemplat- 

 ing changing from comb 

 honey to extracted. My 

 frames arc all alike for brood-nests. 

 They are the standard Langstroth 

 and the hives are 8-frame size. My 

 comb-honey supers are half depth 

 and if fastened two together, would 

 make one full depth extracting 

 super, which would enable me to 

 change very easily from one to the 

 other. What I wish to know is 

 whether you would advise to use half 

 depth frames in those comb-honey 

 supers and extract from them. I 

 know that von have had much ex- 

 perience right along this line. I had 

 thought that the shallow frames 

 might be preferable, as one stroke of 

 the honey knife would clean one side, 

 in uncapping. I would appreciate any 

 suggestions that you may offer 

 Very truly, 

 Delmar, Iowa. 



In order to give my reasons for the 

 ideas that I am about to develop, I 

 have thought it best to relate my ex- 

 perience in comparative tests of both 

 full stories and half stories. 



We began successful beekeeping 

 with the 8-frame Quinby hive, which 

 nun be properly compared to an 8- 

 frame Jumbo hive. The Jumbo hive 

 takes frames of Quinby depth and 

 Langstroth length, and the Roots put 

 them upon the market and gave them 

 that name at the suggestion of A. N. 

 Draper, who had seen our large hives 

 in use and thought them just right. 

 But our hives and the Jumbo hives 

 are all made now of 10-frame size, 

 because we noticed that the 10-frame 

 colonies filled just as many supers as 

 the 8-frame colonies, and they were 

 25 per cent larger, therefore yielding 

 25 per cent more honey on an aver- 

 age. That is to say, a colony in a 

 10-frame hive tilled the 10-frame 

 super as quickly as the colony in 8- 

 frames tilled its own narrower super. 

 For the information of those who 

 may not know the difference between 

 ,,ni Quinbyframe and the Langstroth 

 and Tumi). i, we will say that the Da- 

 dant Quinbj frame is 2V« inches 

 ,1, , per and l's inches longer than the 

 i. Mtli or Hoffman frame. The 

 lumbo is of Langstroth length and 

 Quinby depth. If we were beginning 



, w< " ould probably adopt that 



1 1 .Li.!. 



Thai the greater result with the 

 larger hives i, due to a greater 

 breeding room for the queens was 

 proven to us in tin following man- 

 ner : 



\l„,ut 1876, w( took over 105 10- 

 fraine Langstroth hives of lues to 

 manage for an old beekeeper who 

 Id no longer take care of them. He 



had worked for comb honey, hut we 



preferred the production of extracted 

 honey, so we prepared to run this 



apiai j bj our met hods \\ i trii d 



Full si., ties and half stories. The 



half ., tiled i that we used 



i roth hives 



jusl filled the requirements oi the 

 prolific queens. In many cases, su- 

 pers nut on the hive early were filled 

 with brood, which gave us an in- 

 creased amount of field workers 

 when the heavy crop came. 



Our own hives of 10-frame capacity 

 usually had sufficient room below for 

 the most prolific queens. This con- 

 vinced us that the 10-frame hives of" 

 Langstroth size are too small to ac- 

 commodate prolific queens. A story 

 and a half Langstroth proved just 

 right for handling. Of course, when 

 we placed a second half story over 

 the first, we secured honey in it. 



At the same time we tried full-sized 

 upper stories. We did not like them 

 because the bees bred in the center 

 of the upper stories or in the lower 

 edge of their combs. So we often 

 had both honey and brood in the 

 supers. Someone will, perhaps, say: 

 "Why did you not use a queen ex- 

 cluder'" Someone in the December 

 number asked how the Dadants kept 

 the queens out of the upper story if 

 they did not use queen excluders. 

 The answer to both is that the Lang- 

 stroth 10-frame hive is too small and 

 that we want all the brood the queen 

 can produce in the spring. So we 

 could not keep the queen out of the 

 upper story if we used a 10-frame 

 Langstroth hive without excluder, 

 and yet we want all the brood that 

 may be produced. With the larger 

 hives the queens usually have enough 

 room below and rarely go in the su- 

 pers. 



We have never used the 8-frame 

 Langstroth hives. But if we had 

 them now, I believe we would con- 

 sider it necessary to use two full 

 stories for breeding and more full 

 stories when the crop came. A shal- 

 low half story of just the depth of 

 the pound sections is too small lor 

 prompt extracting. Our own so- 

 called half stories are deeper than 

 half a story of Langstroth size. The 

 side liar of their frames is 6 

 inches and the case itself is 65/g inches 

 deep. This makes the combs of the 

 right width for the use of the uncap- 

 ping knife and an expert uncapper 

 gives jusl I « 1 1 strokes of the knife, 

 one downward on one side of the 

 comb, the other upwards on the other 

 side. So there is no motion lost, and 

 that is bow my son-in-law, I eon 

 Saugier, in a red-letter day, uncapped 

 5.500 pounds of honey in 8 hours, in 

 the bounteous season of 1916. 



In our extracting supers we use 

 one comb less than in the lower 

 story. In tut 8-frame hive we would 

 use only 7 frames in the extracting 

 super. If you use 8 frames in the 

 upper story of the standard size line, 

 tin' combs will be too thin for profit- 

 able work. With 7 frames the combs 

 will be thicker and the result will be 

 less labor and less expense, with the 



in \ ield. In a 10-frame line w e 

 use ') frames in the super. 



An advantage of the half-story 

 super is in giving accommodation to 

 an undersized colony. \ colony may 



i ly w ell and yet in it be pi m er- 

 fill enough to occupy a full additional 



i i ii v .ill .it once. This is most in 

 me wit b large hives. As the 8- 



frame hive is practically an under- 

 size, the additional space provided by 

 another full story would not look so 

 vast as with our large hives. But in 

 any case when you add another full 

 story you positively double the size 

 of your hive at one operation. This 

 is a good move sometimes, but it 

 often proves unsatisfactory. We 

 prefer to do it more slowly. 



The advantage of the full upper 

 story system lies in having but one 

 size of frames. This looms up big to 

 many people, but it does not tempt 

 us. 



From the above experiences, you 

 will probably conclude that, with the 

 8-frame hive, it is best to follow your 

 suggestion and double your comb- 

 honey stories and use full size 

 frames. Very likely, after weighing 

 all the arguments, that will be the 

 best course to pursue. At any rate, 

 by all means avoid using half stories 

 as shallow as the pound section 

 comb-honey super. They are alto- 

 gether too shallow for profitable 

 work and there is too much han- 

 dling. 



Introducing Queens by Smear- 

 ing With Honey 



By F. M. Baldwin 



WHEN the editor of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal offered a 

 prize of $10 for a description 

 of the best simple device in use in an 

 apiary, I said "That's my money; I'll 

 make my wife a present of it." Then 

 at once 1 proceeded to write about it 

 in my mind. But, alas! Like many 

 other things I do, it was purely men- 

 tal and never saw the light of day. 

 The months have gone by; I have 

 slept on my rights -and have lost my 

 day in court. The device is not 

 costly. It calls for no extra invest- 

 ment : the article is already in use in 

 every household. It is easily accessi- 

 ble, found in every kitchen. A coffee 

 cup or a drinking glass is the thing 

 in mind. If one of these is not con- 

 venient an old tin dipper or even an 

 empty can will serve. So much for 

 tin' simplicity of the device. Now, as 



to its usefulness. 



While living in Florida 1 persuaded 



my friend, Rev. I'. II. Hcnslcy. Jr., of 

 Brooksville, to go into the bee busi- 

 ness, giving him such instructions as 

 I could from time to time, lie got a 

 lew black bees and 1 sent him Italian 

 queens as frequently as he could use 

 them. It was his first vcat with bees 

 and he had never tried to introduce 

 a queen by any method. I showed 

 him how and he succeeded in getting 

 all I scut him safely into the hives. 

 ( )ther novices have found the in tin id 



a success. Prof. I G Baldwin, of 

 ! i, I and. b'la., and Henr\ S Bohon, 

 oi Roanoke, Va., are experts of many 



years' experience. They have found 



it safe, easy and time saving. They 



,,i e rei ommending it in their w rit - 



a well as using it among their 

 bees. That it works with the novice 

 and the expert unfailingU is enough 

 to prove the practicability oi the de- 



,,, , .,,,d entitle it to roti side ra I ion in 



