50 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



DEEP VS. LANGSTROTH FRAMES 



February 



A Discussion of the Two-Story Brood Chamber as a Substitute for Deep Frames 



The following question is represen- 

 tative of those reaching the editor 

 ling the appearance of the arti- 

 cle on large hives in the November 

 number : 



"I am interested in the discussions 

 regarding size of hives, in the Jour- 

 nal. I started beekeeping with eight- 

 frame Langstroth hives, some half 

 dozen years ago, but soon finding 

 them too small have changed com- 

 pletely to the ten-frame. Now I am 

 convinced that a single body ten- 

 frame Langstroth is too small to con- 

 tain the bees and sufficient stores to 

 winter several of my best colonies. 



"My hives, however, are new 

 double-walled, so I dislike to incur 

 the trouble and expense of changing' 

 What would you think of increasing 

 the size of my brood-chambers when 

 there seems to be need, by placing a 

 half-story with shallow frames on 

 the present brood-chambers, to re- 

 main permanently, winter and sum- 

 mer? Place on this the queen-ex- 

 cluder, obtaining my surplus above? 



"Of course there would be a little 

 more difficulty in inspecting the 

 brood-chamber, but this doesn't seem 

 to me serious. My chief question is, 

 would the bees fasten the upper 

 frames to the lower ones, or would 

 the break in the continuity of the 

 brood-chamber by the two sets of 

 frames interfere with brood rearing 

 or be in any other way serious? 



"Will you, through the American 

 Bee Journal, kindly give me your 

 opinion, with any suggestions?" 



D. C. P., Massachusetts. 



In giving prominence to large 

 brood-chambers, in our November 

 number, I did not intend to start a 



BY C. P. DADANT 



scries of articles on the subject. But 

 it seems to be a question of popular 

 interest, as shown by the above let- 

 ter and a dozen or so of similar en- 

 quiries, of which this is a fair repre- 

 sentative. The matter has also been 

 discussed, I am told, in the Califor- 

 nia meeting. 



Perhaps the best reply I can give 

 should include an account of ui\ own 

 experience in years past. 



About 1876, we undertook the care 

 of an apiary of 100 colonies in 10- 

 frame Langstroth hives, for an old 

 beekeeper who felt unable to look 

 after them. In the same outapiary 

 we kept a few of our large hives. Be- 

 fore the fruit bloom was ended I 

 noticed that the queens, in several of 

 the Langstroth hives, were crowded 

 for room. The bees were making 

 preparations for swarming. So we 

 gave them each a half-story super of 

 the kind we use for extracting, think- 

 ing the bees would put the honey in 

 them and leave sufficient room for 

 the queens below. But the queens at 

 once ascended into those half-story 

 supers and filled them with brood. I 

 suppose that some of our small-hive 

 beekeepers would say that this 

 showed the need of queen-excluders. 

 It did, if we did not care to give the 

 queen all the room that she could oc- 

 cupy. Very evidently this was the 

 thing needed, for in none of the large 

 hives did the queens ascend into the 

 supers. In fact those large hives did 

 not need the extra space until later. 



The story-and-a-half hives thus 

 made proved very populous when the 

 crop came. I do not know just how 

 much difference the spaces between 

 the two stories caused in the laying. 



At the Ricbardsoo apiary during the Visalia short course. 



On this matter, opinions differ. The 

 Danzenbaker hive, which has been so 

 much praised and which is formed of 

 two shallow stories, is being aban- 

 doned by many of its original adher- 

 ents. 1 am told. Perhaps one of tin- 

 objections to it is this space which 

 cuts the brood apartment in two and 

 compels the queen to walk about 

 when she loses the thread of her 

 regular laying, which, as we know, 

 is most usually in a circle. However, 

 that extensive beekeeper of Texas, 

 Louis Scholl, who is now editor of 

 the Beekeepers' Item, uses sectional 

 hives altogether and derides the sug- 

 gestion that those spaces are objec- 

 tionable. Although few of his neigh- 

 bors in Texas follow his lead, I see 

 that it has made some proselytes in 

 France. 



Right here, Mr. Pellett, our as- 

 sociate on the American Bee Jour- 

 nal staff, calls my attention to a fact 

 which has some bearing upon the 

 the greater or less ease with which 

 the queen can get over the space be- 

 tween two stories. In the old days, 

 when the thin and narrow top-bar of 

 the brood frame was in general use, 

 the two-story brood-nest was more 

 practical than it is now. Thick and 

 wide top-bars were adopted because 

 they help in preventing the building 

 of much burr-combs between the 

 stories. The thicker and wider they 

 are, the more difficult it is for the 

 queen to find the other story and 

 continue her laying. 



Mr. Pellett asserts that when a 

 two-story brood-nest is used, the 

 queen will readily enough go up 

 from the lower to the upper, but 

 seldom returns again, especially if 

 there are other supers above to 

 which she can go. He finds others 

 with similar experience. 



The thick top-bar often so effec- 

 tively divides the two stories that, 

 swarming is aggravated and there is 

 sometimes serious difficulty in get- 

 ting the queen to return to the lower 

 story, unless she is driven there ac- 

 cidentally in opening the hive. The 

 large brood-chamber avoids this dif- 

 ficult}'. 



When thin top-bars are used, and 

 especially if they are not of the 

 broad kind the bees build many 

 brace-combs. This efficiently con- 

 ned the two stories and enables the 

 queen to go back and forth more 

 readily. Probably the difference in 

 results between beekeepers, as to the 

 ease with which the queens go back 

 and forth, is due to some such condi- 

 tion, very easily understood. 



Burr-combs are not of much im- 

 portance, except in the annoyance 

 they cause in handling the different 

 stories. With large brood-chambers, 

 wide top-bars may be used which do 

 away with much of the burr-comb. 



The main objection to the storied 

 brood-chambers comes for winter. 



