1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



95 



and you find eight wax plates, one in 

 each, and every one evolved from a 

 liquid inside and now transferred to 

 the outside of their bodies. The ro- 

 mance of the hive lies in what they 

 do with these plates of wax. The bee 

 transfers each of these forward to 

 the mouth, and there masticate them, 

 make them pliable, cut them into 

 shape, and in some marvelous way 

 beyond our ken they are constructed 

 into the hexagonal cell, thousands of 

 which are required to complete a 

 comb. 



Two points may be given showing 

 the wisdom of the bee connected 

 with her stinging propensity. When 



the flesh is stung the bee generally 

 does not try to pull out the appa- 

 ratus directly, aware that it may at 

 the same time lose some of its inner 

 organs. It circles on its sting as a 

 pivot, all the time slackening the 

 hold of the barbs, so that in the end 

 it withdraws the weapon freely. 

 Again, even when in a fury, there is 

 method in its madness. Provided as 

 the sting is with palpi or feelers, 

 these sensitive organs test the qual- 

 ity of the substance about to be at- 

 tacked, and if impervious the feelers 

 telegraph to the brain to say that an 

 attack would be labor lost. 

 Banff, Scotland. 



Bee-Keeping <^ For Women 



Conducted by Miss Emma M. Wilson, Mareneo. 111. 



Eight-Frame Hives for Winter 



In this department, in spite of the 

 waning fortunes of the eight-frame 

 hive, a word has been said in its de- 

 fense, when used by women, on ac- 

 count of its lightness and greater 

 e se in handling. At the same time 

 it was freely admitted as its greatest 

 fault that the smallness of the hive 

 made it more difficult to avoid starv- 

 ing in winter. Now comes no less an 

 authority than Miss Iona Fowls, of 

 the staff of Gleanings, and says there 

 is not only more danger of bees 

 starving in 10-frame hives than in 

 8-frame, but also more danger of 

 their freezing. 



In Gleanings, December, 1818, page 

 743, she says : "Although we prefer 

 the 10-frame hive and could name 

 several good reasons for this prefer- 

 ence, wintering would not be among 

 them. We believe there is not only 

 more danger of the colony on 10- 

 frames starving, but also more dan- 

 ger of their freezing. During very 

 cold winters we have known medium 

 colonies on 10-frames to starve with 

 plenty of stores at the side of the 

 hives, the bees having evidently been 

 too cold to reach the honey. Had the 

 hive space been smaller it would 

 have been much easier to keep up the 

 temperature, and less stores would 

 have been needed. In the case of the 

 8-frame hive, or the 10-frame con- 

 tracted to 8-frame, the colony may 

 be left with the necessary clustering- 

 space, and still have o5 or more 

 pounds of honey. Good colonies, if 

 suitably packed, will winter on even 

 seven frames, which we have repeat- 

 edly proved with hundreds of colo- 

 nies." 



If now, Dr. Miller and others can 

 be converted to Miss Fowls' views, 

 the poor 8-frame hive may be al- 

 lowed a respite before it is doomed 

 to utter extinction. 



(It is very apparent that Iona Fowls 

 has never been a bee inspector with 

 an opportunity to see how the aver- 

 age small beekeeper neglects them, 

 else she would never say that More 

 bees starve or freeze in 10-frame 

 hives than in 8's. Her observation is 



very evidently confined to well-kept 

 apiaries where an abundance of 

 stores have been provided. The aver- 

 age small beekeeper never looks into 

 the brood-nest, but is content simply 

 to put on supers in spring and to re- 

 move them with contents in the fall. 

 To find bees short of stores in 8- 

 frame hives is so common as almost 

 to seem the rule. In the larger hive 

 there is more room in the brood- 

 chamber and consequently the re- 

 moval of the supers does not remove 

 so large a portion of the stores. The 

 writer has often known cases where 

 farmers have lost nearly all their 

 bees from this cause when with 

 larger hives they would have left suf- 

 ficient stores to carry the bees over. 

 It is an unfortunate fact that we find 

 the 8-frame hive most often in the 

 hands of persons who are poorest 

 equipped to use it. The 8-frame 

 hive is an expert's hive and should 

 never be used by one who is not pre- 

 pared to give bees expert attention. 

 In the hands of indifferent persons 

 the larger the hive the better. 



I feel safe in saying that 75 per 

 cent of the annual loss of bees among 

 the farmers of the northern states is 

 from removing too much honey. 

 Since 90 per cent of these people 

 never look into the brood-nest, they 

 depend upon the bees to provide for 

 themselves in the lower story. Few 

 people who have bees are beekeep- 

 ers in the proper sense of the term. 

 — F. C. P.) 



In Gleanings for December, 1918. 

 Editor Root is quite enthusiastic over 

 the idea of big hives: X T o, he is not 

 advocating 10-frame hives, but out- 

 Dadants the Dadants by advocating, 

 at least for fruit growers, 13-frame 

 hives ! His enthusiasm, which is 

 more or less of the contagious kind, 

 is evidently the result of a visit of 

 two or three days with Adams & My- 

 ers, of Ransomville, N. Y., who, be- 

 side operating a 70-acre orchard, run 

 300 13-frame colonies of bees. And 

 the strange thing in the case is that 

 these 13-frame hives are said to be 

 handier to lift than 8-frame hives ! 



Says Mr. Root: "I said to Mr. My- 

 ers, 'I do not see how you lift those 

 great 13-frame hives.' 'They are a 

 great deal handier,' he replied, 'in my 

 opinion, than 8-frame hives of an 

 equivalent capacit3 - tiered away above 

 my head. I can lift a heavy load 

 along about the height of my chest or 

 waist, when half of that load might 

 be considerable of a strain if it were 

 above my head.' I watched these men 

 at work. It was evident that by their 

 management they do not 'break their 

 backs' any more than beekeepers 

 with hives of 8 and 10-frame capacity. 

 The secret of it is that the individual 

 unit, while heavier, can be lifted to 

 better advantage because it is never 

 above the chest line." 



It is plain that while the 13-frame 

 hive is five-eighths heavier than the 

 8-frame hive, when you come to pile 

 extracting supers on each, in order 

 to have piles of the same capacity, 

 the 8-frame pile must be five-eighths 

 higher than the 13-frame pile. To be 

 more definite, if 13-frame hives are 

 piled 5 stories high it will make a 

 pile of 65 frames, and if we put these 

 into a pile of 8-frame hives it will be 

 8 stories high, with one frame left 

 oyer. Now lift the top story off each 

 pile. It is not hard to believe that 

 it is easier to lift the one from the 

 lower pile, even though it be five- 

 eighths heavier than the one on the 

 other pile, since the top one on the 

 one pile is hardly more than breast 

 high, while the other is almost out 

 of reach. 



With this view of the case, would it 

 not be the part of wisdom for us 

 women folks who want to avoid 

 heavy lifting to adopt the 13-frame? 

 But before deciding it may be well 

 to look into the matter a little more 

 fully. For other stories than the top 

 stories are to be considered. Sup- 

 pose we have lifted off two of the 

 larger stories and three of the 

 smaller ones, leaving the piles of 

 nearly the same capacity. The ad- 

 vantage is now all on the side of the 

 smaller hive. Decidedly so; for not 

 only do the larger supers have a little 

 disadvantage in height, but the dis- 

 advantage of being five-eighths heav- 

 ier. So when the whole pile is lifted 

 down, there doesn't seem to be much 

 difference, does there? 



Now if those of us who are using 

 8-frame hives have all of them piled 

 8 stories high every year, all season, 

 in other words give every colony 56 

 extracting-combs, and no other con- 

 sideration is involved, it might be 

 worth while to consider changing to 

 13-frame hives. But in such apiaries 

 is it not the general case that for 

 every pile 8 stories high there are 

 three to ten or more that are not 

 more than 5 stories high? 



Another thing to be considered: 

 There are times when the hive con- 

 taining the brood-combs is to be . 

 lifted from one stand to another. It 

 may be, too, that it must be carried 

 into the cellar and out again. In 

 these cases the lifting is 62JX per cent 

 harder with the large hives than with 

 the small ones. So, taking all in all, 

 if the larger hives are preferred, it 

 will hardly be because they lessen 

 labor. 



