414 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



December 



Personally, I prefer the solid 

 honey, both to eat and handle, and 

 I believe the time will come wh :n 

 people generally will buy solidified 

 honey as freely as they now do other 

 forms, and that time will come ac- 

 cordingly as the granulated honey is 

 advertised, and people educated; 

 first, that the honey is pure; next, 

 that it may be easily and quickly 

 liquified; third, that it will keep in- 

 definitely unchanged. Beekeepers 

 know that it will be much easier to 

 ship. There will be no leaking. 



I think that if the beekeepers of 

 the United States were to individu- 

 ally push granulated honey it would 

 not be many years before we should 

 have a fair trade in this commodity. 

 I judge from my own experience, for 

 I now have a few customers who 

 come to me yearly. 



Buck Grove, Iowa. 



Hives— 8, 10, 13 Frames 



By Jes. Dalton 



IN regard to the article by Mr. C. F. 

 Davie, on page 344 of the October 

 number, concerning 13-frame 

 hives, I wish to say that I have used 

 these "barns" for years, both in the 

 North and the South. I have 140 of 

 them in use in a 300-colony yard, 

 side by side with both 8 and 10- 

 frames. I wish to comment a little. 



First, he says "they accommodate 

 13 frames snugly with one-quarter 

 inch to spare," and he expects Da- 

 dant results with "a minimum of 

 swarming." I never put over 11 

 frames in those hives, use full depth 

 supers and space same above as be- 

 low. I let the queen have the run of 

 the hive. I follow the "let alone" 

 plan and take out the solid combs A 

 honey. I do not try to take the 

 honey off by the super full. 



He speaks of the queen leaving 4 

 outside frames of foundation un- 

 touched. I would have been sur- 

 prised had she done anything else. 



I find 4 or 5 frames of foundation to- 

 gether to be the best thing to make a 

 queen leave the broodnest for the su- 

 per, and vice versa, wherever those 

 4 or 5 frames are, if all in a bunch. 



But I think Mr. Davie struck the 

 meat in the cocoanut when he re- 

 ported his wife's statement that it 

 was "the largest swarm she has 

 seen." Those barns will get them 

 for us. 



I think we all have a lot to learn 

 about swarming yet, and also about 

 the size and shape of hives. For in- 

 stance, it is commonly accepted that 

 "old queens cause swarming." But 

 how about a young queen in a little 

 hive, hot and full of brood and 

 honey? 



In June my 8-frames got to swarm- 

 ing and over 20 swarmed before 1 

 could check it. Some swarmed thr?e 

 times. But out of the 140 "barns," ; n 

 the same yard, I got 2 swarms. Same 

 yard, same weather and all, except 

 that I had gone through the eights 

 every 8 or 10 days, cutting out queen- 

 cells and giving ventilation, etc., 

 while I did not have time to go 

 through the "barns" for nearly two 

 months. 



I have come to the conclusion that 

 hives are like a lot of other things. 

 You cannot get perfection, and oft^n 

 have to choose the lesser of two 

 evils. 



Those big hives are expensive to 

 make and heavy to handle when full 

 of bees and honey. But when run on 

 the "let alone" plan and as non- 

 ' swarmers, I find them the best I have 

 tried yet. 



Eight-frame hives are nice to make, 

 cheap, and easy to handle. But there 

 is something about a tall, narrow hive 

 full of bees that makes them swarm 

 worse than a wide, roomy hive. I 

 prefer 20 frames in 2 stories to 21 

 frames in 3 stories. 



I requeen one-half to two-thirds of 

 my colonies every year, carrying over 

 only my best queens. In looking for 



preparations for swarming, I notice 

 the behavior of the bees at the en- 

 trance, the loafing, the excess of 

 drones, etc. 



As soon as a colony needs it, I 

 block up the super with a little stick, 

 for ventilation. If the hive sets much 

 in the sun and is strong, I even block 

 up the cover, for I consider swarming 

 about the worst thing that happens 

 in the apiary. 



Bordelonville, La. 



& < • In 





The Use of the Truck 



By E. F. Atwater 



IN these days of rapid transporta- 

 tion, the beekeeper who can reach 

 his yards with a car or truck, and 

 does not do so, is becoming rare, and 

 probably is not conducting his busi- 

 ness in the most economical and effi- 

 cient manner. 



Among the favorite means of trans- 

 portation the Ford stands first, be- 

 cause of low cost and economical up- 

 keep. However, it is the writer's con- 

 viction that many beekeepers using 

 the small car with small truck body, 

 which, without overloading, cannot 

 carry much of a load, might more 

 economically do more work by in- 

 vesting a little more money and have 

 a hauling capacity of 1,500 to 3,000 

 pounds per load. 



We use a substantial small truck, 

 carrying easily 1,500 pounds, and, 

 when needed, a trailer which carries 

 nearly as much more. 



The light truck carries quite a load 

 when needed, and, being equipped 

 with pneumatic tires, makes nearly 

 as good time on the road between 

 yards as a touring car, but in moving 

 bees or hauling in the honey from 

 our ten yards, we do need more ca- 

 pacity. 



Our friends at Parma, Idaho, 

 Messrs. H. M. West, H. E. Crowther 

 and Irvin F. Powers (the Parma Bee 

 and Honey Company), use one or two 

 small cars for quick trips to yards, 

 and for the heavy hauling, a Ford 

 with one of the ton or ton and a half 

 truck attachments, and a large body, 

 7x9 feet, as shown in the cut. 



These truck attachments are of 

 several makes, chain, worm or inter- 

 nal gear drive, and cost $360 and up- 

 ward. The tires on the heavy rear 

 wheels are solid, eliminating one 

 cause of trouble. Such a re-built 

 Ford costs more than the little Ford 

 ton truck, but the chassis and frame 

 are, I believe, longer than that of 

 the regular Ford truck, and, most im- 

 portant, the springs are very lonij, 

 easy riding, semi-elliptic, while the 

 springs on the regular Ford are 

 short, unyielding, and reported to be 

 anything but satisfactory for hauling 

 anything as fragile as foundation in 

 frames and sections, or honey in 

 sections or in large combs to extract, 

 unless roads are good and one drives 

 very slowly and carefully. 



In the upper part of the cut will be 

 seen the Metcalf portable extracting 

 outfit, with the Atwater-Crowther im- 

 provements, floor, when down, 12x16 

 feet, used for some years by the 

 Parma Bee and Honey Co., and about 

 the same as ours. In this connection 



