76 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



about the 20th of June and lasting from 

 three to five weeks according to the sea- 

 son. If I were to follow your method, I 

 might get some surplus poplar honey of 

 inferior quality; but I would lose the sour- 

 wood crop entirely; for, b}^ the 20th of 

 June, nearly all the bees that composed 

 the original swarm on the old stand would 

 be dead, and but little brood would be 

 there yet. There would not be enough 

 3'oung bees to gather any surplus at all. 

 Neither would the old colony be strong 

 enough; so a clear loss of that yield would 

 be the result. 



Knoxvillk, Tenn. Feb. 5, 1899. 



( See editorial department. ) 



THE SIZE OF HIVES A\D COLONIES. 



To What Extent the Latter is Dependent upon 

 the Former. 



L. STACHELHAUSEN. 



nj HE bee papers are discussing the 

 -»- advantages of large hives as com- 

 pared with 8-fratne Langstroth hives. 

 This question is a most important one. 

 It is now conceded that large hives are 

 all right for extracted honey, but for the 

 production of comb honej' you still ad 

 vocate the small, 8-frame hive. In spite 

 of all the arguments given by Dadant you 

 want to know zvhy a large hive is better 

 than a small one aiui lu/iy the queen should 

 not be cramped for .-oom ? If you will 

 allow me the space 1 -vill try to explain 

 this zuhy, in my way 



We must consider the desired condition 

 of the colony and hive in spring and dur- 

 ing the honey-flow. In spring it is our 

 aim to build up the colony as strong and 

 rapidly as possible. The purpose being 

 to have a large force of field bees when 

 the honey-flow connnences. For this 

 purpose, different kinds of .spring-man- 

 agement, such as stimulative feeding, 

 were invented and practiced; so there can 



hardly be any doubt that all bee-keepers 

 will agree in this respect. If the queen 

 does not find enough empty cells to de- 

 ])osit her eggs in, or has to hunt for 

 them, time, at least, is lost. This means 

 a weaker colony for the harvest. For 

 this reason, in the spring, until the hon- 

 ey harvest commences, all obstacles in 

 the way of the queen are objectionable. 

 As soon as the honey-flow commences, 

 the desired condition of the colony is 

 quite different. Now we want as many 

 field bees as possible and very little un- 

 sealed brood, comparatively, to get the 

 most surplus honey. This large propor- 

 tion of field-bees to the unsealed brood is 

 the main reason why medium colonies 

 will sometimes give more honey than 

 stronger ones. 



If the colony is worked for extracted 

 honey, this condition is attained; because 

 the brood-nest is crowded by the honey. 

 If this is not desirable for comb honey, 

 the brood chamber can easily be contract- 

 ed. ( See Dadant in American Bee Jour- 

 nal, 1899, page 3. ) 



Now, you sa}', it would make no differ- 

 ence whether the desired number of eggs 

 were laid by two queens in two small 

 hives, or if laid by one queen in a large 

 hive. We will suppose a case. Here we 

 have one colony, very strong, and the 

 progeny of one queen; there we have two 

 small colonies, having the same number 

 of bees, together, as the large colonies, 

 but divided in these two hives. When 

 the honey-flow commences, which would 

 be in better condition for the honey har- 

 vest ? 



The amount of open brood in each of 

 the three colonies will now be about the 

 .same; tjecause the two queens in the weak- 

 er colonies are still desirous to lay more 

 eggs, as they Jiave empty cells, while the 

 (jueen in the strong colony is now crowd- 

 ed, either by the honey, which the bees 

 are storing in the brood-chamber, or by 

 the contraction method. So we have in 

 the two small hives only half the force of 

 field-bees compared with the brood, as 

 there is in the large hive, and, conse- 



