12 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



R. R. 1, Grand Rapids, Mich. 

 August 15, 1914. 

 Mr. A. J. Kreuter. 

 Dear Sir: — 



Your very good Intelligent letter 

 with Canadian postal note for reply 

 came to hand yesterday and I 

 hasten to reply to it to the best 

 of my ability. I am pleased that you 

 also have been testing a larger 

 brood chamber and are so well 

 pleased with it. For I felt for sev- 

 eral years that I stood almost alone 

 with it for all the big beemen like 

 the Roots, the Millers, the Dooljt- 

 ties, the Hutchinsonsi and Townsends 

 and the rest were all using a hive 

 about half as large as mine and I 

 almost had to pinch myself to 

 make me believe I was right, but 

 now many are becoming convinced 

 tha,t they are using too small a hive 

 and are changing to a larger one 

 and I feel sure that in 50 years more 

 there will be as few small hives in 

 use as there are large ones now. 



In regard to your first questions 

 as to whether I winter in the two 

 bodies or only one. Yes, I winter 

 always in the two bodies. This I 

 find has about completely done 

 away with winter loss, which has 

 hitherto been the greatest disaster 

 to beekeeping. In fact I now wonder 

 that as many bees are brought 

 through the winter in those shallow 

 hives are there are. When we rea- 

 lize that bees cluster down at the 

 bottom of the hive at the begin- 

 ning of the cold weather and travel 

 only upward for their stores, we 

 then see the necessity for a goodly 

 supply of stores directly above them 

 as they would starve with a quarter 

 of an acre of honey all about them, 

 if none was in the comb above 

 them. And with this big supply of 

 honey on hand they are not afraid 

 to start plentiful brood early, a 

 most essential thing to insure a 

 large stock of bees in time for the 

 harvest. 



Question No. 2. As to having to 

 feed some years. I will say with 

 the two bodies on and filled up we 

 never have to feed. One of the first 

 I put up over 2 years ago in a 

 stable loft, have cared for them- 

 selves continually and have never 

 been fed. No, they are safe from 

 year to year and make beekeeping 

 the most automatic business I know 

 of 



Question No. 3, in regard to a 



super instead of a full body would 

 not be sufficient on 10 frame hives. 

 Yes it would do fairly well for win- 

 ter but would not be so safe as a 

 full body. But it would put you in 

 a hole when you take off your white 

 honey and want to double up your 

 apiary as we do by just setting these 

 bodies apart and putting in new 

 queens on queen cells and putting 

 a ntw top body on each to make 

 your increase if you desire it, and 

 double your apiary or let them 

 alone as you desire. Then too, the 

 half body on top would not give 

 the room that is so much desired 

 or go near so far towards prevent- 

 ing swarming naturally. You see 

 tlie point. I will just say here if 

 you wish to go from the single 

 hive method to the double hive, the 

 best time of all to do it is when 

 you remove your white honey about 

 near the last of July in this lati- 

 tude, then put on your extra bodies. 

 The queen will not enter sections 

 of half stories quite so readily , as 

 full bodies. 



4th. Question. I do not feed at 

 all. If I have to feed to build from 

 the single to the double hive I feed 

 with an inverted tin 10 lb. honey 

 pail with the lid finely perforated 

 like the pepper box feeder. Early 

 feeding is preferable, regardless of 

 Brood. Do not wait for brood to 

 hatch. 



5th. Question. Do you re-queen 

 every year? It is better to re- 

 queen each year. But we do not 

 always do it. 



6th. Question. Do you put on 

 absorbents for winter? Yes, em- 

 phatically; yes about as good a 

 thing is a comb honey super or 

 something like it with a burlap 

 tacked on the bottom and filled 

 with clothes, leaves or chaff. Be 

 sure to make everything snug as 

 there will be no draughts up 

 tbrough the hive. 



7th. Question. As to amount of 

 pollen in hive. Leave all pollen poss- 

 ible. And in addition we supply 

 artificial pollen with cotton seed 

 meal or ground oats or regular 

 ground horse feed placed out in 

 dishes before natural pollen comes. 



8th. Question. As to size of en- 

 trance and method of ventilation. 

 I leave entrance full size, full width 

 of the hive generally, unless we 

 contract for robbers or something 



