264 



THE BEEKEEPERS' REVIEW 



sends 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 that they are 

 using too small a hive and are chang- 

 ing to a larger one and I feel sure 

 that in 50 years more will be as few 

 small hives in use as there are large 

 ones now. 



In regard to your first question 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 win- 

 ter in those shallow hives are there 

 are. When we realize that bees clus- 

 ter down at the bottom of the hive at 

 the beginning 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 sup- 

 ply 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 

 hai'vest. 



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 20 years ago in a stable loft, 

 have cared for themselves continu- 

 ally 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. It would put you in a hole when 

 you take off your white honey and 

 want to double up your apairy as we 

 do by just setting these bodies apart 

 and putting in new queens on queen 

 cells and putting a new 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 de- 

 sired or go near so far towards pre- 

 venting swarming naturally. You see 



the 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 re- 

 move your white honey about near 

 the last of July in this latitude, then 

 put on your extra bodies. The queen 

 will not enter sections on half-stories 

 quite so readily as full bodies. 



4th Question — I do not feed at all. 

 If I had to feed to build from the sin- 

 gle 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 prefer- 

 able, 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 ab- 

 sorbents for winter ? Yes emphati- 

 cally; 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 every- 

 thing snug as there will be no 

 draughts up through the hive. 



7th Question — As to amount of pol- 

 len in hive. Leave all pollen possible. 

 And in addition we supply artificial 

 pollen with cotton seed meal or 

 ground oats or regular ground horse 

 feed placed out in dishes before na- 

 tural 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 con- 

 tract for robbers or something like 

 that. Use your own judgment about 

 that; as to ventilation, I never give 

 any, where our bees are in under cover 

 out of the sun as they are with us. I 

 let the bees tend to that. I have placed 

 some of these double hives in terribly 

 hot attics, but they seem to do equal- 

 ly as well as where it is not so hot. 



This I think answers all your 

 questions quite fully. I hope it will 

 be a help to you in getting started 

 right. 



In conclusion you will notice I al- 

 ways use and recommend for a brood 

 chamber two 8 frame standard h-ives, 

 one above the other always. 



With best wishes, I am. 



Yours truly, 

 J. A. PEARCE. 



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