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EIGHTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



it would work, say, in the south or 

 possibly not in the southern part of 

 this state, but we have a lot of bee- 

 keepers in Northern Michigan that 

 use large hives. You will see in the 

 columns of our Bee Journals that the 

 part of their honey is left on the 

 hives for weeks and weeks and weeks 

 till it is thoroughly ripened. Now, a 

 man in Colorado wrote me and 

 wanted to know if it was possible, 

 with the most favorable conditions 

 present, to get an ounce of our rasp- 

 berry honey ripe. The trouble is here, 

 when we study carefully the laws gov- 

 erning heat and cold they will explain 

 every bit of it. I have had lots of 

 experience this fall with forest fires 

 and I have studied them carefully, 

 and there is no subject I think in con- 

 nection with our industry that I have 

 studied so carefully as the laws gov- 

 erning heat and cold and so far as it 

 affects the inside of a hive. Take 

 one of those large forest fires, we 

 have a strong wind from the south, 

 and we can go right up to the very 

 edge of the Are. Why? Because the 

 wind blows the heat and smoke and it 

 all goes to the north. But, let us go 

 around on the other side and within 

 one-half mile of such a forest fire is 

 as near as you can get, but at night 

 the wind woxild go down till it was 

 perfectly still. That would represent 

 the inside of a brood nest very well. 

 "When it is perfectly still we can walk 

 up to the very edge of that fire on 

 any side. On the side next the fire 

 Is the heat, and on the other there is 

 a cool breeze coming. Let us step 

 over four feet on to this burned dis- 

 trict, there is no fire there particu- 

 larly, but at the same time it is just 

 burned over and that ground is so hot 

 it will burn your shoes. How do you 

 find it? Nothing but heat on all sides 

 of you. Now, the place where heat 

 and cold mingle Is just the one point 

 where they come together. Now, the 

 rays of the heat, as they leave the 

 frame, or brood nest, converge to- 

 wards the center and go right over 

 the brood nest or over the frame; the 

 current is greater and the next w^armer 

 air w^ill come to this, and it varies 

 in width. I have more than 400 eight- 

 frame hives and over 100 ten-frame 

 hives, and you take a large extracting 

 super with outside combs and you will 

 find in the ten-frame hive there is 

 fully three times the amount of un- 

 sealed honey that there is in the eight. 



Why? Because the outside cSmbs are 

 too far from the center of activity. 

 All it wants is just a man to compare 

 these methods for a little while and 

 you will not find but a very few who 

 will use a large hive in a cold climate. 

 No, sir, you will not. That is the point 

 exactly. 



Mr. Holterman, in closing the de- 

 bate, said: Mr. President, I have used 

 an eight-frame and used a twelve- 

 frame hive, and I know a good many 

 others who have, and it is very rarely 

 indeed you can get a man that has 

 used a small hive and has gone to the 

 large that will return to the small. 



As to this matter of ripening honey, 

 when bees are storing honey in 

 combs, it is necessary for the bees in 

 that hive to be in proportion to the 

 amount of honey which it stores, and 

 whether the hive is small or large 

 that proportion holds good. In fact, 

 the larger the number of bees in the 

 hive the less the contraction will be. 

 That must be sound reasoning. Then 

 we hear about the stagnation at night 

 with the fires, and that is compared to 

 the bees. We know when bees are 

 gathering honey there is no stagna- 

 tion at night in the hive. The center 

 of activity, as far as that 'goes, is the 

 whole hive. Each bee is doing its 

 work, each in its place, an3 as far as 

 that goes the whole hive is active and 

 will be active as long as the honey 

 flow remains. In the small hive the 

 bees are, in the way in which they 

 are run now, far more apt to swarm 

 because in each super that is added 

 to the other there is twelve instead of 

 eight combs there, and where the diflfi- 

 culty comes is that when the bees 

 swarm, whether it be eight or ten 

 frame hives, you will find a great deal 

 of uncapped honey and a great deal 

 that is not covered by the bees. In 

 the next place, by putting brood in 

 the super — I have spoken 'before of 

 the economy of production — you have 

 to watch those brood combs that you 

 put in those supers for queen cells, 

 and there is another cause and 

 another anxiety for the bee-keeper to 

 watch each one of these combs that 

 he puts in the super and see whether 

 the bees are going to put queen cells 

 in it or not. 



I don't know that I have anything- 

 more that I wish to say. There is a 

 good deal more that perhaps might 

 have been said. I have brought out 



