ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



181 



the best I know of just now, and I 

 think I will not take up any more 

 time. 



Mr. Ahlers — I would like Mr. Holter- 

 man to tell us how much crop he had 

 or how much per colony, and from 

 what source? 



Mr. Holterman — We have been told 

 about what is the difference between 

 one hive and another on the scales. 

 Always let us remember that in deal- 

 ing with bees we are Jealing with 

 living things, and when we treat col- 

 onies exactly alike as far as we know, 

 and when we have judged all the con- 

 ditions we know of, even then we find 

 a great difference in what they will 

 do and therefore it is a very difficult 

 thing for us to say that because of 

 one certain thing we know therefore 

 the difference was caused by that, 

 and for me or Mr. Chapman to state 

 what has been asked, with all due 

 respect to the one who asked the ques- 

 tion, I don't see how it would help or 

 be of any value, and it would be for- 

 eign to the debate, I think. 



Dr. Bohrer — In 1864 I made a six- 

 teen or eighteen frame Langstroth 

 hive, I don't remember which; I found 

 Avhen I had a prolific queen in that 

 hive she would fill it with brood with- 

 in two frames of the outside every 

 time; and in a larger hive than an 

 eight frame a great deal will depend, 

 judging by that, upon the prolific qual- 

 ities of your queen. If you have a 

 poor queen you are not going to have 

 many bees. If you haven't got many 

 bees you are not going to get much 

 honey. In my own apiary in Kansas, 

 for curiosity as mucb as anything 

 else, I got a few eight-frame hives to 

 start with, the balance are all ten. I 

 have emptied an eight-frame body on 

 top, and I have done the same with 

 a ten-frame body, and they would both 

 be re-filled about the same time, so 

 that in that case I was getting the 

 most "honey from the ten-frame hive, 

 and that agrees with my experience 

 all the way through from start to fin- 

 isTi. Good queens lead in all cases so 

 far as quality is concerned. As to 

 the wintering qualities of different 

 hives, I don't find very much differ- 

 ence. "With a good queen healing a 

 colony in a ten-frame hive I find they 

 do not consume any more honey in 

 proportion to their numbers than in 

 a small hive. Something may depend 

 in either case upon where you winter 

 them. Our cellars are dry and dusty 



all winter so that we do not have a 

 great deal of honey consumed in 

 either. So far as the clustering of the 

 colony is concerned, one of the gen- 

 tlemen said that a colony in a ten- 

 frame hive would cluster in a smaller 

 space than in an eight-frame. That 

 depends, my friend, entirely upon the 

 pumber of bees in the hive. With a 

 prolific queen in a ten-frame hive, that 

 is, one prolific in proportion to the 

 space she has to occupy and populate, 

 you will get the most bees in a ten- 

 frame liive, ani they will consume 

 comparatively little more than in an 

 eight-frame hive wintered on the same 

 amount. 



Mr. Aspinwall — It occurs to me 

 there is one matter we have left out 

 of this discussion, and that is the 

 length of the honey fiow. With a long 

 protracted flow we need a larger 

 brood nest to make up for the wear 

 and tear and loss of the bees by age 

 also. With an eight-frame hive we 

 are getting plenty of brood that will 

 last through a short flow, and Mr. 

 Chapman is right for his district. The 

 flow does not last more than the life- 

 time of a bee. What is the use dur- 

 ing that time ©f feeding a lot of 

 brood? With Mr. Holterman's district 

 where buckwheat follows clover the 

 twelve-frame is necessary to provide 

 the increased supply of bees for that 

 long period, and that is just why there 

 is a difference of opinion in reference 

 to these hives. One locality needs 

 the 'hive of -bees to be replenished for 

 a successive yield in honey. But 

 where we are, with white clover being 

 the only yield, I want to limit mine to 

 seven combs while the honey fiow is 

 on. I want ten and twelve filled with 

 brood up to the time I put my supers 

 on. I want to reduce them and make 

 that force work for me the rest of the 

 time. 



Mr. Moore — Mr. Chairman, there is 

 one point that I believe has not been 

 brought out in this discussion; it is 

 this, that the large hive has the ad- 

 vantage in manipulation. Now, at 

 this season of the year when we are 

 fixing the bees for winter to see they 

 are in condition we find hives that are 

 built where the combs are solid from 

 one side to the other. I have a lot of 

 side opening hives, and you know how 

 quickly you can get the first frame 

 out of that side opening. Now, if the 

 hive was a little larger so that you 

 could have a division board in, how 



