184 



EIGHTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



Mr. Hill — Mr. Holterman, do you 

 raise the combs practically, or depend 

 on the largeness of your hive for j^our 

 brood chamber? The point I am get- 

 ting at is this, I have a hive of my 

 own that I built on the theorj^ that a 

 colony wanted the size. It is flat 

 shaped and it is square. Now, it is 

 not quite large enough. I raise the 

 combs, but there is this thing I do 

 not like about it, as that lady pretty 

 nearly struck it just now, that when 

 I come to extract I raise them, and 

 those comtos are filled with dandelion, 

 soft maple and everything of that 

 kind in the spring, a quality of honey 

 I don't want in my clover honey. 

 Consequently when I come to extract 

 I mark these hives and as soon as the 

 clover begins I extract these. What I 

 want to know is if Mr. Holterman's 

 large hive will prevent the necessity 

 of raising those combs, and if it does 

 that is a point in favor of his ihive. I 

 would also like Mr. Chapman to 

 please explain to us what he does with 

 his clover honey when he has to raise 

 brood? 



Mr. Chapman — I have already ex- 

 plained that question, ' I do not want 

 a pound of old honey left in the hive 

 at the beginning of the honey flow. I 

 am speaking of this old honey in the 

 combs. It becomes a nuisance; we 

 don't want to carry it over from year 

 to year. I do not raise up comt)s with 

 honey in. 



Mr. Hill — How do you get it out? 



Mr. Chaipman — There isn't much in 

 it. 



Mr. Holterman — Bight-frame hi\-'es. 



Mr. Morrison — I recollect about fif- 

 teen or sixteen years ago this discus- 

 sion would never have happened. Ev- 

 erybody had eigiht-frame hives. The 

 ten-frame hive was an exception. 

 Now, I think the tide has turned al- 

 together. I think the ten-frame hive 

 has the floor, and it wouldn't surprise 

 me if the twelve-frame would go be- 

 yond it. I went experimenting my- 

 self. I went on the idea that I got 

 from reading Mr. I>adant's •book. I 

 fixed up twelve frames the feest way I 

 could, and that was tlhe first time I 

 tried twelve frames. I made a hive of 

 my own and in three weeks' time I 

 took from that hive 120 fancy sec- 

 tions. I don't know how many sec- 

 tions I had, but I know I had that 

 many, and I can corroborate what Mr. 

 Holterman says, that every one of my 



twelve frames were solid, full of 

 ibrood. For comb honey the argument 

 has always 'been that you must use a 

 small hive. Anyone here can try that 

 and give it a fair trial if they like. I 

 went to work and fixed a tub and put 

 the bees in, and I put the first siwarm 

 in it, and in the fall I chased these 

 bees out. They didn't have more than 

 a handful of brood when I brought 

 them out of the tub, and I took 220 

 pounds of extracted honey from that 

 tub, and that convinced me that a 

 large brood chamber was the thing. 



The idea has prevailed that a queen 

 will lay about 3,000 egg=; a day, but I 

 believe with Mr. Dadant that we can 

 double that in many cases, that is, a 

 queen will lay 6,000 eggs a day. 



Mr. Chapman — I have 'been reading 

 in the "American Bee Journal" w-here 

 one man over in Canada using just a 

 common eig'ht-frame hive has taken 

 41S pounds of extracted honey from 

 that hive. If there is a man in this 

 house who can slhow ' anything like 

 that with a large hive, let him stand 

 up. 



Mr. Byer — Pardon me, that was 

 practically a twelve-frame hive; that 

 man added a super to it. 



Mr. Holterman — Answering Mr. Hill's 

 question I would say that there is a 

 great objection to raising brood up into 

 the super; there is more or less of the 

 old honey and many a ton of honey 

 has been ruined by a few pounds of 

 dark spring honey that has laeen put 

 into the super. You may say you can 

 extract it, 'but it is a somewhat diffi- 

 cult thing to do. I avoid putting brood 

 in the super, and the way I do, if I 

 have weaker colonies, after the twelve^ 

 frame is occupied as a brood chamber 

 and they begin to build cups, which, 

 after drone production, is the next 

 stage towards swarming, I take the 

 combs of the hatching brood lOut of 

 those twelve frames and put them into 

 the ones nearly full and so build up 

 the next strongest colony, and I avoid 

 in every way putting combs into the 

 super. Mr. Chapman has opractically 

 admitted that that connot he done, not 

 to have old honey in the hive (because 

 you have got to prepare for these dif- 

 ferent seasons. 



Mr. Hershiser — I object a little to 

 such heavy Obligations being imposed 

 upon queens. I don't believe any queen 

 will lay 6,000 eggs a day and keep it 

 up for any length of time. If they 



