DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 23 



experience. The experience must also be secured on a sufficient 

 scale to make it proof against possible exceptions. The testing 

 of this matter on hundreds of hives, in separate apiaries, treated 

 in similar manner, leaves but little room for doubt of the cor- 

 rectness of the theory. On half a dozen hives, other conditions 

 might change the result. 



The spacing of combs, the wider way, has also some in- 

 fluence upon the question of swarming. This will be treated 

 in another chapter. 



The Supers 



The proper supers to use in beekeeping depend upon 

 the kind of honey that we propose to produce. If we are to 

 run our apiaries for comb-honey, we must have it stored by 

 the bees in a way that will enable us to sell it in the most satis- 

 factory and profitable manner. 



When we began beekeeping on a large scale, the little 

 section, made of basswood folded and containing a pound of 

 honey or less, had not yet made its appearance. But sections 

 made of wood, holding from 2 to 4 pounds, had already been pro- 

 duced. Much of the honey was also secured in boxes, the average 

 of them being made of light wood, with one or more sides of glass 

 and of a size to hold 6 pounds, more or less. One or more 

 holes, an inch in diameter at the bottom of such a box, allowed 

 the bees to enter, but did not provide for sufficient ventilation. 

 So the supers used at that date were designed to prevent, rather 

 than encourage the storing of honey. 



In producing large crops, we found the bees hostile to 

 small compartments. They would place hundreds of pounds 

 of honey in those large Quinby frames, if available, while they 

 very reluctantly stored a few pounds in small receptacles. 



Other beekeepers have found the same thing. Oliver 

 Foster, years ago, wrote: 



"When we take into consideration that the object, on the part of 

 the bees, in storing up honey in summer, is to have it accessible for winter 

 consumption, and that, in winter, the bees collect in a round ball, as 

 nearly as possible, in a semi-torpid state, with but little motion, except 

 that gradual moving of bees from- the center to the surface and from 



