42 DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 



for the supers of our large and populous hives. We therefore 

 made supers that would supply frames with a 6^ inch side bar, 

 6^ in the clear. These combs are easily uncapped at a single 

 stroke of the knife. Deeper frames are less convenient and 

 shallower ones insufficient. Later, some manufacturers made 

 supers with 5^" frames. We prefer our size. It contains about 

 ^ of the quantity of honey contained in a standard Langstroth 

 frame, is much more easy to handle, is uncapped in a single 

 stroke of the knife and runs much less risk of broken combs, 

 when the honey is fresh, the comb new and the weather hot. 



For the supers, the spacing of frames is still greater than for 

 the brood combs. Most of our extracting supers contain 9 

 frames only, spaced about 1^ inches from center to center. 

 New frames containing comb foundation are first spaced only 

 1/^ inches, as the wider spacing would cause the building of 

 too heavy a comb of honey which would be frail, when new, 

 for handling and extracting. But after the first extracting, such 

 combs are strengthened by the bees and may then be spaced 9 to 

 a super of 16 inches in width. The 1^ spacing gives us the con- 

 venience of thicker combs of honey and less of them to uncap, 

 thus producing more honey with a minimum of combs to handle. 



It is well to state here why we make our super only 16 

 inches wide inside, while the brood chamber is a half inch 

 wider. It is for the purpose of fitting the cover or cap more 

 easily over the supers. The half inch space adds to the conven- 

 ience. 



As to the slogan "Only one size of frame in an apiary," 

 so popular among bee men, we do not think it concerns the 

 supers. It is no more trouble to have full stories for brood 

 and half stories for honey than to have brood frames below and 

 comb-honey sections above. A number of noted apiarists of 

 the special honey-producing sections of the north agree with 

 us fully in this. So will the beekeeper who gives the matter a 

 fair trial. 



A Simplified Dadant Hive 



First of all, in giving the possibilities of our system with 

 simplified hives, we agree that it would have been best, in adopt- 



