CONTRACTION 
253 
above into the supers. To force them 
above, some beekeepers took out three or 
four of the brood-frames below and con¬ 
tracted the brood-nest and then placed su¬ 
pers on top. This was very pretty in the¬ 
ory, and in practice it did force things. It 
forced the bees into the supers, but more 
often forced swarming. 
Another set of contractionists argued in 
favor of hiving swarms in a contracted 
brood-chamber. They did not believe in 
contracting tbe brood-nest in an established 
colony; and, therefore, when they con¬ 
tracted at all they did so only during 
swarming time. This form of contraction 
is certainly better than the other; but, as 
the years go by, less and less is heard about 
contraction and more and more about ex¬ 
pansion—how to get stocks strong—big, 
rousing, powerful colonies. ( See Hives, 
Comb Honey, to Produce; also Building 
up Colonies.) An eight-frame brood-nest 
is usually small enough. Indeed, a ten- 
frame may be none too big. See Hives, 
Dimensions of, elsewhere, for the further 
consideration of this subject. 
For contraction during the winter see 
Wintering Outdoors. 
EXCESSIVE CONTRACTION AND HOW IT MADE 
POOR SEASONS IN THE 80 ; S. 
In his early experiments Langstroth 
found that the stoi’age of too much honey 
in the brood-chamber previous to the be¬ 
ginning of work in the boxes could be 
greatly reduced by the use of a shallow 
hive, and in adopting the particular depth 
of the Langstroth hive he was greatly in- 
tluenced by this fact. In effect the shallow 
hive cuts off the honey at the top and per¬ 
mits placing the boxes down close to the 
brood, which is so important in inducing 
the bees to begin work in the boxes. 
Langstroth built his hive to hold 10 
frames and considered this to be the best 
size for the production of honey in the 6 
to 10 pound boxes which were the “supers” 
of that time. 
In using the Langstroth hive to produce 
honey in sections, beekeepers soon learned 
that better results could be secured from 
the weaker oologies by removing any combs 
not well filled with brood at the beginning 
of the honey flow and filling the vacant 
space with wide frames, each holding eight 
sections, or with thick division-boards, 
which came to be known as “dummies.” 
Later, the wide frames and side storing 
were abandoned and dummies became a 
part of the regular equipment for comb- 
honey production. 
REDUCTION IN THE SIZE OF THE BROOD- 
CHAMBER. 
Since the majority of colonies usually 
have some combs not filled with brood at 
the beginning of the honey flow, many bee¬ 
keepers in the 80’s reduced the size of the 
hive, cutting it down to eight frames, in 
order to make sure that most of the colo¬ 
nies would have their brood-chambers full 
of brood at the beginning of the honey 
flow. In this case, if any colonies should 
become crowded for room before the main 
honey flow, a comb of emerging brood 
could be exchanged with an empty comb 
from some colony with less than eight 
frames of brood. In other words, these 
beekeepers reasoned that better results 
could be secured thru a series of years by 
using a brood-chamber which averaged a 
little too small instead of one averaging a 
little too large. 
These problems were discussed freely in 
the bee journals from 1885 to 1890, at 
which time the eight-frame hive had prac¬ 
tically become the standard hive in this 
country. It should be remembered that at 
this time comb honey was being produced 
by a great majority of beekeepers. 
Later, howevei’, it was found that the 
advantage of the eight-frame hives was be¬ 
ing lost, for after a few years they in turn 
were not well filled with brood at the be¬ 
ginning of the honey flow. Within a few 
years beekeepers were reporting the same 
difficulties with the eight-frame hive that 
they formerly had experienced with the 
ten-frame hive. Instead of recognizing the 
cause of the smaller colonies being in the 
reduced capacity of the brood-chamber, 
with its attendant danger of a shortage of 
honey at the most critical periods, many 
beekeepers sought a remedy in a further 
reduction in the size of the brood-chamber. 
The dummies of the days of the 10-frame 
hive were again brought into use, and the 
“contraction” of the brood-chamber was 
advocated by most comb-honey producers. 
