BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
The experiment was made on a large number of hives both with the deep brood-chambers and the Langstroth hives. With the former the matter was settled at once. The brood combs were altogether too large to be used in a super. There was too much darker of heavy combs breaking down, when full of honey, too much trouble in extracting. Besides, a deep super scensted to attract the queen, when a shallow super did not. With the Langstroth brood chambers, the objections to a deep copper story were not so flagrant; yet they appeared to us quite sufficient to condem it. There was often too much room at one time, so much so that a number of people who double the size of their brood-chamber, previous to the honey crop, often think it necessary to add the second story at the bottom, instead of the top. Then these combs were not so handy as those that we adopted at that time, for extracting combs, with the advice of Mr. Langstroth. Shallow frames, such as have been offered by dealers, are too shallow. Those that we use are of the right size to be uncapped at one stroke of the knife and yet they contain nearly 100 square inches of comb, or over two thirds of the capacity of a standard Langstroth brood-frame. Although we have often heard beekeepers say that they could not tolerate two different sizes of frames in their apiary, we find less objection to these extractingcombs than any one can find to the use of sections for combinoney.
The fact that bees prefer large combs in which to store their honey, instead of small boxes, has been also determined by beekeepers in many sections. In Texas, especially, many beekeepers produce what is called "bulk honey or chunk honey." honey in large combs which is cut out of the frames and marketed in tins, with a sufficient amount of extracted honey to fill the interstices between the cut combs. During a visit the writer made in Southern Texas, he was told that beekeepers could expectone third more honey from their bees, in large combs running the full length of the hive, than in small receptacles. This he believed readily, for the assertion was in agreement with his own experience. Aside from the reasons invoked by Oliver Foster, mentioned in a previous paragraph, regarding the habits of the bees, the long comb in the super is more easily reached by the workers, is more easily ventilated, and more homelike in every way. The colony morale--to use an expressive phrase originated by Geo. S. Demuth--the colony morale is enhanced by such supers, the
Figure 15: Comparison of Langstroth and Dadant extracting supers
bces work with more entrain and often yield much greater results.
An experiment made by us upon a number of supers, in which both bound sections and full length combs were used, left us not a shadow of doubt as to the bees' preference. Every practical bekceper knows that bees begin the storing of honey in the super in that part of it which is nearest to the brood, usually the center of the hive. Placing both full length combs and sections, supplied equally with comb foundation, together in supers, but with the sections in the most favorable part, nearest the brood, we saw the bees invariably begin their storing in the full length combs, although remoter from the brood, and they were fliled before the sections were fairly begun. Any experimenter can easily test this himself.
### Side Storage
In a former chapter, we mentioned very wide hives, with side storage, under what is now termed "the long idea" system. Such hives are used in a number of localities, but the very deep hives are better suited to this method. So the most persistent system of side storage is followed with the De Layens hive, containing as many as 20 or more frames, 12 or 13 inches deep or nearly square. The difficulty is that the queen is at liberty to roam from one comb to another and may have a little brood in most of the frames. Then the honey is difficult to extract. We even tried section boxes and storage boxes in the sides of those hives. The bees prefer to place their honey close to the brood and as much as possible above it. This side storage proved inacceptable, whether in frames or sections.
### Queen-Excluders
It is quite the custom for beekeepers to use queen-excluders between the brood apartment and the supers, whether running for extracted honey or for comb-honey. This is because the average bechive is too small in its brood-chamber to accomodate the average profile queen. She fills it and tries to go elsewhere. She will naturally go up, since the upper story is always warm. The bekeeper is then forced to use some method that will confine the queen within certain limits.
In these conditions, the queen-excluder comes into good service. It is composed of a frame provided with a sheet of perforated metal, with a bee-space above and below, and placed between the two stories. This perforated metal was, as far as we knew, first recommended by a Lorrainer cure, Collin, about the middle of the past century. The perforations are of such size that the worker bees can pass through them, but neither the queen nor the drones can get through, owing to the greater size of their corslet or thorax.
The first queen-excluders made were objectionable, constituting a very serious obstacle to the free passage of the bees and of ventilation. Ventilation is very important, as the bees, in the summer months, are very numerous in the hive. They need pure air as we do, and their great numbers increase the temperature of the hive to the danger point, unless they can force air up through the hive and out again, so as to keep the temperature below the danger point, or about blood heat.
Queen-excluders are now made, with wire spacing, which are much less objection
Figure 17: Modern excluders are better than the old, but are still in the way of the bees
able. Yet they are still an obstruction to the free passage of air and to the active travel of bees over the combs. Besides, they are expensive, easily put out of service, and are often glued by the bees in such fashion as to make their removal difficult. We do not use them, for these reasons and the following:
With the large, deep hives, it is rare to have the queen ascend into the upper story, unless she is seeking for drone-comb in which to lay and cannot find any in her brood apartment. But if there is no drone-comb in the upper story--and there need not be any if we have used comb-foundation, she will have no inducement to move to the upper story. If she goes there accidentally, she will go back to the lower story readily for the very reason, already mentioned, that a queen likes to lay eggs on large combs where the laying is not interrupted by the obstacles of top and bottom bars and bee-spaces.
It is well, however, to say to the reader that bees do nothing invariably and that there will be queens and occasions, even in large hives, when there will be brood reared in the upper story. But the quantity of this will be so limited that it will never be profitable to use queen-excluders. This again was tested by us on an extensive scale.
In the production of comb-honey, with small hives, on a commercial scale, the excluder is often necessary, for without it the queen may ascend into the comb-honey supers, lay eggs in a few of the cells and thus spoil the looks and the value of the honey for market. With our management, the production of extracted honey and large brood-chambers, we have but one term to describe the queen-excluder. It is a _nuisance_, rarely necessary with our system.
## Chapter 3 Drones and Drone Production
"The drone" wrote Butler, in 1609, "is a gross stingless bee, that spendeth his time in gluttony and idleness." After 300 years, we cannot find a better description. The drones are the male bees. They are reared in large numbers, in a state of nature, in every hive, because the young queens mate, out of the hive, on the wing, and it is necessary that each queen be enabled to promptly find a mate, in the air. In domesticity, or when colonies of bees are congregated in large numbers in a single spot, the drones produced by one or two colonies are ample for the one hundred young queens that may be produced; since each colony easily rears two or three thousand drones. The drone requires 25 days to change from the fresh laid egg to the perfect insect. He never visits the flowers, goes out only in the warm part of the day, to seek a mate, and comes home with a good appetite, to feed upon the stores gathered by the indefatigable workers.
There is quite a little prejudice in favor of the drones among a certain class of bee owners. They see the strongest colonies produce a large number of drones, then swarm, and they deduce from this that the drone, in some manner, is an influence of benefit to the colony. Some say they keep the brood warm; others think that they encourage the bees to greater activity; in short, they believe that, outside of his functions as male, the drone has a beneficial influence upon the success of the colony. They mistake the result for the cause. Bees rear many drones when they are prosperous, but they are not necessarily prosperous because they rear many drones. Similarly, if we meet a man with a flock coat and a silk hat, we may conclude that he is wealthy, but we must not ascribe the cause of his wealth to the wearing of expensive garments. We take it to be a result instead.
This matter of drone production and of their possible usefulness was thoroughly tested by us. Selecting our bestproducing coloris, we supplied their hives with a plentiful amount of drone-combs, so that the queens that we would rear would be sure to mate with good sires. On the other hand, we deprived colonies from which we did not desire males, from the possibilities of producing a large number of drones. This was readily achieved by removing from those colonies all the drone-combs that we could find and replacing them with worker' combs. Had we not replaced them with worker' combs, the bees would have rebuilt them with drone-combs, as they did, in fact, wherever we neglected to do this. Bees prefer to build drone-combs because the cells are larger and require less material and less time, than worker-combs, so unless the queen desires worker-combs in which to lay, and she usually appears to make her desire known to them, they will usually rebuild the drone-combs that we remove, in the same kind. There are always some drone-cells, here and there, and, in the very best managed hive, the bees will probably rear from 200 to 300 seconds.
Figure 18: Comb built without foundation or with only a smil starter. It is practically all drone comb
drones. But so small a number is not objectionable. It is the rearir g of thousands which is expensive and worse than useless.
It is perhaps necessary to give consideration, in this chapter, to the statement above mentioned, and made by superficial observers, that the drones are useful in keeping the brood warm. This belief was so common that in the old days, French beepers often called the drones by the name of "couveuses" (setters); comparing them to the setting hens of the poultry yard. But alas, the drones are reared at great expense by the bees, at the beginning of the season, at a time when the workers could more profitably nurse other worker-bees. When the drones are hatched and begin to suggest to us the possibility of their usefulness in that way, if a cold spell of weather comes, cutting off the honey supply, the bees begin to drive them away, exterminating them without mercy. With the return of warm weather, they again rear a horde of those useless beings, nursing them and coddling them, until the end of the harvest points to them the necessity of again ridding their home of these "idle gluttons."
So it is very clear to us, as it must be to any impartial observer, that the prevention of drone production, in hives from which we do not wish to breed, is in the line of progress. We therefore make it a rule to examine colonies in early spring, and exchange their drone-combs for comb of worker cells. Comb-foundation is not quite so safe; as we have seen, in rare instances it is true, the bees build drone-cells over a worker cell foundation. We have been told that bees will even tear down worker-cells to build drone-cells in their place. This we do not believe, for we have made the experiment of furnishing a natural swarm with a hive full of drone comb and found that the bees were incapable of grasping the possibility of tearing it down to secure worker-cells. They slowly and reluctantly narrowed the mouth of the cells to the dimension of worker-cells and the queen laid worker-eggs in them. There is no more probability of their changing worker into drone cells than the reverse. This experiment was also tried by three leading apiarists of Europe with the same result. They were Messrs. Drory of Bordeaux, Cowan of London and Bruennich of Switzerland. The results which they obtained confirmed our own.
Although it is difficult to put in figures the economy in honey secured by preventing the bees of a colony from rearing 2,000 or more drones, the attentive student will readily grasp the advantage of the system. Two thousand drones take as much room in the breeding cells as 3,000 workers. Thirty-six drones are raised in a square inch of comb, while the same space will accommodate 55 workers. The amount of food required is similarly larger. But it is after they are hatched as full-fledged insects that the difference in results looms up. The 3,000 workers will be an army of active producers, while the 2,000 gross gluttons, staying home most of the time, get in the way of the workers during the best and most important part of the honey-producing day, from 10 to 4 o'clock.
It is true that we are not always sure of securing 3,000 workers in place of 2,000 drones, for the queen may not lay so actively when she becomes tired; but the economy will show itself so plainly that the beekeeper who tries our method of doing away with drone-comb will never regret it. In fact we believe that the saving in honey, from the prevention of undesired drone production, will be sufficient to pay for a new set of combs every three years.
Many apiarists have noticed the objectionable features of over-production of drones. But they have employed, to do away with them, means that were worse than the evil of the presence of the drones. Drone-traps, which every dealer in bee-supplies finds himself compelled to keep for sale, because they are in demand among the ill-informed, are worse than useless. They hinder the bees in their flight, the drones crowd in them and stop the ventilation, the beckeeper is compelled to examine them daily to remove the dead drones, and after all they only do away with the mature drones, when the bees have gone to the expense of rearing them.
Figure 19: The drone trap should not be used except in rare instances
Other beekeepers make it a practice to behead the drones when in the cells, before they are emerged. The sealed drone-cells have the peculiar rounded appearance of a revolver bullet in the shell, so they are easily seen. But when we cut off the heads of this brood, we give the bees the unpleasant task of throwing out of the hive all this dead brood, which they pull out of the cells with a great deal of labor. Then, as soon as those cells have been emptied and burnished, there is good chance for the queen to refill them, with the same number of drones, at additional cost to the bees, doubling the work and the expense.
It is therefore very important, and we urge it upon the beekeeper who wishes to succeed, to remove all drone-comb from every colony except those selected by him as breeders. replacing all this drone-comb at once with worker-combs.
## Chapter 4 The Dadant Hive
In describing the hive which we have been using for years, we will first give it in all its details. We will then show the details which may be dispensed with, in the use of as simple a brood-chamber as it is possible to have while carrying on an extensive honey production.
AA, cross-pieces to support the bottom, 18x2x2. B, bottom, 25x17xx 5$. C, apron, 10x17j$x 5$. DD, front and rear of the hive, 16j$x12j$x 5$. E, entrance, 8x5$. F, double board nailed at the rear, 18j$x13x 5$. GG, square slats to support the cover. H, lath, 1j$x13$, to widen the top edge of the front board. I, top bar of frame, 20j$x1$y 8 wide x 5$ thick. JJJJJ, rabets 1j$ wide x 5$ high, dug in front and rear boards, and furnished with sheets of iron 3j$ inches wide, or metal spacers projecting 1j$ of an inch, on which the frame-shoulders are supported. If the grooves are not provided with these, their size should be 3j$x3$.
KKKK, shows how the uprights NN of the frames are nailed to
Figure 20: Detailed cross-section of the original Dadant hivethe top bar. M, bottom bar of the frame, 17-78x12x7s. NN, sides of the frame, 1114x56x7s. PP, front and rear of the cap, 1812x9x7s. RR, front and rear of the surplus-box, 1612x634x7s. T, empty space on top of the surplus-box, 114 for the cloth and mat. U, top bar of the surplus-frame, same as top-bar I. V, bottom bar of the surplus frame, same as M. YY, sides of the surplus frames, 6x14x7s.
The space between M and B is about 12 inch; between DN, ND, VI, RY, YR, should be 14 to 3s of an inch. Hives of every size can be constructed on this diagram, with the only caution to preserve the spaces of the width indicated. Both top bars are grooved on the under side for foundation and wedge.
The hive body is made with a projection or rablet, cut into the two side boards, at the bottom, to fit down on each side of
Figure 21: Details of undersicle of Dadant hive
the bottom board. The rear is double. The inner rear board fits down upon the bottom while the outer board drops down behind it. This effectually encases the bottom on 3 sides. The purpose of this is to prevent cold air, moisture, moths, robbers, &c., more effectively than with the ordinary bottom.
A wire guide, at the center, near the bottom board, keeps the frames apart. It is more needed in a hive of this depth than with the depth of the ordinary Langstroth hive, but it could be dispensed with, especially with self-spacing frames.
The frame guides, at the point where the frame shoulders rest, in the upper rabets at both ends, were not used by us
Figure 22: Dadant hive open; \(a\), body; \(b\), alighting board; \(c\), entrance block; \(d\), cap; \(e\), straw mat; \(f\), oil cloth; \(g\), frame of foundation
until we found it necessary to employ inexperienced men in our apiary work. Many old practical beekeepers still dispense with the guides. We have never liked the self-spacing frames. We made a large number of them, in the early days, similar to the Hoffman frames, but their projections were finally all whittled off by us, to secure loose hanging frames. The only advantage we can see to the Hoffman frame is the possibility of handling several of them in one handful. But we never open hives unless we wish to manipulate them and we then prefer to handle each frame separately.
More or less bees are crushed in the joints of self-spacing frames, and where a great deal of propolis is stored by the bees they sometimes stick together unsatisfactorily.
We made the bottom boards with the grain of the wood running lengthwise of the hive. We have also made them with the grain crosswise. We prefer the latter way.
The blocks, upon which the hive bottom is nailed, are useful in keeping the hive up from the earth. When we use cement stands, the blocks are not needed, as pieces \(\hat{7}\)\(\hat{8}\) of an inch are sufficient. The latter make the hive less cumbrous and lighter. When colonies are taken to the low lands for fall flowers, as sometimes practiced by us, the lighter bottom boards are more convenient. In such cases, some sorts of blocks are used, sometimes only stovewood blocks, to keep the hive bottom up from the ground.
The double back of the hive is for the purpose of protecting the colony better against cold. We aim to face the hives south as nearly as possible, since the north side is always the coldest. The double rear wall on the north, and the division board on the west, we believe to be very efficient in protecting the colony against cold.
The telescoping cover, reaching down \(\hat{3}\)\(\hat{4}\) of an inch all around the body, and resting on a rim, was adapted from Langstroh's original ideas, as shown in figures, 9, 13, &c., of his original work. The greatest advantage of this telescoping cap is the ability to cover the upper edge of the brood chamber, in an efficient manner. After a few scasons' use of hives, the upper edges of the brood chamber and the lower edges of the supers become rounded and worn so that it is often difficult to prevent robber-bees from securing a passage through the gaping joints. The telescope cap entirely prevents this, is also efficient in covering feeders, placed over the combs of the brood nest, and makes an excellent chaff compartment for winter-packing material over the brood-nest.
A \(\chi_{4}^{\prime}\) inch slat is used at the upper edge of the hive front, to widen the projecting edge next to the rabbet. This may seem a very unnecessary contrivance. Yet it is very useful, as it helps us to fit cloths, straw mats, supers, &c., more readily without leaving a smelling place for inquisitive neighbor bees. Those who have kept bees for 25 years or more in the same hives know how annoying the lack of adjustment sometimes is, owing to wear and tear, and to the use of the hive tool in prying apart the stories.
The division board is sometimes called a "dummy." Yet there is a great difference between the two. A dummy is only a board shaped like one of the frames, and of the same size. It fills the place of a frame, but does not conserve heat
any better than the frame of empty comb. Our division board is closed at both ends, with a rounding piece of oil cloth, tacked on it. It effectually prevents the circulation of air on the ends. Of course, if we were to make it of the exact length of the inside of the hive, we would have great trouble in moving it when
Figure 23: The division board of the Dadant hive
necessary, because the bees would glue it fast. But with the soft cloth on both ends, it is moved without jar and without trouble. We remove it temporarily when we need room to handle the frames, in searching for a queen, for brood, &c. It is also moved up to the number of combs actually occupied by bees and honey, when a small colony inhabits the hive. The reader will bear in mind that the hive is made for 10 frames and a division board, while an ordinary Langstroth 8-frame hive, when full, has less capacity than 6 frames of the Dadant hive. We may therefore have occasion to winter a small colony on 6 frames, filling the space behind our division board with forest leaves, or other warm material, and our colony will be more compact and will stand a better chance of wintering safely than the colonies in 8-frame Langstroth hives.
The division board, however, is not made to touch the bottom of the hive, but a bee space is left under it. Our reason for this is that, often, bees have found themselves imprisoned behind a full depth board. Also, in manipulations, it is inadvisable to use a board which may crush bees when put down in place. Our board does not crush any bees and yet serves the purpose of confining the heat of the cluster. Since heat rises, there is but little deperdition of it at the bottom. Not so, with the dummy, which is open on both ends and serves very little purpose. The top slat, or top bar, of this division board, is made of exactly the same size and thickness as the top bar of a frame. It fits in the same rabbet and is not in the way of the supers.
The oilcloth over the combs has proven very superior to honey boards, as the bees cannot glue it fast as they do a board. When we remove a honey board from the top of a brood, there is a common and a jar, for it is always glued. In cool weather, the removal of such a board sets the entire colony in an uproar, as a kick from the operator might do. A cloth is pulled gently from the top of the frame and "peels off" just as far as wanted, without any jar and without exciting the bees.