Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1895-03-15
IN THE APlAEY.
bees Store Most Honey In Large Recepta-
cles, Says an Expert.

WulOu COlOny Will bUOr0 tno more
surplus honey-the one provided with
one pound sections, or the one having
two pound sections? The foregoing que
ry was propounded in The American
Bee Journal, and the answers wero al
most unanimously in favor of the two
pound sections, although everybody
agreed that when it came to selling the
honey, it was much better to have it in
one pound sections To the farmer who
keeps but few colonies ard who wish
os to produce honey for his family use
the question of sale is but secondary,
and he desires, above all things, to get
as much product as possible from the
few colonies of bees that Ee keeps. 1t is
therefore important for him to know
whether there is really an advantage in
using large honey sections With view
to settling this matter are here appended
the opinions of that expert bee man,
Charles Dedant, as expressed in letter
to Prairie Farmer:
Bees in state of nature lodge them
selves in the hollows of trees. They store
honey III provision of future needs
Their instinct leads them to place the
honey at the upper part of their hive
above the brood and far from the en-
trance, so that, the cluster of bees being
placed between their stores and the en-
trance, they can better defend these
against intruders. They also want the
honey in place easily accessible dur
ing cold weather. and therefore as near
the brood nest as possible. When we
give our bees an empty box above their
breeding room, we act according to their
requirements, but when the box is cut
up into small compartments they readi-
ly perceive that some parts of this sur
plus room may become difficult of &C
cess to them during the cold weather,
and they work in them much more re-
luctantly.
The first step taken for the securing
of surplus honey, after the invention Of
the movable frame hive, was the inven-
ton of small box, glassed OH four
sides and holding about four pounds of
honey. The bees had access to this small
box through only one hole about an inch
i'll diameter. 1t was soon perceived that
there was less honey harvested in this
style of box than formerly in the old
wooden bucket plan, laid bottom side
up on top of the box hive. We used
these boxes for short time, but after
the invention of the extractor in 1867
we tried surplus cases of full size with
open frames right over the brood combs
and without any partition or honey
board. These frames were used for ex-
tracing The result was so much in ia
vor of the large frame that we soon dis
carded the glass boxes altogether. A lit
tie later on the honey section, holding
about pound, was invented and found
just the thing for the comb honey mar
ket. We tried these sections in broad
frames to hold them in the supers, and
we used them side by side with the long
extracting frames. The result was by
far i'll favor of the latter. and were it
not that the city trade demands honey
i'll small packages we dare the assertion
that no one would think of using any
thing else.
To show how evidently the bees prefer
long, open frame to small section
we will say that we tried both the long
frames and the frames containing four
sections each, side by side i'll hives,
placing the small sections in the center
over the brood nest. In every instance
the bees filled the large open frames first,
although they were placed in a less IA
vorable place. III a comparative test
between large and small sections the
result was similar, although the differ.
ence was not so plainly marked. This
shows that it is best to use long open
frames, or large sections, in the supers,
when the intention of the beekeeper is
to produce honey especially or exclusive
ly for his family's use. But if honey for
market is wanted one must either use
the one pound sections, which are the
only comb honey package of marketable
value, or he must use the long, open
frames with the honey extractor.