_Murfreesboro, Tenn._, Aug. 8, 1870.
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[For the American Bee Journal.]
That Shallow Form of Hive.
MR. EDITOR:--I see in the July number of the Bee Journal, page 9, that
Mr. C. Rogers is out on “the shallow Langstroth Hive.” Mr. R. and _my
old friend_ Gallup are the only persons that I now recollect of, who
complain of the shallow form of hive, when wintered in a house or
cellar. Mr. Rogers says it is not a “good” hive “for the six or eight
weeks between the winter and warm weather,” and leaves it thus, without
telling us why it is not. For my part, I cannot see what the shape of
the hive has to do with the loss of bees in early spring. All
bee-keepers say that the bleak winds at that season destroy a great many
bees, regardless of the kind of hive they may have been in. All the
proof Mr. Rogers gives that this form of hive is bad in early spring is,
that “he has sometimes _thought_ that his hives contained _less_ bees
after being out a month or two, than when first put out.” Well, suppose
it is so, is that the fault of the hive? Every experienced bee-keeper
knows that when bees in any form of hive are taken from their winter
quarters, there is a sudden decrease in numbers, from the simple fact
that many of them are old and ready to die at any hour from sheer old
age; but having been shut up all winter they live longer than they would
in the working season. Then, when taken from their winter quarters and
allowed to issue in the open air, many of them never return. But is this
the fault of the hive? My experience is that any form of hive, when
wintered in a cellar, will lose bees very rapidly when first set out;
much more so than a colony that has been wintered on its summer stand. I
can account for this in no other way, than that many of the bees have
lived to a good old age, and are ready to die soon; and a sudden change
in the weather being hard on them any how, weakens them in numbers very
fast.
The Langstroth hive could be made deeper very easily without Mr. R.’s
patchwork; but would it answer the purpose as well? I have found no
other hive from which I can get the same results, in surplus honey, as
from the “shallow” Langstroth. Last summer I tried the experiment with a
hive with only six inches depth of comb, adding one more frame (_eleven_
instead of _ten_.) The result was that I got some six pounds more honey
from that hive, than I did from the common Langstroth hive, sitting
within four feet of it and the two colonies as near alike in numbers as
I could get them. Without doubt the shallow form of hive is best for
surplus honey.
Now a few words about wintering bees in the Langstroth hive. Everything
considered, I think bees do somewhat better when wintered in a cellar,
provided they be arranged just right. But I have wintered bees very
successfully in the Langstroth hive, on their summer stands, in northern
Illinois and eastern Indiana. But young colonies that have new comb,
should be protected, if wintered on their summer stands.
I hope Mr. Rogers will explain the whys and wherefores, and tell us
wherein the Langstroth hive is lacking.