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The Dadant System 
 of Beekeeping 
 
Copyright, 1920, 
 By C. P. Dadant 
 
tJSPP- 
 
 Charles Dadant 
 
Dadant System of 
 Beekeeping 
 
 BY 
 
 C. P. DADANT 
 
 EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN REE JOURNAL, 
 REVISER OF "THE HONEY REE," AUTHOR 
 OF "FIRST LESSONS IN REEKEEPING," ETC. 
 
 *3r 
 
 AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 
 HAMILTON, ILLINOIS 
 
 1920 
 
Chapter 1 
 
 Chapter 
 
 Chapter 3. 
 
 Chapter 4. 
 
 Chapter 5. 
 
 Chapter 6. 
 
 Chapter 7. 
 
 Chapter S. 
 
 Chapter 9. 
 
 Chapter 10. 
 Chapter 11. 
 Chapter 12. 
 
 Chapter 13. 
 Chapter 14. 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 : . Page 
 
 Early experiments — Natural History. 1 
 
 The Queen 5 
 
 The worker-bee 6 
 
 Size of Hives. 9 
 
 The large hive 10 
 
 Small hives 14 
 
 Safety in wintering 20 
 
 Frame spacing 21 
 
 The supers 23 
 
 Side storage 26 
 
 Queen excluders 26 
 
 Drones and Drone Production. 29 
 
 The Dadant Hive 35 
 
 A simplified Dadant hive 42 
 
 Hive making - 46 
 
 Handling Bees. 47 
 
 Our Apiaries. 49 
 
 Outapiaries 52 
 
 Apiary Management. 55 
 
 Spring 56 
 
 The honey crop 57 
 
 Increase 57 
 
 Queens for increase 58 
 
 Swarm Prevention and Supering. 65 
 
 Prevention of natural swarming 65 
 
 Putting on supers 72 
 
 Extracting. 75 
 
 Extracting implements 80 
 
 Robbing...- S5 
 
 Varying honey crops 87 
 
 Requeening 88 
 
 Queen Introduction 89 
 
 Nomadic Beekeeping. 91 
 
 Fall Management. 97 
 
 Wintering. 99 
 
 Cellar wintering 100 
 
 Our house cellar 101 
 
 Wintering in clamps 102 
 
 Wintering out-of-doors 102 
 
 Diseases of Bees. 107 
 
 Enemies of Bees. 113 
 

 l£^ 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Charles Dadant Frontispiece 
 
 Moses Quinby Fig. 1 
 
 L. L. Langstroth, inventor of the movable frame hive Fig. 2 
 
 C. P. Dadant, sons and son-in-law Fig. 3 
 
 Head of Queen Fig. 4 
 
 I [ead of worker Fig. 5 
 
 Frames of Langstroth and Dadant-Quinby size Fig. 6 
 
 Twenty-frame Dadant hive tried by Charles Dadant Fig. 7 
 
 Coffin-shaped frames tried by the senior Dadant Fig. 8 
 
 Eight-frame Langstroth and Dadant hive side by side Fig. 9 
 
 Several stories of eight-frame hives make too tall a pile Fig. 10 
 
 Shallow brood-chambers, same depth as supers Fig. 1 1 
 
 Ekes or nadirs of by-gone days Fig. 12 
 
 The DeLayens long idea hive Fig. 13 
 
 A regularly laid and well filled comb of worker brood Fig. 14 
 
 Comparison of Langstroth and Dadant Supers Fig. 15 
 
 Queen excluders exclude ventilation and free access to supers Fig. 16 
 
 Modern excluders are better than the old, but are still in the way 
 
 of the bees - -Fig. 17 
 
 Comb built without foundation or with only a small starter Fig. 18 
 
 The drone trap should not be used except in rare instances Fig. 19 
 
 Detailed cross-section of original Dadant hive Fig. 20 
 
 Details of underside of Dadant hive Fig. 21 
 
 Dadant hive open Fig. 22 
 
 The division board of the Dadant hive Fig. 23 
 
 The story and a half Modified Dadant hive Fig. 24 
 
 Frames of the Modified Dadant hive are the same length as 
 
 those of Langstroth hive Fig. 25 
 
 The Modified Dadant hive has a 40 per cent larger brood comb area 
 
 than the 10-frame Langstroth Fig. 26 
 
 The Modified Dadant hive is equipped with metal cover and re- 
 versible bottom Fig. 27 
 
 The body is dovetailed and has 1 1 Hoffman frames Fig. 28 
 
 The regular Langstroth body may be used as a super Fig. 29 
 
 Home apiary, where we kept bees over 55 years Fig. 30 
 
 A Dadant outyard. The Poland apiary Fig. 31 
 
 Another Dadant outyard, the Holland apiary Fig. 32 
 
 The LeMaire apiary of the Dadant outyard system Fig. 33 
 
 The Milliken outyard of the Dadant system Fig. 34 
 
 The Koch apiary of the Dadant system Fig. 35 
 
 Another Dadant outapiary on the edge of the bluff Fig. 36 
 
 ix 
 
x ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Queen cells hang downward Fig. 37 
 
 A small colony is confined to such space as it can cover, by use of the 
 
 division board Fig. 38 
 
 Supers set back for ventilation in hot weather Fig. 39 
 
 The bee-escape board lends itself to modern honey production Fig. 40 
 
 Using mud to close gap between stories by hive tool Fig. 41 
 
 Method of lifting supers to put on escape board Fig. 42 
 
 First honey-extractor of Hruschka Fig. 43 
 
 The first extractor made in the United States Fig. 44 
 
 Uncapping at a single stroke of the knife Fig. 45 
 
 Robber cloth and pan protect supers from robbers duringextracting..Fig. 46 
 
 The original cappingcan is still in usa in the Dadant apiaries Fig. 47 
 
 Supers returned to the hives after the last extracting of the year Fig. 48 
 
 Super combs which have been in use over fifty years, and are fully 
 
 as good as at first Fig. 49 
 
 The Mississippi bottoms viewed from the Koch apiary on the bluff -Fig. 50 
 
 Chart of the Dadant apiaries in 1880 Fig. 51 
 
 Map of the Dadant apiaries in 1919 Fig. 52 
 
 Moving bees on auto trucks. Fig. 53 
 
 Closing brood-chambers with screens for hauling in hot weather Fig. 54 
 
 Hives packed for winter out-of-doors ...Fig. 55 
 
 A three-colony winter-case Fig. 56 
 
 Gas torch for singeing hives that have contained American foul- 
 brood Fig. 57 
 
 Low, moist, rich bottom land that is good fcr honey production Fig. 58 
 
The Dadant System of 
 Beekeeping 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Early Experiments.— Natural History 
 
 In writing a book, it is customary to begin with a pre- 
 face, which very few people read. We want the student to read 
 
 Moses Quixby 
 Originator of the frame which the Dadants adopted. 
 
 this as well as the rest of the book, in order to secure an idea of 
 the "why" of the system that the writer develops in the en- 
 suing pages. 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPIXd 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 . . 
 
 
 jf - 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 & 
 
 L. L. Langstroth 
 The inventor of the movable-frame hive 
 
 The senior Dadant, Charles Dadant, emigrated to America 
 from France in 1863. He had kept bees as a pastime in Europe. 
 He was very fond of bees, ever since his youth and had already 
 experimented on different styles cf bee hives. In the early issues 
 of the American Bee Journal, especially in Volume III, in 
 1868, he told his beginnings in apiculture. 
 
 In 1864, located upon a small brush farm, two miles north 
 of Hamilton, Illinois, he secured two colonies of common black 
 bees in box hives. From these two colonies came the establish- 
 ment which is now supporting a number of families and has made 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 C. P. Dad A NT, sons, a\d son-in-law 
 From left to right — L. G. Saugier, M. G. Dadant, C. P. Dadant, H. C. 
 Dadant and L. C. Dadant 
 
 them pecuniarily independent. Mr. Dadant often said that 
 those bees always paid, beforehand, in product, for all expenses 
 put in their management and in numerous improvements. 
 
 After experimenting upon divers Old World methods of 
 beekeeping, he read in a magazine, of the success of Moses 
 Quinby, of New York State, bought his book "The Mysteries 
 of Beekeeping" and later "The Hive & Honey Bee" of Lang- 
 stroth, which he was to revise, 20 years later, at the request 
 of the author. In a very short time he became convinced 
 that the Langstroth system was ahead of anything yet devised; 
 that the movable-frame hive principle was the key of successful 
 beekeeping; because of the perfect control which it gives the 
 beekeeper over the bees and the combs. 
 The difference between the Langstroth and the Quinby methods 
 
4 DADAXT SYSTEM OF DEEKEEPIXG 
 
 resided only in the dimensions of the hives ana of the frames; 
 Quinby having adopted the Langstroth invention of movable- 
 frames, but adapting it to frames and hives of a different ^ize. 
 This invention consists in hives containing frames of comb with 
 a bee-space between the ends, tops and bottoms of the frames 
 and the body of the hive, opening at the top. 
 
 The writer, son of Charles Dadant, was initiated in the 
 main secrets of the bee hive at the age of 14 but did not become 
 an active apiarist till the age of 18. 
 
 He was very timid with bees, being afraid of their stings. 
 It was not until a very prosperous season for honey production 
 when, his father being laid up with hay fever, he felt compelled 
 to look after the bees. Finding the hives full of honey and the 
 bees working eagerly in empty supers and filling them with 
 beautiful white combs, his enthusiasm got the better of his 
 fear of stings and he became a bee lover henceforth. 
 
 The senior Dadant was fond of experiments. So he tried 
 not only the Langstroth and Quinby styles of hives, but a number 
 of other styles, and in 1868 had a few hives in square frames 
 12"xl3", which he liked well enough to recommend them in a 
 little book, "Petit Cours D' Apiculture" published, in the 
 French language in 1874, for the benefit of his native country. 
 After trying them for 30 odd years, side by side with largely 
 increasing numbers of both Quinby and Langstroth hives, we 
 finally adopted the Quinby size of frames, adding to the number 
 of frames from the original eight, recommended by Quinby, 
 to 9 and 10. Why did we find the Quinby frame preferable? 
 Because it is a little over two inches deeper than the standard 
 Langstroth frame, contains more surface of comb, and supplies 
 more honey over the cluster for winter. 
 
 Although we do not propose, in this book, to describe at 
 length the natural history of the honeybee which is given in 
 more or less detail in both of our published works, "The Hive & 
 Honey Bee" and "First Lessons in Beekeeping," it is necessary 
 to explain some of the characteristics of the queens, workers 
 and drones in order to indicate the requirements that bring 
 about the greatest success. 
 
DAD ANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 The Queen 
 
 The queen, the mother-bee, is fertilized for life, at the age 
 of about 6 to 10 days, in normal circumstances. She is then 
 fitted for a life's production of bees. Her greatest laying comes 
 at the opening of spring, when it is necessary to rear, for the 
 honey harvest, a large number of worker-bees. Early writers 
 assured their readers that a 
 good queen could lay from 200 
 to 500 eggs per day, and they 
 perhaps wondered whether the 
 reader would believe this as- 
 sertion. But when the inven- 
 tion of movable-frame hives 
 enabled the beekeeper to 
 study the innermost secrets 
 of the bee-hive, it was found Fig.4. Head of the Queen (magnified) 
 that queens of good quality 
 
 (and we should have no others) could lay more than 3,000 eggs 
 per day, for weeks and months together. This was asserted 
 first by Langstroth and Quinby. Mr. Langstroth stated that 
 he had seen a queen lay, in an observing hive, at the rate of 
 six eggs per minute. We witnessed a similar performance 
 ourselves. It is not necessary that a queen should lay eggs at 
 that speed in order to prove very prolific, since a ten hour day 
 of egg-laying would produce 3600 eggs. 
 
 Doolittle, one of the bright lights of beekeeping, from 1870 
 to 1918, asserted that he had had queens that laid as many as 
 5,000 eggs in 24 hours, for weeks in succession. There is a way 
 by which any one, who owns bees in movable-frame hives, may 
 ascertain how many eggs are laid by a prolific queen, without 
 being compelled to watch her performances. It takes 21 days to 
 carry the newly laid egg, intended for a worker-bee, through the 
 different stages of metamorphosis, to the perfect insect with 
 wings which cuts itself out of the sealed cell. So if we count the 
 number of cells containing brood and eggs, during the height of 
 the breeding season, if the hive be large enough and the queen 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 sufficiently prolific, we will ascertain that many queens can and do 
 lay 3,500 and even more eggs per day, for a number of weeks. 
 To count the number of cells it is only necessary to measure the 
 number of square inches of brood surface, remembering that 
 each square inch represents between 27 and 28 workers. 
 
 This heavy brood laying lasts only during the spring and 
 early summer months, of course. In the fall the laying is 
 reduced and in the winter it ceases. 
 
 It is important that we should enable the queen to lay 
 to the utmost of her capacity for the time when her bees, or the 
 bees hatching from her eggs, will be able to harvest a crop. 
 Like a good general, we must marshal our forces for the battle 
 neither too early, nor too late. With bees, it is more important 
 than with men, because bees have but a very limited time of 
 usefulness. In order to illustrate this, it is necessary to say a 
 few words about the 
 
 Worker-Bee 
 
 The worker-bee is an undeveloped female. Had the young 
 female larva, when hatching, been fed with milky pap during the 
 
 whole time of her existence 
 as larva, and had she been 
 placed in a spacious queen- 
 cell, she would have been a 
 queen. But only one queen 
 is needed in a hive. So 
 the female larvae, and the 
 drone larvae as well, are 
 hatched in small cells and 
 fed with the milky pap, or 
 royal jelly, during only the 
 first three days of life; after 
 that time, the food is coarser 
 and composed of pollen, or 
 bee-bread as it is often called, and honey. The result is an 
 entirely different being from what it would have been as a 
 fully developed insect: 
 
 Fig. 5. 
 
 Head of the worker bee 
 (magnified) 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 7 
 
 1. The worker has no egg sacks or ovaries; at least such 
 ovaries as she may have are unable to produce eggs in ordinary 
 circumstances and never more than a few eggs at best. 
 
 2. Her head is shaped differently, her jaws more power- 
 ful, her antennae rise up in the air at the least disturbance, 
 she has salivary glands which do not exist or are very imperfect 
 in the queen and the drone, she has wax-producing organs 
 which exist in neither of the others; on her hind legs are brushes 
 and baskets to gather and carry pollen, which are entirely 
 absent in queen or drones. 
 
 3. She is of a determined disposition, flying at an intruder 
 without fear, when irritated, while the queen runs and hides 
 from view. Her sting is straight instead of being curved like 
 that of the queen. She goes about in search of honey and pollen, 
 takes care of the brood and does all the domestic service of the 
 home. 
 
 4. She has great reverence for the queen-mother, while 
 the queen herself, if any rivals are about, seeks to destroy them. 
 
 The worker bees hatch from the egg in 21 days, in ordinary 
 circumstances. They do duty about the inside for a week, before 
 attempting a flight outside. About the seventh day, in the after- 
 noon, they take their first flight, coming back home after having 
 made the acquaintance of the surroundings, and remaining 
 another week indoors. It is therefore only after 2 weeks of 
 insect life, 5 w r eeks from the laying of the egg, that the worker 
 becomes a field bee and begins to harvest honey. This is im- 
 portant to know, if we wish to get our force of honey harvesters 
 at the right time. 
 
 The worker does not live long in the busy season. Previous 
 to the introduction of the Italian bee in apiaries of common 
 bees, it was difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain how long a 
 worker lives. The introduction of Italian bees has helped solve 
 this problem in a positive manner. 
 
 If you introduce an Italian queen in a colony of common 
 or black bees, say on the first of May, after having killed its 
 black queen, there will not be a single black bee left in that hive 
 
8 DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPIXd 
 
 on the first of August, 3 months (90 days) later. When you 
 killed the black queen, there were eggs freshly laid in the cells. 
 Those eggs have required 21 days to hatch. So in 71 to 72 days 
 from the hatching of the last eggs, the black bees have disap- 
 peared, showing an average of 36 days for the life of a worker-bee 
 in summer. During the fall and winter their life is longer, for 
 they do not wear themselves out then with hard work, as they 
 do in summer. 
 
 We must compute the time when the marshalling of our 
 army of bees will be needed, by the crops of the country in which 
 we live. W 7 e must rear our bees to work upon the bloom of 
 either clover, alfalfa, basswood, sage, heather, mesquite, pal- 
 metto, gallberry, buckwheat, Spanish needle or bidens, etc., 
 as the case may be. The strength of the colony must come for 
 the opening of those crops; for the general who brings his soldiers 
 too late upon the battlefield will lose the battle. 
 
 In other words, to use a most forcible expression, from one 
 of our best teachers among the bee educators, Mr. Geo. S. 
 Demuth, we must rear our working force of bees for the honey 
 crop and not upon the honey-crop. The secret of success is all 
 there. 
 
 However it is very clear that we cannot have a full force 
 of bees, if the capacity of the brood chamber is inadequate to 
 supply breeding space for our most prolific queens. The queens 
 must not be cramped for room to lay, at the time when bees 
 are most needed. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Size of Hives 
 
 The Quinby "hives originally made by Moses Quinby and 
 first adopted by us contained 8 frames measuring 10^x18 
 inches inside. The Langstroth hives of standard size contained 
 
 Fig. 6. Frames of Langstroth size and of Quinby- Dadant size 
 
 10 frames, measuring 8x16^ inches inside. The former hive 
 had therefore a capacity of 92 square inches of comb over the 
 latter. We found both too small, for when we placed supers with. 
 
 
 
10 
 
 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 combs over those hives, in the spring, the queens would go up 
 into those supers and lay eggs, after they had filled the lower 
 story. Mr. Dadant senior then tried Quinby hives of different 
 capicities, up to 20 frames of comb, or with a capacity of 3780, 
 square inches of comb. These were too large by all means, 
 
 Fig. 7. Twenty frame Dadant hive tried by Charles Dadant 
 
 and although we used some 40 of them for several years, we 
 could only produce honey on what was later called "the long 
 idea,' that is to say we had both brood and surplus honey in 
 the same apartment. Although the colony usually occupied 
 one side of the hive with brood, the queen often roamed from 
 one end of the hive to the other and honey sometimes had to be 
 extracted from combs containing brood, a very undesirable 
 arrangement. 
 
 To give the reader an idea of the number of hive ex- 
 periments made by the senior Dadant, we will say that he 
 tried hives with frames 18x18 inches, looking like regular barns. 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 11 
 
 Fig. 8. Coffin-shaped frames tried by the senior Dadant to obtain the 
 nearest to a sphere 
 
 These combs proved too large; they would break down readily 
 in hot weather. He also tried hives with frames in the shape 
 of a coffin, because he had noticed that bees rear their brood and 
 cluster themselves in as near a round shape as possible. The 
 coffin shaped frame was the nearest possible to a circle in a hive 
 made of lumber. The bees thrived in them. But the difficulty 
 was in placing supers on those hives. After a few years of trial 
 they were discarded also. 
 
 After a number of similar experiments, Dadant senior 
 finally adopted a Quinby hive of 11 frame capacity, reducing 
 it to 10 or to 9 frames or even to a less number for small 
 swarms, with one or two division boards. 
 
12 
 
 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEKEEEPIXG 
 
 The ten-frame Quinby brood chamber which is now called 
 the "Dadant hive, "contains 1890 square inches of comb or 
 540 square inches more than the 10-frame Langstroth. That 
 this brood chamber is sufficient and the 10-frame Lang- 
 stroth insufficient, for the average prolific queen, in spring, 
 was ascertained positively by us when, about 1876, we handled 
 several hundred of these hives under exactly the same manage- 
 ment, side by side with 110 10-frame Langstroth hives, which 
 we had leased for honey production from an old Missouri 
 
 Fig. 9. Eight-frame Langstroth hive and Dadant hive side by side 
 
 beekeeper by the name of Barlow. During the month of May 
 quite a number of the Langstroth colonies, having been given 
 supers of built combs, began to breed in those supers, 
 while none of the queens in the Quinby-Dadant hives occu- 
 pied the supers. This was clear evidence that it took more 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM CE EEEKEEPIXG 13 
 
 than one story of Langstroth ten frame size to supply a good 
 queen with sufficient breeding room, at the time when we must 
 marshal our forces for the harvest. 
 
 Additional evidences of the superiority of a large brood 
 chamber were plentiful when the results were weighed. Aside 
 from the fact that numerous old time beekeepers sang the praise 
 of large hives, even when only logs or boxes, we found that the 
 increased population, from ample breeding room given to the 
 queen, unhampered by divisions or spaces, secured a much 
 increased harvest. Perhaps the most cogent evidence that we 
 can cite is the opinion of a farmer's wife on whose farm we had 
 located an apiary composed of both Dadant large hives and 
 ordinary Langstroth hives in about equal number, managed in 
 the same manner. We were paying these people for the rental of 
 the apiary site, in a share of the crop. The lady, who was a very 
 keen manager, asked us one day why we had brought any small 
 hives to their farm; why we did nor keep those hives at home. 
 She did not think we treated them fairly, for she could very 
 plainly see that the large crops came from the large hives and 
 she gave us to understand that she objected strenuously to our 
 keeping an apiary at their farm in future, unless we kept only 
 large hives there. Although we had seen for ourselves the ad- 
 vantages of large brood-chambers, nothing brought the matter 
 to our notice more forcibly than this avaricious complaint. 
 
 However, it was necessary for us to keep some bees in standard 
 Langstroth hives, for very few people have, until lately, been 
 willing to buy bees in such large brood chambers as we use. 
 And yet, for success, especially in running for extracted honey, 
 there is no comparison in results. 
 
 It is true that, with Langstroth hives of the standard size, 
 one may use a story-and-a-half or two stories, for brood. But 
 here we found objections. When the queens ascend from one 
 story to another, compelled by necessity, to find room to lay, 
 they hesitate in turning back. We have seen and have often 
 had reports of queens laying in three stories, so that their 
 brood was scattered everywhere in those stories. So the using 
 of a small hive, to be made larger by doubling it, is only using a 
 
14 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 more or less inconvenient large hive. An 8-frame Langstroth 
 hive is too small. An 8-frame Langstroth hive, doubled to 16- 
 frames, is too large. One may do as our venerable and most 
 practical friend, Dr. Miller did, reduce the 16 frames to 8, 
 when putting on supers. This gives the queen ample room to 
 develop her fertility previous to the honey crop, but it compels 
 the beekeeper to make numerous manipulations afterwards. 
 We want a brood chamber neither too large nor too small, 
 capable of accommodating the most prolific queens, in the main 
 apartment, reserving the upper stories for honey. We found 
 it in the hive in question. 
 
 Twelve and Thirteen -frame Langstroth Hives 
 
 A number of practical beekeepers, who have also discovered 
 the insufficiency of the 8 and 10-frame Langstroth hive, are 
 using hives containing 12 and in some cases 13 frames. These 
 brood chambers are equal in capacity to the 9-frame Dadant 
 brood chambers, but the great number of frames makes them 
 less desirable. Mr. C. F. Davie made the statement, in the 
 American Bee Journal for October 1919, that comparative 
 experiences between 12-frame Langstroth hives and the deeper 
 hives with a less number of frames were all in favor of the latter. 
 
 Small Hives 
 
 As we have shown in the preceding chapter, we ascertained 
 positively that small hives produce less bees than large ones, 
 because they do not allow full scope to the queen for her breeding. 
 But this is not all. Small hives cause much swarming. Small 
 hives contain a scant amount of honey for winter. Small hives, 
 being less populous, their cluster is in greater danger in winter. 
 Small hives do not enable the apiarist to recognize the best 
 or most prolific queens, when he wishes to select breeders, 
 since they are in a reduced space. Small hives cast more but 
 lighter swarms than large ones. Small hives require queen- 
 excluders over the brood chamber to keep the queen out of the 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 15 
 
 Fig, 10. Several stories of eight frame hives make too tall a pile 
 
 supers. Small hives have a smaller base of support than larger 
 ones, have to be tiered higher for honey capacity, cause a higher 
 climb to the honey-laden bees and are probably more difficult 
 to ventilate than larger ones. 
 
 It is true that small hives are cheaper than large ones. 
 But as they often have to be tiered higher and are more prone 
 to cast swarms, it takes a greater number of them to supply 
 an apiary. So the economy is much less than would appear. 
 
 Small hives, however, have the advantage of being easier 
 to carry to the cellar and back, easier to transport from one 
 apiary to another, easier for women to handle in making 
 increase. 
 
 An advantage in the manufacturing of the shallow hive 
 which has had great weight with manufacturers of hives is that 
 it may be made of narrow widths of lumber, since the standard 
 Langstroth brood chamber may be cut out of 10 inch stock 
 
16 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 boards, while the Quinby-Dadant brood chamber has to be made 
 of lumber over 12 inches wide, which is now very scarce, or be 
 pieced together with a tongue and groove joint. This has been 
 made less objectionable by placing the tongue and groove near 
 the top of the brood chamber, where it is covered by the strip 
 that supports the telescope cover. 
 
 Of late years, in a view of economy, even shallow brood 
 chambers have been made in two pieces. As this use of narrow 
 lumber is likely to continue, there is probably little manufactur- 
 ing advantage in the shallower hive. We mention it only be- 
 cause of the criticism expressed by some manufacturers. 
 
 Many people, bee owners, rather than bee keepers, do not 
 think that their bees are doing well if they do not cast swarms. 
 For such people the small hive is a boon, for the swarms are 
 numerous. Commercial beekeepers view the matter in a 
 different light. 
 
 The greatest excellence of the small hive, in the minds of 
 many people, is its low price. But what would we say of a 
 farmer who built a barn insufficient to accommodate more than 
 one half of his live stock, hay and implements? As Mr. Lang- 
 stroth put it: "Hiving a large swarm of bees in a small hive may 
 be compared to harnessing a powerful team of horses to a baby 
 wagon or wasting a noble water-fall in turning a petty water- 
 wheel." 
 
 These are the qualities as well as the limitations of the 
 small brood chamber. 
 
 From the experience mentioned above, the writer came to 
 the following conclusions: 
 
 A large brood-chamber should be compact, sufficient for 
 all the requirements of the best queens and for supplying all 
 the honey that a populous colony needs for winter and spring, 
 as well as pollen for breeding. 
 
 There are several ways to increase the capacity of the 
 Langstroth hive. A 10-frame hive may be increased to very 
 nearly the proper capacity, equal to that of the Dadant, by 
 adding a shallow story super such as we use for extracting. 
 The hive may also be doubled by adding a full story on top. 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 17 
 
 We have tried both methods. , Neither of them suits us. The 
 explanation will be found farther along. 
 
 Fig. 11. Shallow brood chambers of the same depth as supers are recom- 
 mended by some 
 
 Shallow brood-chambers, six inches or less in depth, in two, 
 three or more stories are recommended by some. The Heddon 
 hive which was so praised by its inventor about 1886 and created 
 quite a sensation, on account of the undoubted ability of its 
 deviser; the Danzenbaker hive, adopted and recommended 
 also by capable beekeepers and dealers; both of these styles, 
 as well as some others of similar kind and on the same plan as 
 the eke or the nadir of old time beekeeping, have been used and 
 sustained, because the brood-chamber # could be "storified" 
 as the British say, to suit the requirements of the best or poorest 
 queens. One of the best commercial beekeepers of Texas, Mr. 
 Louis Scholl, uses such a brood-chamber and succeeds. His 
 
IS 
 
 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPIXC 
 
 example, however, is not followed even among his neighbors, 
 and we believe we know the reason why. 
 
 mm 
 
 Fig. 12. Ekes or nadirs of by-gone days 
 
 In our experiments with bees, we ascertained a fact well- 
 known to the practical beekeeper: the cluster is, as much as 
 possible, in the shape of a ball; the laying of eggs follows a 
 similar plan; the queen begins in the center of the cluster, where 
 
 Fig. 13. The DeLayens long idea hive 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 19 
 
 the most bees are congregated, and lays her eggs in a circle 
 around that center. This is very clearly evidenced when one 
 examines a comb of brood, the older brood always being at the 
 center. 
 
 If we stop to think a few moments of the work which is 
 required of the queen, in order that she may lay more than 
 3,000 eggs per day during weeks in succession, we will readily 
 comprehend that she must not lose much time. Should she lay 
 her eggs without method, here and there, she would be unable to 
 fill the cells with regularity and celerity. When she is about to 
 lay, she thrusts her head into a cell that she believes empty. 
 If that cell is clean and ready for an egg, she inserts her ab- 
 domen in it, lays the egg and proceeds to another cell. Without 
 a regularity continued for hours and days together, it would be 
 impossible for her to supply the numerous cells with eggs, so 
 as to leave few empty. She is therefore regular in her actions 
 and goes around the circle with but little loss of time. A very 
 old queen fails in this regularity and should be superseded. 
 
 Fig. 14. A regularly laid and well filled comb of worker brood 
 
20 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 In a shallow frame, when she reaches the edge of the comb, 
 the queen finds wood instead of cells. This disturbs her and 
 often causes her to retrace her steps and go the opposite way. 
 Even only a cross bar, in a frame, will throw a queen out of 
 direction so thoroughly that she may put brood only on one 
 side of this bar. When she has to go from one story to another 
 she again loses a serious amount of time. When the season is 
 on for her active laying, she is fed so plentifully by the workers 
 that her eggs are produced and protrude from her abodmen, 
 whether she is able to lay them in cells or not. A good queen, 
 in a swarm, will often drop eggs in such number that they may 
 be noticed if the swarm is shaken upon a black cloth. A queen, 
 imprisoned in the hand, during the period of active laying, 
 will often leave eggs between our fingers. So if we would get 
 the best service out of a queen, we must put her in a hive which 
 will give her the greatest facility for finding cells without too 
 much search. This is to be found in a brood-chamber with 
 large combs, where the queen may lay for hours without being 
 turned away from her routine by obstructions of any kind. 
 
 When we wonder why a queen lays a greater number of eggs, 
 in a brood-chamber with few combs of large size, than in two 
 or more shallow brood-chambers, superposed over one another, 
 with a bee-space between each of them, the explanation is found 
 in the above statement. The same thing explains why, when a 
 queen has once gone into an upper story to lay, she hesitates to 
 return. She is more likely to go up into a third than to come 
 back into the first. But when she has ample room, on a limited 
 number of combs, to satisfy her propensity to lay, she is much 
 more likely to be contented and there is more egg-laying, a larger 
 increase of population, with less swarming. 
 
 This, then, is the explanation of the advantage which 
 we found in results, in those large brood-chambers, as com- 
 pared with shallow ones. 
 
 Safety in Wintering 
 
 The advantage of the large brood-chambers is not only 
 in securing larger families at the right time — a large force for 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 21 
 
 the harvest — it is found also in better wintering conditions. 
 The winter cluster of bees occupies a sphere-shaped space, 
 in from four to eight frames, in the center of the brood-chamber. 
 This cluster of bees is perhaps on an average 7 inches in diameter. 
 This means that, in a frame measuring eight inches in depth, 
 the cluster will probably be within an inch of the top. In a 
 frame measuring lOj/j inches in depth, the cluster will be 3^ 
 inches from the top. In the deeper frame, there may be 4 or 5 
 inches of honey, placed by the bees at the top of the combs. 
 In the shallower frame, under similar conditions, there will 
 not be much more than three inches of honey in the same position. 
 The deeper hive is therefore safer for wintering, if our bees are 
 compelled to remain clustered in the same spot for a number 
 of weeks, in very cold weather. As heat ascends, they will be 
 able to eat the honey above them when they would not be able 
 to eat honey at the end of the combs, away from the cluster. 
 This theory, again, is an explanation of the better wintering of 
 bees in the larger and deeper hive, which we found invariable 
 whenever a hard winter made a test of comparative conditions. 
 
 Frame Spacing 
 
 Another advantage of the large brood-chambers, which we 
 adopted after the example of Quinby, is to be found in the 
 greater spacing of the frames. Quinby spaced his frames — and 
 therefore the combs of the colony — \]/2 inches from center to 
 center. He followed former apiarists, such as Dzierzon, in this, 
 and thought it the correct distance. Langstroth spaced his 
 combs a fraction over 1^ inches apart and thought it correct. 
 The manufacturers of hives of the United States, without 
 investigating the matter very deeply, made the spacing of frames 
 exactly l^i. They had good authorities behind them, for 
 Berlepsch, one of the leaders of the middle of the 19th Century, 
 asserted that this spacing was the one followed by bees. Adopt- 
 ing the Quinby hive, we adopted his spacing. When the matter 
 was discussed and we referred to the bees, in natural condition, 
 for their testimonial, we found that they make all sorts of spacing 
 
22 DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 in building their combs, from one to two inches or even more, 
 from center to center. But they aim to have their worker-brood 
 combs a half inch apart, between the combs, which would 
 about represent the 1 3 8 spacing, from center to center. 
 
 All this may look very unimportant to the beginner. Yet 
 much of the success or failure of beekeeping depends upon 
 just such small matters. 
 
 The supporters of the narrow spacing look upon the wide 
 spacing as a detriment and Mr. Julius Hoffman, inventor of the 
 frame bearing his name, wrote: 
 
 "If we space the combs from center to center \)' 2 inches, instead of 
 \^i, then we have an empty space of $4 inch between two combs of 
 brood, instead of l / 2 , as it ought to be; and it will certainly require more 
 bees to fill and keep warm a y% than a ]/ 2 inch space. Ina K inch space, 
 the breeding bees from the two combs facing each other will join with 
 their backs, and so close up the space between the two brood combs. 
 If this space is widened to ^ the bees cannot do this, and more bees will 
 be required to keep up the needed brood-rearing temperature. What 
 a drawback this would ba in a cool spring, when our colonies are still 
 weak in numbers, yet breeding most desirable, can readily be under- 
 stood." 
 
 This is a good argument but it does not work well in 
 practice, in large hives. When the breeding season ends, the 
 bees living between combs spaced 1^2 inches put more honey 
 in each brood comb, since there is more room and they do not 
 need, then, to keep the cells down to the exact length of the bee 
 chrysalis, as in breeding time. So the comb, or that part of it 
 that is filled with honey, is thickened so as to leave just the 
 necessary room for the bees to pass through. This gives a 
 larger amount of honey than in narrow combs; the bees con- 
 gregate there in greater number and thus winter better. They 
 are more powerful in spring and the cycle of the year is reached 
 with better success. 
 
 The above theory is backed by facts. Bees in large, deep 
 brood-chambers, with the wide spacing, are stronger, winter 
 better, gain strength faster than those in shallow hives, all other 
 conditions being equal. The reader will remember that these 
 facts were established before we tried to explain them by a 
 theory. No theory is strong unless it is backed by the facts of 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 23 
 
 experience. The experience must also be secured on a sufficient 
 scale to make it proof against possible exceptions. The testing 
 of this matter on hundreds of hives, in separate apiaries, treated 
 in similar manner, leaves but little room for doubt of the cor- 
 rectness of the theory. On half a dozen hives, other conditions 
 might change the result. 
 
 The spacing of combs, the wider way, has also some in- 
 fluence upon the question of swarming. This will be treated 
 in another chapter. 
 
 The Supers 
 
 The proper supers to use in beekeeping depend upon 
 the kind of honey that we propose to produce. If we are to 
 run our apiaries for comb-honey, we must have it stored by 
 the bees in a way that will enable us to sell it in the most satis- 
 factory and profitable manner. 
 
 When we began beekeeping on a large scale, the little 
 section, made of basswood folded and containing a pound of 
 honey or less, had not yet made its appearance. But sections 
 made of wood, holding from 2 to 4 pounds, had already been pro- 
 duced. Much of the honey was also secured in boxes, the average 
 of them being made of light wood, with one or more sides of glass 
 and of a size to hold 6 pounds, more or less. One or more 
 holes, an inch in diameter at the bottom of such a box, allowed 
 the bees to enter, but did not provide for sufficient ventilation. 
 So the supers used at that date were designed to prevent, rather 
 than encourage the storing of honey. 
 
 In producing large crops, we found the bees hostile to 
 small compartments. They would place hundreds of pounds 
 of honey in those large Quinby frames, if available, while they 
 very reluctantly stored a few pounds in small receptacles. 
 
 Other beekeepers have found the same thing. Oliver 
 Foster, years ago, wrote: 
 
 "When we take into consideration that the object, on the part of 
 the bees, in storing up honey in summer, is to have it accessible for winter 
 consumption, and that, in winter, the bees collect in a round ball, as 
 nearly as possible, in a semi-torpid state, with but little motion, except 
 that gradual moving of bees from the center to the surface and from 
 
24 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 the surface to the center of this ball, we may imagine how unwelcome 
 it is to them to be obliged to divide their stores between four separate 
 apartments, each of which is 4 inches square and 12 inches long, with 
 no communication between these apartments." 
 
 All the experiments made by us led us to the conclusion 
 that we could produce twice as much honey in frames located 
 above the brood combs, without hindrances to the travel back 
 and forth of the workers, the honey to be taken out of these 
 with the honey extractor which had then just been invented, 
 as we had ever produced in small sections or boxes. 
 
 But whether to use the double story, or a shallow story 
 for super, on the top of the large brood-chamber, was a question 
 upon which we had to experiment, for very little had been 
 done in this line. 
 
 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 al^e^fer too large to be used in a super. There 
 was too muc» <$&ger of heavy combs breaking down, when 
 full of hone^ tQ^much trouble in extracting. Besides, a deep 
 super seen&d ^p attract the queen, when a shallow super did 
 not. WjA life Langstroth brood chambers, the objections to 
 a deep Ameirstory were not so flagrant; yet they appeared to 
 us qui^ sufficient to condemn it. There was often too much 
 room at^*ie 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 Lang- 
 stroth 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 extracting 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 25 
 
 Fig. 15. Comparison of Langstroth and Dadant extracting supers 
 
 combs than any one can find to the use of sections for comb- 
 honey. 
 
 The fact that bees prefer large combs in which to store their 
 honey, instead of small boxes, has been also determined by bee- 
 keepers 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 South- 
 ern Texas, he was told that beekeepers could expect one 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 
 
26 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 work with more entrain and often yield much greater 
 results. 
 
 An experiment made by us upon a number of supers, in 
 which both pound sections and full length combs were used, left 
 us not a shadow of doubt as to the bees' preference. Every 
 practical beekeeper 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, near- 
 est the brood, we saw the bees invariably begin their storing in 
 the full length combs, although remoter from the brood, and 
 they were filled 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, con- 
 taining 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 beehive is too small in its brood-chamber to accommo- 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 27 
 
 Fig. 16. Queen excluders exclude ven- 
 tilation and free access to the supers 
 
 date the average prolific 
 queen. She fills it and 
 tries to go elsewhere. She 
 will naturally go up, since 
 the upper story is always 
 warm. The beekeeper 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, con- 
 stituting 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 dan- 
 ger point, or about blood 
 heat. 
 
 Fig. 17. Modern excluders are better 
 
 than the old, but are still in 
 
 the way of the bees 
 
 Queen-excluders are now 
 made, with wire spacing, 
 which are much less objection- 
 
28 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 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 acci- 
 dentally, 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 ob- 
 stacles 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 frock 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 best 
 
 29 
 
30 
 
 DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 Fig. IS. Comb built without foundation or with only a small starter. It 
 is practically all drone comb 
 
 producing colonies, 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 work- 
 er 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 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 31 
 
 drones. But so small a number is not objectionable. It is the 
 rearirg 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 bee- 
 keepers 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, ex- 
 terminating 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 thatthe 
 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 ot 
 Europe with the same result. They were Messrs. Drory of 
 
32 
 
 DADAXT SYSTEM OP BEEKEEPTXO 
 
 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 com- 
 pelled 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 beekeeper 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. 
 
 Fig. 19. The drone trap 
 should not be used except 
 in rare instances 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 33 
 
 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, re- 
 placing 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 de- 
 tails 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. 
 
 Fig. 20. Detailed cross-section of the original Dadant hive 
 
 AA, cross-pieces to support the bottom, 18x2x2. B, bottom, 25xl7^x 
 H. C, apron, 10x17 *AxH. DD, front and rear of the hive, 16Mxl2^x^. 
 E, entrance, 8x}i. F, double board nailed at the rear, 18}4xl3xj4. GG, 
 square slats to support the cover. H.lath, l Axl%, to widen the top edge 
 of the front board. I, top bar of frame, 2034x1 l A wide xj4 thick. JJJJ, 
 rabbets Y^ wide x ^i high, dug in front and rear boards, and furnished 
 with sheets of iron % inches wide, or metal spacers projecting 34 of an 
 inch, on which the frame-shoulders are supported. If the grooves are not 
 provided with these, their size should .be l Ax*/i. 
 
 KKKK, shows how the uprights NN of the frames are nailed to 
 
 35 
 
36 
 
 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 the top bar. M, bottom bar of the frame, \7-?4x}yixj4. NN, sides of the 
 frame, 11 Mx! 5 6 xJ^. PP, front and rear of the cap, 18^x9x^. RR, front 
 and rear of the surplus-box, 16Hx6%x>6. T, empty space on top of the 
 surplus-box, 134 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, 6xJ4x^. 
 
 The space between M and B is about Yi inch; between DN, ND, 
 VI, RY, YR, should be Y to }i 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 rabbet, cut into 
 the two side boards, at the bottom, to fit down on each side of 
 
 Fig. 21. Details of underside of Dadant hive 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 37 
 
 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 rabbets at both ends, were not used by us 
 
 H i /'W < 
 
 Fig. 22. Dadant hive open; a, body; b, alighting board; c, entrance block; 
 d, cap; e, straw mat;/, oil cloth; g, frame of foundation 
 
38 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 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 use- 
 ful in keeping the hive up from the earth. When we use cement 
 stands, the blocks are not needed, as pieces Y% 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 ^4 of an inch all 
 around the body, and resting on a rim, was adapted from 
 Langstroth'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 seasons' use of hives, the 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 39 
 
 upper edges of the brood chamber and the lower edges of the su- 
 pers become rounded and worn so that it is often difficult to pre- 
 vent 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 l A 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 
 
 Fig. 23. The division board of the Dadant hive 
 
 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 
 
40 DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 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 ex- 
 actly 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 w r e remove a honey board from the top of a brood - 
 chamber, there is a commotion 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. 
 
 We have used oil cloths, painted ducking, khaki, gunny 
 cloth, &c. Anything which will confine the bees will do. Fome 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 41 
 
 object to these articles because the bees tear them up. It is true 
 that they do so, in the course of time. However, if the cloths 
 are strong and well painted, they last a long time. Their use- 
 fulness permits us to put up with their inconveniences. We 
 replace them as often as needed. 
 
 The oil cloth is constantly kept upon the hive, except 
 in winter. When putting on supers we place it at the top of 
 the supers. 
 
 The straw mat is an implement which very few people 
 use. It is essentially a European implement, cheap and service- 
 able. European gardeners use mats of all sizes, to protect their 
 cold frames, their hot house windows, their chicken coops or 
 rabbit dens. We make them of the proper size for the top of 
 the frames. They keep out the cold in winter and the heat 
 in summer. In winter, the cloth being removed, the mat is 
 placed directly over the combs, then absorbents over that. 
 It is one of the most economical implements of the bee hive. 
 Chas. F. Muth, an eminent beekeeper of the olden days, whom the 
 writer knew well, used similar mats and considered them very 
 valuable, as we do. But they do not seem attractive to the 
 average beekeeper. Yet they keep away the heat of the sun, 
 in July, as efficiently as the cold of winter, in January. 
 
 The telescope cover is made to accommodate at least the 
 depth of one super. It might be made much shallower, but we 
 have found it very handy in covering feeders. When more than 
 one super is on, the telescope cover does not reach down. At that 
 time it matters little whether the joints of the hive and of the 
 different supers are uncovered, for that is the time of the 
 honey harvest and bees do not try robbing then, usually. 
 
 The depth of our supers, as will be seen, is greater than the 
 depth of the supers popularly supplied by dealers. This depth 
 was decided upon by us, after due consideration and also con- 
 sultation with Mr. Langstroth, years ago. At that time, some 
 extracting supers were used of the same depth as the pound 
 sections, i. e. with frames A l /i inches in depth. We considered 
 these as mere playthings, of which too many would be required 
 
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*4 inch sidebar, 
 6y& 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 5J 8 frames. We prefer our size. It contains about 
 ?3 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 lj^ inches from center to center. 
 New frames containing comb foundation are first spaced only 
 1^2 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 \Y\ 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- 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 43 
 
 ng the Quinby depth of hive, to adopt the Langstroth length, 
 which is iys inches shorter. Not that we believe the Quinby- 
 Dadant hive too long, but because, had we adopted the Langs- 
 troth length, many manipulations wouid have been possible 
 
 Fig. 24. The story and a half 
 Modified Dadant hive 
 
 with a combination of the two. Thus, although we do not 
 propose to change the length of our hives, after using so many 
 during more than a half century, yet we are quite free to advise 
 the use of the hive called in Europe the "Dadant-Blatt" and in 
 this country the "Modified Dadant." 
 
 But in using a style similar to the Jumbo, we do not recom- 
 mend the narrow spacing of l^i inches from center to center 
 for brood frames as made in the Jumbo. We insist on the 
 style of spacing which we have found very superior, already 
 mentioned, of lH inches from center to center, for the brood 
 frames. This was already mentioned in the chapter on "frame 
 spacing." In addition to the advantages mentioned there, we 
 will soon describe another having to do with swarm prevention. 
 The bottom board of a simplified Dadant hive may be made 
 plain, as in the common movable-frame hives sold by dealers. 
 
44 
 
 DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 The hive encasing the bottom board has the great fault, 
 the minds of many apiarists, to prevent the tiering 
 
 up of hive bodies, since 
 the projections would 
 keep the upper hive 
 from joining on the lower 
 one and the bees would 
 build comb between them. 
 This is true. But we have 
 found less need of tiering 
 up brood chambers than 
 the average apiarist 
 would imagine. However, 
 we are free to accept 
 this as one of the leading 
 points in the making of 
 a simplified Dadant brood 
 chamber. We have used 
 hundreds ourselves with 
 plain bottom. 
 
 Fig. 25. Frames of the Modified Da- 
 dant hive are the same length 
 astheLangstroth frames, but 
 2yz inches deeper 
 
 Fig. 26. The Modified Dadant hive has a 40 per cent larger brood comb 
 area than the 10 frame Langstroth 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 45 
 
 « 
 
 ] 
 
 The number of frames should be not less than 10, especially 
 in the modified style, which is shorter than the regular Dadant 
 and therefore contains a 
 less amount of surface. 
 The division board should 
 be retained. This means 
 an additional frame space, 
 or an eleven frame width. 
 
 The double back is 
 useful only in localities 
 where the bees are wintered 
 out-of-doors, without 
 packing cases. Where 
 heavy packing cases are 
 used or where bees are 
 wintered in the cellar, it is 
 better to have hives single- 
 wall all around. It is an economy and makes the hives lighter 
 for transportation. The encased bottom-board, Dadant 
 fashion, is not indispensable. 
 
 Fig. 27 The Modified Dadant hive 
 
 is equipped with metal cover and 
 
 reversible bottom 
 
 We would retain the 
 slat, outside of the upper 
 rabbet, at both ends, as it 
 costs but little and makes 
 the supers so much more 
 readily adjustable. We 
 would also retain the tele- 
 scope cover, for its useful- 
 ness, if its cost were not 
 objectionable. 
 
 Fig. 28. Tae bjdy is dovetailed and has eleven Hoffman frames spaced 
 1 l A inches from center to center 
 
46 
 
 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 Hive Making 
 
 The writer used to manufacture hives by hand. The fault 
 with such hives is that they are less accurate than those that are 
 
 
 ;. 29. The regular Langstroth body may be used as a super for th: 
 Modified Dadant hive 
 
 made by machinery. We remember vividly the annoyance 
 encountered, in the early days, from having employed a carpenter 
 who carelessly cut the hives a quarter inch shorter than the 
 pattern; so the frames of one kind would not fit in the other. 
 It is very important that everything be exactly of the same size 
 and, when we can afford it, we should use factory made hives, or, 
 if we cannot make the hives ourselves, at least employ careful 
 help. We made and used hundreds of hives, cut with a hand 
 saw and later with a foot-power saw. We painted our hives 
 ourselves, also, and did all this work in the dull season. We have 
 always given the preference to white pine for bodies and cypress 
 for bottoms. 
 
 As for the frames, it has never paid us to try to make 
 them by hand. Some styles of frames, such as the Hoffman, can- 
 not even be manufactured in a small saw mill, for it takes special 
 machinery to cut them in a profitable manner. 
 
CHAPTER 5 
 Handling the Bees 
 
 We were already keeping bees on a large scale before the in- 
 vention of a practical bee-smoker. We used a piece of punk 
 or of dry rotten wood, upon which we had to blow in order to 
 produce a sufficient amount of smoke. The writer remembers 
 being often dizzy from blowing his breath upon the rotten wood 
 that he held in his fingers and which gave little enough smoke 
 when the bees were cross. The bellows smokers, invented by 
 Quinby and improved by Bingham, are a greater boon than 
 our younger beekeepers, who have never had to do without 
 them, can realize. 
 
 There are men who are either immune to bees or whom 
 the bees do not sting. They handle them without smoke, 
 without veil, and seem to care nothing for angry bees. We 
 were not, and we are not yet, of that kind. The writer was very 
 much afraid of bees in his young days. It was not until an 
 overwhelming honey crop came that he conquered his fear of 
 stings through enthusiasm. So the timid beekeeper should take 
 courage. But we never believed in handling bees without 
 smoke, using it, not plentifully, but judiciously, when opening 
 hives. Many an enemy has been created to the keeping of bees, 
 in suburbs, in villages, along the public highway, by careless 
 handling of the colonies by a beekeeper who is not afraid. He 
 does not get stung, but his neighbors, or the casual passer-by, 
 are the victims. Allow us to relate an incident. 
 
 We had a friend, now deceased, in the neighboring city 
 of Keokuk. His home was located on the edge of the bluffs, 
 with no neighbors between it and the Mississippi River flowing 
 below, 200 feqt away, an ideal place for the avoidance of bee 
 stings. But he had neighbors above him, up the bluff. He was 
 in the habit of opening his colonies without smoke. The bees 
 never stung him. He told the writer one day that he would have 
 to sell his bees, a dozen colonies or so, because the neighbors 
 complained of stings. He could not understand why they 
 should sting them, when they did not sting him. After this 
 
 47 
 
48 
 
 DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 explanation, we walked to the apiary and he opened a hive 
 without using any smoke. Two or three angry bees, instead of 
 stinging him, began to fly about and attacked the neighbor's 
 dog, 40 feet away, up a steep slope. I called his attention to 
 this, advised him to avoid opening the colonies without smoke, 
 and from that day on he had no more trouble with the neighbors. 
 You, inoculated beekeepers, who are careless and think every- 
 body ought to be as sting-proof as you are, take heed of this. 
 Consider other people's safety, if yours is secure, and do not 
 handle your bees at any time without smoke. 
 
 We always carry a veil. It may be kept in the pocket, 
 but should be always at hand, to be used in case of need. 
 
 We avoid disturbing the bees m cold weather, or in early 
 morning, or late evening. The best time for manipulations 
 we consider to be during the heat of the day, when most of the 
 old bees are busy in the field. 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 Fig. 30. Home apiary, where we kept bees over 55 years before the pub- 
 lication of this book 
 
CHAPTER 6. 
 Our Apiaries 
 
 Our home apiary, where bees have been kept continuously 
 since 1864, is not in an ideal location for honey. In fact it is 
 only ideal for its sheltered position, in a gentle slope to the 
 southeast, under shading forest trees, which yet do not prevent 
 
 Fig. 31. A Dadant outyard. The Poland Apiary 
 
 the rays of the morning sun from striking the hives. We consider 
 shade very useful, in the hot summer climate of Illinois. At 
 one time we thought we had too much, as it had become very 
 dense. The bees had had several poor crops and we were in- 
 clined to ascribe the inactivity of the colonies to too much 
 
 49 
 
50 
 
 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 shade. But before we had opportunity to cut down any of this 
 shade, (this was in 1903) we harvested one of the largest honey 
 crops that we ever secured. We concluded that it is difficult 
 to place the apiary under too much shade, in this climate. We 
 use roofs, made of coarse lumber, over the colonies, and we believe 
 that it is profitable, both in the economy of wear of the hive 
 lumber and in the shelter it furnishes the bees during the warm 
 season. 
 
 In establishing an apiary, we believe it is necessary to 
 place the colonies in rows. But we do not wish great uni- 
 formity, great enough that the workers and especially the 
 young queens be unable to easily recognize their homes. 
 
 Fig. 32. Another Dadant outyard; the Holland apiary 
 
 With 30 or 40 hives, of similar color and shape, ranged in regular 
 rows, without outsideguide-marks, there is ample occasion for bees 
 to make a mistake, in their first flight, and enter the wrong 
 hive, on their return home. It is of little consequence with the 
 workers, unless too great a number of them should "drift" from 
 the weak colonies to the stronger. This is likely to occur more 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 51 
 
 Fig. 33. The LeMaire apiary of the Dadant outyard system 
 
 1 
 
 IK,' 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 ts 
 
 lili^Wl 
 
 ■ * 
 
 
 
 «e 
 
 F/g. J-/. The Milliken outyard of the Dadant system 
 
52 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPIXC 
 
 or less. But the greater danger is when a young queen, return- 
 ing from her mating flight, enters the wrong home. She is almost 
 certain to be put to death, if the colony which she enters by 
 error is queenright. Then her own colony becomes hopelessly 
 queenless, unless, as is rarely the case, they still have sealed 
 queen-cells from which they may rear a new queen. At best, 
 the colony suffering from that accident is very much delayed in 
 its breeding. 
 
 For this reason, we like to arrange our colonies so that 
 every few feet, there will be some noticeable mark, such as a 
 tree, a bush, or a greater space between hives. It is sufficient 
 to call the beekeeper's attention to this, so that he may go to 
 the trouble of arranging the colonies in such a way as to avoid 
 the "drifting." Painting the hives of different colors is a good 
 way. But dark colors are objectionable, as they are too hot 
 in summer, and light colors soon fade. We know this by long 
 experience. 
 
 Outapiaries 
 
 We have had outapiaries since 1870. They have been located 
 in all sorts of spots, near the Mississippi River, where the water 
 cutaway half of the pasture; in timber land; on the open prairie, 
 among corn fields and wheat fields; on the lowlands of the Mis- 
 sissippi, where only fall blossoms abound; and along the Illinois 
 River, in a similar position. We did not find any ideal spot. 
 There are advantages to each location and disadvantages as 
 well. We hauled bees, in the heat of the summer, on hay racks, 
 a distance of 25 miles, when it was necessary to travel nearly 
 all night to avoid the exposure of the hives to August sunshine. 
 Nowadays, when we transport bees to the lowlands, we use a 
 motor truck and the trip which occupied 8 hours, in 1881, is now 
 made in a trifle over two hours. The younger generation will 
 indeed never realize the hardships that the grandfathers had to 
 face. But our young generations are accepting tasks that we 
 could never have dreamed of and their hardships may prove equal 
 to ours, after all. 
 
 It is hardly within the scope of this book to dwell largely 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 53 
 
 Fig. 35. The Koch outapiary of the Dadant System is located on the 
 edge of the Mississippi bottoms 
 
 on outapiaries. We refer the reader to the work "Outapiaries" 
 by M. G. Dadant, son of the writer, whose present experience in 
 that line is quite active. Suffice it to say that we have found, 
 within a distance of four miles, a difference in quality, color, and 
 quantity of honey harvested. This shows that bees, in this 
 locality at least, do not usually travel much over 2 miles in 
 search of honey. 
 
CHAPTER 7. 
 Apiary Management — Spring 
 
 One of the early requirements to which we attend in 
 apiary management is to ascertain that our hives are plumb, 
 from side to side. From front to rear, we want a little slope 
 towards the entrance, so that the bees will have less difficulty 
 in removing rubbish, dead bees, &c. It is also useful in keeping 
 
 Fig. 36. Another Dadant outapiary located on the edge of the Missis- 
 sippi bottoms. The Sack yard 
 
 out the rain water and the melting snow. Where we have 
 cement blocks for hive stands, there is less danger of the hives 
 becoming displaced in winter than where they stand on wooden 
 blocks. 
 
 The first spring examination is cursory. We make it when 
 the bees are taking one of their first flights. The purpose is 
 
 55 
 
56 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 to ascertain whether they have sufficient stores to carry them 
 to fruit bloom, and to clean out the dead bees from deceased 
 colonies and close them, so that neither robbers nor moths may 
 enter. 
 
 Queenless colonies are not looked for until the second 
 visit, shortly before fruit bloom. The weak, queenless colonies 
 are united with others, lifting their combs bodily, in a cool, 
 evening, to place them behind the division board of a queenright 
 but comparatively weak colony which does not occupy its entire 
 hive and will be benefited by the help. If both colonies have been 
 given a little light food, there is no fight. 
 
 We have also found the newspaper plan of uniting bees, given 
 by Dr. Miller, a very good method. It is used quite generally. 
 During a cool night, place one of the colonies, to be united, 
 over the other, separating them with a newspaper and closing all 
 entrances except that of the lower hive. The bees gnaw the 
 paper slowly and generally unite peaceably. 
 
 If the queenless colonies are not weak, as some times happei s, 
 we give them a queen purchased from a reliable Southern 
 breeder. We used to rear our own supersedure queens and it is 
 a desirable thing to do. But we have been too busy, for years 
 past, to spend any time at this work, which requires special 
 conditions. Southern breeders, if they are active and honest, 
 and there' are many such, can rear good queens by the time our 
 bees awaken from winter rest. 
 
 As a breeder is not always able to supply queens on short 
 notice, we are in the habit of placing an approximate order, 
 for an approximate time, early enough to get a part at least, 
 of the queens we will need. 
 
 Since we have gone into the keeping of over 500 colonies 
 of bees, we have taken less pains to save a colony which comes 
 out of the winter queenless. Yet, taking it all in all, it is not a 
 bad idea to keep this colony going if we wish to avoid having 
 empty spots in the apiary. W 7 e have often helped such a colony 
 with a comb of brood, early, then used it as we might use an 
 empty hive, in making a division, late in May. This is hardly 
 profitable, however. 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 57 
 
 When we wish to examine the hives for the removal of 
 drone-combs, and the replacing of them with worker-combs, 
 which we consider of great importance, in all but the hives 
 which we select as drone producers, and when we have transfers 
 to make, as happens nearly every year, of crooked combs 
 caused by accidents, or of box hives purchased from old-fashioned 
 beekeepers, which we aim to secure in order to do away with 
 box-hive beekeeping, this work is done during early fruit bloom. 
 At that time, the colonies have the least bees and the least honey 
 and are more easily handled without danger of robbing. Methods 
 of transfer of the combs of box hives are given at length in "The 
 Hive & Honey Bee." 
 
 In this locality, a long interval of honey dearth exists 
 between fruit bloom and the first yield of the real honey crop, 
 white clover. This is not the case in many other locations, 
 in which some bloom or other fills the gap. During that interval, 
 it is necessary to look after the bees, for they often decrease 
 their laying in a serious manner. It may be necessary to feed 
 them and it is profitable to do so. But this is irregular, so 
 our system of action depends very much upon circumstances. 
 Rarely, the fruit bloom has yielded sufficiently to induce them 
 to continue breeding until the first clover blossoms appear. 
 Our action, at this time, depends upon those conditions. But we 
 find it indispensable, at any cost, to keep the bees breeding. 
 As Mr. Geo. S. Demuth, of the Bureau of Entomology, puts it 
 so clearly, "we must raise our bees for the honey crop and not 
 upon the honey crop." The following of the above axiom, for 
 years, has probably been the most positive reason of our success 
 in beekeeping. 
 
 The Honey Crop 
 
 We have had a number of seasons when the white clover, 
 whose bloom forms the principal crop of our locality, was en- 
 tirely killed by the drought of the previous season. In such 
 years, we are pleased if our bees make enough to support them- 
 selves till the fall harvest. It is during those years that we aim to 
 make increase, for we have bees in plenty and little for them to do. 
 
58 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 Increase 
 
 We do not believe in natural swarming. So we do every- 
 thing that will tend to prevent it. Although "bees never do 
 things invariably," as very truly said by Dr. C. C. Miller, 
 we have very little swarming, little enough to render it un- 
 important and the watching for swarms a negligible matter. This 
 is of importance to us, since we are constantly busy at a variety 
 of labor, for we are not only beekeepers, but also dealers in bee 
 goods and makers of comb foundation, with a large force of 
 men under our direction. It is also very important not to be 
 required to keep a watchman at each outapiary. It is true 
 that there are seasons when the bees get ahead of us and when 
 it might pay to keep a watchman at each apiary. But these 
 seasons are rare. In 50 years past, we have remembrance of 
 only two, when the bees got so far ahead of us that we had 
 swarms, in great numbers, that were not cared for. A little 
 farther along we will give our method of preventing swarming. 
 We will first give our method of making increase. 
 
 We stated, in the chapter on spring management, that we 
 do not now rear our own queens. But as we have reared queens 
 for increase, at one time, we will indicate the method which 
 we followed when neither the Doolittle method, nor the still more 
 modern Barbeau method, were in use. The apiarist who wishes 
 to rear queens, in the most modern way, should refer to special 
 works on queen-rearing. 
 
 Queens for Increase 
 
 In early spring we remove as much as possible, all drone- 
 comb from the colonies, except from two or three which we desire 
 as drone breeders. These are among our best honey producers of 
 the previous year. We want them pure Italians, because 
 both past experience and breeding theories indicate that hybrids, 
 however good they may prove as honey producers, do not 
 transmit their qualities so invariably as a pure race. 
 
 We also prefer pure Italians to other foreign races, because 
 with the Italian we can readily recognize the least amount of 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 59 
 
 foreign blood, while with recognized good races of so-called 
 gray bees, such as the Carniolan or the Caucasian, it is very 
 difficult, if not impossible, to detect a small mixture of the com- 
 mon black bee. The Italians, to our mind, have so thoroughly 
 proved their worth, that we seek no further than pure bees of 
 that race. Imported Italians have been our best bees. 
 
 With the method of removing drone combs from unde- 
 sirable colonies, we secure a very large percentage of good 
 matings, for the colonies from which drone-combs have been 
 taken rarely rear more than 200 to 300 drones, while we secure 
 several thousands in our selected colonies by placing drone combs 
 in the center of the brood nest. 
 
 We also select two of our best queens for queen producers. 
 When the time comes, at the opening of what we call the honey 
 
 ** 
 
 '***• 
 
 99 a 
 
 Fig. 37. Queen-cells hang downwards and are built preferable in open 
 spaces on new comb 
 
60 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 harvest, we make a good colony queenless and exchange its 
 brood for a less number of combs of brood from one of these best 
 queens. By giving them a less number than they had of their 
 own, we make sure that the queen-cells reared will be well 
 cared for. 
 
 To secure a large number of fine queen-cells, we might 
 follow the Alley plan, or the Dolittle plan, but these belong to 
 commercial queen-rearing and we will not describe them. They 
 are described in the Hive & Honey Bee and also in Pellet's 
 Practical Queen Rearing. A very good method is to supply our 
 breeding queens, 3 or 4 days ahead, with new combs or comb 
 foundation cut with rounding edges at intervals, for the easy 
 production of queen-cells by the bees. When these combs are 
 full of eggs and young larvae less than 3 days old, they are just 
 right for our queen-rearing. 
 
 Queen-cells hang downward fron the combs. For that 
 reason, the bees, for greater ease, build them at the lower edge 
 of the combs, or in open spots among the brood. If we supply 
 the queenless hive with young brood, less than 3 days old, 
 and eggs, in combs that are fresh and only partly built, there 
 are numerous opportunities for the building of queen-cells in 
 the empty spaces. So a much greater number of queen-cells are 
 built upon such combs. It is nothing rare to have as many as 
 50 or 60 queen-cells on one or two frames of such comb. 
 
 The queenless colony to w r hich these combs are given, 
 immediately builds queen-cells, especially if it is fed with 
 very thin sugar syrup, in case the crop is not yielding. Upon 
 the ninth day, after the insertion of the combs, the cells should 
 be counted and as many divisions of other colonies may be made 
 as the number of cells that may be cut apart, save one which is 
 to remain in the queenless colony. We often divide the queenless 
 colony itself into 3 or 4 parts, closing up the parts that are 
 to be placed on a new spot, in new hives, often carrying them to 
 a cellar or to some cool place, till the next day. We take good 
 care to leave more young bees in the portions removed to new 
 hives and new spots than in the hive on the old stand. We 
 confine them to the space actually occupied, with division 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 61 
 
 Fig. 38. A small colony is confined to such space as it can cover, by the 
 use of a division board 
 
 boards. Other divisions are made in different ways, according 
 to circumstances. We may take only 2 or 3 frames from a full 
 colony, with a large number of young bees, treating them 
 in the same way as those above mentioned. Or we may divide 
 2 colonies to make one swarm, taking the brood from one and 
 leaving the bees with the queen on the old stand, and taking the 
 bees from the other by placing the division thus made on the 
 stand of the second colony and removing it to a new spot. 
 The colonies that are made from only 2 or 3 frames of brood 
 and bees, will need to be helped later with more brood and 
 perhaps more bees, while those that are built from 2 other hives 
 are at once as powerful as the latter. The 2 or 3-frame colonies, 
 narrowed to such a space as they can cover, with a division 
 board, may be called "nuclei," while the others are at once full 
 colonies. The method of procedure depends entirely upon 
 
62 DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 whether we wish to make much or little increase from the colonies 
 at hand. It also depends upon the question of whether we 
 expect to secure honey from our bees during that crop. If we do, 
 then we divide the lesser colonies into small nuclei, keeping all 
 our best colonies for honey production. We ascertained that 
 middling strong colonies, which may not be ready for the harvest 
 in time, are much more economical for the making of increase, 
 than powerful ones, as many of their bees will be reared "ow 
 the crop" instead of "for the crop." 
 
 The reader remembers that we make these divisions on the 
 ninth day after making our colony queenless. This is because 
 the young queens, ordinarily, begin to hatch towards the end 
 of the 10th day and we must insert a queen-cell in each of those 
 artificial swarms before the end of the tenth day. If we inserted 
 the queen-cells at once, on the ninth day, or waited till the tenth 
 day to make our divisions, many of those cells would be destroyed 
 by swarms that would not have yet ascertained their queen- 
 lessness. But on the tenth day, or about 24 hours after making 
 the divisions, our small swarms are brought from the confine- 
 ment where they were placed and a queen-cell inserted in each, 
 in the middle of the brood combs, in the warmest spot. The 
 young queen hatches promptly, sometimes the same evening, 
 usually within 3 or 4 days, and in another week will be fertil- 
 ized and laying. 
 
 When we make divisions, if we moved the queenless part 
 to a vacant spot and released the bees at once, many would 
 go back to the mother hive or, if too young, might join some 
 queenright colonies; for a new home without a queen, has 
 little attraction for them. Dr. Miller and many others advise 
 leaving the swarm thus made in the apiary, closing its entrance 
 with a bunch of grass. 
 
 As we have had several colonies smothered when following 
 this method, we prefer to remove the hives to the cellar over- 
 night. This experience in the smothering of colonies is probably 
 due to the heat of the climate in this locality. By morning, when 
 we remove them to a new spot and insert a queen-cell we have 
 no trouble and the bees seem sufficientlv reconciled to the condi- 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 63 
 
 tions to remain, with the exception of a few of the old field work- 
 ers who return to the old stand. If the swarm has been made 
 with an excess of young bees, there is no trouble. 
 
 Of course, the ideal method is to make one increase from 
 2 colonies, as all three are strong at once and the damage suffered 
 by the colonies that have furnished this increase is shown only 
 in the lack of honey yield. 
 
 It is in either one of these manners that we have increased 
 our colonies, at all times, for we have never liked natural swarm- 
 ing. It is now time for us to state in what manner we prevent 
 natural swarms. 
 
CHAPTER 8 
 Swarm Prevention and Supering 
 
 There are many methods in vogue for the prevention of 
 swarming, but they are nearly all by manipulations which re- 
 quire a great deal of time, at the busiest season. The method 
 which we sustain as best and which we here describe requires 
 no active manipulations during the honey-gathering period, 
 outside of the usually necessary ones, and is what might properly 
 be called a "let alone" method. 
 
 As early as 1870, we found ourselves with a sufficient num- 
 ber of colonies to make swarming undesirable. Besides the 
 objectionable increase in numbers, swarming caused an increase 
 of labor when we were busiest. The method which we then 
 adopted has been in constant use by us since, with additional 
 improvements. We do not claim that swarming can be pre- 
 vented altogether, neither do we claim that it is as easy to avoid 
 it in the production of comb honey as in that of extracted honey. 
 But the success of our management during numerous honey 
 crops is ample evidence that the principles enunciated below 
 are in the right direction. The season of 1916 gave us more 
 positive evidence of its success, as compared to other methods. 
 Out of about 525 colonies, spring count, we gathered less than 
 30 swarms, but harvested over 200 pounds of honey per colony, 
 while a neighbor of ours, less than two miles from our home 
 apiary, gathered 12 swarms from five colonies, owing to his 
 neglect of proper attendance to their needs. The requirements 
 are as follows: 
 
 1. An ample brood-chamber for the needs of a prolific 
 queen. If the queen finds herself confined to a scanty lower 
 story by excluders or otherwise, she will make it known to the 
 bees or they will instinctively notice it themselves and prepare 
 queen-cells. The very large hives, large brood-chambers, and 
 easily accessible supers, that we use, are favorable to a non- 
 swarming disposition. 
 
 But even with an 8-frame hive, the prolific queens may be 
 accommodated. Doctor C. C. Miller uses a second brood-cham- 
 
 65 
 
66 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 ber for prolific queens and removes this at the opening of the 
 crop, leaving in the lower brood-chamber the best brood-combs. 
 In some way, the queen should be accommodated during the 
 heavy breeding season, and especially at the opening of the crop. 
 As an outcome of the first proposition, there must be ample 
 room for stores. Some beginners are astonished to see old prac- 
 titioners, like Dr. Miller, giving their bees as many as three 
 supers at one time, on a strong colony. But if the queen is very 
 prolific, and has been breeding plentifully as nature dictates, 
 her colony may be able to work in each of two or three supers 
 as strongly as they would work in one. 
 
 2. The use of comb foundation in full sheets in the supers 
 when working for comb honey, or of fully built combs in extract- 
 ing supers, has also a great deal of influence, upon the prevention 
 of swarming. True, full combs are much more efficient in this, 
 but comb foundation aids greatly. There are days when the 
 crop is so heavy that all the available cells are at once filled 
 with nectar. If the bees have to build combs and thus find them- 
 selves crowded for room to deposit their loads, swarming may 
 ensue. But with full sheets of foundation in every section, the 
 work of comb building is much simplified and the necessity 
 of producing sufficient wax reduced. Of course, it is understood 
 that the supers have been supplied to the bees before they found 
 themselves crowded for space, for if the swarming impulse is 
 once gained, it is next to impossible to overcome it by any man- 
 ipulations whatever. 
 
 3. It will be entirely useless to expect the bees to remain 
 contented and fill the supers, if the ventilation of the hive is 
 inadequate to the requirements of the enlarged population. 
 All observers have noticed the great tax imposed upon them by 
 the simultaneous increase of heat and discomfort brought about 
 by a summer temperature and a daily addition of some 2,000 
 or 3,000 or more hatching bees to the population of powerful 
 colonies. Yet many beekeepers do not think of enlarging the 
 means of ventilation. Thousands of colonies are compelled to 
 leave a large part of their population idle, hanging on the out- 
 side of the hive for davs and sometimes for weeks, because they 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 67 
 
 are unable to sufficiently ventilate the inside of the brood-cham- 
 ber and supers. We must remember that every corner, every 
 story of a hive is in absolute need of a current of fresh air which 
 is supplied at great pains by establishing a line of fanning bees, 
 incessantly forcing pure air in and foul air out. Yet in many 
 colonies there may be but a shallow entrance, partly closed by 
 
 Fig. 39. Supers set back for ventilation in hot weather 
 
68 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 clustering bees, and perhaps on the inside above the brood- 
 combs there may be some partitions, queen-excluders, separators, 
 honey-boards, etc., all in the way of ventilation. We raise our 
 hives from the bottom, in front, from one to two inches, v hen 
 there is a likelihood of the bees being unable to ventilate other- 
 wise. We have even set the supers back a half inch or so, during 
 the hottest days, to secure a current of air through the brood- 
 chamber in very hot weather. But this must not be continued 
 too long, for it might interfere with the storing of honey in the 
 forward part of the supers if the weather changed. The bottom 
 ventilation, however, must be ample, ample enough in fact to 
 allow all the bees to work, so that none will remain clustering 
 on the outside during the continuation of the honey crop. 
 
 4. As help to ventilation and comfort by decreasing the 
 heat, a good roof is needed when the hives are exposed to the 
 sun. We use coarse roofs on our hives, as stated before, even 
 when they are located in the shade of trees. Our roofs are made 
 very cheaply of large discarded dry goods boxes and are flat. 
 They are cleated with 2x2 inch scantling on the rear underside 
 and a 1x2 inch strip under the front end. This secures a slope 
 of an inch, which may be turned the other way to shed water 
 in rear. The roofs are much wider than the hive and shelter 
 the top from the effects of the weather. 
 
 5. The queen must be young. Some beekeepers believe 
 in requeening every season after the honey crop. We do not 
 believe in so radical a measure. In fact, we would not feel cap- 
 able of killing a first-class queen after only one season of use. 
 But we do believe in keeping only prolific queens and if the queen 
 has proven under grade she should be replaced. Old queens that 
 are losing their fertility are a frequent source of swarming. The 
 workers prepare to supersede them, by rearing queen-cells, just 
 as soon as they notice their reduced laying. The old queen in 
 a pique leaves with a swarm. So we must replace our old queens 
 every fall or late summer. 
 
 6. A large number of drones is an incentive to swarming. 
 Some of the old-time beekeepers thought the drones were bene- 
 ficial because the colonies having many drones swarm readily. 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 69 
 
 They considered swarming a desirable thing. So it was, when 
 dividing or artificial increase was unknown. They also thought 
 as already stated, that the drones were useful in keeping the 
 brood warm. So they would be if they did not have to be kept 
 warm themselves when they are reared and also if the bees did 
 not kill them, as they are sure to do, in bad weather. 
 
 There is not any doubt that the excess of drones in the hive 
 promotes swarming. Those big, noisy fellows remain in the way, 
 all day long, except for a flight during the warmest hours, being 
 then still more in the way of the active workers. Although, as 
 Dr. Bruennich says, there is a. certain fondness of the workers 
 for the drones, during the crop, which changes to hate after- 
 wards when they see them helping themselves from their hard 
 earned stores, yet their numbers make for discomfort and a 
 crowded condition. 
 
 In a state of nature, according to the best authorities, bees 
 build from one-seventh to one-tenth of their combs of drone 
 size, in the brood-chamber. If only one-twentieth of the combs 
 of a normal colony were filled with drone-brood, this would 
 supply nearly 2,500 drones per colony. We should permit only 
 two or three of our very best breeders to rear so large a number 
 of drones, for 5,000 to 10,000 drones are enough for any apiary. 
 
 Some beekeepers see no way to destroy drones but to use 
 a drone-trap. That is to say, during the busiest, warmest season, 
 when their bees need the greatest amount of ventilation, they 
 place in front of the entrance a cage made to catch drones and 
 queens, the very worst encumbrance that may be devised, for 
 the sake of catching the drones as they emerge, having to remove 
 them every evening or suffer the odor and encumbrance of dead 
 drones in front of each hive. 
 
 It is probably impossible to rjear no drones at all, but if 
 we remove all the drone-comb, early in the season, as nearly 
 as we can, and replace it with worker-comb, there will be drones 
 reared only in imperfect cells here and there or in out-of-the-way 
 corners. Instead of rearing 2,000 or more, we will perhaps rear 
 200 or less in each colony, a very important difference when we 
 consider the comfort of the colony. Remember that if we leave 
 
70 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 the bees to their own devices, when we remove the drone-comb 
 in early spring they will be sure to build drone-comb in the same 
 spot. So it is important to replace it with worker-comb. 
 
 There are instances, however, of bees building drone-comb 
 on imperfect worker foundation. They are rare and are usually 
 due to some defect of the foundation, which may have been 
 stretched slightly in laminating. At a meeting of the beekeepers 
 of Middlebury, Vt., in the summer of 1916, Mr. Crane men- 
 tioned having had about a dozen sheets of foundation thus 
 changed, out of some 2,000 used by him in 1915. These are only 
 accidents. Accidents also are instances of bees building drone- 
 cells on one side of the comb, w r hile worker-cells are on the oppo- 
 site side. In such a case the regular base is not followed and the 
 cells lap over, showing plainly that they were irregularly built. 
 Mr. Latham exhibited to us two square inches of such comb 
 during the summer of 1916. Such combs should be remelted 
 and replaced by well built combs. 
 
 When we replace the drone-comb with worker-comb in 
 all but our best colonies, we do away with undesirable drones 
 for the mating of the queens. We save food which would be 
 wasted on these undesirable beings, since the drone costs at 
 least one-half more to rear than a worker, and has to be fed as 
 long as he lives. 
 
 Replace the drone-comb with worker-comb, as much as 
 possible in your hives, early in the season, and you will have 
 much less to fear of the swarming fever. 
 
 7. The last condition which we can mention in the success- 
 ful prevention of swarming is one which we have been using for 
 years, but which we did not think of in that connection until the 
 matter was brought to our attention by Mr. Allan Latham, 
 in 1916. In exhibiting a hive at the Storrs meeting, Mr. Latham 
 made the remark that the 1 3-8 inch spacing of combs, from 
 center to center, in common use, was a promoter of swarming. 
 We have used the Quinby spacing of 1 1-2 inches ever since 1866. 
 The bees work as satisfactorily with the one spacing as with 
 the other. In fact, the original advisors of either mode of spacing 
 had no very positive argument to advance in favor of their 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 71 
 
 method. But the 11-2 inch spacing gives 1-8 of an inch addi- 
 tional between all the combs for the bees to cluster or move 
 about during the breeding season. This multiplied by the height 
 and length of the hive and by the number of frames gives an 
 addition of 162 cubic inches of clustering space or ventilation, 
 as the case may be. Think of the large number of bees which 
 may be accommodated in such a space. 
 
 The standard hives of the present day are nearly all of the 
 narrow kind. Nevertheless, the broader spacing is much the 
 better, for the above named reason and also because it gives 
 easier manipulation and more clustering space for the colony 
 in winter. As we have said, we used the wider spacing for years, 
 but did not realize that our success in swarm prevention was in 
 part due to this spacing. It is undoubtedly of great advantage 
 in the prevention of swarming. 
 
 Let it not be understood that we lay any claims to the total 
 prevention of swarming. That is a goal perhaps never to be 
 attained. Neither do we lay any claim to breeding a non-swarm- 
 ing strain. But when some of our most practical beekeepers, 
 such as we have met in the East, acknowledge, as one did, having 
 had as many as 18 swarms out, at the same hour, in one apiary, 
 we believe there is need generally of a more thorough understand- 
 ing of the causes of natural swarming. 
 
 The advantages of this method consist in doing away with 
 numerous hive manipulations during the honey crop, such as 
 cutting out queen-cells, taking out brood, shifting colonies, 
 returning swarms to the old hive, etc. All the required work, 
 outside of increasing the opportunities for ventilation and adding 
 supers, has to be done during the dull season. We know that 
 those who have excessive swarming, if they try these conditions, 
 will find themselves greatly relieved by the results. Besides, 
 they may be able to discover additional requirements, for there 
 is always something more to be learned. If we are to judge of 
 future progress by the past, there are endless opportunities for 
 more knowledge, endless chances for progress. 
 
72 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 Putting on Supers 
 
 We have said enough in previous pages to suggest that we 
 are specialists in extracted honey production. The supers that 
 we use indicate it. We believe that enough more honey may be 
 secured, from combs built previously, to much more than make 
 up for the difference in price between comb-honey and extracted 
 honey. 
 
 Every practical beekeeper knows that beeswax is produced 
 in the body of the worker-bee, by special organs acting much 
 in the way of milk production in the cow, or in the production 
 of fat by animals like cattle or hogs. They are also aware that it 
 takes about as much honey, digested by the bees, to produce 
 a pound of comb, as it takes of food to produce a pound of fat 
 in domestic animals. This quantity is not fixed but depends in 
 its proportion upon the circumstances in which the secretion 
 is produced. It is safe, however, to assume from experiments 
 of scientists and from the experience of practical beekeepers, 
 that an average of ten pounds of honey is probably required 
 for each pound of comb. If honey is worth 15 cents per pound, 
 it indicates a cost of SI. 50 for every pound of comb. 
 
 In addition it is worth while to take into account the loss 
 of time to the bees, when they must remain idle for at least 
 a day to produce this wax, besides the time of building combs. 
 It is true that most of this labor is performed by young bees 
 during the 14 days of their stay in the hive previous to field 
 work. But when a yield comes, it oftens takes old bees as well 
 as young bees to produce the needed wax. So it behooves us 
 to save comb and return it to the bees after having emptied it 
 of its honey, when it has been harvested and ripened by the 
 bees. 
 
 Moreover, the production of extracted honey enhances 
 the facility for preventing swarming. Although the method 
 given in the former pages for the prevention of swarming is also 
 successful in comb-honey production, it is much easier to secure 
 an almost total absence of swarms with the production of ex- 
 tracted honey, because we save our super combs from one year 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 73 
 
 to another. We have extracting combs which have been in use 
 for 40 years or more and which are now better than ever, for 
 the bees every season strengthen them by the addition of a little 
 more wax. Neither is there any loss of beeswax in the production 
 of extracted honey. Bees produce comb in large amount when 
 they are compelled to remain filled with honey from one day to 
 another, for want of cells in which to store it. If empty comb 
 is supplied plentifully, a very small amount of wax will be 
 produced. Both practice and theory indicate this. 
 
 The supers are placed upon the hives at the opening*of the 
 crop of honey. This is perhaps ambiguous to beginners. But it 
 is necessary to have some practical experience to judge of the 
 exact time and even experienced beekeepers may put the supers 
 on too early or too late. We must leave this matter to be decided 
 by the good judgment of the apiarist. We often wait until our 
 best colonies begin to whiten their brood-combs with fresh bees- 
 wax at the top. Sometimes, if the crop opens with a rush, this 
 may be too late to prevent swarming preparations. If our col- 
 onies are very strong, it does not hurt to put the supers orta few 
 days earlier. 
 
 Very strong colonies may be given two supers at once, 
 though we prefer to give only one, waiting to put on the second 
 super until the first one is about half filled. 
 
 Supers that are already filled with combs fully built during 
 a previous season are a great attraction to the bees. The pro- 
 ducers of comb-honey who follow the method of Dr. Miller and 
 others to place a few already built sections in each comb-honey 
 super, as baits, to attract the bees there, will readily realize what 
 a marked influence supers of comb already built have upon the 
 production of honey. Few people recognize the great cost of 
 comb to the bees. Yet supers are filled more than twice as readily 
 when already full of drawn combs as when given to the bees 
 with only guides or even with comb foundation. Powerful col- 
 onies, in a very promising season, may be given as many as 3 
 supers of the large size that we use, at the very outset, and fill 
 them readily. 
 
 Our visits to the bees are timed according to the prospects 
 
74 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 of the crop. The weather has a great influence upon results. 
 After several days of rain, during one season, we found a number 
 of colonies of great strength, to whom supers had been given, 
 actually starving. Super combs, partly filled with honey of the 
 previous year, and saved for that purpose, were given them, 
 among the empty ones in the supers. Three days later, the warm 
 sunshine had changed conditions so quickly that we found those 
 same combs of honey heavier than when given. The bees had 
 already gathered a sufficient amount to store nectar in the supers. 
 
 When adding second and third supers, we sometimes put 
 them on top of the first, sometimes between it and the brood 
 apartment. If the bees are scattering their honey well, there is 
 no need of lifting a heavy super to put another under it. But if 
 they are rather conservative and crowd their honey into the 
 combs closely, it may be advisable to place the added supers 
 between the stories. 
 
 When the crop nears its close, we sometimes find it profitable 
 to equalize supers, so as to find everything full when we remove 
 the honey. For instance, a strong colony may have 3 supers, 
 of which one may be still half empty while the other two are 
 full. Its neighbor may be a colony below average, with one super 
 only, and this only a third full. It is evident then, that the 
 stronger colony will fill its remaining empty combs sooner than 
 the latter. We exchange a few full combs from this strong colony 
 for empty combs of the other, so that, if the crop ends in a week, 
 we will probably find both colonies with full supers. 
 
 A super, two thirds full, may be exchanged from a strong 
 colony with that of a weaker one, that has barely begun storing 
 in the only super it has had. Both will probably be found full 
 a few days later. 
 
 In these equalizing exchanges, if the crop is on, we do not 
 bother with removing the bees from either super, for bees rarely 
 fight when the new comers are found with full stomachs. In 
 this they are very much like human beings. We smile upon a 
 man who comes to us with gifts; but the beggar, unless he suc- 
 ceeds in interesting us in an apparently true misfortune, gets 
 little sympathy and a cold welcome. 
 
CHAPTER 9 
 
 Fig. 40. The bee-escape board lends 
 itself to modern honey production 
 
 Extracting 
 
 We aim to extract the honey as soon as it is ripe, and, if 
 possible, before the crop has quite ended. The reason of this is 
 obvious. It is not so pleasant to remove honey during a dearth, 
 as during a honey flow. 
 But a great deal of the 
 honey must be left upon 
 the hives until the crop 
 is over. 
 
 On the afternoon 
 preceding the removal of 
 the honey, we put on the 
 bee-escape boards. This 
 operation is quickly per- 
 formed with little fatigue, 
 because of the method 
 employed, which does not 
 require the lifting of the 
 
 supers more than one end at a time, balancing them over a 
 cross piece which supports them until the escape board is 
 slipped on the brood apartment. 
 
 Some persons object to the bee-escape. So did we, before 
 we gave it a thorough trial. Now we have bee-escape boards in 
 sufficient number to supply one for each colony and we find the 
 use of them a great economy of labor. After from 7 to 14 hours, 
 only an occasional bee is left in the super. The only time when 
 bees fail to leave the super is when the queen is with them or 
 when there is brood in the super. They evidently consider it 
 their duty to remain with the queen or the helpless brood and we 
 should not criticize them for it, as it is evidently good judgment 
 on their part. 
 
 We have to be careful, when putting on bee-ecapes in times 
 of dearth, not to allow of any passage from the outside for 
 robbers, as they would help themselves to the combs of honey 
 that are deprived of their bees. 
 
 75 
 
76 
 
 DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 Fig. 41. Using mud to close gaps between stories made by the hive tool 
 on supers long in usa 
 
 Tracks or gaps that may exist between supers, especially 
 when they have seen some 25 years of use, are readily stopped 
 with a little wet clay. The Europeans use cow dung mixed with 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 77 
 
 Fig. 42. Method of lifting supers to put on escape-board 
 
 the clay. It makes a stronger cement. Beginners, with new hives, 
 may laugh at the makeshifts of the practical beekeeper. But the 
 time comes when they find themselves compelled to use similar 
 makeshifts. 
 
78 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 It is well, in very hot weather, in our latitude, to avoid 
 leaving those unoccupied supers on the hives during the hot 
 part of the day, as the heat might cause the combs to break 
 down, the bees being no longer there to ventilate and lower the 
 temperature of the super. 
 
 If the crop is still on, no precautions need be taken in return- 
 ing the supers to the colonies. In fact, it is necessary that they 
 be returned as promptly as possible, for the bees are idle mean- 
 while, if the brood chamber is full. So we make due haste in 
 returning them as fast as emptied of their honey. We saw, 
 during an excellent honey harvest, supers that had been emptied 
 two days before again supplied with fresh honey in every cell. 
 Such harvests are rare, however. 
 
 If we have a number of spare supers, we save some trouble 
 by making an exchange, putting on the empty supers as fast 
 as the full ones are removed. Very often, however, in a bountiful 
 harvest, all spare supers have been given to the bees before 
 extracting began. A half dozen, sometimes, are retained from 
 the first colonies harvested, to exchange for full supers as we go 
 along. 
 
 If the season is at end, we pile all the supers, as fast as 
 emptied of their honey, in the honey house until evening. A 
 short time before sunset, those supers are returned quickly, 
 everybody helping, to the colonies from which they were taken. 
 This prevents the excitement of their return from lasting long 
 enough to cause robbing, since night prevents further hustling 
 on the part of the excited bees. When morning comes again, 
 everything is quiet. 
 
 If the honey is not well ripened, we use honey tanks to 
 store it. But as we have numerous outapiaries and the honey 
 might not be safe in tanks away from the home yard, we use 
 alcohol barrels of good quality and thoroughly dry, to contain 
 the crop. These are emptied at leisure, in vessels of different 
 capacity, as occasion requires. 
 
 It is sometimes necessary to haul the supers to the home 
 apiary or central plant, to do the extracting. The writer does 
 not like this method as well as that of local extracting. Yet it 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 79 
 
 undoubtedly has some advantages that cannot be secured in 
 local extracting, because of greater facilities. Each apiarist 
 must decide this for himself. Our principal objection to it is 
 in the necessity of hauling the supers back and forth and the 
 fact that the honey cools and thickens after being removed from 
 the hives and is more difficult to extract. Some beekeepers who 
 use a central plant find it necessary to heat the room overnight, 
 at least, to warm up the honey for extracting. 
 
 Fig. 43. First honey extractor of Hruschka. The infancy of the 
 development of centrifugal force 
 
80 
 
 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 Extracting Implements 
 
 The senior Dadant was already keepingbeeswhenHruschka, 
 of Dolo, near Venice, in 1865, invented the centrifugal honey 
 extractor (smelatore). This invention was described in the 
 American Bee Journal, three years later, in April, 1868. It may 
 seem strange to a modern student that so important a discovery 
 should have been 3 years in coming across the ocean, but when 
 we remember that there were only 3 or 4 magazines published 
 on beekeeping at that time; none then in Italy; that the trans- 
 atlantic cables were just beginning their useful activity, it will 
 be easier to comprehend the slowness of the spread of so useful 
 a discovery. 
 
 There were no manufacturers of bee supplies, no dealers 
 in hives or smokers, at that time, in the United States. So the 
 only way to secure an extractor was to have one built at home, 
 
 Fig. 44. The first extractor made in the United States 
 was the pattern of our first extractor 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 81 
 
 after the cut given in the American Bee Journal, Volume 3, 
 page 189. Our local tinner was employed to make the tub, of 
 strong tin instead of wood. The blacksmith made the basket 
 
 Fig. 45. Uncapping at a single stroke of the knife owing to the proper 
 depth of super frames 
 
82 
 
 DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 frame, and a churn gear furnished the power. But the fly netting 
 which we employed as screen for the baskets was too flimsy and 
 allowed the combs to bulge in the baskets, so as to break. Add 
 to this the fact that we did not yet have super frames but had 
 to extract from full-sized brood combs, that our combs were not 
 very straight in the frames, since comb foundation was not yet 
 in use, and you will realize how much trouble it was to extract 
 honey in the pioneer days. 
 
 But the honey was splendid — what we did secure — so much 
 so that the first dealer to whom we offered it replied very tartly 
 that he did not want any sugar syrup; that whenever he did 
 want some, he could make it himself; that he knew honey when 
 he saw it and had never seen any that light in color. 
 
 The coarseness of the extractor was not the only disagree- 
 
 ing. 46. Robber Cloth and pan protect the supers from robbers during 
 
 extracting 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 83 
 
 able feature of the newly discovered method. We had no utensils 
 for handling the honey and cappings. A butcher knife, later 
 a thin-bladed knife, served as uncapping knife, and we can still 
 remember the relief brought to the work by the invention of the 
 Bingham knife, whose beveled edge kept the cappings from 
 sticking again to the combs, after having been shaved off. An 
 ordinary dishpan served us for several seasons, as a capping 
 can. This had to be emptied, every few hours, into a sieve with 
 side-boards, draining over a 5-gallon earthen jar. 
 
 After 4 or 5 years of this infantile and ridiculous method, 
 or lack of method, we decided to have a large strainer built which 
 would hold the cappings of a whole day's extracting. Manu- 
 facturers of honey extractors had then come into being and we 
 ordered from one of them a can of the same size as an extractor 
 can, with another can in- 
 side of it. The latter can 
 had a screen instead of a 
 bottom and was ten inches 
 shallower than the outer 
 can, its bottom resting on 
 a pivot in the center of the 
 outer can and its upper 
 edge on the inner edge of 
 it. This was the "capping 
 can," named "Dadant un- 
 capping can" by dealers, 
 which is now often replaced 
 by a long trough with 
 double screened bottom in 
 the honey house. We prefer 
 the capping can to any- 
 other implement for hold- 
 ing cappings, because it 
 may be transported like an 
 extractor, because it is 
 light and easily cleaned. 
 Some such implement 
 
 Fig. 41. The Original Capping can is 
 still in use in the Dadant Apiaries 
 
84 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 should be used. We have several of them, so that we can allow 
 the cappings to drain dry. 
 
 We do not like the capping melter sold by dealers, which 
 heats the cappings enough to melt the combs and separate the 
 wax from the honey as fast as harvested. True, it does fast 
 work, but it colors the honey, injures its flavor, and produces 
 too much heat at a time when the weather is already as hot as 
 the apiarist can endure. 
 
 We find no trouble in handling the cappings. The honey 
 falling with them into the capping-can drains more readily if 
 the fresh cappings are well stirred about every half hour. This 
 stirring with a sharp, clean, firm slat or stick breaks them up into 
 small bits and greatly aids the draining of the honey. After 24 
 to 48 hours of draining, they are emptied into a barrel of which 
 one head has been removed. When the season is over, we may 
 have several barrels of these cappings and the entire lot is ren- 
 dered at one time into beeswax. There is no loss of quality in the 
 capping honey and the wax rendering is done in one operation. 
 Sometimes we wash these cappings preparatory to rendering 
 them. The sweet water thus secured is made into mead or vine- 
 gar. Nothing is lost. 
 
 The amount of cappings secured from a given amount 
 of extracted honey we find to be about 1 per cent. So when we 
 have a crop of 50,000 pounds of extracted honey, we can figure 
 on approximately 500 pounds of the finest quality of beeswax, 
 after it has been rendered and purified. We used to get a larger 
 amount of cappings. That was when the combs were crooked, 
 or more or less wavy, before we used full sheets of comb-founda- 
 tion. It was also more difficult to do the uncapping. We use 
 also a less number of combs in the super than in the brood- 
 chamber. At first, when the bees are given the plain sheets of 
 foundation in the super, it is necessary to have the same number 
 of combs as in the brood -chamber. But after they are built, 
 they may be placed farthe. apart. At each new crop, the bees 
 strengthen them by adding more wax. They also thicken them 
 so that we may use as few as 9 super combs in the super of an 
 11-frame hive. This gives thicker combs of honey and there is 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 85 
 
 less uncapping. These deep cells are also less likely to attract 
 the queen who requires shallow cells to lay eggs. So the danger 
 of breeding in the super is lessened by the use of a less number 
 of combs in it. 
 
 Robbing 
 
 We spoke of the possibility of annoyance by robbers, when 
 returning supers of combs to the hives. As a matter of course, 
 these combs are sticky with honey. If the crop has ended, the 
 odor of the honey attracts robbers. That is why we return them 
 to the bees in the evening only. Some people do not return them 
 at all till the following spring. We object to preserving them in 
 this shape, for several reasons. 
 
 First. The honey with which they are still slightly smeared 
 is likely to gather moisture, for honey is exceedingly hygro- 
 metric, absorbing moisture readily from the air. W 7 e at different 
 times had honey to ferment in the cells, during the season fol- 
 lowing, owing to the presence of a small quantity of this fer- 
 mented honey in combs that had not been cleaned. 
 
 Second. Combs which are sticky with honey are much 
 more attractive to both mice and bees and therefore are more 
 difficult to preserve over winter. 
 
 Third. The same trouble is likely to occur when we place 
 these supers on the hive in the spring, as we fear at harvest 
 time. Their strong odor attracts robbers to the hives to which 
 they ar3 given. 
 
 Some people allow the bees of the different colonies to 
 clean out the supers, after the crop is over, by exposing them 
 in an open spot of the apiary, until all the honey has been carried 
 out. We have found this to give incentive to robbing and do 
 not like the practice. Besides, if a neighbor has bees, they are 
 likely to come and help themselves also. We believe in being 
 neighborly, but not to that extent. 
 
 When robbing has begun on a colony, if it is not worth 
 saving, we break it up and give its combs to other colonies to 
 protect, after having first gotten rid of the robbers. 
 
 If the colony is worth saving and we find that it is robbed 
 by only one other colony, we stop the robbing by exchanging 
 
sti 
 
 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 Fig. 48. Supers returned to the hives after the last extracting of the year 
 
 the two colonies for each other, placing the robbing colony in 
 place of the robbed one and vice versa. A little flour, sprinkled 
 over the escaping robbers, readily indicates their home. 
 
 If the robbing has just begun, it is usually sufficient to throw 
 a bunch of grass loosely upon the entrance of the robbed col- 
 ony. Its home guards station themselves in that grass as in 
 trenches and pounce upon the robbers who soon give up the 
 attempt. 
 
 But it is much easier to forestall robbing than to stop it 
 after it has successfully begun. Therefore we take the greatest 
 care to avoid exposing any honey while extracting. 
 
 We use both robber-cloths over the supers while carrying 
 them and tin pans under them, to avoid dropping any honey on 
 the wheelbarrow used, or on the grass, or on the clothes of the 
 apiarist. It is worth while to be careful. One experience with 
 robbing is sufficient to teach us a useful lesson. 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPIXG 
 
 87 
 
 While working about the apiary, the apiarist sometimes 
 finds himself followed by robber bees which appear to under- 
 stand that they may find profit in shadowing him. We have 
 
 Fig. 49. Super combs which have been in use for over fifty years, and 
 are fully as good as at first 
 
 often stopped our work for an hour or so on this account, or 
 perhaps have gone to work at the other end of the apiary to 
 baffle the robbers. 
 
 The worst thing to be feared from robbers is not during the 
 harvesting of the crop. It is when there happens to be disease 
 in the apiary and we find ourselves compelled to open the hives 
 that contain this disease in a period of scarcity of crop. This 
 matter will be considered at the chapter on diseases. 
 
 Varying Honey Crops 
 
 In our locality, as in many others, the honey yields are 
 divided into two very distinct seasons, the summer crop and 
 
88 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 the fall crop. The flavor, quality and color of the honeys of 
 these two seasons being very distinct, it is necessary to keep 
 the crops separate. Then also there is sometimes quite a dearth 
 between the two, during which the unsupplied swarms must be 
 looked after, just as we do in spring. 
 
 Requeening 
 
 It is usually during this short season that we replace the 
 queens which have passed their period of usefulness. Some peo- 
 ple change the queens in their hives every season. We believe 
 that a queen is better in her second year than in her first. Ex- 
 ception must be made, however, with the queens that are in- 
 ferior, by positive test, in their prolificness or in the generation 
 which they produce. Such queens should be replaced as soon as 
 possible. 
 
 We allow" good queens to become fully two years old before 
 we think of removing them. The removal and replacing with 
 young queens is done with stock purchased from queen-breeders 
 of known integrity, whose breeding stock is known to us and 
 approved as to purity and prolificness. 
 
 Rearing one's own queens, from known stock of good honey- 
 producing qualities, is certainly the very best way, even though 
 a beekeeper in the North may find it cheaper in dollars and 
 cents to buy the queens already reared, from a Southern State, 
 where the season lasts longer and bees are not so valuable for 
 honey production. 
 
 The advantage of rearing our own queens is that we know 
 exactly what the parentage is, as far as the mother is concerned 
 at least, and if we use a little diplomacy, it is often easy to Ital- 
 ianize our neighbors' bees to secure pure matings. We have 
 repeatedly, in bygone years, Italianized colonies for neighboring 
 bee men, at one dollar per colony, taking all the trouble upon 
 ourselves. We found that it paid us in the long run, as we secured 
 more pure matings; since the neighbors are not so careful as 
 we are in doing away with drone-combs and rear more drones 
 than we do. This is just a suggestion to the careful beekeeper. 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 89 
 
 Queens will mate with drones from colonies a mile, or two or 
 more away. We believe the drone travels the greater part of the 
 
 distance. 
 
 Some beekeepers rear queens from the very best honey- 
 producing colony in their apiary, regardless of whether the 
 bees of that colony are of pure breed. We do not. Experience 
 has taught us that fixed qualities are very rare in hybrids. Be- 
 sides, the workers produced by a hybrid queen are usually cross 
 in disposition. Pure Italians have our preference. There are 
 other races equally good, such as the Caucasian. But Caucasian 
 bees are of gray color and a slight mixture with the common 
 race is difficult if not impossible to detect. Italians are very 
 good bees and have the advantage of showing impure blood 
 readily. We prefer them to any other race. We have tried the 
 Cyprian, the Carniolan and the Caucasian. The latter we would 
 take, next to the Italians. The Cyprian are too cross. The Car- 
 niolan show too great a propensity for swarming. 
 
 Queen Introduction 
 
 Some very practical men introduce queens in hives, dur- 
 ing the honey crop, by simply removing the old queen, smok- 
 ing the hive thoroughly for a little while, allowing the new 
 queen to run in at the entrance and closing the entrance for a 
 few minutes. This method has its drawbacks, for it is unsafe 
 in any but a good honey-gathering season. Some people believe 
 in making the colony queenless ahead of time. We don't. We 
 wait till the new queen is there before removing the old one. We 
 believe it a good plan to cage the old queen, for an hour or two 
 previous to killing her, in the cage in which the new queen is to 
 be introduced. It gives the cage the odor of the old queen and 
 appears to make safe introduction more secure. Caging the 
 queen on the brood-comb for a couple of days, we consider the 
 best method of introduction. W T e have had less losses with this, 
 method than with any other. 
 
CHAPTER 10 
 
 Nomadic Beekeeping 
 
 It sometimes happens that, after the first crop, the weather 
 is so dry that the bloom's prospects are poor for a fall crop. 
 
 Fig. 50. The Mississippi bottoms viewed from the Koch apiary on the 
 
 edge of the bluff 
 
 Sometimes also, the first crop is a total failure from drouth. 
 We have had one or two unprofitable years from too much wet. 
 But most of the short crops have been due to drouth. 
 
 When the uplands are dry, the bottom lands or low lands 
 near the Mississippi are usually thriving, owing to the early 
 floods which recede in summer. So we practice nomadic bee- 
 keeping. 
 
 91 
 
92 
 
 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 Our first attempt at moving bees to the pastures, in the 
 midst of summer, was in 1881. During that season everything 
 of value to bees on the hills, dried or wilted in June and Julv. 
 
 ,N0fVTH 
 
 South 
 
 Fig. 51 Chart of the Dadant apiaries in 1880 
 Each circle has a diameter of 4 miles. 
 
 The low lands, having been covered with water until the begin- 
 ning of July, a very rapid growth of fall plants began as soon as 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 93 
 
 the waters receded. Polygonums or knot weeds, (smartweed) 
 especially of the variety persicaria, also called heartsease ; Spanish 
 needles or bidens, also called burr-marigolds; boneset and nu- 
 merous other low land plants, formed great fields of variegated 
 colors, yielding splendid golden honey. 
 
 Fig. 52. Map of the Dadant Apiaries in 1919 
 Each circle has a diameter of 4 miles, 
 
94 
 
 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 Something over a hundred colonies were moved by us on 
 hay racks, during some of the very hottest weather of that year, 
 a distance of 25 miles. 
 
 Luckily the nights were cool. The colonies were so short 
 of stores that some did not even have brood. So, by moving 
 them during the night, we had no difficulty in transporting them. 
 The trips took about 8 hours, including nailing them up and 
 opening them on arrival. The result was very satisfactory and 
 proved profitable. 
 
 No total failures happened again for a number of years 
 and it was only in 1918, 37 years later, that we again resorted 
 to moving bees in summer. But at this time, we had auto trucks 
 and we were not compelled to travel at night, though most of 
 the hauling was done early in the morning. In 1918 and 1919 
 
 Fig. 53. Moving bees on Auto Trucks 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 95 
 
 we thus hauled a large number of colonies to the low lands 
 (400 in 1919), with profit. 
 
 The advent of the auto truck has certainly made a revolu- 
 tion in nomadic beekeeping, as a man can readily enough haul 
 even rich colonies from one place to another. To confine them, 
 we usually entirely nail up the entrance, as we find that the 
 old bees are apt to worry on the screen, if screen is used to close 
 it up, since that is their usual exit. We remove the cap and the 
 supers, hauling them separately, and each colony is covered 
 with a wooden frame entirely screened over, with cross pieces 
 
 Fig. 54. Closing brood-chambers with screens for hauling in hot weather 
 
9G DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 to protect the screen. Thus 400 colonies were hauled from 21 
 to 30 miles without any loss. They were brought back to the 
 original apiaries in the fall during frosty weather. At that tim€ 
 no ventilation is necessary. A deep wire cover gives them sum- 
 cient air. 
 
 In addition to the advantage of bringing bees to rich pas- 
 ture,we believe there is a gain in what Mr. Demuth calls "morale" 
 in the behavior of the bees, when they are transported. We have 
 often noticed that bees brought to a new spot, whether it be in 
 spring or fall, and having to learn a new country, become more 
 active. It seems to increase their energy, their morale, to find 
 themselves in new fields. We are not the only, ones, besides 
 Demuth, to have noticed this. Others have spoken of it also. 
 It sems to act upon them as upon pioneers who go forward 
 to new countries, for we believe that the great energy, the posi- 
 tive activity, of the American people, are due to their having 
 been pioneers in new spots as yet uncultivated. Bees may be 
 induced to more activity in several ways and we believe this 
 is one of them. 
 
 A similar argument is brought forward by a beekeeper of the 
 Netherlands, who, after having described the nomadic methods 
 of Hollandish beekeepers, who move their bees to the heather 
 fields every summer, asserts that the moving of the bees increases 
 their activity and the breeding propensity of their queens. We 
 might cite similar opinions from several other noted apiarists 
 
CHAPTER 11 
 Fall Management 
 
 When the end of the crop is near, we find it advisable to 
 make sure that our bees are putting enough honey in their brood 
 combs for winter. 
 
 With comb-honey production, it is often noticed that the 
 bees have crowded so much honey in the brood combs that they 
 have little room for breeding. The colony decreases in numbers, 
 especially if the crop lasts to a late date. 
 
 With our management in the production of extracted honey, 
 large brood chambers and very free access to a number of supers, 
 it may happen, if we are not on the lookout, that our bees will 
 have a contrary experience, an insufficient quantity of honey 
 in the brood combs. We believe in a very large amount of stores 
 for winter and spring. The old way was to figure on 25 pounds. 
 We want 40 pounds at least to make sure that there will be no 
 shortage and no stint in the spring breeding. To obtain this, 
 we crowd the bees for room ; that is to say, we allow them a little 
 less super room and this forces them to put a sufficiency in the 
 brood combs. Better have 50 pounds than only 25. 
 
 It is not advisable, however, to cramp them so that the 
 fall breeding will be neglected. A colony wintering on mainly 
 old bees and a limited number of you«ig bees is not likely to 
 succeed as well as a colony that has bred freely till the late fall. 
 This question requires j udgment on the part of the apiarist. Even 
 a very experienced man will make mistakes in this matter. Much 
 also depends upon the conditions at the end of the crop. In 
 many seasons the amount of brood reared, before cool nights 
 come, depends upon the field conditions. 
 
 97 
 
CHAPTER 12 
 Wintering 
 
 If we have a sufficiency of honey in the brood combs, a 
 good strong colony of bees upon those combs, we have the best 
 possible conditions for winter, provided the honey is of good 
 quality. 
 
 We had very expensive experience with honeydew, har- 
 vested in July and retained in the brood combs for winter. We 
 had similarly great losses with fruit juice, apple juice, grape 
 juice, etc., harvested by the bees in September-October, during 
 a dearth of honey. The season of 1879 was especially discourag- 
 ing, for, while the bees did no damage to sound fruit and only 
 gathered grape- juice from bird -damaged grapes and sweet cider 
 from damaged apples, many of our neighbors thought that we 
 were getting rich at their expense, supposing that our bees were 
 transforming all that fruit juice into good honey. The truth 
 of the matter was that many a bee was unable to even reach 
 home with the fermented juices that it gathered, in lieu of good 
 honey. Although we tried to take out of the comb all the cider 
 and fermented grape juice that they thus stored in the cells, 
 there was enough left to poison them during the cold days. 
 
 Honeydew, fruit juice, cheap syrups, and honey containing 
 many pollen grains, are bad winter food. To keep warm, the 
 bees must consume honey and they must have as pure saccharine ♦ 
 matter as possible, as all grades of sweet food containing acids, 
 vegetable matter, starch, etc., leave a large amount of residue 
 in their intestines, which they must discharge out of the hive, 
 on the wing, or suffer from diarrhea or dysentery. This is dis- 
 charged in the hive, upon the other bees of the cluster, if the 
 weather is too cold for them to void their feces outside. That 
 is why many of the most practical apiarists feed their bees the 
 best quality of sugar syrup to complete their winter stores. 
 It is a good method to follow, even if some desk-educated apiar- 
 ists affirm that bee diseases are due to the use of sugar in bee 
 food. We are quite willing to grant that, for spring food, nothing 
 is better than honey, because of its containing matter which 
 
 99 
 
100 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 helps build the body of the young bee. But when the bees are 
 full grown and confined to the hive, nothing is better for them 
 than the purest saccharine matter. So we have always made 
 it a point to remove all honeydew and late-gathered, dubious 
 sweets, harvested during a shortage of flowers in fall. 
 
 If the bees are short, we add to their stores by supplying 
 them, in inverted can feeders, in the month of October, with 
 sugar syrup made of 2 parts of high grade cane sugar to 1 part 
 of water. If they do not take it too fast, they will assimilate it, 
 or in other terms invert it, by their saliva, just as they do with 
 pure nectar. If there is danger of the sugar not being sufficiently 
 inverted, it is a good plan to add to the food about one fifth 
 of its weight in good honey, with the quality of which we are ac- 
 quainted. This point is important, for it would not do to use 
 unknown honey that might bring them disease, such as foul- 
 brood. 
 
 In our entire experience, we have had 5 or 6 winters when 
 the amount stored by the bees was insufficient to carry them 
 through. Whenever the amount of good sugar syrup given 
 the bees, in addition to their own stores, was sufficient, we 
 regularly found them to winter better than if they had used 
 only natural stores. So we are very much in favor of sugar feed- 
 ing whenever the colonies are short for winter. 
 
 Whatever be the conditions, we aim to have our bees in 
 proper shape for winter long before the opening of cold weather. 
 Just as it was necessary to get them to breed plentifully until 
 the chilly days come, so it is necessary that they should quit 
 breeding when there are no more bees being lost from overwork 
 or accident. We want plenty of young bees for winter, but we 
 do not want them to have an amount of brood to care for, when 
 winter opens. At that time, the quieter they are, the better 
 it is for them and ourselves. 
 
 Cellar Wintering 
 
 We experimented largely on both cellar and outdoor winter- 
 ing. For 15 or 18 years, we wintered the bees at our home apiary 
 
DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 101 
 
 in the cellar and occasionally also at an outapiary. We dis- 
 continued it because, in our latitude, there are too many win- 
 ters when a number of warm days make it undesirable to have 
 the bees in confinement. We are just a little too far south for 
 regularly successful cellar wintering. If we could foresee the 
 weather, we would put them in the cellar for the cold winters 
 and keep them out-of-doors during the mild ones. 
 
 Our House Cellar 
 
 In 1875, we built a house in which a hot-air furnace was 
 placed. We separated a space, measuring 12x22 feet, from the 
 main cellar, with a double-wall partition. The parts of this 
 room that had the outer wall exposed to the weather in winter 
 were also lined with boards and shavings on the inside, so as to 
 avoid the sudden changes of temperature. This bee-cellar, when 
 too cold, was readily warmed by opening the partition door 
 that separated it from the main cellar. In case of too much 
 heat, two windows could be opened and in fact remained open 
 most of the winter. But both the air currents and the heat were 
 easily regulated. 
 
 In this cellar we wintered bees for some 15 winters, with 
 very good success. The failures were always due to mild weather, 
 when the sun would permit the outdoor bees to fly and our 
 cellared bees were restless. Ice was tried to cool the cellar but 
 it did not seem very practical. We finally abandoned cellar- 
 wintering altogether as unnecessary in our latitude. We have 
 seen many cellars, in locations further north, and we think the 
 hillside cellar, with a well-protected entrance, on a level with 
 the apiary, is the ideal cellar. It must be deep enough in the 
 hill to be immune to temperature changes. 
 
 The degree of temperature that we considered the most 
 desirable in the cellar, was from 42° to 45°. Messrs E. F. Phillips 
 and Geo. S. Demuth, of the Bureau of Entomology, section of 
 beekeeping, at Washington, have made extensive experiments 
 and they hold that a temperature of nearly 50 is requisite. It 
 would be very unreasonable to differ with them, after the positive 
 
102 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 tests and extensive experiments made by them. The tempera- 
 ture, as recorded by us in the cellar, might admit of 50 at the 
 top of the hives. But there is a very safe way to adjust the 
 advice to give the novice. Have a thermometer, try to find the 
 degree at which your bees are quietest, and hold it at that. 
 Kverybody agrees that this is sound advice. When the bees 
 are happy, we can just hear a slight rumble, a "bruissement" 
 as the French call it, much resembling the quiet rustle of the 
 leaves among the trees or the whisper of the waves on a distant 
 shore. 
 
 Wintering in Clamps 
 
 We also tried wintering in clamps, long ago. For two win- 
 ters, we put our bees in a clamp, just as we would potatoes or 
 cabbage, with the only difference that we had draft holes, for 
 the ingress and egress of ventilation. This method would cer- 
 tainly be successful in cold climates. It failed with us when 
 we had a wet winter, the ground of the silo being soaking wet 
 during the greater part of the winter. The bees suffered from 
 mould and came out in bad shape. 
 
 Wintering Out-of-Doors 
 
 This was the final method adopted by us. W 7 e tried colonies 
 in sheds, sheltered by closing the shed in stormy weather and 
 opening it on warm days. This method was very satisfactory. 
 But sheds for hundreds of colonies are not practical. W 7 e tried 
 putting large dry goods boxes over some hives, during the cold. 
 This was also good, provided we uncovered our colonies in warm 
 days. 
 
 We tried what has been called "chaff-hives," with 2 inches 
 of chaff or sawdust all around, above and below the hive body. 
 This was good but entailed the making of very expensive and 
 cumbrous outer-cases, which made the hives difficult to trans- 
 port, especially as our hives are already very large. A chaff- 
 hive of the Dadant pattern weighed 80 pounds, empty. In addi- 
 tion, during one winter we found that the bees which were con- 
 
DAD ANT SYSTEM OF BEE KEEPING 
 
 103 
 
 Fig. 55. Hives packed for winter out-of-doors 
 
 fined by the cold needed a flight as often as the weather warmed 
 sufficiently. The colonies in our chaff-hives failed to take flight 
 whenever there happened to be just one warm day, because 
 it took more time for the warmth of the atmosphere to reach the 
 cluster, than with single-wall hives. 
 
 We finally adopted the method which gave us the least 
 amount of expense, while securing a good average of wintering, 
 for the winter climate that we have in our locality. The hives 
 are double on the back, as noticed in the description. The brood 
 chamber is reduced to the actual capacity of the colony, by 
 removing all empty frames, if any, and moving the division 
 board to reduce the space as much as possible. Then forest 
 leaves are used both in the body and in the cover, as protection. 
 The oilcloth is first removed, and the straw mat laid directly 
 
104 
 
 DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 Fig. 56. A three-colony winter-" - 
 
 over the frames, so that the moisture from the bees ma}' escape 
 gradually through it into the leaves of the cap, without causing 
 a draft of ai r. 
 
 The hive is then wrapped with forest leaves, held in place 
 with wire netting of the kind used for poultry yards. A piece 
 of netting of the proper size is laid behind the hive, leaves spread 
 upon it and both ends brought together in front, which is always 
 faced south, southeast or southwest. In this way the hive is 
 efficiently protected from fierce north winds, but the front is open 
 so as to permit the rays of the noon sun to strike it fully. YYhen- 
 ever a warm day comes, usually about once or twice a month, 
 the bees are able to fly, void their excrements and often rearrange 
 their cluster. 
 
 Heavy snows are not objectionable, if they do not cut out 
 the ventilation by thawing and forming ice about the openings. 
 We usually see that the snow is piled freely behind the hives, 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 105 
 
 with an open entrance when a thaw comes. Many people object 
 to letting the bees have a flight in snow time. It is true that 
 many get lost on the snow, unless the weather is quite warm. 
 But we have always noticed that the hives whose bees get the 
 freest flight in snow time, turn out as good as the best. 
 
 We never disturb them, for any purpose whatever, during 
 cold weather. Even if we wish to pile the snow on the north 
 side of the hives, we go at it very cautiously, so as not to awaken 
 them, as the few bees that would leave the cluster might be 
 chilled and lost. 
 
 Many people believe in what is called "sealed covers" over 
 the brood combs. We don't. We tried this to our heart's con- 
 tent. During the winter of 1884-5, one of the hardest that we 
 ever saw, every colony which had absolutely sealed covers over 
 the cluster, was pitifully soaked by the melting of the ice which 
 formed from the bees' respiration. Wherever the bees had covers 
 in which the moisture could escape slowly through the absorbents 
 in the cap or cover, the colony wintered in much better condition. 
 
 This test was made by us accidentally. We had on the 
 hives, right over the top of the frames, oil cloths some of which 
 were more or less damaged by the gnawing of the bees. This was 
 neglect on our part. But as it happened, we found the neglect 
 to have been beneficial. For wherever the oil cloth was perfect, 
 the upper escape of moisture was prevented. The moisture settled 
 over and around the bees, congealed there, to thaw out and soak 
 them as soon as the weather moderated. In the hives where the 
 oil cloth was more or less damaged, the moisture escaped among 
 the leaves of the upper story, the bees remained dry and condi- 
 tions were much more satisfactory. Thus, the poorer the "sealed 
 cover" the better the success. 
 
 Let it not be understood that we want the bees to have 
 an open super above their combs. No, we try to have for them 
 what we want for ourselves in a cold winter night, a warm, wool- 
 ly, moisture-absorbing cover, that will at the same time retain 
 the heat. We have no use, either for ourselves or our bees, for 
 an impermeable cover that will confine moisture near the body. 
 
 We do not urge the adoption of the above system of winter- 
 
106 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPIXC 
 
 ing by any one. In wintering, perhaps more than in any other 
 part of the management of the apiary, much depends upon loca- 
 tion. Let each man judge of this for himself. 
 
 Outer winter cases of different models have been recom- 
 mended. Some are made to contain 4 colonies; others 3, others 
 still only one. If our opinion is desired, we gladly recommend 
 the 2-colony winter case which does not require the moving of 
 the hives of bees for winter. Two hives may be kept all summer 
 in close proximity to each other; so that they may be incased 
 together without trouble. Whenever we move any hives of bees 
 for winter, we cause more or less of what is called "drifting." 
 Drifting is the loss of direction by some of the bees, because 
 of a disturbance. Whenever some of the colonies are moved, 
 there is drifting. The strongest colonies then gain the greater 
 number of the drifting bees, because they make a greater call, 
 a more discernible noise, which draws the lost bees. So the weak 
 colonies are weakened and the strong colonies strengthened 
 by the "drifting." Very expert beekeepers, with large practice 
 in the use of the packing cases, have acknowledged to us that 
 drifting was one of the main drawbacks of that method. 
 
 If the packing of colonies, singly, in thick packing boxes, 
 in a way that they could not at all feel the cold of winter, was 
 not so expensive, it would be the ideal way of wintering bees, 
 even in very cold regions. We have not adopted this method 
 because of the great expense it entails. Our method has been 
 sufficient and although we have lost heavily in a few abnormal 
 winters, we succeed quite regularly. Our losses are not over 
 4 or 5 per cent, one year with another. 
 
CHAPTER 13 
 Diseases of Bees 
 
 If any one had asked us, 20 years ago, how much trouble 
 might be expected from bee diseases, we should have probably 
 shrugged our shoulders and answered that they were very in- 
 significant and hardly worthy of notice. For 40 odd years after 
 we began beekeeping, the only disease we saw in the apiary was 
 diarrhea, also called dysentery, from which the bees suffer more 
 or less after a protracted winter, especially when their food is 
 not of the best. Spring dwindling, which is a result of this dis- 
 eased condition, is of importance only in rare seasons and late 
 springs. There is less of it with strong colonies than with small 
 hives. 
 
 Foulbrood, in either of its two different forms, was entirely 
 unknown to us. In 1903, the writer had to go as far as Colorado 
 to be able to see some rare samples of it, rare because the bee- 
 keepers who had it in their apiaries kept it under control by 
 constant fight. 
 
 It was not until the spring of 1908 that we found the disease 
 among our own bees. We had been feeding them some very fine 
 western honey, which we had on hand, so as to avoid buying 
 sugar, thinking that the bees would return that honey with 
 ample interest in a very few days. Whether this was the cause, 
 or whether the American foulbrood which had been noticed 
 in many parts of Illinois had just reached us in some other way, 
 we found it very much scattered among our bees, although none 
 of the colonies had more than a few cells of it. 
 
 We did not hesitate in treating the bees. We transferred 
 every colony by the method recommended in text books of the 
 most modern date. We will give the method in a few words. 
 
 We go to the first colony, remove it from its stand and put 
 upon that stand a clean empty hive with frames containing 
 only a few starters of foundation. All the bees and the queen 
 are shaken into it and treated just like a natural swarm. The 
 contents of the hive are removed, the brood is burned, the balance 
 of the combs rendered into wax, the honey being heated for 
 
 107 
 
108 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 at least a half hour to the boiling point of water. When the 
 hive has been emptied, it is singed with the flame of a tinner's 
 gasoline torch and, after supplying it with frames, it is then 
 ready for the transfer of the next colony. This work succeeds 
 best when it is done, as we did it, just at the opening of the honey 
 harvest, and with the greatest care. 
 
 After 48 hours, the bees are again shaken onto full sheets of 
 foundation, or on combs from healthy colonies if such may be 
 secured. This method is called the "starvation method." By 
 this is meant that the bees are deprived of their combs and placed 
 where they must build combs. So they consume all the honey 
 in their honey sacks, producing wax. This method was entirely 
 successful on the disease which is called "American foulbrood." 
 All the text books describe it. But we might as well give a short 
 description of it here. 
 
 In American foulbrood, caused by bacterium named "Bacil- 
 lus larvae," which was discovered and named by Dr. G. F. White 
 of Washington, the unhatched bee dies just about the time when 
 it is sealed in its cell by the workers. Its body decays, turns to 
 a brown coffee color, has the odor of joiner's glue, and when a 
 toothpick is inserted into it, it strings out, like so much liquid 
 rubber, to the length of 2 or 3 inches. These 3 symptoms, whin 
 together, indicate positively the existence of American foul- 
 brood . 
 
 We succeeded fully in doing away with the disease and 
 afterwards harvested the largest crops that we ever secured. 
 But since the disease is in existence in the country, we find it 
 necessary to be constantly on the alert and treat, without delay, 
 any colony in which it is found, even if only a few larvae are 
 diseased. 
 
 Neighbors of ours, who made light of the disease when 
 it first appeared, saw their colonies absolutely ruined in a very 
 short time. Two or three men near us quit the bee business 
 entirely, from discouragement. Yet beekeeping was never so 
 profitable as it has been since it requires greater vigilance than 
 formerly. 
 
 We also had a fight with European foulbrood in one of our 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 109 
 
 1 
 
 ; 
 
 ■k 1 
 
 *2 I 
 
 'B », f 
 
 
 m - 
 
 
 "^ ( **5*4 
 
 rat* ■«! 
 
 Fig. 57. Gas torch for singeing hives that have contained foulbrood 
 
 apiaries. This mysterious disease, caused, according to Dr. White, 
 by a bacterium which he named "Bacillus pluton," attacks the 
 bee larva when it is small and still coiled in the cell. Some bee- 
 keepers say that it has a very disagreeable odor. We have never 
 detected much odor, perhaps because we never allowed it to 
 develop to a dangerous point. We found that the best remedy 
 for it is that given by Alexander years ago and tried with success 
 by Dr. C. C. Miller, removal or caging of the queen for from one 
 to three weeks, during which time the bees clean out the disease, 
 if the colony be strong enough. Weak colonies have to be united. 
 Italian queens have proven safer than black queens in producing 
 a progeny capable of coping with the disease. 
 
 Here we must give extra warning to the beginner concerning 
 the possibility of "robbing" when there is foulbrood in the 
 
110 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 apiary. No combs should be exposed, no honey allowed to be 
 robbed, no bees permitted to enter other hives, for in each of 
 those instances there is danger of transmitting the disease. Thus 
 foulbrood should be treated at the beginning of a honey crop. 
 If we find ourselves compelled to treat it at other times, it must 
 be done when the bees are quiet, when there are no robbers about. 
 
 When American foulbrood is treated properly, with the 
 greatest care, there is but little danger of its reappearance 
 except from outside of the apiary. Not so with European foul- 
 brood ; for it seems to reappear mysteriously. 
 
 We also met with "sacbrood," a disease of the larvae in 
 which they die and dry up, so that they may be shaken out of 
 the cell. This usually disappears of its own accord, when the 
 good season comes. It may be due to faulty queens. 
 
 We no longer fear bee diseases, though they are unpleasant 
 to meet. Vigilance is necessary, it is true, but in nothing can 
 we expect to reap a reward without labor. It is quite probable 
 that the time will come again when the foulbroods will be as 
 rare as they were 50 years ago. We read in the text books of 
 the first half of the nineteenth century, that some of the leading 
 scientific beekeepers, such as Dzierzon and Berlepsch, had their 
 apiaries well nigh destroyed by the diseases before they found 
 methods of cure. Earlier still, Schirach, in the Eighteenth Cen- 
 tury, discovered that the cure of American foulbrood was to 
 be found in depriving the bees of all honey and compelling them 
 to use that which was contained in their stomachs, because honey 
 is the most active transmitter of what is called "American foul- 
 brood." 
 
 There is a very destructive disease of the adult bees called 
 Isle-of-Wight disease, in the British Isles. But traces of a similar 
 disease have done very little harm in this country. However, 
 a disease called paralysis, vertigo, May disease, etc/, appears 
 from time to time in different parts of the world. We have seen 
 it, but only on a very limited scale, and it usually disappears 
 with the beginning of the honey crop. 
 
 For a more thorough description of all the bee diseases we 
 refer the reader to our larger work "The Hive & Honey Bee." 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 111 
 
 But let us give one warning: Do not feed to your bees unknown 
 honey, no matter how fine it may be. There is no doubt that 
 honey may be entirely healthy for human beings and yet contain 
 enough of the bacilli of foulbrood to contaminate any colony 
 to which it is fed. Pay no attention to the men who tell you that 
 sugar is not good for bees. If you have to feed the bees and have 
 none of the honey of your own production, better give them 
 syrup made of the very best sugar. There will be no danger of 
 disease 
 
CHAPTER 14 
 Enemies of Bees 
 
 We have found no enemies of bees quite so bad as our own 
 selves, when we are neglectful or too avaricious. We have occa- 
 sionally removed too much honey, to our sorrow later. 
 
 The moths have never done much harm in our apiaries, 
 because we promptly accepted Mr. Langstroth's statement that 
 there is no more danger of a healthy colony of bees being de- 
 stroyed by the moths than there is of a healthy cow being killed 
 by carrion flies; although a queenless colony will be just as 
 readily riddled by the maggots of the moth as the body of a 
 dead cow will be consumed by the maggots of carrion. 
 
 We keep our empty combs from year to year, during the 
 winter in a cold honey house, where the thermometer often goes 
 down to zero F. (—18° C). Neither larvae, eggs nor moths can 
 withstand such low temperatures. In the summer, if the honey 
 house is kept well closed, there is still no danger. But, in the 
 summer, we usually have all our combs in use where the bees 
 care for them better than we could. Hives in which the bees 
 have died at the opening of spring are usually the most fertile 
 breeders of moths, for moth worms often winter in out-of-the-way 
 corners, kept alive by the warmth of the bees. W r ere it not for 
 such accidental wintering of the live grub, moths would become 
 well nigh exterminated in these northern countries. Such combs 
 should be treated several times during the spring and summer 
 months and it is better to keep them out of the bee house. How- 
 ever, if the treatment is thorough, by burning a quantity of 
 brimstone in an earthen dish, with the supers and combs piled 
 in broken tiers, so as to allow free circulation of the gas produced, 
 the quantity of brimstone that will kill the flies in the room will 
 also kill the moths. The quantity to be used must depend upon 
 the size of the room and its greater or less ability to retain the 
 fumes. 
 
 We also use carbon-bisulphide, poured upon a rag and laid 
 at the top of a pile of supers, closing the pile carefully to allow 
 the evaporating gas to penetrate in all the crevices. Care must 
 
 113 
 
114 
 
 DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 
 
 be taken not to bring a flame near, as this gas ignites and 
 explodes. 
 
 Other enemies of bees are too insignificant to find a place 
 in this short treatise. 
 
 We will here give a few rules that we consider important, 
 in our climate at least: 
 
 We never face colonies northward, as the bees often get 
 chilled near the entrance to their home in unpleasant weather. 
 
 We never move colonies of bees, even a few inches, with- 
 out placing a slanting board in front of the hive, to cause them 
 to notice the change of location. 
 
 We never disturb colonies of bees in cold weather. 
 
 Fig. 58. Low, moist, rich bottom land that is good for honey production 
 
 We never try to winter a colony that has less than 6 combs. 
 Such a colony might be wintered in the cellar, if it has sufficient 
 stores. Smaller colonies are united. 
 
 W^e never close colonies to keep them from flying because 
 of snow or rain or other reasons, except to transport them. We 
 consider that enough bees worry themselves to death to make 
 
DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 115 
 
 up for those that would leave and get lost in the cold or in the 
 rain. 
 
 We never use drone traps, moth traps, separators, queen 
 excluders, entrance guards, etc. Separators are useful in comb- 
 honey production, but not with our system. 
 
 We never cut our queens' wings. We do not disapprove 
 of the practice, but we do not find it necessary in our system. 
 
 Conclusion 
 
 In our description of the Dadant System of beekeeping 
 we do not w r ish to be understood as advising the average bee- 
 keeper to change from any system that he now uses. There are 
 tens of thousands of beekeepers using 8-frame Langstroth hives, 
 10-frame hives of the same depth, and even other patterns, with 
 good success. Our own success, for more than a half century, has 
 caused inquiry as to our methods. That inquiry led to the pub- 
 lication of this work. W T e have no apology to make, but neither 
 do we urge the following of our system nor the adoption of our 
 hive. The only thing which we consider absolutely indispensable 
 in modern beekeeping is the use of a movable-frame hive of 
 sufficient capacity for the prolificness of the queens. But there 
 is no doubt in our mind that a maximum crop of extracted honey, 
 can be secured by the Dadant system with less manipulation 
 than with any other system yet made known. More bees may 
 be kept, more honey produced with the same hours of labor. 
 We have given our reasons for using this method. That is enough. 
 Let the reader decide for himself as to his course. 
 
 
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