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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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From:
Peter Borst <[log in to unmask]>
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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 26 Nov 2017 19:05:55 -0500
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The development of the New Beekeeping depends on investigations and experiences which have shown the superiority of the included methods over any other system of beekeeping so far found. 

The majority of American beekeepers use too small a hive and most of them never provide conditions so that a single colony reaches full strength at the beginning of or even during the honey-flow, and it is the privilege of those whose work it is to create a better beekeeping to help beekeepers correct their mistakes. The use of small hives results either in weak colonies or in unnecessary and totally unprofitable labor to the beekeeper. 

Adaptability of the hive to labor saving need not be discussed at length, except to repeat that the use of swarm control measures necessitates the use of a double brood chamber, and the result is that no brood chamber except one consisting of two hive bodies is open to the beekeeper for whom swarming is a problem. Since in all the better beekeeping regions of the North, swarming is too serious a problem to be neglected, there are few beekeepers who can afford to use a single hive of any depth for the brood chamber.


In those years when spring nectar is scant, the users of the larger single story hives fail to get maximum returns, unless they go to the intolerable bother of spring feeding. Beekeepers who use the single story deep frame hives labor under the misinformation or the erroneous belief that there must surely be room enough for all colony requirements, whereas in at least a third of the spring seasons in northern states such hives are too small, because they cannot possibly hold both enough honey for safety and enough brood. 

While the deep hives are far superior to a single story Langstroth hive, it is undesirable to use them when there is a better hive at hand. The demands of the bees in adverse seasons and the enormous brood rearing ability of a first-class colony of bees leave no option for the beekeeper who wishes to use standard equipment except to use the two story Langstroth hive, the largest hive in common use anywhere. 

While it may be possible at rare intervals to get the greatest possible development of colonies in time for fruit blossoming in a story and a half Langstroth hive or in a single story Jumbo hive, in the majority of cases full strength at this time will not be attained in any hive smaller than the two-story Langstroth. In some cases it is even necessary to add a third Langstroth hive body before fruit blossoms open in order to give the colonies full opportunity to develop and to prevent swarming at this important time. 

THE NEW BEEKEEPING 
By E. F. PHILLIPS, New York State College of Agricutture, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 26 February, 1933]

Comment:
When I worked at the Dyce Lab one of the prominent New York beekeepers was touting the single story brood nest, saying that it was right for "today's bees." Professor Calderone's opinion was this was an excuse for substandard colonies, a real colony would need more than one box for brood.

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