HEART&EASE. 



238 



HI7E-MAKING. 



while not quite up to that of white honey, is 

 very good. Heartsease comb honey, in point 

 of color, is almost as white as the clover. 

 Tlie extracted granulates in very fine crys- 

 tals, and looks very mucli like the can- 

 died product of any white honey. Care 

 should be taken in liquefying, as heartsease 

 honey is injured more easily, and to a great- 

 er extent, by overheating, than any other 

 kind. 



BZ VIS - IME AKIira. Unless one is 

 so situated that freights are high, and un- 

 less, also, he is a mechanic, or a natural 

 genius in ''making things,'' he had better 

 let hive -making alone. Hives can be 

 bought, usually, with freight added, for a 

 great deal less than the average bee-keeper 

 can make them himself, if we consider 

 spoiled lumber, sawed fingers, and the ex- 

 pense of buzz-saws ; and, besides, hives made 

 in the large factories, where they are turned 

 out by the thousands, by special machinery 

 run by skilled workmen, are much more ac- 

 curately cut, as a general thing. 



The following letter from a practical plan- 

 ing-mill man, who ought and does know 

 what he is talking about, sets forth the actu- 

 al facts as they are: 



ELIAS BAMBERGER 



Manufacturer of 



SASH, DOORS, BLINDS 



Contractors' and Builders' Supplies, 



including all Kinds of Window Glass. 



Cor. Exchange and Adams Sts. 

 Estimates Furnished on Application. 



Freeport, 111., June 11, 19J7. 

 The A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio. 



Oentlemen:—! received five of your AE525-10 hives 

 yesterday, and And that I can not make my own 

 hives and .'■upplies as cheap as yours and use the 

 same quality of lumber. You can see by the head 

 of this letter that if any one can make hives cheap- 

 er than your prices or any of the so-called "trust 

 hive" manufacturers, i ought to be able to do it; 

 but, using the same quality of lumber, I can not. 

 (Signed) John H. Bambergeh. 



But there is lots of fun in making things, 

 even if they are not so well made ; and there 

 are some rainy or wintry days in the year, 

 when, if one is a farmer, for instance, he can 

 as well as not, and at little or no expense 

 for time, make a few hives and other " fix- 

 in's." Again, if one lives in a foreign coun- 

 try he may not be able to get the hives that 

 we shall recommend. 



REQUISITES OF A GOOD HIVE. 



While it is very important to have good 

 well-made hives for the bees, we would by no 

 means encourage the idea that the hive is 

 going to insure a crop of honey. As the 

 veteran Mr. Gallup used to say, " A good 



swarm of bees would store almost as much 

 honey in a half - barrel or nail-keg as in the 

 most elaborate and expensive hive made, 

 other things being equal." This is sui. los- 

 ing we had a good colony in the height ot 

 the honey-season. If the colony were small, 

 it would do much better if i)ut into a hive so 

 small that the bees could nearly or quite fill 

 it, thus economizing the animal heat, that 

 they might keep up the temperature for 

 brood - rearing, and the working of wax. 

 Also, should the bees get their nail-keg full 

 of honey, unless more room were given 

 them at just the right moment a consider- 

 able loss of honey would be the result. The 

 thin walls of the nail-keg would hardly be 

 the best economy for a wintering hive, nor 

 for a summer hive either, unless it were well 

 shaded from the direct rays of the sun. 



P. H. Elwood, of Starkville, N. Y.,wh(i 

 owns over 1300 colonies, said in Gleanivgs 

 in Bee Culture., April 15, 1891, "A good hive 

 must till two requirements reasonably well 

 to be worthy of that name. 1. It must be a 

 good home for the bees; 2. It must in ad- 

 dition be so constructed as to be convenient 

 to perform the various operations required 

 by modern bee-keeping. The first of these 

 requirements is filled very well by a good 

 box or straw^ hive. Bees will store as much 

 honey in these hives as in any, and in the 

 North they will winter and spring as well in 

 a straw hive as in any other. They do not, 

 however, fill the second requirement; and 

 to meet this, the movable-frame hive was 

 invented." 



Under the subject of Hives, a little fur- 

 ther on, will be shown styles and the special 

 features that belong to each. But there is 

 only one hive that is used largely throughout 

 the United States, and that is the Lang- 

 strotli— that is, it embodies the Langstroth 

 dimensions. We start first with the frame, 

 171 long by 9i deep. This establishes the 

 length and depth of the hive. As to width, 

 that depends upon the number of frames 

 used. Some bee-keepers prefer eight, per- 

 haps the majority of them ; others ten, and 

 still others twelve frames. Where one runs 

 for extracted honey the ten- frame width 

 should have the preference, especially in the 

 South. If one produces only comb honey the 

 eight-frame-hive width should be the one 

 selected, particularly in the North, where 

 the honey-fiow is of short duration and is 

 principally from clover and basswood. The 

 selection of the frame, and the number to 

 the hive, then, determines the dimensions of 

 the hive itself. 



