1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



22? 



friend B. surmounts this obstacle by having 

 these bars made into a sort of frame, or 

 grate, such as we show you below. 



GEATE, TO 11 T IN THE LOTTO^I OF A SJ^M- 

 PLICITY niVE, TO KEST SECTIONS ON. 



This grate is held so as to come just i inch 

 above the frames in the lower story, by what 

 he calls a pair of metal rabbets, attached to 

 the lower inside edge of the half-hive. Thus 

 you see we have it. "When you want to put 

 on sections, just drop in the grate, put in 

 your sections, wedge them up, set it up over 

 the Simplicity hive that is ready for honey- 

 storing, and just put on the regular cover. 

 AVhen all are iilled, take off the whole, put 

 the cover down on the hive again, and take 

 the whole to market. When you wish to lix 

 the hive for winter, use these same grates, 

 put in a cloth, fill with chaff, and there you 

 are without any chaff cushion ; and friend 

 Townley, if I am correct, thinks loose chaff 

 better than cushions. I have given friend 

 B. $.3.00 credit for the idea, and he can share 

 it with his friend Fry, as he chooses. Now, 

 please do not think me fault-finding when 1 

 mention the objections. I do not want to 

 see a lot of you go into these new things 

 precipitately, and then repent afterward. 

 Gleanings should present you new ideas 

 every month ; but yet we do not wish to have 

 it said, it is always urging you into new in- 

 vestments that are to be soon dropped for 

 something else. 



OBJECTIONS. 



The cost of making Avill be exactly the 

 same as a wiiole Simplicity body ; for if they 

 are to be used interchaiigeably as hives, we 

 must have metal rabbets on every one, and 

 the strips before mentioned, to hold the 

 grate, besides. You may say, have these on 

 only half of them ; in that case, when they 

 get mixed up all through the apiary, you 

 will find the kind you want, just wiiere you 

 can't get at them without much trouble. I 

 should say, all must be made alike. I think, 

 on the whole, they will cost about the same 

 as whole stories, unless we should have quite 

 a demand for them. Now, here is a much 

 worse trouble: If we are to use these for 

 sending honey off to market, they are heavy, 

 expensive, and can not very well look as nice 

 and clean, after being exposed to the weath- 

 er, as the light case that is covered with an 

 outer cap. Worst of all, our Cleveland hon- 

 ey-man, A. C. Kendel, says now that a case 

 must be so cheaply made that it can be giv- 

 en away with the honey. The job of hunt- 

 ing up empty packages, and sending them 

 back, is more than can Ije borne, especially 

 when honey is passed through several hands 

 before it reaches the consumer. This is a 

 point that hits all of us; and I don't just 

 now see how it is to be met in the best way. 



One more word about tiering up: Tf you 

 raise a case nearly filled, and put an empty 

 one under it, you will have the stx-ky and 

 dauby under side of the crate resting right 

 on the tops of clean sections. Besides this, 

 you interpose between the sections, and 

 those under them, the thickness of this 

 grate. This latter point, I am sure, is bad. 

 A break in a sheet of comb is always bad ; 

 and if the break is separated by more wood 

 than the necessary thickness of the sections, 

 it is always a detriment to the crop of honey. 

 Putting the sections in short frames, made 

 so as to hold a single tier, is still woise. be- 

 sides being a great additional expense. Tlie 

 wide frames and chaff hives, it seems to me, 

 are the simplest and most easily handled of 

 any arrangement we have had yet, even if 

 we do have to put the honey into an extra 

 case to send it to market. 



If you wish to use' the combined case on 

 the l.T-story hive, either omit separators, and 

 send it to market just as the bees fill it, or 

 us« open-top sections, covering the openings 

 until the bees get them pretty well filled, 

 then proceed as follows: Get another case of 

 sections exactly like the one on the hive. 

 Invert it so the spaces all match exactly. 

 Now, holding the two firmly together, lift 

 them from the hive, and set them back, ex- 

 actly the other side up. This tiers them up 

 at one stroke, and the empty sections are 

 between the brood- nest and those partly 

 filled. The bees can not daub a section, and 

 the two tiers are as close to each other as 

 they are in the wide frames. 



Care should be used in inverting a case of 

 sections, to see that all the sections are far 

 enough along so the new combs of honey 

 can by no means tip over ; but as tiering up 

 should not be done until the first tier of sec- 

 tions is near completion, there is no necessi- 

 ty for any troubles of this kind. 



SAWDUST VERSUS CHAFF, FOK CHAFF 

 HIVES. 



PROVED BY EXPKIUMENT. 



^ INCE reading George Grimm's letter in the 

 ^^ April Gleanings, it has occurred to me that if 

 our most successful cellar advocates are going 

 to try packing hives, we ought to know what kind 

 of packing will retain heat the longest. I have been 

 making some experiments with this end in view, 

 and will now give you the result of them. I took a 

 tlour-sicve, put in two 1-in. blocks, and laid my ther- 

 mometer en them, and packed chaff under and over 

 it to the depth of an inch. I then put It under a 

 chaff cushion in a chaff hive until it reached ('3 de- 

 grees or over, examining it at stated intervals, and 

 taking notes, until it reached that point. I then 

 took out the sieve, and examined it at staled inter- 

 vals (first placing it in an out-buildicg, so as to be 

 out of sudden gusts of wind), and took notes to see 

 how long it would retain heat. I tried 4 samples —3 

 of chaft' and one of sawdust. I was induced to try 

 sawdust, because a neighbor living 3 miles from me, 

 and having quite a large apiary, packs his hives 

 with sawdust, and winters with good success, I be- 

 lieve. In the ABC you quote Mr. Townley as say- 

 ing sawdust is not as good. Now, had friend T. tried 



