144 



May, igii. 



American %ee Journal 



of the door on entering. A system 

 should be worked out which is as ef- 

 fective and as economical of mismoves 

 as is that employed at the slaughtering 

 houses in Chicago. By so doing we 

 shall accomplish the work more quick- 

 ly, leaving the operators time for rest 

 and to plan better the following day's 

 work. With shorter hours, the work 

 may, in fact, be better accomplished, 

 the bee-keeper is more fit to manage, 

 and the hired helpers feel encouraged. 



In our apiaries, as in many others, 

 young men are employed who have in 

 view a bee-keeping future, and who are 

 consequently students of bee-culture 

 as well as helpers. It therefore be- 

 comes us to be able teachers, giving 

 these young men an inspiration to be 

 capable in their calling ; to make the 

 work interesting by the use of new ap- 

 pliances and the application of new sys- 

 tems. Neither should this be consid- 

 ered in the light of a philanthropical 

 move on our part, for the adoption of 

 these features are in themselves our 

 most profitable moves. 



This is an age of general science and 

 invention, in which bee-keeping is at 

 least a close second. The reversible 

 power-e.xtractor, steam capping-knife, 

 melters, and not least the modern hive 

 and equipment have made it possible to 

 handle thousands of colonies almost as 

 easily as we could otherwise manage 

 hundreds. Science has made the pur- 

 suit fascinating, so much so in fact 

 that unless we exercise good judgment 

 ■we are apt to be lured on to over-exer- 

 tion. This should be strictly guarded 

 against, however, and, with the proper 

 use of modern machinery, it becomes 

 unnecessary. 



Instances are frequent where bee- 

 sting poison has been beneficial in cur- 

 ing certain forms of rheumatism. So 

 much has been said, in fact, that the 

 reader is led to overlook the fact that 

 this poison may do serious damage to 

 the system. Doctors with whom I have 

 talked say that this poison is hard on 

 the tissues, affecting the pericardium 

 or membranous lining of the heart. 

 Several cases have been reported in 

 which the bee-keeper has suffered from 

 an overdose of this poison, be it formic 

 acid or otherwise. The amateur bee- 

 keeper is in little danger of receiving 

 into his system a harmful amount of 

 this poison, although at times he is 

 liable to t/nnk the results very bad. The 

 specialist, if not careful, is, in time, 

 liable to get an amount which is inju- 

 rious to health. Once the system is in- 

 oculated with this poison, it is said 

 that the effects are more or less of a 

 permanent nature, so that it becomes 

 us to be very careful in this matter. A 

 good veil costs but little, and a careful 

 system of handling bees, so as to avoid 

 stings, costs nothing. Often, no doubt, 

 the operator is affected with this poison, 

 and the discomfort is attributed to 

 other causes. At any rate, there is 

 nothing to be lost, while perhaps much 

 may be gained, by being careful in this 

 line. 



Finally, we should temper the doc- 

 trine of keeping more bees with sound 

 judgrnent in the employment of our 

 energies, accomplishing an increased 

 amount of work by the means of better 

 facilities and a more expedient system. 

 Cut in two the time spent on the road, 



by the use of the automobile ; the labor 

 of extracting with the power-extractor, 

 and kindred labor-saving devices. 

 Work hard and fast at the apiary, for 

 languor at work will never bring out 

 the best that is in a man ; but shorten 

 the hours of labor to the increase of 

 the rest period. If you must draw 

 rapidly on reserve forces, give Nature 

 time to recover before beginning the 

 new day's work. Install the best of 

 modern labor-saving machinery, and 

 keep bees enough to pay for the added 

 expense. Be a big enough man to 

 handle it all, or else do not attempt so 

 much, for it is better to handle a few 

 bees well, and to succeed at the busi- 

 ness, than to attempt to handle many, 

 and fail. 



Hebron, Ind. 



Novel Bee-Hives in Scotland 



BY D. M. M.^CDONALD, 



Bee-keepers are always on the lookout 

 for some new thing in the way of hives. 

 When to mere novelty is added a claim 

 that the invention will help to eliminate 

 swarming, a new interest is taken in 

 studying it. No one will deny that the 

 hive shown on first page has the gtace 

 of novelty, and a strong claim is put in 

 by its inventor that by its use he can 

 control swarming. The finished prod- 

 uct is the fruit of long study and ex- 

 periment, and it has come to its pres- 

 ent state of perfection by gradual evo- 

 lution. Several Scotch bee-keepers 

 have near the entrance of their hives a 

 sloping approach by means of which 

 the bees find entrance to the brood- 

 nest, not by the orthodox method of 

 an opening in the front wall, or a 

 sunken entrance in the floor-board, but 

 by an interior slanting floor below the 

 true floor-board. Thus the real front 

 door may lie forward 2 or 3 inches be- 

 yond the hive front. 



Some of them believe sincerely that 

 several advantages are derived from 

 such an entrance. In windy weather, 

 when the bees approach heavily laden, 

 they secure a safe haven of rest in this 

 vestibule, instead of being buffeted 

 about on an exposed flight-board. As 

 the sun does not strike in such a way 

 as to allow its rays to penetrate into 

 the hive interior, the bees are not 

 tempted out to suffer, it may be, an un- 

 timely death and burial on some bright 

 day when the ground is coated with a 

 depth of soft, powdery, newly-fallen 

 snow. Such entrances may be easily 

 made mice-proof in winter, and other 

 vermin may be excluded easily. 



Acting on this principle, the inventor 

 of this hive gradually extended this 

 slanting entrance until it finally has 

 been placed about two-thirds of the 

 way back from the hive-front. A glance 

 at the illustration will show that the 

 entrance has become enlarged until it 

 has been converted into a wide funnel, 

 contracting pretty sharply until at the 

 true entrance it is only about }i inch 

 by about the full width of the hive. 

 But — and this is a most important fea- 

 ture in swarm prevention — the owner 

 has the means, by the use of a slide, of 

 dividing his bees in such a way that 

 the principal force is directed to 

 whichever part of the hive he desires 

 they shall work in. Thus, if one 



division becomes too strong, he can 

 divert a considerable contingent to the 

 part of the interior he desires to 

 strengthen ; and that, too, without 

 opening the hive or disturbing the 

 brood-nest with any untimely manipu- 

 lation of bees or frames. 



Back of the regular breeding area 

 he has a space for forming a nucleus, 

 the bees from which are trained to 

 issue by the side-entrance seen at the 

 rear of the left side of the hive. The 

 queen, too, finds there an exit and en- 

 trance when issuing to meet the drone, 

 and when returning after being mated. 

 By very simple means this division can 

 readily be strengthened either by in- 

 cluding another frame from the front 

 section, or by diverting a proportion 

 of the bees returning from the fields. 

 The same chamber is generally em- 

 ployed during the winter months to 

 house a small body of bees with a spare 

 queen, often a valuable asset in early 

 spring to requeen any colony which 

 has lost the mother-bee. If not so re- 

 quired, she can serve in another and 

 almost as useful a purpose. Two queens 

 breeding in the same hive, divided as 

 far as their range of ovipositing is con- 

 cerned, by excluder zinc, quickly 

 work up a powerful army of workers 

 ready to take advantage of any early 

 flow, such as fruit-bloom. The two 

 divisions of this hive can be so worked 

 up to full strength. 



Perhaps, however, the chief claim for 

 the existence of this novel hive is the 

 fact that its owner says he can control 

 swarming. It will be noticed that a 

 dark object runs up the front of each 

 hive. This is a tube of queen-excluder 

 zinc leading up to the space near the 

 hive-roof. This can be discarded at 

 other times of the year, but when 

 swarming is anticipated it is fitted on. 

 The queen, although allowed full scope 

 for ovipositing, is confined to a certain 

 number of frames near the true front. 

 When a swarm issues she can not join 

 them, but has to walk up the interior 

 of this funnel until she finds entrance 

 to a contracted swarm-chamber. Here 

 it is anticipated a certain number of 

 bees join her and remain to protect her 

 until the bee-keeper has time to attend 

 to her and them. Most of the bees 

 will have issued by the true entrance 

 from which they make their regular 

 exit to the fields, and as this is always 

 freely open to them there is no conges- 

 tion at any time. 



The frames are all of uniform size, 

 both in the brood-chamber and the 

 super area. They are only 6 inches 

 deep, and are all closed-end, resting on 

 the floor with a bee-space below the 

 bottom-bar. Further tiers are raised 

 the same height, a bare fs inch above 

 the lower tier. As a rule, two sections 

 at least are used for breeding, and the 

 same number on which to winter. It 

 is claimed that in early spring, if start- 

 ed with one chamber, and a second and 

 then a third is gradually added, very 

 strong forces result before the chief 

 flow starts. Then in the fall the brood 

 area can be almost insensibly lessened, 

 and the full power concentrated on the 

 contracted area. Thus at such a flow 

 as the heather, as autumn nights chill, 

 they can be kept employed in profitable 

 labors, filling and sealing, when the 

 denizens of larger hives would desert 



