1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



I4d 



HIVE-STANDS PROPERLY CONSTRUCTED, AS USED BY F. GREINER, NAPLES, N. Y. 



been lost sight of. Foremost, it should as- 

 sist the bet s in gaining their hive-entrance 

 safely. When A. I Root introduced his Sim- 

 plicity hive forty years ago he advised the 

 use of four bricks for the hive to stand on, 

 with a heap of sawdust piled up in front of 

 it. Many of us tried this. The sawdust kept 

 down the grass and formed a passageway 

 from the ground up to the hive ; and al- 

 though it seemed to be agrepablp to the bees, 

 it had some unpleasant features, like blowing 

 into the hive when dry, rotting the hive when 

 wet, and then the grass crept over it and fill- 

 ed it full of roots, etc. An unplaned board 

 is almost as acceptable to the bees, and is 

 much more reliable. I believe the use of 

 sawdust has entirely gone out of fashion, and 

 the pine bnard has generally been adopted 

 for an alighting-board. I theorize that it is 

 better than cement on account of being a 

 better non-conductor of heat, but, of course, 

 it is not as lasting. 



The hive-stand should be close fitting to 

 the hive all around. It should not furnish 

 an opportunity for bees to cluster under the 

 hive nor afford a hidingplace for toads dur- 

 ing daytime. These ugly fellows are very 

 objectionable visitors in the apiary, and eat 

 a great many bees when they can get them. 

 As the toad is very useful in other ways I 

 never ki 1 one; but when I find one around 

 my hives I carry it away a long distance; but 

 by not allowing har'^oring-places for them 

 under and am'^ng the hives, very few of 

 these animals stay around. 



The easiest way to make every thing snug 



is to make a shallow box of the same size as 

 the hive bottom, making the front end slant- 

 ing and tight-fitting asrainst the hive. There 

 should be no holes left anywhere for bees to 

 enter the space under the hive. I have 

 known bees to set up housekeeping under 

 the hive, totally ignoring all the newfangled 

 fixtures which we had put inside, just be- 

 cause the hive proper was not well guarded. 



A hive stand should preserve the least 

 amount of actual contact belween the hive- 

 bottom and the stand. At one time we were 

 using a hive-stand which consisted of a plat- 

 form made of common lumber, somewhat 

 larger than the hive-bottom, and nailed upon 

 two pieces of scantling. As Dr. Miller says, 

 this is the poorest thing one can use. Be- 

 tween the two thicknesses of lumber mois- 

 ture collects, and soon both hive and stand 

 rot out. Ants establish themsrlves here, 

 and perforate the timber. Other disadvan- 

 tages I need not mention. The shallow box 

 outlined above presents only the edges of the 

 boards upon which the hive-bottom rests; 

 and there being no chance for mois ure to 

 collect it will last about as long as any other 

 part of the hive. 



The only weak point of the hive stand de- 

 scribed is its readiness to rot away. As I 

 make them they are five inches deep; but 

 after ten years' use almost nothing is left, 

 and a new one has to be substituted. The 

 cost, however, is slight, as but a small amount 

 of inferior lumber is required to make one. 

 Dealers offer this hive-stand at 12cen'^s each, 

 which is as cheap as I can get them out mysglf . 



