GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



AiG. 1 



A CUl I'LE OF AMERICAN BKK iUVKS AIXKK THE I'ATTKK^; OF THOSE PATENTED AND 

 MANUFACTUKED BY H. A. KING ABOUT 45 YKARS AGO. 



with me. Then, handling 1(),()0() shallow 

 frames instead of 5000 deep ones, as in 

 my case, is again not to be thought of. It 

 is true that we have to brush the bees off 

 the full-depth frames; but we get all the 

 bees, and it takes just a little more time for 

 the whole job. We have smoked bees out 

 of shallow supers, as Mr. Scholl describes; 

 but the work is not satisfactory, as there are 

 many bees left in the supers to crawl out in 

 the honey-house and get into every thing. 

 I bought an apiary which contained shallow 

 frames. It is still in my possession, and I 

 intend to make wax of the combs and kin- 

 dling-wood of the frames this winter. 



If one is running for comb honey, and 

 wishes to use only strips of foundation, and 

 no wire, the shallow frames might be all 

 right; but I can not sell comb honey to any 

 ajipreciable extent; and when I do sell it I 

 produce it over full-depth frames on full 

 sheets of foundation with one and two wires 

 to the frames. 



Bartlett, Texas. 



THE H. A. KING AMERICAN BEE-HIVE. 



BY A. I. ROOT. 



When I first became interested in bees 

 and bee culture, nearly 50 years ago, if I re- 

 member correctly my first truant swarm 

 was put into a Langstroth hive. Afterward, 

 however, I ran across H. A. King's "Bee- 

 keejier's Text-book." I finally paid a visit 

 to his hive-factory at Nevada, Ohio, which 

 I described briefly on page 705, Nov. 15, last 

 year. After talking with Mr. King, and 



reading his text-book, I felt so well satisfied 

 at that time that the American hi\e was 

 something later than the Langstroth, and 

 an improvement on it. that I purchased the 

 right and manufactured forty or fifty hives 

 like those shown in the cut. Now, there 

 are some good things about that old Amer- 

 ican hive. The frames were at fixed dis- 

 tances when the movable side was put in 

 ])lace and securely buttoned up. Of course, 

 the frames could not be removed without 

 taking out the movable sides The large 

 entrance shown in the cut for use in hot 

 weather, with the entrance-block taken out, 

 was a very good thing; and the auger-holes 

 above for an entrance in winter seemed to 

 l)e a pretty good thing also. But when 1 

 began to write for the old America)} Bee 

 Journeil, antl became accfuainted with its 

 editor, Samuel Wagner, he succeeded in 

 convincing me that the Langstroth hive 

 was not only more largely in use than any 

 other hive, but also that it was more likely 

 the one to be settled down on as the stand- 

 ard in the future. The arguments he pre- 

 sented, besides some from father I^ang- 

 stroth, after I had become acquainted with 

 him, were so convincing that I cut all of 

 my combs out of the American hive and 

 transferred them back again to Langstroth 

 frames.* The years that have jiassed since 

 that time have demonstrated the sound- 

 ness of the judgment of both Langstroth 

 and Wagner. Considerable credit is also 

 due to H. A. King for having introduced 



* By referring to back volumes of the American 

 Bee Journal for IWMi I find I tested both American 

 and Langstroth hives side by side, and the latter 

 gave the most comb honey (in bores) every time. 



