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(JL1^:AN1i\US in BKK CUiyi liPvE 



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A RELIC OF THE PAST GENERATION. 



This '■ Long-idea" hive, as it was called, was once considered quite fa- 

 vorably by a number of bee-keepers: but the difficulty in handling it, due 

 to its unwieldy size, limits its use considerably. 



which five hundred colonies might thread a 

 single structure — spiral, angular, or what 

 not, according to local mechanical require- 

 ments or the artistic temperament of the 

 bee-master. 



Wyoming, Ohio. 



[Perhaps we should explain that Mr. Geo. 

 W. Phillips was for three or four years our 

 queen-breeder at Medina. It was under his 

 administration of the yard that baby nu- 

 clei of the Pratt style were made to work 

 successfully. While our other men were 

 equally successful, they deemed it more 

 practicable to use larger twin nuclei with a 

 very thin division-board between. It was, 

 perhaps, this form of community hive that 

 suggested the idea to Mr. Phillips. 



It is our opinion, although we can not 

 just now refer to the place, that this same 

 general scheme has been tried before. If 

 we remember correctly, this kind of tenant 

 scheme will work after a fashion; but we be- 

 lieve it is not practicable to work more than 

 two colonies on such a plan. Among our 

 large circle of readers there are certainly 

 some who will remember of experiments 

 along this line; and if so, we shall be pleas- 

 ed to have them give the results or the ref- 

 erence. 



We liave worked colonies in pairs separat- 

 ed by wire cloth. Our Mr. Wardell, who 

 operates our TJhrichsville yard, puts an up- 

 per story, divided into three compartments 

 each, on top of a strong brood-nest. Wire 

 cloth separates the upper from the lower 

 compartment. In each of these divisions 

 above are placed two frames of bees and 

 brood and a queen-cell or young virgin. 

 The plan works very satisfactorily, because 

 the heat of a powerful colony rises up to the 



nuclei above that re- 

 ciuire a large amount of 

 heat in order that their 

 baby queens may de- 

 velop properly. 



One objection, as we 

 see it, to the communi- 

 ty hive, as Mr. Phillips 

 has outlined it, is this: 



The stronger clusters 

 will have a tendency to 

 get together on each 

 side of a wire-cloth di- 

 vision-board. This will 

 have a tendency to leave 

 the other smaller clus- 

 ters high and dry be- 

 tween, we will say, two 

 other double clusters. 

 Unless the brood were 

 pretty generally equal- 

 ized, some would be 

 much stronger than oth- 

 ers. It is in their play- 

 spells that young bees 

 will fly to those en- 

 trances where the bees 

 are flying strongest; or, 

 to put the proposition 

 another way, we do not 

 believe it is practicable 

 to have so many colonies with entrances 

 only l(i inclies apart. The scheme has been 

 tried in house-apiaries, and it has never 

 proven very satisfactory. 



liut it is but fair to state that Mr. Phil- 

 lil)S, before he came to this country and en- 

 gaged to work for us, had run some two to 

 three hundred colonies of his own in Ja- 

 maica, his native land, several seasons. He 

 is a bee-keeper of large experience; and 

 while we have our doubts as to the practic- 

 ability of this scheme we shall be glad to 

 hear of the results a year hence. 



Referring to the plan of wintering indoors 

 with an entrance leading to the outside, we 

 may say the plan has not worked very sat- 

 isfactorily at Medina. We have been try- 

 ing it for three or four years. A tempera- 

 ture of 70 degrees causes the bees to consume 

 too largely of their stores. This results in a 

 congestion of the intestines, so that large 

 numbers have to take a cleansing flight 

 whether the weather is suitable or not. Most 

 of them in unfavorable weather never re- 

 turn. At all events, it seems to be apparent 

 that a colony wintered on this plan will 

 never be very strong. Nature has designed 

 that bees during winter shall go into asleep, 

 during which they go into a state of semi- 

 hibernation. In tropical countries, or we 

 will say in our own Southern States, where 

 the bees can fly two or three times a week, 

 they can cleanse themselves properly after 

 a few days of confinement; but a colony 

 kept at the temperature of a living-room 

 throughout the winter where it can not have 

 more than two flights during the winter, 

 can not cleanse itself as it should. The 

 overeating has a tendency to wear out the 

 bees, resulting in premature death. 



