1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



393 



will stand up and say that, while breeding for 

 yellow bands or solid yellow, he has all the time 

 kept in mind, paid close attention, and given 

 painstaking care to the other eight points of 

 superiority to be desired in the honey-bee of the 

 future? Who is he or she? Where do they 

 live? I hear no answer, but the owl repeats 

 the words — 



" Who who-who-are you ? " 

 Bluffton, Mo. 



[This is another excellent article, and I could 

 not help saying "Yes, yes," to every point 

 friend Miller gave. I wish all bee-keepers, es- 

 pecially queen-breeders, would read this over 

 carefully. Yes, friend Miller, if you had enu- 

 merated 100 good points I believe I should have 

 put color at the bottom of them all. It would 

 not do to give it even a favorable position, for 

 then some queen-breeders and some bee-keep- 

 ers would put it at the top. In fact. I wish 

 color could be buried clear out of sight, and 

 stay there — not that I despise beautifully col- 

 ored bees, nor that I have any grudge against 

 bee-keepers or queen -breeders who rather favor 

 the yellow bands; but I am afraid color has al- 

 ready had a rather detrimental influence on 

 the real bread-and-butter side of bee-keeping. — 

 Ed.] 



Our Hive Symposium. 



THE JUMBO SIXTEEN-FRAME HIVE. 



ONE LARGK SINGLE-STOBY HIVE; SUCH HIVES 

 MANAGED BY A YOUNG GIRL OF 18; QUEEN- 

 EXCLUDING HONEY-BOARDS DISPENSED WITH 

 AND NO SWARMING. 



By N. E. Doane. 



Mr. Editor:— A& you seem to be interested in 

 the item I gave you in regard to the 16-frame 

 L. hive. I will try to tell you more about it. As 

 I make it now I call it the "Jumbo hive." I 

 commenced keeping bees some twenty years 

 ago. I have used the eight-frame L. hive, also 

 the ten, and the Simplicity hive. I commenced 

 with the six-pound box for surplus honey, then 

 used the prize box, in its day; then came the 

 four-piece section and the Heddon case; the 

 one-piece section and the wide frame. All 

 these were used and found good until something 

 better took their place. With me, a few years 

 ago when the bee-keepers of our land were 

 cutting their ten-frame hives down to eight, I 

 cut mine the other way (some of them), and 

 made a 16-frame hive instead. My main reason 

 for doing so at that time was to prevent swarm- 

 ing, and to keep the bees storing honey con- 

 tentedly throughout the season; but I soon 

 found that a 16-frarae hive covered with wide 

 frames, and one extracting-comb, to call the 

 bees up, was no preventive. A second story 

 was tried on top of this, the extracting-comb 

 giving passage to the second set of wide frames. 

 This worked well for getting lots of honey; but 

 much of it was travel-stained. So you see 

 these faults in the hive I was using led me to 

 devise something better, which came in the 

 shape of the Jumbo hive. 



Now you may ask, " What is the Jumbo 

 hive?" Just imagine you are here, and I will 

 tell you the best I can. Now you are here. Let 

 us play that an eight-frame hive is made of 

 india-rubber. You take hold of one side and I 

 the other, and pull; now pull hard; how much 

 has it stretched? Only twenty inches. Pull 

 again. Now we have it 22 inches. Now give 

 it another awful jerk. There! now we have 

 stretched it until it is 24 inches. That is wide 

 enough for 16 frames and a thin division-board. 



There, now let us get hold of the ends and 

 give them a jerk. Hold on! you have pulled 

 too hard. We want to pull them only just far 

 enough so we can use a board }{ inch thick and 

 9}4 inches wide for the brood-frames to rest, or 

 93^ in. with metal rabbets nailed on. Let us 

 get inside of it and take hold of the top edge of 

 the boards which the frames rest on. Now let's 

 pull away at this until we get it at least five 

 inches above the top of the brood-frames. It 

 is getting to be quite a good-sized hive, isn't 

 it? When we commenced pulling, the entrance 

 was in the end of the hive; we have not chang- 

 ed it, except to make it a little larger; but it is 

 now in the side of the hive. We have also 

 changed the L. frame to a crosswise one, with- 

 out marring the frame in the least. 



Let us sit down now and see what we have 

 done. We have the length to the width, and 

 what was the width to the length. But we 

 don't want it india-rubber any longer, but good 

 wide inch lumber, with the bottom nailed 

 right on tight. Now lay a strip of J<-inch 

 lumber right along on the ends of the frames 

 for your section- holders to rest on; cover up 

 your brood-frames with cloth or board, and you 

 are ready for the bees. When the bees are 

 ready for the sections, place six section-holders, 

 holding four sections each, on the strip, over 

 the center of the hive. Make the ends of your 

 section-holders % inch thick, and have tin sep- 

 arators nailed on each holder. You can make 

 your section-holders with little legs on, so they 

 can stand on the brood-frames and dispense 

 with the sticks. I use them both ways, but 

 can't tell which is the better. 



When the bees have commenced nicely in 

 these sections, move them to one side of the 

 hive and finish covering the hive with sections. 



When the bees have accepted this room, and 

 are pulling the foundation in the last sections, 

 take six of them and place on the other six. 

 You will now have two tiers of sections in all 

 stages of progress, on half of the hive. Now 

 fill the other half with sections. You now have 

 96 IX-inch sections on the hive, and have them 

 away above the hive. Now make a rim of J4 

 lumber, with a lath belt around, to set on the 

 top of the hive. Better use ten-inch lumber, 

 because, if the season is good, we shall need 

 more room. When you come to add the third 

 tier of sections you need take only one or two 

 section -holders from the second tier that the 



