488 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15. 



supers, thereby keeping the sections warm in 

 cooi^nights by adding an internal arrangement 

 to suit the taste of the individual, and has 

 plenty :of play, and does not need a stone to 

 weight It down, and is never propollzed, It can 

 hardly be called " impractical." 



I have no interest in the sale of this hive, but 

 have'written the above to call the attention of 

 bee-keepers to new and practical ideas. 



Arvada, Colo. 

 L [Some time ago an enthusiastic admirer of the 

 Aspinwall hive (advertised in these columns for 

 a number of issues back) wanted to know why 

 we did not have that hive illustrated in our de- 

 partment of Trade Notes. I had intended pre- 

 viously to have this done, but somehow 1 iiad 

 not got around to it until my atteniiun was i-all- 

 ed to it. I wrote to the Aspinwall Manufactur- 

 ing Co., asking them, if they saw tii, lo send a 

 description, accompanied by engravings, ur re- 

 quest one of the users of their hives tu do so. As 

 will be seen by the above, they acted on the lat- 

 ter suggestion. There are some features about 

 the hive I admire; and although not having 

 tried the same I am of the opinion that ii- will 

 work very nicely. Not every bee-keeper will be 

 pleased wiih the same kind of hive; and 1 am 

 very glad that we can give our reader* a fair 

 and impartial view of several good hives. 



Perhaps it would be well lo say that hives 

 that are made up in part of the end-!)ar!. of the 

 frames have never been very popular. Most 

 bee-keepers seem to prefer some sort >>{ box or 

 shell in which to put the frames. However, 

 two of the largest bee-keepers in the world (El- 

 wood and Hetherington) use closed-end frames 

 without the protecting case during the summer, 

 each side being closed up by a panel, something 

 as shown in the Aspinwall hive above. The 

 Aspinwall system employs the plan used by 

 Quinby and Hetherington; but in.-tead of using 

 standing closed-end frames it used closed -end 

 hanging.— 'Et).] 



then, of course, it is not advisable to have your 

 hives point that way. 



J. P., Mass. — You can put bees into a newly 

 painted hive as soon as the paint is dry. Paint 

 is uot offensive to bees; in fact, about every 

 two years we paint all our hiVes while the bees 

 are in them. 



H. F. S., Pa.— The Dovetailed hive— in fact, 

 all hives of modern construction — have plain, 

 square edgfs. There is no danger of supers and 

 covers blowing oft', because the bees will fasten 

 them on with propolis. Neither will the rain 

 beat in and rot the edges that come in contact, 

 as would at first appear. Beveled edges be- 

 tweeen parts of hives and telescopic joints have 

 been largely abandoned. 



F. C, Afic/i.— Noticing our advice in the A B 

 C, to have hivts face toward the east, says the 

 hives he has facing that way have not done 

 nearly as well as those facing in other direc- 

 tions. The directions we gave in the ABC 

 book are general, and apply to most localities. 

 If your prevailing winds are from the east. 



With the exception of the small trees, bass- 

 wood stems to be profusely loaded with buds 

 that will soon burst into blossoms. If these 

 blossoms shall, later on, burst forth with dead 

 loads of honey, the hearts of bee-keepers will 

 be glad, in view of the fact that clover promises 

 but little. 



Although there has been very little honey 

 coming in, our bees have swarmed earlier than 

 usual. They swarmed out, notwithstanding 

 there is plenty of room for the queens, and for 

 the bees to store honey. The only reason the 

 apiarist and I can assign for this is the ex- 

 tremely hot weather that made the bees think 

 other quarters might be more desirable. 



In the Am. Bee Journal Mr. G. W. McGuire, 

 of Dark Ridge, N. C, comes out vigorously in 

 favor of large brood-chambers, he having used 

 them from (500 square inches up to 2172. The 

 colony in that hive tilled it in 16 days, and gave 

 a surplus of 63 one-pound sections. The next 

 spring he bought four colonies in small hives, 

 and they did nothing but swarm, while this big 

 colony gave 110 lbs. of surplus. He claims that 

 so much honey in the brood-chamber is of price- 

 less value to the bees. June 2, 1893, one of 

 these colonies gathered 22 lbs., from poplar. 

 Mr. M. claims to have one of the best honey 

 localities in the world— poplar and basswood. 

 It seems likely that Western North Carolina 

 will not much longer remain the terra incognita 

 it has always been, as it is doubtless one of the 

 richest and most healthful parts of the United 

 States. 



Bko. Hutchinson has reason to be proud of 

 the two articles in the Cosmopolitan, especial- 

 ly over the very tine phoios from which the 

 engravings were made. The two articles are 

 written for the general public, and I hope that 

 some time they may be incorporated in book 

 form for general distributioti. One very pleas- 

 ant thing about it is, that the treatment of the 

 subject is fair and impartial. It does not boom 

 any particular hive, but simply talks standard 

 fixtures and acceptid opinions, leaving all the 

 latest ideas and thtories out. Mr. Hutchinson 

 deserves a vote of thanks from the bee-keeping 

 world for the masterly way he has given the 

 geneial public correct infoimation. 1 think 

 there will be less talk about manufactured 

 honey because it has been shown that hundreds 

 of tons of pure honey can be produced right 

 from the hive— all of it gathered by the bee. 



