1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



81 



nies, I learned, by dili^oiit inquiries of the best 

 bee-keepers in my vicinity, all that they could 

 teach. But this was not much, as none of them 

 knew enough to drive bees out of their hives, 

 nor used smoke to facilitate their operations, so 

 that I was indeed groping almost in the dark. 

 About this time I was fortunate enough to get 

 two valuable works— the " Letters "' of the im- 

 mortal Huber, and the second edition of Be- 

 van's Treatise on the Honey-bee, London, 1838. 

 These works made known to me the facts accu- 

 mulated foi thousands of years by the great 

 masters who had so profoundly studied the 

 habits of bees. I soon became the happy owner 

 of an improved Huber hive, and several bar- 

 hives, all made according to Bevan's direc- 

 tions. Ignorant of the futile attempts of Mor- 

 lot and other German and French bee-keepers 

 to make a practical hive for the common bee- 

 keeper, out of the Huber hive, I experimented 

 on that line with no better results until at last 

 I was content to use the Huber hive merely for 

 purposes of observation. The only improve- 

 ment which thus far I was able to make upon 

 the hives of others was in giving them greater 

 protection against the extremes of heat and 

 cold, and the sudden changes of temperature so 

 eminently characteristic of our climate. 



During my pastorate In Greenfield I suffered 

 much from frequent attacks of my old head 

 trouble, which at last compelled me to resign 

 my charge. Removing to Philadelphia, I es- 

 tablished therein the fall of 1848, a school for 

 the education of young ladies. Having a sec- 

 ond-story piazza, and a number of spare attic 

 rooms, I built up quite a city apiary, and began 

 to experiment upon a much larger scale. In 

 the Bevan hive, which I mainly used, the 

 combs were attached to bars or slats which 

 rested upon rabbets just deep enough to receive 

 them. The cover fitting closely upon the top 

 sul-face of these bars, was, of course, very firmly 

 propolized to them. To remove it and get at the 

 bars, Key's metallic plates were used: but even 

 with them it was often difficult to perform the 

 manipulation needed. As the cover rested on 

 the bars, the bees could get into the supers 

 placed upon it, only by passing between crowd- 

 ed ranges of combs; and the opening admitting 

 them into these supers had to be made with 

 special reference to this fact. My chief im- 

 provement upon this hive was to deepen the 

 grooves upon which the bars rested, so as to 

 allow about three-eighths of an inch between 

 the cover and the bars. This not only facili- 

 tated very much the removing and replacing of 

 the cover on which the surplus honey-recepta- 

 cles rested, but gave a shallow chamber from 

 which the heat and odor of the hive could 

 ascend freely into the supers, besides admitting 

 the bees to them in the easiest possible manner. 

 This improved hive had also a bottom-board of 

 my own invention, which could be opened or 

 shut, even in the most crowded stocks, without 

 crushing a single bee, and which, as the hive 

 stood upon legs, permitted the attachments of 

 the combs to the front and rear walls of the 

 hives to be severed from below as well as from 

 above. Some of these hives were about 18 

 inches long by 18 inches wide and 6 deep, thus 

 giving an unusual storage room for surplus- 

 honey receptacles placed above the main hive. 

 There was then very little demand for honey in 

 the best markets in this country, except in the 

 comb, and no hive which did not furnish its 

 surplus in this form could hope to gain any 

 favorable recognition. From these flat hives I 

 obtained the beautiful specimens of honey in 

 glass tumblers and globes, etc., for which, in 

 1851. I obtained the first premium from the 

 Philadelphia Horticultural Society. 

 Continued. 



MANUM IN THE APIARY. 



MANUM S WAY OF STOPPING ROBBING; SEALED 



CO VERS VS. AB.SORBENTS; SMALL 



FRUITS, ETC. 



•' Now. Mr. Alexander, if Mrs. M. will excuse 

 us from any further dinner-table talk we will 

 walk over to the farm where my home apiary 

 is now located. My wife has learned that, dur- 

 ing the bee-season, I am very unceremonious, 

 and at times she makes big eyes at me. But 

 the truth is, Mr. A., since I have got to running 

 my bees alone I have formed the habit of eat- 

 ing very hurriedly— so much so that I often de- 

 prive myself of a full dinner when it so happens 

 that I can take dinner at home. More often, 

 however, I have to take up with cold lunch at 

 an out-apiary, and it is mere chance that you 

 found me at home to-day. Here we are at the 

 farm, only about ten minutes' walk from the 

 house." 



" What are you going to do with those stones 

 in that great pile?" 



" I intend to use them in building a cellar- 

 wall for my new house which I propose to build 

 next summer, if— if— the bees do well for me. 

 There, the house will stand right here on this 

 elevation." 



" Why! what a beautiful location for a home, 

 with such a fine view of Lake Champlain Val- 

 ley, with the Adirondack Mountains in the 

 background, and with this grand old green 

 mountain in the rear! But, Manum, I should 

 almost be afraid this great mountain would roll 

 over on me. My! how I should like to climb 

 to the top of it! How long would it take me?" 



" Well, Mr. A., that would depend upon your 

 taking the right path. I have walked to the 

 top in one hour. There, here we are among the 

 bees; and there seems to be trouble up there at 

 No. 28— robbing, as sure as you live, and a bad 

 case of robbing too. My! see the dead bees in 

 front of the hive." 



"Sure enough! and what can you do to stop 

 it?" 



" Well, as this is a bad case I must be 

 thorough with them. Here is a pepper-box 

 sprinkler filled with peppermint water. You 

 may hold it for me while I remove the cover 

 (honey-board) to let out all the robbers I can. 

 There, now, I will give the bees, combs and all, 

 a good sprinkling. This changes the scent of 

 the hive, and seems to give the home bees new 

 courage to defend themselves; and. besides, it 

 causes the robbers to hesitate somewhat at the 

 entrance. Now I will stuff the portico full of 

 this green grass and weeds. Let's put in a lot 

 of it, so the robbers will have to crawl some dis- 

 tance to get to the entrance. Their progress, 

 you see, will be so slow that the home bees will 

 have fewer robbers at a time to contend with, 

 and, furthermore, the robbers will soon tire of 

 crawling through the grass. And now I guess 

 that, in order to make a sure job of it, I will 

 get my garden sprinkler and give this pile of 

 grass a thorough wetting. There, do you see 

 the robbers are getting discouraged already ?'' 



■• How long will you leave that grass over the 

 entrance?" 



'■ That doesn't matter very much — three or 

 four days, and perhaps a week. This stuffing 

 the entrance with grass is nothing new; but 

 the difficulty with most bee-keepers is that 

 they do not use grass, straw, nor nay enough. 

 They will just throw up a few spears of hay or 

 grass, and then take it away at night or the 

 next morning. I have often left it as a barrier 

 a whole week. Of course, after a time it settles 

 enough so the home bees can pass cnit and in at 

 the ends, or at top of the grass; but the materi- 

 al being still there, the robbers seem to think 



