March, 1918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



143 



THE LET-ALONE HIVE IDEA 



cA New ^lan Whereby Bees Work 

 for Nothing and 'Board Themselves, 

 as Worked Out by oAllen Latham 



By E. R. Root 



IT has been 

 said til at bees 

 ' ' work for 

 nothing and 

 board them- 

 selves." Some- 

 times it 's true, 

 and sometimes it 

 isn 't. If there 

 ever was a man 

 who has worked out that principle and car- 

 ried it thru to where the owner himself does 

 no work except to take off the honey once a 

 year, it is that original genius, Allen Latham, 

 of Norwichtown, Conn. To say that some 

 of his bees " work for nothing and board 

 themselves " does not tell it. They go 

 further — they give him big crops of honey 

 per colony. If he worked with them, fussing 

 with them almost every day in the summer, 

 then perhaps his yields would not seem so re- 

 markable. 



Before we go into details about the let- 

 alone hive, it will be necessary to know 

 something about the man. Mr. Latham is an 

 instructor in science in one of the high 

 schools of Norwichtown, and naturally has a 

 trained mind capable of seeing things from a 

 scientific point of view as well as from a 

 practical. While he has bees in small hives 

 near his home that he wo"rks with, on ortho- 

 dox lines, he has certain small outyards 

 scattered out among the hills around his 

 Connecticut home i\\hl are run on the let- 

 alone principle. 



I had always had a great curiosity to see 

 those big hives that are run on the long- 

 idea, single-story principle. After attend- 

 ing the field meet in Massachusetts last Aug- 

 ust I rode with Mr. Latham out to his home. 

 He was " baching " it at the time, as his 

 wife and children were away. He is not 

 only an original genius in beekeeping but in 

 the house as well. If his wife is awav, he 



will 



meal 



king. 



never 



those 



and 



kind that 



a dinner 



get up a 



fit for a 



I shall 



forget 



flapjacks 



noney, the 



cover 



plate. 



If there ever 

 was a time when 

 I wished that I had three stomachs (and 

 then some more) it was when my host was 

 serving those big pancakes with sumac hon- 

 ey. 



A visit to his workshop showed me that 

 if there was ever anything new or old in 

 beedom that this man of science has not 

 tried, I do not know what it is. I do not 

 believe there is a man in all the world who 

 has tested out more contrivances and more 

 methods than this Norwichtown professor. 

 He has some original ideas on shipping bees; 

 but, if he were to tell you just how he does 

 it, you might have to stop and scratch your 

 head, wondering whether he be sane or " a 

 little off." But after you let him explain, 

 you begin to see ' ' method in his madness. ' ' 

 As the contrivance may be made the subject 

 of a patent, I will not go into details. 



Among other interesting things, he showed 

 me a hive which he makes out of paper and 

 a couple of rims on which the paper is fas- 

 tened. The cost is insignificant and he 

 knows the hive is good, because he has used 

 it for years. 



But the thing that interested me more 

 than anything else (to get back to my sub- 

 ject) was that let-alone hive — a veritable 

 barn or warehouse made out of shredded 

 wheat-biscuit cases. It was covered on the 

 outside with builder 's-paper, and contained 

 some 25 or 30 closed-end frames — the big- 

 gest brood frames that I have ever seen — so 

 large, indeed, that they needed a center sup- 



(11 A "View in Allen Latham's Apiary, Showing the Giant Let-Alone Hives Built of Light Shipping Cases 



Covered Over With Builders' Paper. 



