1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



251 



Florida by rail I could not take bees in the cars. I 

 would not risk them by express, nor endure the 

 miseries of seasickness again, so that I had none 

 there until the winter of 1884, when I wanted to 

 take some choice bees to Florida so much that I de- 

 termined to do so, rules or no rules. My friends 

 could take their dogs on the passenger trains, and 

 these dogs were a great deal more likely to go mad 

 and bite somebody than my bees were to get away 

 from me to sting anybody. I cheerfully conform 

 to reasonable rules, but I have small respect for 

 prejudice. For myself, I would rather risk the 

 stings of mad bees than the bite of a glad dog. 



What has this to do with the Dovetailed hive? It 

 ■was the need of something light and strong, that 

 would be safe to carry a colony of bees in, in one 

 hand, into a passenger car. A heavy hive that it 

 took both hands to carry would never get further 

 than the platform. Twelve years ago I had a lot of 

 nucleus hives made of stuff half-inch thick, with 

 dovetailed corners, like four-piece section boxes, 

 and glued together without nails, that are still good 

 and strong. Thinking that hives made very thin 

 and light would be warm enough for Florida, I had 

 brood-hives made that weighed only 8 pounds. 

 Eight of these were packed in my trunk, in the flat, 

 with my clothes, and checked free, as others do 

 :guns and camp outfits. 



Now for the bees: Passenger rules absolutely 

 prohibited the carrying of lizards, toads, or bees, in 

 the cars, that would disturb the nerves of timid 

 travelers. I knew the alacrity with which the Pull- 

 man porter would pull those precious bees if they 

 only buzzed; but I entertained a hope that five dol- 

 lars might find them a stand in the steward's pantry. 

 Remembering the roaring racket of the bees on the 

 flhip, with wire cloth over the top of the hive I took 

 a dovetailed body, without bottom, covered it over 

 with wire cloth, and nailed on three strips, half an 

 Inch square, to keep it up from the floor, that they 

 might have air from the bottom. I then caged 

 three queens in separate pound sections, partly 

 filled with honey, and set in combs partly filled 

 with honey, and put in all the bees of three strong 

 nuclei, making a good colony. I then nailed the 

 cover on tight and fast, hoping to smother any 

 complaints that I expected from too close confine- 

 ment; next, to further deaden sound, and mask the 

 affair from the vigilant eyes of men ever ready to 

 bleed one for a dollar, if caught violating rules (I 

 would rather have paid, but bees are prohibited), 

 1 wrapped the sides and top of the box in two coats 

 of heavy paper, and fastened on straps to carry it, 

 so that it might pass for a magic lantern, or any 

 thing but a hive of live bees. Nothing succeeds 

 like success. I secured a seat in the middle of the 

 car, by my coat and valise, and waited in the cool 

 air quietly outside until the train was ready to 

 move, when I carried in my pets, trusting that the 

 roaring of the train and the paper wrapping would 

 prevent their being heard. A three-hours' run car- 

 ried us (bees and me) from Wilmington, Del., to 

 Washington, D. C, without a whimper. As they 

 were so quiet, I carried them aside to investigate, 

 to see whether they were yet alive. A breath 

 blown in at the bottom l)rought the response, " We 

 are all right; what's the matter with you?" After 

 a few days we went on again to Jacksonville, Fla., 

 and 150 miles south to I'anasoffkee, Fla., most of 

 the way in Pullman cars, and the blessed bees be- 

 haved so well that not a passenger knew that I had 



bees in my (bonnet) box, so carefully wrapped up 

 with paper. 



It was :il days from the time they were placed in 

 the box in Delaware until I released them in Flori- 

 da, when they were evenly divided among the 1 hree 

 queens. They commenced carrying in pollen the 

 first hour. There were only 51 dead bees. One queen 

 began laying the second day, and the other two the 

 third day. My intention was to put heavy boxes 

 around the nuclei, as the nights are very cool in 

 Florida. For want of time to do better, I wrapped 

 old newspapers around and over the boxes, to keep 

 them warm, and they just boomed. They were on 

 six frames, which the queens packed with eggs. 

 I had 3 cases of 14 sections each, filled with choice 

 orange honey by the middle of March. Using 

 foundation had increased them to 7 colonies by May 

 10. I was so impressed with the value of a small 

 brood-nest and paper covering that I tried the same 

 on my bees in Delaware; and the following winter !% 

 wrapped all brood-hives with several thicknesses of 

 paper and set a larger hive over them to protect 

 from the wind and rain, and I found it a perfect 

 success where I lived, near Philadelphia, Pa. Every 

 colony put up in paper has wintered successfully 

 with me since I first began. It is safe, cheap, and 

 free to all. I prefer it to chaff, which 1 had been 

 using for 30 years. If the hive is small enough for 

 the bees to fill it with the heat they generate, and 

 a solid wood cover closed down absolutely air tight, 

 as they prepare it for winter when left to them- 

 selves, with several layers of paper wrapped smooth- 

 ly around the outside of the brood-hive with a dou- 

 ble quantity over the top, to retain the heat of the 

 colony. Cover all over with tarred paper or oil 

 cloth, or a larger hive to keep oft' cold winds and rain, 

 and you can have the behefits of my method with 

 any kind of hive. Keeping the outside dry and the 

 inside warm, above the condensing point, with plenty 

 of good sealed honey, bees will boom in time for 

 the harvest. When you take the bees out of the 

 cellar, wrap smoothly several layers of paper 

 around, and twice as much on top of any brood- 

 chamber of proper size, and cover it with any thing 

 to keep off the rain, and you will have my mode of 

 promoting spring breeding; but the paper must be 

 dry; wet, it would be too cold. Not being a manu- 

 facturer of hives, I have had to depend upon others 

 to make them for me. After trying nine different 

 planing-mills and a near-by hive-maker (to save 

 freight), and standing over the job to have them 

 made as nicely as a bee-hive should be, I became so 

 utterly disgusted that I procured a patent on my 

 hive, that I might say who should make it. In cor- 

 respondence with Mr. A. I. Root a year and a half 

 ago, I almost offered to give him the entire thing if 

 he would make and sell it. He answered me very 

 kindly, that he supposed he had it in his attic; and 

 from the new notions that are coming to him al- 

 most daily, it is no wonder that he thought so. 



I packed the complete model hive (that cost me 

 $8.00 hand made) in my trunk, and brought it to 

 the Home of the Honey-bees, and exposed it to the 

 criticism of A. ]. Hoot, E. K. Root, J. T. Calvert, and 

 .1. S. Warner— four as good judges of good bee-hive 

 work as can be brought together. After looking 

 over and discussing the strength of the locked cor- 

 ners, and the feasibility of making it, Mr. E. R. 

 Root asked what I called it. I had no name. As 

 there had been so many hives with grand names, I 

 dared not venture, lest it might have been used be- 



