148 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



W. 



HIVES, EXTRANCES, ETC, 



pP|HE followiuii; was sent with no name ap- 

 ilj penilefi. As it ijives some valuable items 



we publish it. and if the writer will send in his 



name, we^Avill give proper credit. 



PEAK NOVICE:— R. L. Joiner on pa.ce as, says: 

 "The two BtoiT principle is all right, Imt I want the 

 bottoms of my frames to be 'i from the bottom board, 

 iind the top of the liive to be ,*i inches above top of 

 frames for tiickina- (piilt, and when the upper story is 

 on I want onlv ,; inches between tiers of Irames. 1 

 can have all this witli an npper story made on pnr- 

 ])Ose and cannot without." 



Friend Joiner can have just what he want^ with 

 upi>er and lower stories alike. For exami)le : my 

 hives are for Gallu)) frames, the frames when in the 

 hive hans O-lfi from bottom, sides and top of hive— 5-16 

 space alt around. The hive is made 5-10 less than 12 

 indies deep and a tlange naik-d around tlie bottom 

 and 5-16 lower, making'the hive finally just 12 inches 

 deep, i'ou will perceive from this that one hive 

 ))laced on toj) of another will have their tiers of frames 

 just 5-16 inches apart. These distances work very 

 nicelv with me, and on the same ])rinciplc any other 

 distaiicc can be secured. I made my flange of com- 

 mon lalh, but 1 think IK inch hoop iron would be very 

 nice. In nailing on llie llange i)Ut a str p of wood 5-16 

 inches under the hive on a )ierfectly true surface and 

 you can get a "dead lit" between hive and bottom 

 board. Frienrl Joiner says he could not be hired to 

 use a hive witli ;i movable bottom board. For my 

 part I want no other, but I too think liie Eangstroth 

 entrance ijlocks the best I oversaw, and should have 

 a dei'ided contem|)t for two inch auger holes. Only 

 vhink ol,;i big swarm hunying in and out in the height 

 of the honev season and "fairly tumbling over each 

 othei in their most eager ha?te. I must have an open- 

 ing to mv hives the full width and regulate it accord- 

 ing to scVison or circumstances. If 1 want an opening 

 t hrougli a wall 4 or more inches thick. I would make 

 it thus ; A, alighting board, 

 E, entrance, and W, wall. 

 >Siicli an entrance woulil be 

 as a portico, made any 

 •width required and regu- 

 lated like any other en- 

 trance. A 



My notion of a house api- 

 ary is to have it hexagonal, 

 and liave the "large double 

 door' lacing nortli exact- 

 ly. It shoidd be H stories high and accomodate 45 

 liivcs. The uiiper story would be handy for storage if 

 not wanted for bees. Now will yoxi telTus what is the 

 use of a door step lOxli inches for a 2 inch anger hole ? 



In your sui)pk'ment, ])age 2, you say, "To work nice- 

 ly the frames need about as much room to hang in the 

 exiracto-' r.s they do in the hive, and to do this there 

 seems to l)e no otlier way than to make the extractor 

 to til the hive it is intended for." My extractor is at 

 pre.-ont arranged foi- Gallup frames, but in a few min- 

 utes I can adapt it to the Am. or Standard, or any 

 frame >nndler l,han these. The frames hang in the 

 extractor as they liangin the hive. One (-f the bear- 

 ings is moval)!e and in a few minutes can be moved out- 

 Avard or inward to aecommodate any frame, as abtjve. 



Do you think we will ever have a standard 

 frame 't Such may do for the good, staid people 

 of old "Faderlann"' but for' uneasy, restless, wide- 

 awake Yankees, ball ! "No y)ent up IJtica contracts 

 our jiowers," etc. For my o\vn part 1 want "some- 

 thing new every day" and I ]i:ao an idea Novice is 

 pretty much so. 



The hoop iron idea will certainly answer the 

 purpose, and will also obviate the necessity of 

 beveling the lower edge of the dollar hives, Itjit 

 wo shall have to use bottom boards unlike tlte 

 covers. '• 



We thought of such an entrance to our house 

 apiary, but discarded it as l)eingtoo expensive 

 and too cold in winter. The 2"i*ch holes are 

 very cheap, and can be filled with wooV'so as 

 to be almost as warm as a solid wall in ex- 

 treme weather. Could you have seen them 

 1ISC the broad door steps during a moderate 

 jield of lioney iu Sept., you would no longer 

 doubt their utility. They with their support- 



E^ 



W 



ing brackets are made very cheaply with a 

 buzz-saw. 



"Would you advise one who uses a Gallup 

 frame, to constantly whirl the extra metal and 

 machinery required to contain a Standard 

 if he should never use tlie" latter ? "^'hy do 

 Doctors use a small gig, instead of a buggy for 

 twoV 



"VVe agree Avith you in regard to Novice and 

 fear that unless he has strength of mind enougli 

 to get over a part of that unfortunate weak- 

 ness, he will remain a Novice for all time to 

 come. 



OrK OWN APIARY. 



OV. l.y^. — We reduced our i^ees to 90 colo- 

 I nies instead of 108, and concluded they 

 were pretty mucli all well supplied with win- 

 ter stores, but after trying them all on the 

 scales we were much disappointed in finding 

 that we dare risk very few of them indeed, es- 

 pecially since we have them so much more 

 populous than usual. There was no help for 

 it, and we dared not feed syrup at this late day, 

 so we gave them the candy bricks. By the 

 waj^ there is one very great thing in favor of 

 the candy which we have omitted to mention, 

 and that is, we can feed at any time and under 

 any circumstances witliout th« least fear of 

 robbing. Robbers will take the candy it is 

 true, but as it is too sIoay work to quarrel 

 about, you can open hives and put the candy 

 on top of the frames at your leisure ; if a rob- 

 ber can stand it to wait until he gets a load, 

 all right. It is our impression that this candy 

 will answer all purposes for stimulative feed- 

 ing iu the s]iring, and it can be given regard- 

 less of the weather. 



We have united 18 colonies by simply lifting 

 bees, com))s and all into the hive desired, and 

 have yet to see a single Queen attacked, that 

 is Avhen done in cool weather. We have also 

 been agreeably surprised to And that Avhere 

 hives are no farther apart than as we have 

 them — G feet from centre to centre — any one 

 may be united with its neighbor and removed 

 at once wlieivthc bees are flying, for they will 

 all Iind the hive by hearing their comrades 

 call, and this so oomplctely, that not a single 

 bee Avill return to the old stand and be lost. 

 With some of our first trials we had much 

 trouble ; the bees that went back to their old 

 home every pleasant day, were allowed to clus- 

 ter on an empty comb and were then carried 

 to their comrades, but ' every night found 

 thaj^Jpack at the old spot, and liuall.y many 

 of tlKi died on their old stand. We wonder- 

 ed if there was no way by Avhich they could 

 be made to voluntarily take up with a new lo- 

 cation like a new swarm, or as did those men- 

 tioned on page ()2. Well, we did it in this way : 

 our sick hive had bees dying by>the hantlful 

 almost daily as usual, and despairing of ever 

 curing them, we finally killed the Queen, ho- 

 ping that bees raised "from a new Queen even 

 in the same hive would prove free from this 

 twitching malady. This Queen, by the way, 

 lias been unusually prolific, or the population 

 of the hive would have failed with such an 

 enormous draft on it, and as a consequence Ave 

 have been oliliged to supply them \\itli an un- 

 usual quantity of food. Well, after killing the 



