1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



TENEMENT HIVES. 



f- SAW in the Dec. No. of GLEANINGS an article 

 from D. C. Underbill, of Seneca, III., in favor of 

 I the tenement hive, which yon seem to think 



(the cover being whole) will be an ungainly thing to 

 handle. Now 1 have made one of a dry goods box, 

 whii h I think does away with your objection. The 

 cover is very light, it being made of thin stuff; the 

 gables and side strips are of % stuff; the roof is 

 made of %x6 in. lap ceiling: the joints are well 

 painted before they are nailed to the ridge board, 

 which is 1x3 in. and dressed as you do ridge boards 

 of the chaff hive. There is a 2 in. hole in tach gab'e 

 covered with wire cloth for ventilation. You want 

 two wire hooks, and eyes to match (one at each 

 end: screw the eye that is attached to the hook into 

 the centre of the gable, and the other eye into the 

 centre board, but one side of the centre far enough 

 to give room to lift out the frames. Then shove the 

 cover over and hook it fast. There is no lifting or 

 tumbling the cover, and nothing in the way of the 

 flight of the bees. The flight holes are as near the 

 corners as 1 can get them, and are '->x8 in. in the 

 clear. You will see by a rough draft which I en- 

 close, (hat there is plenty of room to stand at one 

 side of the flight holes and work with your bees. 



THOMSONS TENEMENT HIVE. 



For the sake of economy of material used, the hives 

 should be nearly square. 0. Thomson. 



Brighton, Mich., Dec. 10, 1878. 



THE TENEMENT HIVE. 



HEN I wrote the article you published in 

 the Dec. No. of Gleanings, on the above 



Wiy/ subject, I had no doubt that you would ac- 

 cept my offer of a skeleton of one, and thus get a 

 correct knowledge of its construction. If you had 

 done so, you would not have said what you did 

 about the hive in your following comments. The 

 bee entrances are not on all sides as you seem to 

 have supposed, but occupy two sides, leaving the 

 other two free for manipulations. The cover 

 weighs from 14 to 21 lbs., according to the thickness 

 of the lumber. So you see a 10 year old boy or girl 

 can lift it off, if it ever becomes necessary. When 

 I wish to examine a hive, 1 slide the cover to the 

 other side, where it forms a convenient place to set 

 the smoker, and any other tools 1 have need of; 

 also to lay the cushion and sheet when taken out of 

 the hive. When I am through, the sheet and cush- 

 ion are before me to be returned to their places, 

 instead of being on the ground or a neighboring- 

 hive. I then slide the cover back to its place. 



I received a note of enquiry from J. B. Gains, of 

 Bedford, O., who had some curiosity to know what 

 sort of a cover I was making, that took two men to 

 lift it off, and kindly suggested a remedy; but as I 

 was building no such cover, the remedy was not 

 needed. 



Any pencil sketch I could make would give you 

 no correct knowledge how the tenement is built, or j 

 how it is used in practice. When I stack them up I 

 among discarded inventions, I will let you know, 

 and not do as Shaw appears to have done, say noth- 

 ing about their failure. I think our failures are as | 

 important apart of our experience as our success- 

 ful ventures, and quite as numerous. 



The only mention I have seen made in print be- 

 fore, of the principle of the tenement hive, is in the i 

 Nov. No.. 1874, page 167, in an article entitled 'A 

 ('ouple of Hours in a German Apiary." The writer j 

 savs, "I may here mention that most of his hives i 

 are more or less fixtures; that is to say, there are 3 

 or 4 stocks in one large hive, separated from each 

 other by dividing boards, an arrangement which he I 



finds a great saving of trouble to himself, and 

 equally good for the bees." 



My attention was not fixed on this however, until 

 after I had planned the tenement. 



Seneca, 111., Dec. 19, '78. D. C. Underhile. 



I humbly beg - pardon, friend U.; it was 

 out of what I considered a kindness to you 

 and others, that I suggested a sketch, rather 

 than a hive. I did not suppose your cover 

 w;is made heavier than you have mentioned, 

 but I thought, and can but think still, that a 

 cover large enough to compass 4 hives, 

 would be unwieldy. If my neighbor Shaw 

 alone, should give me an account of the 

 kinds of hives he has invented and discarded, 

 it would rill Gleanings for several months, 

 to the exclusion of every thing else. Your 

 letter has called forth an amount of corres- 

 pondence, acompanied by excellent sketches 

 of hives, that is far beyond anything we can 

 publish. 1 fear, judging from the experi- 

 ments of years past, that they will all soon 

 be laid aside and forgotten. Shall we not 

 wait a little before giving them too much 

 space, to the exclusion of other matter? 



Send the hive along, and if you desire, I 

 will have our engraver make a cut of it. 



CHAFF HIVES. 



M ; BELIEVE we can all agree in giving 

 friend Townley the credit of persistently 

 ^ bringing before the public, the matter 

 of using chaff for winter packing, even if 

 we do not give him full credit for discovering 

 the virtues of chaff for this purpose. As a 

 consequence, he has many letters to answer 

 on the subject, and asks to answer them 

 through Gleanings, which we shall be very 

 happy to have him do. Below are two of 

 them'. 



Mr. Townley: I have a few hives of bees which 

 are packed in chaff, and I have found it a great deal 

 of work. 



I understand that you are using the chaff hive, 

 and I would like to have your opinion about it. 



Would you advise any one to make a chaff hive in 

 preference to any other? Can you get more comb 

 honey from a chaff hive, where it is protected from 

 Ihe changes of the weather, than you can from a 

 hive made of inch lumber? Is the upper story sur- 

 rounded with chaff, the same as the lower story? 

 If you can answer these questions for me, you will 

 oblige me very much. Geo. H. Denman. 



Pittsford, Mich., Nov. 12, "7g. 



P. S. What does it cost you in money to get up a 

 chaff hive? 



J. H. Townley Esq.:— I hope you will not be offen- 

 ded, for I would like a few questions answered, and 

 as you have had a pretty good experience in the 

 business, I take the liberty of writing you. 



I am just starting in the bee business, and before 

 I invest in any new hives, I want to be posted on 

 the best hive. I have read a good bit about different 

 kinds of hives, and I am almost persuaded that the 

 chaff hive as made by A. I. Boot is the best. lam 

 pretty well satislied that that sized frame is best. 



What hive would you advise me to use? Is the 

 chaff hive better than the simplicity for summer 

 use, when both are shaded? Is sawdust better than 

 chaff? Ought cither to be stamped tight or just 

 thrown in loose? 



By answering the above and anything else which 

 vmi deem advisable, you will greatly oblige. 



Tyrone, Pa., Nov. 18, '78. J. B. McCcllough. 



Friend T replies as follows. 



Friend Boot:— By permitting me to answer 

 through Gleanings the following inquiries, from 

 numerous correspondents, you will confer a favor 

 that will be esteemed and reciprocated in any way 

 you may suggest. 



1st. What hive would you advise me to adopt? 



