398 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



QUINBY SUSPENDED FRAME, AND niVE. 



The first 5 are what are called suspended frames, 

 because they are supported or suspended rather, by 

 elongations of the top bar, or other equivalent de- 

 vices. Mr. Langstroth has the credit of inventing 

 this form of movable frame; but, as this, like al- 

 most every other invention, seems to have been the 

 joint work of a great many individuals, it is likely 

 that to him rather belongs the credit of first bring- 

 ing it practically before the public. Mr. Quinby 

 made the frame figured at the top of the list, after 

 seeing Mr. Langstroth's book, in 1856. If I am cor- 

 rect, he chose those dimensions that he might have 

 a hive just about a foot square and a foot and a half 

 long inside. Judging from his experience with box 

 hives, he doubtless thought these would be about the 

 right dimensions. It is quite a misfortune to the 

 bee-keeping world at large, that he did not adopt the 

 exact size given, in Mr. L's book, especially when 

 he came so near it. I believe one reason he gives 

 for choosing a size a little larger was that he could 

 thus use only 8 frames, where Langstroth used 10. 

 This is quite an important advantage, it is true; but, 

 as a great many bee keepers who use the Q. frame 

 (including among their number Mr. L. C. Root, who 

 has just (July, 1879) revised Mr. Quinby's book) have 

 reduced the size of the Quinby frame to about that 

 of the L. frame, I think we may safely call the 

 frame as given by Mr. Q. rather large. Again; Mr. 

 L., in deciding on the dimensions of the frame he 

 has given us, contemplated its being used in a two 

 story hive, which, I believe, Mr. Q. did not; this 

 would readily account for the extra depth Mr. Q. 

 gave. The Q. hive for this frame was simply a box 

 a foot square inside, and 18 inches long, as I have 

 before mentioned. The entrance was, I think, an 

 auger hole, and the honey was taken from boxes 

 placed on the top, much in the same way as from the 

 box hives which Mr. Q. had been recommending. 



THE LANGSTROTH FRAME AND HIVE. 



1 have given above, and under the head nucleus, 

 the principle reasons for the dimensions of this 

 frame. Other reasons being equal, the fact that 

 there are more of this dimension of frames in use, 

 than of all others combined, should have some weight 

 in deciding what frame and hive to use. None but 

 one who has gone through the matter by actual ex- 

 perience can estimate the difficulties and annoyan- 

 ces caused by having hives and frames of different 

 dimensions in the same apiary, or even in the same 

 neighborhood. There will always be more or less 

 buying and selling of hives, bees, &c., and where the 

 hives and contents are all made from one exact and 

 fixed gauge, there is little trouble; but where there 

 is even a slight variation— even the fourth of an 

 inch, it makes troubles innumerable. It is on this 

 account, I would most earnestly plead with you to 

 adopt the regular L. frame, if you can come any- 

 where near to it. "While 10 frames are the standard 

 number forasiDgle story, there are those who use 

 more, as well as those who use less. Adam Grim 

 and others who have made quite a business of sell- 

 ing bees, have adopted 8 framed hives; and, as such 

 a hive of bees was sold at about the usual price, 

 there was, of course, a saving to the one who sold 

 them. As these narrow hives cannot be used inter- 

 changeably, on or beneath the standard size, I would 

 not advise them. We have now a lot piled up a- 

 gainst the fence, just because they are too narrow to 

 be worked with the rest. For the same reasons, and 

 on account of getting boards wide enough for such 

 covers, I would also object to hives containing more 

 than 10 frames; if more room is wanted, put on an 

 extra story. I have objected to the old style L. hive, 

 such as Mr. L. gave us, principally because the up- 

 per story was made to fit over the lower one, and 

 could not therefore be used of itself independently, 

 as a one story hive. It also required much waste 

 lumber, to allow of frames of one size being used in 

 both stories. Compared with the Simplicity, they 

 are heavy to handle, expensive to make, complicated 

 and bulky when they are to be stored away or ship- 

 ped, and yet their inside dimensions are, after all, 

 no greater. 



ADAIR FRAME AND HIVE. 



Ever since Mr. L. gave us the dimensions of the 

 frame he preferred, those who have had less experi- 

 ence than he had have been insisting that the frame, 

 is, too shallow, and advising other dimensions. The 

 frame which I have called the Adair was not recom- 

 mended by Mr. A. specially for this reason, but be- 

 cause he thought it more suitable for the peculiar 

 hive he so strenuously advised about the year 1872. 



This hive, which, I suppose, should be termed the 

 Adair hive more because he brought it so promi- 

 nently before the public than because the idea was 

 of his own originating, was termed by him the "New 

 Idea Hive" ; said idea being to arrange the frames in 

 one long row, rather than to have an upper story, or 

 any kind of a surplus receptacle above the brood 

 nest. Such great things were claimed for this hive, 

 that it was tried all over the country, and hives 

 were made to contain not only 20 and 25 frames, but 

 Adair even claimed he could get a queen to rear 

 such a swarm of bees that a hive four feet long would 

 be needed to give them room; and I presume hun- 

 dreds, if not thousands, of such hives were made 

 and used. Like other similar inventions, they were 

 said to be a success, and some there were who even 

 went so far, as to stock their whole apiaries with 

 such hives. Like other things again, and I hardly 

 know why, the bees, in a couple of years, were taken 

 out of these long hives, and they were put away out 

 back of the barn, or somewhere else, and that was 

 the last of them. At present writing, July 7th, 1879, 

 I know of but two bee keepers who use them, and 

 they do not use them anything like four feet long. 



Before closing the subject of what has been called, 

 in pleasantry, the "long idea hive," it maybe well to 

 state that an unscrupulous vender of patent hives, 

 N. C. Mitchell, by name, about the time every body 

 had dropped this "long idea" as a mistake, com- 

 menced to introduce it to country people, as his 

 patent hive, claiming it as his own invention, and 

 that the most wonderful things could be achieved 

 by its use. At the same time, he claimed to have a 

 patent also, on all division boards for hives, and has 

 been, for the past four years, blackmailing innocent 

 farmers, by threatening them with pi - osecution, un- 

 less they hand him over $10. for the right to use, etc. 

 Where they used neither the long hive nor division 

 board, he claimed also to have a patent on a simple 

 cloth cover, or any kind of a quilt, placed over the 

 frames, and thus obtained, and, I fear, is yet obtain- 

 ing, considerable sums of money. When the matter 

 is sifted down, it i< found that this Mitchell has a 

 patent only on an iron lug to be applied to a division 

 board, which is so impracticable that neither he nor 

 any one else has ever made use of it; a fair sample 

 of the way patents on bee hives turn out when in- 

 vestigated. 



THE AMERICAN niVE AND FRAME. 



The hive known throughout the country as the 

 American hive was invented by H. A. King, about 

 the year 1865. Mr. K., it seems, considered the L. 

 frame too shallow, and sought to make a tall hive 

 like the box hives in cc inmon use, having movable 

 frames like the L. hive. While a shallow frame may 

 be lifted out at the top of the hive very readily, it is 

 much more difficult to use a frame a foot deep or 

 more, in the same way. To obviate this, he made 

 the hive with a movable side. A great many hives 

 were sold, and it was very extensively introduced, 

 perhaps more so than any other patent hive that has 

 ever had an existence. I believe the decision has 

 been pretty general, however, that the movable side 

 is a very undesirable feature, as well as the tall 

 frame it was designed to accommodate, and the hive 

 has been either discarded or so much modified that 

 none of the patented features are left. The frame 

 was, originally about V2 l A wide, by 16 or more inches 

 deep, but after the long Adair hives came in vogue, 

 or about that time, it was changed to a frame exact- 

 ly a foot square outside. This was a gain, in getting 

 it into a regular size, but the American hives scat- 

 tered about the country contain frames of such a 

 diversity of dimensions, that the term American 

 frame or hive scarcely means anything. Reducing 

 the depth to 12 inches was a great improvement, but 

 even that is too deep for a two story nive, and most 

 hives, since the advent of fdn., are used two stories 

 high or more. 



THE GALLUP FRAME AND HIVE. 



This frame was first brought prominently bofore 

 the public, by Elisha Gallup. He used so small a 

 frame, because of the facility it gave for building 

 up small colonies or nuclei. The hive he recom- 

 mended was, at first, about 13 inches.long, holding 12 

 such frames. It is the frame used and advised by 

 Prof. Cook, G. M. Doolittle, and many others, and 

 there are those who claim that better results can be 

 secured by it than by any other of the larger frames. 

 It is possible that this is the case in the hands of one 

 long used to this frame, but 1 think the masses gen- 

 erally will succeed just as well with the L. frame. 

 It is objectionable, because it is too deep to be used 



