PEBRUAKY 15. 101." 



147 



The Long Idea hive as used by Victor Vai'gas Gamallo, Professor of Beekeeping at Havana, Cuba. 



1, brood-phamber ; 2, super; A, queen-excluder. 



Courtesy yvuva Sistenia de Cobneiias de Barras Movihles. 



than one man can handle a single ten-frame 

 hive;" and I do not know but he is right. 

 If any one ewild hear ]VIi\ Poppleton ex- 

 plain how he moves his big hives on to the 

 boat, he would see the trick is not as diffi- 

 cult as it might seem. 



On the other hand, Mr. Poppleton ex- 

 plains that he is an old man, past 70, when 

 he cannot lift heavy hive bodies or supers 

 full of heavy combs; but he can manipulate 

 I)is Long Idea hives without lifting any 

 thing heavier than a single comb or cover. 

 He can get at any part of the brood-nest at 

 anj' time anywhere, and almost instantly. 

 He has no hive-supers nor hive-bodies full 

 of frames to lift. When it conies time to 

 move the bees, he hires a man one day to 

 iret hold of the other end of the hives. 



There is never any Avind powerful enough 

 to blow these hives over. " They will stay 

 liglit where put," said Mr. Pojipleton ; and 

 then he explained further that lie could not 

 work a ten-frame Langstroth hive on his 

 -ystem. He insisted that he must have 

 strong colonies — nothing less than 24 frames 

 capacity. How, lie asked, could he load 

 three eight -frame Langstroth hives tiered 

 up on his boat, and then unload again, with- 

 out danger of their tipping over? There is 

 no getting around it. A two or thiee 

 story hive is not a desirable proposition for 

 his system and location. But the same 

 capacity all in one story can be moved. 



I said to Mr. Poppleton, " The vertical 

 system permits indefinite expansion; that 

 is, an eight or ten frame hive, Langstroth 

 dimensions, could be tiered up three or four 



stories high, or higher if need be." He ad- 

 mitted this, but explained that, with his 

 system of management, he could keep his 

 colonies down to 24 frames capacity. 



I suggested that, on the tiering-up princi- 

 ple, we could shut our queens down to the 

 brood-nest with the perforated zinc, and all 

 combs above would be clear of biood for 

 extracting. He explained that he could do 

 tlie same thing with the division-board 

 excluders, but said that he had never found 

 it necessary to use any thing of that 

 sort. 



When it comes to extracting he extiacts 

 from one side or end of the hive, and in a 

 few days later from the other end. In this 

 way he takes only ripened honey that has 

 been all capped over. While tl:e bees are 

 filling one end that has been extracted they 

 are ripening and capping at the other end. 

 When that is accomplished it is extracted, 

 and so on the process is repeated. 



T suggested that the queen would have 

 lirood in many of the frames fiom which he 

 extracts. He admitted this, but said he was 

 cai'eful in handling such combs. When the 

 queen has an unlimited range, tiie colony is 

 not likely to swarm if the combs are kept 

 extracted close enough. 



In the busy season Mr. Poppleton runs 

 back and forth with his boat to the different 

 yards. In this way he carries his extract ing- 

 outfit. In fact, he said that in the height 

 of the season he sometimes eats and sleeps 

 on the boat — sec Fig. 4. 



Mr. Poppleton has also used his migratory 

 beekeeping in the matter of securing in- 



