410 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 





.wmm^^^ 



Box hives the menace of modern beekeeping. 



roads were very rough, so we just packed 

 our things and carried them. We made two 

 small hives, two stories high, out of half- 

 inch lumber. Each super held four frames 

 5% inches in width, making eight frames 

 to the hive. The bottom was nailed on, and 

 the supers stapled together. When the 

 weather is very warm we use a wire screen 

 lacked on the top to give the bees plenty of 

 air. It is very handy to have a rope to 

 fasten around the hive at both ends; then 



you can swing it over the shoulder, and that 

 makes it very easy to carry. We took 

 knives, saws, and other tools for transfer- 

 ring the combs to the frames. It takes 

 several hours to cut the tree and to transfer 

 the combs and bees. 



After bees get accustomed to their civil- 

 ized life one can remove the frames from 

 the small hive and put them in the regular 

 ten-frame supers. 



Scottsboro, Ala. 



A MEDIEVAL BOX-HIVE APIARY 



BY CHARLES Y. HAKE 



This picture represents an old apiary 

 started in 1879. The shed complete, and 

 all but the two hives in the center, date 

 from this time. Some of them were almost 

 too fragile to move, and required two men 

 to handle on account of their weight in 

 stored lioney. Where these hives came 

 apart through age, and left large openings, 

 some of them an inch and a half in length, 



the bees had them tightly closed up with 

 glue. The hive at the extreme left, beyond 

 the posts of the shed, was constructed on the 

 leaf plan. The others all have crossed 

 sticks to hold up the brood-combs, with 

 crocks and common boxes for supei-s. The 

 bees passed through a hole about 2V2 inches 

 in diameter in the top of the hive up into 

 the super which was set over tlie hole. 

 York, Pa. 



