796 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Conversations with Doolf 



HIIIVE-MAKING. 

 " I am thinking of making my 

 own hives the coming fall and 

 winter. I am qnite used to car- 

 penter work, and think I can save 

 quite a little in making my own 



hives. Can you give me a few 

 pointers in the malter of hive-making? " 



The fii'st thing that a beginner, or those of 

 small experience in keeping bees, should 

 learn is that hives cannot be thrown together 

 in a haphazard w;iy, even where the mate- 

 rial is purchased from a manufacturer of 

 beekeeping supplies. Few things, including 

 slini^s. are more provoking or try tlie temper 

 more than a set of hi\'es which vary in size, 

 or which have paits that are ill-titting or 

 poorly made. The first thing our questioner 

 should do is to make a careful study of liives 

 to find out just what he wants. If he pro- 

 poses to produce extracted honey his hives 

 may be somewhat different from a design 

 .suitable for producing section honey, as the 

 accuracy required for producing fancy com.b 

 honey is not necessary wlien producing the 

 extracted article. But with hives for ex- 

 tracted honey, every j^iece should be cut 

 accurately from Avell-seasoned lumber with- 

 out the variation of even a sixteenth of an 

 inch. And for real fancy comb honey, e\^en 

 a difference of that much would not answer 

 in a season with a profuse flow of nectar. 



Then a form is needed for putting up the 

 liives, frames, sections, etc., so that every 

 })art will come out square and fit accurateh' 

 with no loose joints or leaky roofs. All 

 should be made perfectly square — not even a 

 trifle diamond- shajDed. Frames even just a 

 little out of true should not be tolerated, as 

 the bees may stick one end to the end of the 

 hive oi- to another frame, and at the other 

 end build a bit of comb between, thus mak- 

 ing things anything but agreeable when the 

 frames need to be handled. 



Be s\ire that the space between the top of 

 the frames and the honey-board or cover 

 is just right and will stay so. If the top- 

 bars are too light they may sag when tlie 

 combs are filled full of honey, as is often 

 the ease in a good season, thus making the 

 space in the center Y^ to % inch, while it 

 is onl\' 14 at the ends. TJndei- these circum- 

 stances this greater space will be filled in 

 with comb and honey, disgusting even the 

 *' .slip-shod '' fellow. 



See that just the right space is given at 

 the ends of the frames; for if too much is 

 uiven, combs will be built between the ends 



At Borodimo, New York. 



of the frames and the hive; and if too little, 

 the bees will till it up with propolis. The 

 same apjilies to the space underneath. 



For these reasons only well-.seasoned 

 lumber should be used, and that of a kind 

 that is not subject to much shrinking and 

 swelling. Pine is probably the best of any, 

 though a good quality of hemlock will with- 

 stand shrinking neai'ly if not quite as well. 

 It is harder to work, however, and is more 

 liable to check and sjilit during very dry 

 \v(>ather. 1 once visited an apiary in which 

 the hives were made of .basswood, the api- 

 arist thinking that, if such hives were kept 

 well painted, tliey would be as good as any 

 made of the higher-priced lumbers. But 

 when T came to look over these bees the 

 brood-chambers had shrunk so as to let 

 many of the frames rest on the bottom- 

 board, and the boltom-bai's were glued fast 

 so that it was almost imi^ossible to manipu- 

 late the frames at all. 



Not only should the fi'ames and brood- 

 chambers be and stay of the right size, but 

 they should be so arranged as to be spaced 

 exactly the right distance apart. I remem- 

 ber looking over one apiai-y where the 

 frames Avere ail the way from 1 3-16 inches 

 to two inches apart from center to center, 

 tliis making the combs so that the}' could 

 not be interchanged after the bees had filled 

 them Avith honey during a flow of nectar. 

 After using different bee-spaces I still in- 

 sist on having the combs ly^ inches apart 

 from center to centei'. Many advocate from 

 1 5-16 to 1%; but from a series of years, 

 covering all kinds of Aveather, my best re- 

 sults have come from the 1^/2 spacing. 



The accuracy needful in making hives is 

 much m.ore exacting for the supers Avhere 

 sections are used in securing comb honey in 

 marketable shape. A variation of a six- 

 teenth of an inch cannot be tolerated Avith 

 sections. Suppose our super holds ten rows 

 of sections, as many of the supers now in 

 use do, and Ave find Avhen the sections are 

 put togetlier they are a thirty-second of an 

 incli ovfr; then Ave shall be in trouble be- 

 cause they Avill not go into the super. 

 Again, if not quite large enough, or each 

 of them the same part of an inch (00 small, 

 we have a space to be filled Avitli propolis, 

 very much at the expense of the appear- 

 ance of the sections Avhen ready for market. 

 The accuracy necessary' for supers for sec- 

 tions is so important as to be beyond any 

 profit in the jnaking by any carpenter, no 

 Miatlcr how skillful he is in the use of tools. 



