0819 



GLEANINGS IN HKE CULTURE. 



575 



howatson's scotch hive, 1820. 



knowledge of bee architecture, for his top- 

 bars were i inch in width, and the frames 

 were spaced IJ inches from center to center. 



The Bingham hive belongs to the Huber 

 type; but the Michigan man makes use of 

 the bee-space at top and bottom. The Quin- 

 by hive with standing closed-end frames be- 

 longs to the Huber type, and so does the As- 

 pinwall, of a later date than any. It has 

 been said by some that hives of this sort are 

 not practical; but as a matter of fact some 

 of the most famous and successful bee-keep- 

 ers in the world have used just such hives. 



Ruber's masterly work gained for him the 

 name of being one of the first naturalists of 

 his age, and his letters on bees were translat- 

 ed and published into all western languages 

 of any prominence. Practical bee-keepers 

 were slow to perceive the immense value of 

 Huber's discoveries. He lived, as many able 

 men have done, ahead of his age. 



In Great Britain, hive invention took the 

 form of improving the hive of Mewe (1652 

 A. D.). The idea was to have a movable 

 roof and bars on which to attach the combs. 

 Howatson's hive here shown was invented 

 in Scotland, probably about the year 1820, 

 for his book, which is a remarkably good 

 treatise on bees, was published in 1825, and 

 he speaks as if his hive was no new inven- 

 tion — at least he had given it a fai 



Hives of this kind are known as 

 "Stewarton" hives, and it was by 

 means of these the Scotch bee-keep- 

 ers swept the English bee-men off 

 their feet at the great bee-keepers' 

 show in the Crystal Palace in 1878. 

 Between the bars are strips of glass 

 to compel the bees to attach the 

 combs to the bars, and also to keep 

 them in their place. A good many 

 of these hives were (and are) oc- 

 tagonal in shape, as more agreeable 

 to the bees. When the Langstroth 

 frame appeared, the Scotch were 

 sharp enough to adapt it to the 

 Stewarton. 



The next great bee-hive inventor 

 was the Russian, Prokopovitsh, who 

 certainly has great claims for grate- 

 ful consideration from modern bee- 

 keepers A glance at the cut on next 

 page will show that the man who in- 

 vented such a hive knew the re- 

 quirements of bee-keeping. He had 

 8O0O hives himself, all with bees in 

 them, and he sold quite a number. 

 Besides, he conducted a bee-keep- 

 er's' school where he turned out a 

 number of successful bee-keepers, 

 skilled in the use of his hives. He 

 was a bee genius of the first rank. 

 Russia being an oriental country, 

 with little intercourse with western 

 nations, Prokopovitsh' s hive did 

 not become known in Western Eu- 

 rope as it ought to have done accord- 

 ing to its merits. 



France and Switzerland, owing to 

 the discoveries of Rt^aumur and 

 Huber, became hotbeds of bee-keep- 

 ing, and books and inventions followed 

 thick and fast after the demise of Huber. 

 In France, Debeavoy invented a hive in 

 1845 that came very near depriving Lang- 



STEWARTON HIVE OF SCOTLAND, 18TII CEN- 

 TURY. 



stroth of his honors. Here we have the 



hanging-frame idea, but not the bee space. 



Munn, in England, a little later, brought out 



mething similar but lacking practicability. 



