1908 



GLEANINGS 1.N BEE CULTURE. 



997 



A HIVE-LIFTING WHEELBARROW. 



How it May be Used to Save Hard Work. 



BY ANDRKW C. BROVALD. 



The illustrations sliow my liive-lifter and car- 

 rier on which I have applied for a patent. I have 

 solved the problem of lifting and moving heavy 

 supers and hives, to my own satisfaction at least. 

 1 can examine tiie brood-nest with two supers on 

 about as fast as if it had only the cover over it. 



The frame is 6 feet long, and the clamp that 

 grips the hive is 2.5 in. long, and opens 20 in., so 



brovald's hive-lifting wheelbarrow. 



it will grip any box from 12 to 19 inches in width. 

 The two standards that are" bolted to the cross- 

 pieces in the frame are 2 feet long, and have 

 grooves in them in which the lifting attachment 

 is held. These standards are for the purpose of 

 adjusting tiie lifting attachment to the height of 

 the hive, tor instance, to take a ten-frame dou- 

 ble-walled nue standing on the ground, the lift- 

 ing attachment has to be let down to the last 

 notch; and for taking off supers it has to be lift- 

 ed up. There is a place in front of the lifting 

 attachment about 17X20 inches, where a comb- 

 bucket and tools can be carried, or supers that 

 are ready for putting on the hives. 



Besides having the lifting attachment it is 

 more convenient in the apiary than a common 

 wheelbarrow, because, by dropping the lifting 

 attachment down out of the way, and (if you have 



no lifting to do you can take it out entirely), 

 laying a couple of boards over the frame, one 

 can pile on about three times as many empty su- 

 pers as on a common wheelbarrow. 



To illustrate further the convenience we will 

 take the hive manipulations that Doolittle de- 

 scribes in "A Year's Work in an Out-apiary," 

 where he puts the upper story down on the bot- 

 tom-board and takes the old brood-nest away: 

 that is an easy operation with this machine. I 

 simply slip the lifter over the tvyo-story hive as it 

 stands, lift the whole to one side, then set the up- 

 per story back on the bottom-board. Thus it 

 is done at one operation. 



There are many 

 bee-keepers with 

 hundreds of col- 

 onies who put the 

 second super on 

 top when the first 

 is partly filled 

 with honey just 

 because it is too 

 much of a job to 

 lift off all these 

 heavy supers and 

 put the empty 

 ones next to the 

 brood-nest. Now, 

 I think the ma- 

 jority of bee- 

 keepers agree that a nearly filled su- 

 per next to the brood-nest is condu- 

 cive to swarming, and that it is det- 

 rimental to the best results in honey- 

 gathering. Now, by using this lifter 

 I can take the super off in just about 

 the time it takes to lift off the cover; 

 so if I can gain only one pound of 

 honey per colony by using the lifter 

 it pays for itself for every 100 colo- 

 nies in that one operation. My 

 opinion is, however, that I gain sev- 

 eral pounds per colony, besides keep- 

 ing down the swarming impulse. 



The super, while off the hive, 

 hangs in the clamps of the lifter. I 

 don't have to set it down on any 

 thing, so there is no smashing of 

 bees. 



In taking off honey the Mfter saves 

 a lot of hard work. I leave the hon- 

 ey on the hives till the flow is about 

 over, and use bee-escapes. My bee-escape boards 

 are used for super-covers, so when I put them 

 under the supers they are left there, and I do 

 not have to disturb the bees any more, and it 

 is quite easy to put in the escape-boards with 

 this lifter. When taking off supers there is more 

 or less burr-comb on the under side of the 

 bottom-bars. That used to bother me some- 

 what; for when 1 set the super down on a flat 

 surface the burr-combs would spring the bot- 

 tom-bar so as to smash the lower edge of the 

 combs. With this lifter there is no bother 

 whatever on that account. The supers hang 

 in the clamps, and I wheel them to the extractor. 

 Babcock, Wis. 



Imperial Valley, Cal., will ship 20 carloads of 

 honey this year. Last year it had but 7. 



