NOVEMBER 1, 1913 



77:^ 



Some of tl 



"lull siipurs nrp on t^ 



than the Hoft'man frames to fit this liive. 

 The front bars of the frames are one inch 

 wide to prevent the bees from building comb 

 on the sides or between them. The top and 

 bottom of the hive are 20 inches long, and 

 sides are % shorter. The back or door is 

 of double boards. The inside one shuts in- 

 side the hive-body, has tins around the edge 

 to pi'event the bees getting at the boards to 

 stick them together, and to force them away 

 Avhen closing the hive. This works perfect- 

 ly, and does not crush a single bee. To look 

 them over, the supers do not have to be 

 touched. This does not disturb the bees at 

 all in their work. I can examine them in a 

 few minutes, and it is a pleasure to do so. 

 Hartford, Ct. 



[We will explain that Professor Whitten. 

 of the Handicraft Schools, Hartford, Ct., is 

 the inventor of an observatoi'y hive which 

 he exhibited at the convention held at Am- 

 herst, Mass., early last summer. We hope 

 to illustrate this soon in our columns. He 

 has also devised a hive embodying the same 

 principle for ordinary hives. The accom- 

 panying illustration will show the scheme. 

 The top-bars and bottom-bars of the fram.es 

 slide in metal channels in such a way that 

 there is no chance for the bees to propolize. 

 While it is possible for one to examine any 

 comb in the hive without lifting off the su- 

 pers, the arrangement, we fear, will not 



prove to be very satisfactory as a perma- 

 nent working hive run for regular honey 

 production. This same principle was used 

 by some of the early inventors, among them 

 being the celebrated Prokopovitsch, in 1830. 

 Baron Berlepsche, of Austria, used a hive 

 something on the same principle, with this 

 difference : The frames were moved from 

 the end or side of the hive transversely. 

 The principle shown in these illustrations 

 has been used to a greater or less extent in 

 Europe ever since. But it has never been 

 used to a great extent by large commercial 

 honey-producers. The main objection is that 

 frames secured in a hive as here shown are 

 all at fixed distances apart with no oppor- 

 tunity for spacing further apart. There is 

 finite a tendency for bees to attach brace- 

 combs during a heavy honey-flow, hence the 

 combs will be bulged in a way that would 

 make removal difficult and slow. This will 

 i-esult in killing bees by rolling them over 

 and over as the frames are drawn out. With 

 ordinary hives opening from the top with 

 self-spacing frames, the removal of a di- 

 vision-board or a single frame leaves room 

 for spacing the other combs further apart, 

 so one can be easily lifted out. 



Of course, there is the advantage that the 

 brood-nest can be examined without remov- 

 ing the super. But in practical bee culture 

 there is seldom any occasion for this, — Bi>-] 



