February, 1914. 



j toorican IBce Jonrn all 



general purpose hive. It is inlinitely 

 more desirable to have room in the 

 brood-chamber for a few combs of 

 honey, than to curtail brood-rearing, 

 or to have the queen encroach upon 

 the domains of the surplus receptacles 

 with its disagreeable results of floating 

 larv;e and spoiled extracting combs. 

 If queen-excluders are used, the work- 

 ing force is diminished just in propor- 

 tion to the amount of brood that would 

 have been reared in a hive of sufficient 

 capacity, and swarming will be the 

 ultimate result. 



Again, if a story and a half arc occu- 

 pied for brood, at least two more are 

 needed for surplus, making the hive 

 four stories high, a regular sky scraper, 

 entirely out of proportion, as well as 

 devoid of all principles of domestic 

 economy, since the field laborers are 

 compelled to travel nearly 4 feet 

 upon the vertical sides of hives before 

 they can deposit their heavy burden ; a 

 condition of fruitless labor and wasted 

 energy to the bees. 



It is evident that a hive of 17-frame 

 capacity is not too large for best re- 

 sults when viewed from the standpoint 

 of economy and utility. We have 

 adopted this form of hive in preference 

 to any other for reasons already given, 

 as well as for the additional reason 

 that it is the embodiment of methods 

 for the application of principles of far 

 greater value to beekeepers than any 

 we have mentioned; not the least of 

 which is its economical solution of the 

 wintering problem, including the mini- 

 mizing of expense for wintering equip- 

 ment. The winter of 1911-12 proved 

 quite conclusively that the problem is 

 still with us, and fortunate indeed is the 

 beekeeper whose hives are so con- 

 structed as to afford ample and perfect 

 winter protection without a cent to 

 pay for extra equipment. It simply 

 means life and prosperity to the bees, 

 and dollars in the pockets of beekeep- 

 ers, that would otherwise go for ex- 

 pensive and cumbersome chaflf hives 

 and winter cases. 



This hive is so proportioned that 

 when the frames are removed it will 

 take in an 8-frame hive-body cross- 

 ways, and leave 2 inches of space be- 

 tween the walls of the two hives for 

 winter packing; and when the top 

 story is on we have 10 inches of space 

 for packing on top without the expense 

 of a deep cover or chaff tray, thus 

 affording better winter protection than 

 the most elaborate and expensive chafif 

 hive, and without extra equipment save 

 the inner case which can be made from 

 a packing box for 10 cents; this is 12 

 inches deep in order to draw the clus- 

 ter upward in the center of the packing 

 chamber and away from the drafty en- 

 trance, and leave a space of 3 inches 

 under the frames — ^a very desirable 

 feature not found in any other winter- 

 ing hive. 



An 8-frame space is large enough for 

 winter, especially since the more 

 crowded they are the warmer they will 

 be, but the combs should be pretty 

 well filled with stores at the beginning 

 of winter. Since the hive is converted 

 from a single-wall hive for summer 

 use to a double-wall wintering hive, 

 affording ample winter protection with- 

 out extra equipment, it is appropriate 



to bestow upon it the cognomen of 

 "the convertible hive." 



When we consider that it costs less 

 to construct a hive of this pattern than 

 ordinary hives of equal capacity, with- 

 out wintering privileges, little more is 

 needed to complete the principle of 

 "economical construction and manipu- 

 lation of hives." It is 20x2() inches 

 outside, and will accommodate 16 

 frames and a sliding follower, and 

 when the top story is on it approaches 

 closely to the cubical form, and pre- 

 sents a very substantial and symmet- 

 rical appearance. It is used with sta- 

 tionary bottom and shallow telescope 

 cover over a thin super cover in two 

 pieces. Since it is used with an upper 

 story, it should not be confounded with 

 the so-called " long idea" hive, which 

 is a single story hive; the principle is 

 original with myself, as the result of a 

 gradual development covering a period 

 of several years, and it is not an un- 

 proven theory. 



While this is virtually an extracted- 

 honey hive, all that is required to make 

 it a section-honey hive is a set of old- 

 style double-tier section frames having 

 woven wire separators on both sides, 

 and alternating with clean white ex- 

 tracting combs, thus producing both 

 kinds of honey with no swarming, and 

 no expensive paraphernalia, such as 

 supers, fences, etc., to consume the 

 beekeeper's time and cash, and every 

 hive is ready to produce either comb 

 or extracted honey, or both, without 

 extra equipment except frames. Those 

 who have practiced this method will 

 attest to its economy and utility. If 

 the foundation is revamped by painting 

 the surface with warm (not hot) melted 

 wax, before cutting it up, the bees will 

 accept it more readily, which is an im- 

 portant factor in the spontaneous pre- 

 vention of swarming. 



The extra expense for chaff hives 

 and winter cases will go far toward 

 stocking an apiary with convertible 

 hives and eliminate the winter case 

 which consumes the beekeeper's time 

 and cash, and lies idle six months of 

 the year. This principle is wholly sub- 

 servient to the interests of beekeepers 

 by minimizing expense for equipment. 

 Frequent changes and modifications 

 are imperative in order to keep in 

 touch with an era of progress and im- 

 provement. 



An expensive dovetailed corner adds 

 nothing to the value of a hive and 

 much to its cost. Two square joints 

 properly nailed together will hold as 

 long as the timber lasts, and keep the 

 inside drier than will a locked corner. 

 An active mill man will cut out a lot of 

 hives in a short time at 50 cents per 

 hour, and get frames of the supply 

 dealer. I claim for this hive : 1st, a 

 brood-chamberof a capacity to develop 

 the fertility of queens sufficiently to 

 check the swarming impulse, and bring 

 the colony on the stage of action with 

 the strongest force of bees possible; 

 2d, spontaneous prevention of swarm- 

 ing ; 3d, a single wall hive in summer, 

 and a double-wall hive in winter, af- 

 fording ample winter protection with- 

 out extra equipment; 4th, horizontal 

 expansion and contraction by means 

 of a sliding follower; 5th, a cubical 

 form closely surrounding the brood 

 with extracting combs, economizing 



time'and^energy of bees ; Ijtli, it neces- 

 sitates handling the wintering combs 

 thereby eliminating the loose practice 

 of guessing at internal conditions ; 7th, 

 its advent will mark the beginning of 

 a new era in bee-hive methods, and 

 sound the death knell of expensive 

 paraphernalia for wintering bees and 

 producing section honey. 

 Birmingham, Ohio. 



[Mr. Hand favors a brood-chamber 

 of 17 frames. We are glad to see it, 

 even though we think such a hive too 

 large. It is only a short time since 

 Mr. Hand deprecated the use of large 

 hives and wrote, American Bee Jour- 

 nal for 1909, page 240: "The 8-frame 

 Langstroth hive must ever rema'n 

 what it is — a general utility hive — the 

 hive that is best suited for the masses." 



Years and years ago, from 1868 to 

 1880, Mr. Chas. Dadant experimented 

 upon hives of different sizes, both in 

 number and size of frames; not in 

 reduced number of colonies, but in 

 large apiaries, so that there could be 

 no mistake in the results. For years 

 afterwards he fought alone in the bee- 

 journals in favor of hives "of sufficient 

 capacity to develop the fertility of the 

 most prolific queens," to use the words 

 of Mr. Hand. In 1908, page 141 of the 

 American Bee Journal, Mr. Getaz 

 quoted Chas. Dadant as saying, 15 

 years before : "We are now alone in 

 advocating a brood-chamber larger 

 than 10 Langstroth frames, but we are 

 in the right, and the time will come 

 when our position will be vindicated.'- 

 What we saw in Europe during the 

 past summer and Mr. Hand's article 

 prove it has been vindicated. — Editor.] 

 ^^♦^ 



Cumarin and the Bitter Prin- 

 ciple of Sweet Clover 



BY A. F. BONNEY. 



THE most common contention of 

 the average ruralist whose front 

 yard may be rank with "plants 

 out of place," is that sweet clover 

 with or without a hyphen "is a 

 weed." The next, when driven into an 

 argumentative corner, " Well, cattle 

 will not eat it, anyway." 



There is a state of transition, gen- 

 erally very brief, between hate and 

 love on the part of the average farmer. 

 All that seems to be required is lead- 

 ership. That we, in this vicinity, are in 

 the chrysalis stage is evident, for sweet 

 clover is now being discussed as a hay 

 and forage plant, and the writer has 

 not for weeks been threatened with 

 arrest for sowing sWfeet clover seed. 



Just before leaving for the East in 

 the spring of 1912, Mr. W. L. Morton, 

 of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul 

 railroad, and I found two stalks of 

 sweet clover which had neither the 

 smell of cumarin nor the bitter taste 

 characteristic of the plant. At that 

 time Mr. J. M. Westlake, Agronomist 

 in Charge of Clover Investigations at 



