Gleanings in Bee Culture 



Some store combs from I^atham's " Let Alone '" hive. The four show how 

 the bees " work back," the full combs being next to the brood chamljer. 



ingly possible dispute, and with one word 

 or one careless question he will turn your 

 carefully builded structure into a tumbling 

 house of cards. Oh! a canny boy is Allen. 



As an observer of bees and their work, he 

 stands second to no one. As a beekeeper 

 he is never content with what he has done, 

 but must do better. And to him, "better " 

 means not only more product and higher 

 quality, but lesser cost, a matter in honey 

 production so rarely spoken of that one may 

 well doubt if it is often thought of. But it 

 is the " motif" in Latham's symphony, and 

 the marvels it has led 

 him to do would fill a 

 book. Tell him that 

 a saving plan which 

 he would adopt is not 

 feasible, and you wave 

 a red rag at a bull. He 

 will do it, even if it is 

 impossible. Keep away 

 from Allen Latham if 

 you want to plod along 

 in the tortuous and 

 shady path of your 

 granddaddy; for if you 

 once get under the 

 magic power of his 

 methods, your days of 

 self-complacency are 

 numbered. 



.1 ust think of a man 

 examining his colonies 

 and gathering his 

 crops — bumper ones 

 too — at Christmas 

 time, in bleak old New 

 J*^ n g 1 a n d . For in- 

 stance, he this year 

 took the crop from the 

 hives of one apiary on 



the (jth day of Jan- 

 uary, with the tem- 

 perature at ten de- 

 grees Fahrenheit, 

 and the wind at fifty 

 miles an hour. No, 

 nothing crazy or sui- 

 cidal about it. He 

 has done it for years 

 and is steadily in- 

 creasing his bees and 

 his crops. 



The hive and the 

 system with which 

 he accomplishes this 

 and other seemingly 

 impossible things are 

 well worth a descrij)- 

 tion, and the princi- 

 ples involved are 

 worthy the study of 

 every serious bee- 

 keeper. The "Let 

 Alone" hive and 

 system is the title 

 he has applied, and 

 most fittingly too; 

 for some of his col- 

 onies he sees but 

 once in a twelve month, and then in mid- 

 winter. A big black box three feet long, a 

 foot and a half wide and high, is this hive. 

 At first glance it looks much like the old 

 "I-iong Idea" hive of General D. L. Adair, 

 and it is and it isn't. The Adair had the 

 entrance in the middle of one side; the 

 "Let Alone " has it at one end. The cover 

 telescopes about three inches down on the 

 body, and the whole is covered with a good 

 grade of one of the asphalt roofing-papers 

 black in color. Nice and cool in a blister- 

 ing August day, eh? Don't you worry. It 



Latham's nucleus-wintering and honey-handling house. The nuclei are 

 shown on shelves between the studding where they are convenient to han- 

 dle in the summer, away from weeds, and out of the reach of toads and 

 other vermin. 



