Tmm m^mmmi^mn 



j&jumMmiu. 



279 



tions are used, it allows a bee-passage 

 all around the outside of the sections, 

 thus obviating the difficulty of the sec- 

 tions being glued to the ends of the 

 super. 



When the sections are to be talcen 

 out, just loosen the thumb-screws, re- 

 move the followers, and then the sec- 

 tions can be lifted out at leisure with- 

 out the slightest danger of injuring the 

 comb. 



I have used these supers the past two 

 seasons ; and I think that there is noth- 

 ing like them. I do not make any to 

 sell ; they are not patented, and every- 

 body is at liberty to make and use as 

 many as they wish, and the more they- 

 are used the better I shall feel pleased. 

 I sent one of these supers to the Inter- 

 national Bee-Keepers' Convention at 

 Brantford. Ont., last December, in or- 

 der that those who attended that meet- 

 ing might see how it is constructed, 

 and make and use them if they de- 

 sired to do so. I wish Mr. Baldridge 

 would give them a trial. 

 Seymour, Wis. 



^'^^■*- - -■ ■ 



LARGE HIVES. 



Bee-Culture and Bee-Keeping 

 tlie Ditference. 



Written for the. American Bee Jowmal 



BY D. MILLARD. 



A great many people seem to have 

 an idea that bees will not only work 

 for nothing and board themselves, but 

 will, if furnished with what Josh 

 Billings would have called " an auto- 

 matic, self-adjusting, non-swarming, 

 ever-controllable bee-hive," leave their 

 owners nothing to do but to crate the 

 honey, as the hive and bees will dis- 

 charge the filled sections, as would an 

 ordinary brick-machine. 



Again, others seem to think that all 

 that is required is one kind of a re- 

 pository of the capacity of an ordinary 

 freight car, that while the bees are 

 filling in at one end, they can be un- 

 loading at the other — no theoretical 

 knowledge or practical experience 

 being required, and just manual labor 

 sufficient for healthful exercise ! 



Prof. Cook has said that there is a 

 vast difference between being a bee- 

 kecper and a bee-cuUiirist. If one has 

 no desire to become a practical apicul- 

 tnrist, but merely wishes to keep bees, 

 a huge box, or honey-house, as de- 

 scribed on page 203, isperhap.s all that 

 is needed. If the season is favorable, 

 he will probably get some honey with- 

 out much effort on his part ; but if the 

 season is unfavorable, he will get 

 neither honey nor increase. I experi- 

 mented with such a hive 40 years ago, 

 and, as Mr. Heddon says, one trial 

 proved sufficient. 



CUPBOAIID BEE-HIVES. 



There are a great many such hives 

 in use in this vicinity at the present 

 day. They are called " cupboards," 

 as they have a door in one side, with a 

 glass panel, and a knob attached, that 

 gives them the appearance of a piece 

 of dining-room furniture. It has 

 openings through the upper side, over 

 which are placed surplus boxes, which, 

 strange to say, are sometimes occupied 

 and filled, or partly so. 



It has 16 frames below, that might 

 barely be considered movable ; they 

 are 15i inches deep, by lOJ inches 

 wide, with a horizontal cros.s-bar placed 

 a little below the centre of the frame, 

 beneath which is usually bnilt only 

 drone-comb. They are usually put in 

 the upper room of a dwelling-house or 

 wood-shed, with an opening through 

 the wall for the bees to pass in and 

 out. 



These hives have been pronounced 

 as non-swarming, which is true with 

 some, but in a good season the bees in 

 a majority of them swarm out from 

 once to four times. 



I have often been asked by some 

 admirer of these " cupboards," for my 

 opinion of them ; and not infrequently 

 it would be received unpleasantly, if 

 ever so kindly given. Over three years 

 ago I sent a description of one to a 

 bee-paper, asking advice as to its 

 probable utility for securing comb 

 honey, hoping thus to get an opinion 

 through the query column, which 

 would somewhat relieve me ; but the 

 editor sent it back with a big "NO! 

 the shallower the frames, the better ;" 

 thinking, no doubt, that the question 

 was of too little importance to give it 

 further attention. Nevertheless, nearly 

 500 such hives are now in use in this 

 county alone, and by nearly that num- 

 ber of single individuals, who are 

 mostly farmers, and seldom keep more 

 than one colony to each farm ; yet a 

 majority of these men pronouncethem 

 a success, or at least they prove satis- 

 factory to them, and I doubt if half a 

 dozen of the whole 500 ever take a 

 bee-paper of any kind. 



These hives are all manufactured 

 and sold by a man living in this State, 

 who has been in the business for over 

 20 years. A near neighbor of mine 

 has had one in continual use for about 

 that length of time, and his bees of to- 

 day are all descendants of his first 

 queen. He usually secures some sur- 

 plus honey, and breeds up bees enough 

 that ought to secure him three or four 

 times as much more, and would, were 

 it not stored in the huge brood-cham- 

 ber below. This extra amount of 

 stores, together with the vast amount 

 of space, for which there is no pro- 

 visions made f<n' reducing, all to be 

 kept warm, often proves too much for 



the b(;es. The cluster becomes too 

 much spread, and the outer bees chill 

 and fall to the bottom, until in the 

 spring the colony is reduced to, or be- 

 low, the size of an ordinary colony, 

 when they slowly re-build again. 

 Thei'c has been an unnecessary amount 

 of stores, together with too large a 

 spa,ce for the capacity of the queen. 

 This extra amount of stores is carried 

 over and soiled until unfit for anything 

 but the bees ; whereas, it should have 

 been stored where it couM have been 

 taken off as surplus, and the bees win- 

 tered in less space. If they die out, as 

 they often do, another swarm is hived 

 upon the same old combs, a large por- 

 tion of which is store or drone comb ; 

 and which the peculiar construction of 

 the hive has made it impossible to 

 remove. 



Another great objection to this sys- 

 tem of bee-keeping is this : The worse 

 than useless rearing of so many drones, 

 all of which perhaps are from an in- 

 ferior queen, with no possible way to 

 get at and displace, anj' more than 

 would be with a log gum. This im- 

 mense amount of inferior drones, more 

 or less affects the grade of all the bees 

 for miles around, thus making thor- 

 ough bee-culture practically impos- 

 sible within their range. 



Mendon, Mich. 



PRIZE ESSAY. 



Extracted Honey — Its Produc- 

 tion, U§e and Sale. 



Written Jor the American Bee Jowmal 



BY S. L. WATKINS. 



of Nature's 

 pure liquid 



Extracted honey is one 

 purest sweets — it is the 

 honey, just as it comes from the 

 flowers. By the present methods of 

 management, and the use of the 

 honey-extractor, the honey is sep- 

 arated from the virgin combs without 

 heat, or pressure. There are no dead 

 bees, no crushed brood, pollen, or bee- 

 bread — nothing but the clear, pure 

 honey, just as it is taken from the 

 flowers by the bees, entirely free from 

 all taste of bee-bread, and foreign 

 substances. 



The antique method of taking the 

 honey from the combs was really a 

 compound of pollen, young bees, bee- 

 stings, etc. It is quite easy to see how 

 unhealthy hone}' obtained in this man- 

 ner would be. 



To extract the honey, the comb is 

 taken from the hive, the bees shaken, 

 or brushed oft", and the comb then 

 taken to the extractor, uncapped, with 

 a knife made especially for that pur- 

 pose ; two to four frames, according 

 to the size of the extractor, are placed 



