568 



T'mm fCMSKicMH mmw jourhmi,. 



Cuoss Bees. — When there has been 

 a good How of honey, and it suddenly 

 ceases, bees are excited over it, and 

 sometimes are ready to sting anybody 

 or anything that comes in their way. 

 This year, at tlie close of the basswood 

 harvest, mine attacked a coop of 

 broody hens. Seeing a commotion 

 among these eacliling aspirants for 

 motherhood, I divined the cause, and 

 opened the door, when the hens made 

 a '• bee-line" for the raspberrj' bushes. 

 The cat made frantic leaps into the 

 air, with her tail somewhat resembling 

 a rolling pin. When the bees are cross, 

 it is folly to open a hive. 



Fall Honey. — This season hives are 

 very pofnilous and bloom is abundant, 

 yet there is no security that there will 

 be a flow of honey. Hot nights and 

 days are necessar3- for the secretion of 

 nectar, and yet nights continue week 

 after week to be very cold. There has 

 not been a full crop of honey harvested 

 in Peoria county so far, and those who 

 rushed their honej- off to the local mar- 

 ket, may wish they hadn't, before the 

 season closes. 



Feeding Bees. — I have some nuclei 

 that are not well supplied with the 

 needful honey. Hence, I' have been 

 giving them the cappings from the ex- 

 tracted honey to clear up. I take out 

 a panful loosely, and set it in the cap 

 of the hive, making a little aperture 

 for the bees to come up through. It is, 

 of course, apparent that no bees gain 

 access to it from the outside, or rob- 

 bing will be induced. I lately came 

 to grief in this way : I placed a pan of 

 cappings in the top of a hive and failed 

 to shut down the cover closely. Soon 

 the whole apiary was demoralized, 

 robbing and stinging being the order 

 of exercises. I not only got stung my- 

 self by the bees, but the whole family 

 heaped reproaches upon me for my 

 carelessness in making the bees so 

 cross. 



Peoria, Ills. 



HIVES. 



A Fiiriiicr De«t'ri|»tion of the 

 " Ideal " Bee-Hive. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY J. W. TEFFT. 



The extensive correspondence which 

 I am receiving from all sections of the 

 country, shows that thoughtful and 

 earnest bee-keepers — those who desire 

 to make a i)rotit by Apiculture— are 

 desiring and anticipating a radical 

 change in tlie construction and man- 

 agement of hives. They are slill puz- 

 zled by the ohl drawbacks to ease, 

 comfort and success in the manage- 

 ment of an apiary. 



Many correspondents express ap- 

 proval, whilst others are more conserv- 

 ative, and seek more light; again, a few, 

 having an established pecuniary in- 

 terest in the manufacture of hives, 

 have not hesitated to condemn before 

 the evidence is all in ; hence I deem it 

 wise to continue the description of my 

 "Ideal Hive" and its merits, simply 

 adding that I shall exhibit the hive at 

 the Buffalo International Fair, on Sejit. 

 3 to Sept. 13, and be in attendance to 

 give information and demonstrate the 

 modus ojierandi. 



In reply to the editorial caption over 

 my article on page 473, I am firmly 

 convinced that the answer to the query 

 must be in the affirmative. Yes, the 

 "Ideal "hive has appeared. Careful 

 tests, bj- myself and others, have, dur- 

 ing the last five j'ears, demonstrated 

 that the mechanical construction, to- 

 gether with the simple method of man- 

 agement adopted and carried out under 

 my improved system, has removed 

 nearly, if not quite, all the difficulties 

 heretofore standing in the way of 

 pleasant and profitable apiculture, 

 minimizing the necessary labor and 

 care, and thus rendering the pursuit 

 an easy and valuable adjunct to the 

 ordinary duties of the apiculturist and 

 horticulturist, as a source of delight 

 and gradifying gain. It is amongst 

 these two classes of the world's laborers, 

 that bee-keeping jjroperly belongs, and 

 it is with them that it will be most 

 firmly established before many years 

 roll bj'. Apiculture is, as all good 

 bee-keepers know, most fascinating, 

 and peculiarly adapted to the cultured 

 intelligence and instinctive gentleness 

 of our country ladies. 



The hive proper, or brood-chamber, 

 will hold twelve frames (20 inches wide 

 inside) together with partition-boards, 

 but six or eight frames are preferably 

 emploj'ed, as experience has demon- 

 strated. The frames, separators, and 

 partition-boards, are supported above 

 and below at diagonally opposite cor- 

 ners, rest squarel}' and firmly in posi- 

 tion, and although unattached or 

 secured, no side or pendulum motion 

 is possiljle — they are virtually fixtures, 

 and can be removed and replaced, in- 

 dividnallj-, with the greatest ease. 



I would here remark that when ship- 

 ping colonies to a distance, it is only 

 necessary to insert a wooden wedge ou 

 each side of the brood-nest, between 

 the partition-lioardsand the hive-walls, 

 to convert the whole into a solid, im- 

 movable block. 



The whole of the furniture above 

 mentioued, is, when in position, accu- 

 rately flush with the to]) edges of 

 the brood-nest, and necessarily main- 

 tains the unvarying vertical position. 



The middle section of this hive is a 

 simple rim, 11 inches deep, and rest- 



ing upon a beading outside the brood- 

 cliamber. Within the area of this riiii 

 is the surplus chamber ; the dimen- 

 sions of the latter permitting a large 

 free-air space all around between it 

 and the internal surface of the rim. '■■ 

 This section has two ventilating aper- • 

 tures, one in each side. The free-air • 

 space just mentioned, is, in the winter, 

 filled np with suital)le packing, such as 

 dry forest leaves or peet-Mioss. 



[By the way, the compositor persists 

 in representing me as advising packing 

 with leaves, peet or moss, which is not 

 as intended. The moss grows on a 

 peet foundation, which is its matrix; 

 hence the name " peet-moss," a mer- 

 cantile commodity used in many large 

 cities as stable l)edding, owing to its 

 lightness and moisture-absorbing qual- 

 ities.] 



The whole hive is surrounded by a 

 peaked roof, with about 4.' inches rise, 

 thus adding to the capacity of the free- 

 air space commenced within the middle 

 section. The ends of the roof are 

 pierced with ventilating holes, similar 

 to the middle section. All of these 

 holes are protected by wire-cloth. 



Bees are " warm-blooded " respiring 

 insects, and consequently require an 

 adequate supply of pure air, and ri 

 means of escape of that which has be- 

 come obnoxious b)' reason of its depri- 

 vation of oxj'gen in the process of in- ^ 

 spiration, and the subject of adequate T 

 ventilation a.nd s/ia<!e in the construction 

 of bee-hives has largely engaged my 

 thought and consideration for many 

 years. I am convinced that the Ideal 

 presents a solution of the problem, 

 with all its difficulties, real or imagined. ■ 



In the effort to render clearl}- and 

 distinctly a description of any mechan- 

 ical contrivance, repetition is neces- 

 sarily unavoidable, and in this regard 

 I am sure that the intelligent reader 

 will not be hypercritical, but allow me 

 to proceed in the best way I can. 



Ventilatin;; and Shndins' Hives. 



The scheme or system of ventilation 

 and shade as applied and practicall}' 

 demonstrated in the "Ideal," is simple 

 and efficient, and may be shortly de- 

 scribed as follows : 



Protection from solar heat is provi- . 

 ded by the hive proper, or brood-cham- ■ 

 ber, by meansof the dead-air chambers 

 at the front and rear ends, and at the 

 sides, by a free-air space, bounded by 

 the partition-boards and the side-walls 

 of the hive. The surplus chamber is 

 protected from the same influence by 

 the free-air space within the central 

 section or rim, and this space is unin- 

 terruptedly continuous with that 

 bounded and circumscribed by the hol- 

 low upper story or peak roof, which is 

 not otherwise occupied ; the top of the 

 surplus chamber being flush with the 

 upper margin of the middle section. 



