174 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Again — one way of getting "lots of bees," or 

 "lots of honey," is by having "great big" swarms. 

 If we are firmly Rooted anywhere it is jnst there ; 

 and we do not know of any half as easy to get 

 such stocks as the two-story Langstroth, ten 

 IVames above as well as below, no hcmey board, 

 and allowing the queen to come up stairs of 

 course. Who has a better right ? If we could 

 get her to fill the whole twenty frames with 

 brood, all the better. We think we could then 

 get honey in such a season as Mr. Gallup men- 

 tions in his last ; though we do not think Ohio is 

 ever quite as bad as that. Of. course the old- 

 fashicmed bee keepers call every season "the 

 worst that was ever known for bees," (how bad 

 they will get at that rate!) but we have found 

 them all "j'oZ^^" so far. (Mr. Editor, why don't 

 you nudge us and sa}^ — j'ou are discussing seasons 

 and localities, and not hives ?) 



Then let us get back to our mutton. We have 

 fifty American hives, and how to make large 

 swarms of them, if we had l)ees in them all, we 

 really do not know. We cannot put on an upper 

 story, and we cannot get the ^ides together, 

 and we should not like them if we could. 



Mr. Editor, do you know wliat a lot of brood 

 a.nd combs a two-story Langstroth will furnish ? 

 We are almost inclined to think, from one experi- 

 ment last fall, that our best way will be, in the 

 spring, to make every stock a full two-story one 

 before swarming at all, and then make them 

 full groicn at once, on the plan we gave, even at 

 the expense of having them a little later. We 

 should always remove the upper sot of frames in 

 the fall. Mr. Truesdell's and Mr. Gallup's hive 

 would do very well for one strong stock, but 

 when it comes to be two-story or three, we — ah, 

 well, we think we had rather have an old Lang- 

 stroth, and if asked why ? perhaps we might be 

 induced to argue as the ladies do, and say "■cause 

 we do!'''' 



But there is certainly one very strong reason in 

 fiivor of Langstroth' s pattern, viz. : to make and 

 handle thirteen frames, to obtain the results (we 

 mean with heavy, full stocks of bees) that we now 

 obtain with ten, would be going back to some- 

 thing slower — which we never like to do ; how- 

 ever, we are going to try an Economic Hive this 

 seas(m for experiment. 



Mr. Quiuby says, in his Circular for 1870, that 

 several parts of Mr. Langstroth's hives happen 

 to be unimportant to him, so he has not retained 

 them. Further on he says, that with the im- 

 proved hive, he has devised, it is safe to calculate 

 on an average of one or two liundred pounds of 

 box honey, or two or three hundred ichen the mel- 

 extractor is used. We read this over and over, 

 thinking it was not possible that Quinby meant 

 to make such a statement, and then reflecting 

 that we could not afford to be behind, we sent 

 $10.20 for a full sample hive, boxes and all, to 

 see what it looked like. 



Now, Mr. Editor, it was our misfortune to be 

 so firmly Rooted in our own ideas, that we were 

 really very much disappointed at first. Yet we 

 hope we have suflScient good sense to know that 

 Quinby should have reasons for his preference, 

 and from his large experience should know far 

 better than wo do what is necessary. 



There are eight large fi-ames, (two less than 

 Langstroth's, and so much less handling, as men- 

 tioned before,) standing up in the middle of the 

 base board or floor. They are held upright by a 

 piece of band iron fastened to one of the lower 

 corners and bent at right angles, so as to slide 

 under a strip of iron running just under the 

 corners of all the frames. To remove a frame, 

 we have to slide it lengthwise backward half" an 

 inch. CDirections are to move all back at once. 

 How about gumming and propolis ?) The 

 frames are fixed at a certain distance, by nails 

 driven in just so far, (a plan we have not liked 

 in other hives,)' and strips of tin slid in grooves 

 sawed in the sides of the end pieces, making a 

 tight hive inside, like a box hive. After this 

 strips of tin are also laid on the top between each 

 pair of top bars, to keep them in place. They 

 are bent into a V-shaped trough, two of them 

 lapping in the middle between each pair of 

 frames, close the brood apartment, except the 

 sides, whiclx are closed by the side boxes. To 

 open the hive, the fourteen pieces of tin must be 

 taken off tbe tops of the framed; then the other 

 fourteen pieces that close the ends must be pulled 

 out of the grooves, as the frames are removed, 

 for Ihey can only be got back by sliding them 

 in from the top after the frames are put back 

 close up to the nails. The frames cannot be 

 replaced in any other waj^ e-ven in a hive with- 

 out bees, as we vainlv tried to do. 



The advantage gained by these twenty-eight 

 tin strips is that of having the circulation of air 

 prevented between the ends of the frames. In 

 the spring, especially, we have no doubt this 

 would be of considerable importance with a 

 weak swarm. But with a strong swarm, in a 

 well-made Langstroth hive, with tight honey- 

 board and all, we really think there could be no 

 great difference. Of course we cannot judge 

 so well until we have given it a trial, and may 

 be much mistaken in many things ; but those 

 twenty-eight tins covered with propolis appal 

 us. With the melextractor, he directs sixteen 

 frames, all side by side ; and we must think that 

 such a shape would not be the best economy. 



For out-door wintering, his hive gives every 

 advantage, as far as we can see, of a straw hive ; 

 and for spring and summer, the outside case 

 makes a double hive ; but does not the disad- 

 vantage of depriving the bees in spring of much 

 of the benefit of the sun, counterbalance the 

 advantage? We could not help thinking that 

 our smooth, clean Langstroth hive, with its sus- 

 pended frames, was— oh, so much simpler, easier, 

 handier every 'way. 



The arrangement of the side boxes, we have 

 no doubt, is a great thing; but why not have 

 the frames on a bent iron rod, or something of 

 that sort ? (AVe have made a second story to the 

 Langstroth hive, quite satisfactory by raising 

 the cap, and hanging the frames on a bent rod 

 rising from the four corners.) We thought, 

 perhaps, Quiubj^'s hive was not intended to be 

 opened, but in his directions to make it a non- 

 swarmer, he says the queen-cells must be cut out 

 every week, and witli the melextcactor what 

 then ? By omitting the tins we might get along ; 

 but then, we fear, the fabric would all keel over. 



