THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



233 



flcieut number of such sections being so put to- 

 gether, a narrow wooden strip, or its equivalent, is 

 nailed or screwed on the upper boxes, to hold the 

 whole together firmly. The brood ch:imber is 

 constructed in substantially the same manner, the 

 proportions only being different." 



The whole of the specifications would take up 

 too much of your valuable room. I have quoted 

 this part to show that the hive described by Mr. 

 Worden is covered by my patent, and will only 

 quote so much of my claims as covers the fore- 

 going specifications. 



" But what I do claim as new and desire to 

 secure b}' letters patent, is — 



1. The houey-box,constructed as described, &c. 



2. The sections of the brood-chamber, con- 

 structed as described, &c." 



The rest of the claims and specifications refer 

 to things not embraced in Mr. Worden' s descrip- 

 tion. 



I have had considerable correspondence with 

 Mr. Worden, and when he wrote to me that he 

 had made a different arrangement of the honey- 

 boxes, by placing them on the sides of the cham- 

 ber, two months before his publication in the 

 Journal, I wrote to him that I was using the 

 hive in that form, but that my last and better 

 arrangement placed the boxes at the back of the 

 hive, and sent him a drawing and description of 

 my side gathering hive. Even if the article was 

 written before that, he had time enough to cor- 

 rect his assumption of originality ; which I sup- 

 pose he would have done had he thought of it, 

 for I believe him to be an honorable gentleman, 

 and bear him no malice. 



He suggests one objection to the form of sec- 

 tions I use, that " bees would be liable to be 

 crushed in closing them." This is imaginary, 

 and he would not make it, if he had had more 

 experience with them. I have used the various 

 forms of movable frames, and in none of them is 

 there as little danger of crushing bees as in my 

 sections. The sections can be put together, even 

 if the sides are covered with bees, Avithout kil- 

 ling one, as you only have to press lightly 

 against them with the section you are putting in, 

 then draw it back a little, and they will all take 

 the hint and get out of the way. 



D. L. Adair. 



Eaicesville, Ey. March, 1870. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Dimensions, Form, and Management of 

 Hives. 



In the Bee Journal, Vol. 5, No. 3, page 60, 

 Mr. Charles S. Paine asks Gallup a question, and 

 you never knew Gallup to refuse to answer a 

 question when asked civilly, or withhold his 

 views on the subject. It has only not been an- 

 swered before for lack of time. Mr. Paine, re- 

 ferring to two other writers, says—" neither of 

 these gives any reason for their statements," re- 

 specting the size of hives. In some of the back 

 numbers of the Journal, I gave this for one reas- 

 on : That, under favorable circumstances, a good 

 prolific queen would, in three weeks, occupy with 

 brood every or nearly every square inch of comb 

 in a hive containing two thousand cubic inches, 



and that consequently a hive of less capacity 

 Avould restrict the breeding of the queen. A hive 

 of one thousand seven hundred and twenty -eight 

 cubic inches, or one cubic foot, is all that is re- 

 quired, if you give box-room — that is top boxes, 

 and as soon as one set is partly filled raise them 

 and insert another set under, and give free access 

 to the boxes, which must be done if j'ou expect 

 the full benefit of surplus honey gathering and 

 storing. But if the honey crop is cut otF sud- 

 denly, (as is frequently the case,) while the combs 

 below are entirely filled up brood (and a queen 

 that will not occupy that amount of comb during 

 the storing season, should be superseded,) the bees 

 must be fed or starve, I have repeatedly had them 

 entirely destitute, both in Canada and Wisconsin, 

 in that size of hive ; and then again, there would 

 be seasons when they would do very well. 



But here is another ditficult}\ It is almost im- 

 possible, in any locality where I have been, to 

 prevent too much or over-swarming in a hive of 

 that form and capacity, without a great deal of 

 bother. It is not a particle of disadvantage in 

 the form of hive I use, to have two frames on 

 each side of the brood filled with honey in the 

 body of the hive ; and if not wanted for the bees, 

 it is just as good surplus as it would be if stored 

 in boxes, for if the queen does not breed in them 

 there is never any pollen stored there than there 

 is in boxes ; and with that sized hive we are 

 always safe. 



There is another reason that I stated before, 

 but will mention again. We almost always have 

 a scarce time in June, both here and where I lived 

 in Wisconsin, and I want honey enough in the 

 brood chambers to last through that time, and 

 keep up breeding to the full capacity of the queen. 

 I like it much better than being compelled to feed ; 

 and if we have our hive well filled with brood at 

 the time the basswood blooms, we are almost sure 

 of a good crop. You will recollect that in 1808 

 the honey crop was cut off in this vichiity, on the 

 20th of July. My bees wintered well, but the 

 hives were not near as full as I like to have them. 

 If they had been, I should have had honey on 

 hand in the hive, and it would have saved me all 

 my feeding black swarms this season. As it was, 

 I kept equalizing the stores, and when the old 

 honey was gone in one hive it was gone in all. 

 The consequence was, my Italians cut their own 

 fodder, and the others had to be fed. Even black 

 swarms did fairly in 18G8, where they had access 

 to buckwheat pasturage, and were in hives of the 

 right dimensions and form. 



"it appears to me that if queens will occupy the 

 whole two thousand cubic inches with brood, in 

 one locality, they ought to do so in another, at 

 certain seasons of the year. 



Elisha Gallup. 

 Osage, Iowa. 



The quantity of pollen that is collected in the 

 course of a season, by the diligence of the bees, 

 has been estimated at from sixty to seventy 



pounds. — SCHUCKARD. 



A cute American naturalist has observed that 

 the bee as it flics from the hive is oddly enough, 

 I going to hum. 



