1907.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



RELEGATE THE BOX-HIVES. 



BURTON N. GATES. 



271 



A RELIC of our forefathers' days, 

 like the treasured "blue dishes" 

 on the side-board or the pewter 

 plates and mugs which adorn the din- 

 ing room, has come down to us in 

 the bee yard. Our grandfathers, and 

 in fact, most of our fathers knew of 

 nothing better to hive bees in than 

 what we now designate as the old- 

 fashioned or box-hive. To be sure, 

 it was a great improvement upon keep- 

 ing bees in straw skeps, or in logs, 

 or "gums," as they were called; but 

 since we now have a convenience in 

 the frame-hive, which is as superior 



I was recently asked to prepare a 

 paper for the Miassachusetts Board of 

 Agriculture, which would tend to pro- 

 mote the apiculture of that section 

 of the country. In considering my 

 subject in "Bee-Keeping — Some Sug- 

 gestions for Its Advancement in 

 Massachusetts" (Burton N. Gates, 

 Bulletin, Massachusetts Crop Re- 

 port. August, i'907, pp. 26-36), I 

 decided that there are two funda- 

 mental forces impeding progress 

 in apiculture. One force, which is at 

 work unbeknown to most bee-keepers, 

 and which is wiping out hundreds 



HOME APIARY OF JOHN M. DAVIS, SPRING HILL, TENNESSEE. (See Page 270.) 



to the box-hive as china dishes are of colonies annually in north-eastern 

 to pewter or wooden plates and cups, United States alone, is disease. I 

 why in the world do we not place know you don't like to think of such 

 the old box-hives (a veritable nuisance a pessimistic thing, and what is more, 



and menace to progress) on the 

 shelf with the other relics and an- 

 tiques of our forefathers' day? 



Like most antiques, as is known to 

 the collector, the box hives are num- 



it is not my purpose or privilege to 

 speak of it here. The other force is 

 the box-hive. 



Many a time, in talking with the 

 nrogressive bee-keepers in Massachu- 



erous in relation to the early date setts, which may be considered typical 



of the settlement of the country; con- in many respects of the industry in 



sequently they are largely confined to the older part of the United States, 



or found in the eastern and partic- have I heard it said, "Oh, if we could 



ularly the north-eastern United States, only get rid of the box-hives and the 



