30 



THE AMEBIC AN APICULTURIST. 



BEE HIVES. 



A SUBJECT THAT INTEIJKSTS ALL BER- 

 KEIiPEIiS. 



In my beekeeping experience I linve 

 found iliut I could jieneraily get the atren-. 

 tion of almost any beekeeper when I had 

 a new hive to exliil)it, or was ready to 

 discuss llie liive question. In fact, thi-re 

 is nothing counecied witii bee culinre that 

 will attract the attention ot tlie average 

 beekeeper, or one that interests him move 

 than a good l)ee-iiive. Almost all l)ee- 

 keepers are looking for something lietier in 

 hives than tliey have in use. In inv day I 

 have devised not far from twenty diff' rent 

 styles of bee hives; and all but one were 

 discarded alter testing tlieni a few seasons. 

 Tiiere are several points I never lost sight 

 of when trying to construct a practical 

 bee-hive. Some of the points are these: 



1. A proper i)rood-fraine. 2. A hive 

 suitable to winter bees siicci'ssfully on the 

 summer stand. 3. A hive so constructed 

 that it can be set in the sun without pro- 

 tection all summer, and without danger 

 of dfstrnciion of the combs or of toasting 

 out the bees. 4. A hive so arranged that 

 the largest amounts of both comb and 

 extracted honev can be secured. 



In some of the hives I have devised I 

 could not combine all the desiral)le feat- 

 ures here named. In my last attemi)t to 

 construct a practical hive, and one suited to 

 most classes of beekeepeis, I think I have 

 combined all the best features. This hive 

 is called the 



BAY STATE CLOSED-EN I)-FR \ME HIVK. 



I do not; claim, by any means, that the 

 Bay State is the ideal hive ; but I do claim 



board) it will be seen that G G and F F, 

 are strips of wood upon which the brood- 

 nest rests. The strips are | of an inch 

 thick. The outer or winter case shuts 

 down outside these strips, thereby com- 

 pletely excluding all Avater, and prevent- 

 'ing the packing, Avhen any is used, from 

 becoming wet. As the entrance is below 

 the level of the bottom board, and direct- 

 ly under the strips the frames rest on, 

 no water can enter th(? hive there. 



P"ig. 2 shows the brood-chamber, which 

 is merely eight closed-end frames, two 

 side boards, and two iron rods with 

 thumb nuts at each end. The frames rest 

 on a bottom- hoard which is described 

 in Mg. 5. 



The Bay State hive is nsed in summer 

 exactly as is shown in figs. B and 4. 

 ISinety-si.x sections can be used to good 

 advantage on the hive at one time or four 

 sets of sections : twenty-four one-pound 

 sections to a case. I have had colonies 

 fill all in one good season — something 

 which is considered a big thing here, 

 Avhen it is known that our honey season is 

 of but a few weeks' duration, including 

 both favorable and unfavorable weather. 



Now a word about the way we manage 

 the Bay State hive to get comb honey, and 

 to use so many sections at same time. Of 

 course, no sane beekeeper would tlunk of 

 placing ninety-six empty sections on a hive 

 at one time. One case of twenty-four sec- 

 tions is enough to start with even with 

 the strongest colony. When this case of 

 sections is pretty well filled, it is raised, 

 reversed, ai d anew set of sections put on 

 the hive, and the first set placed upon that 

 and so on until there are three or four sets 

 of sections, or as many as the bees can 

 work in at one time when tiered np. The 

 passagew^ays through the four cases are 



tiG 1 



that it is oond enough for any beekeeper, 

 and that it has but few, if any, (objection- 

 able features. 



I will describe some of Mie good points 

 of the Bay State, and explain the illustra- 

 tions in as few words as possible. 



Fig. 1 illustrates the hive as prepared 

 for winter. By examining fig 5 (ljott(jm 



direct from the brood-chamber to the top 

 sections. By the above plan the empty sec- 

 tions are at all times nearest the brood. I 

 believe that the sections can be put nearer 

 the brood in the Bay State hive than in 

 any other onenowinnse. This is a feature 

 I have tried to incorporate into all the 

 hives I have devistd. 



