56 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEIER. 





ADVANTAGES OF MOVABLE FRAME HIVE.S 

 OVER BOX HIVES. 



Ed. American Bee-Keeper: — As 

 you requested a short letter from me 

 on the above subject, I will comply. 

 Has the electric light any superiority 

 over the old tallow dip ? As much as 

 this has the movable frame over the 

 old box. The reason why so many 

 still adhere to the old box hive is from 

 carelessness and a lack of knowledge 

 of even the first principles of bee- 

 keeping. Many such bee-keepers 

 still believe in a "king bee," and the 

 old box has many king (or drone) 

 bees, and that is one of the strongest 

 reasons for changing to the movable 

 frame. In an apiary of 100 old box 

 hives, how many drones are raised to 

 consume the stores of the busy work- 

 ers ? At least one-third of such would 

 be drones; that is to say, one-third of 

 the apiary would be worse than use- 

 less, — not only taking the places of 

 industrious workers that should be 

 raised in their places, but consuming 

 the stores also. 



The great advantage of the frame 

 hive over the box hive is easy manip- 

 ulation or handling. All drone comb 

 can be cut out; queens can easily be 

 changed when necessary ; supplies of 

 food readily given ; full sheets of 

 foundation in wired frames can be 

 given new swarms, thus insuring nice 

 straight combs. Two good swarms 

 hived on full sheets of foundation are 

 as good as three or four swarms on 

 starters or in boxes. 



Now, let me tell those who have 

 box hives how to realize a good in- 

 come from same without transferring* 

 Let the bees swarm naturally, then 

 hive new swarms in half-story hives, 

 with queen-excluding zinc between 

 lower and upper stories. Fill two 

 half stories with sections, and be sure 

 to have sections filled with full sheets 

 of extra light foundation. If the sea- 

 son is a good one, in this way you will 

 obtain nice light or No. 1 comb 

 honey. Then as soon as the young 

 queens get to laying in the old boxes, 

 drive them out into movable frame 

 hives filled with full sheets of founda- 

 tion. Melt up all old comb into wax. 

 In this way little time is lost for the , 

 bees and you have all young queens 

 for the next season and an apiary with 

 such queens is sure of success in any 

 fair season. Yours truly, 



T. Graham Ashmead. 



Williamson, N. F., March 10, 1892. 



Editor American Bee-Keeper, 

 Dear Sir : Bees have wintered very 

 well here. I have lost but one swarm 

 out of forty, and have wintered them 

 on their summer stands in chaff hives- 

 I find that the swarms that were fed 

 up well last fall have come out with 

 much less dead bees than those that 

 were not fed but had their natural 

 stores. I give below a good receipt 

 for making 



CANDY FOR BEES. 



Two pounds granulated sugar. 

 Boil until it will crack when dropped 

 into cold water. Then take off the 

 fire and stir in one pound of good ex- 

 tracted honey. Then stir until it 

 creams and you will have candy that 

 the bees can use in every kind of 

 weather. 



