1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



51 



enough to let side pieces in flush. Thus you will 

 see the side pieces of hive are just as long as ex- 

 treme length of your frame, adding a little for 

 end shake. 



Grain of the lumber should always run hori- 

 zontally, to save trouble from shrinking of lum- 

 . ber, and for this reason allow considerable room 

 below frames over bottom board. 



A hive made thus should be always kept well 

 painted. We use the Averill chemical paint, 

 and it is just fuu to paint them when piled up 

 in square pillars. 



In June, July and August, we think they 

 should be shaded, but the rest of the year the 

 first chance the sun has at them (no projec- 

 tions), we think a positive advantage, and that 

 they cannot have too much. 



About 10 feet of lumber only is required for 

 such a hive, single story, and the whole cost 

 should not exceed $1.00, without frames. A 

 very good way to secure a perfect fit of cover 

 and bottom is to first get simple complete box, 

 with top and bottom, made of one solid board, 

 halved in as are also the corners. This box for 

 a Langstroth hive should be inside 18^ x 14^, 

 and depth about 15£ inches. Saw off 2^ inches 

 of the top clear around, dropping the handle of 

 the saw so as to get the bevel to shed rain, and 

 then hinging the same slice, so that it opens just 

 like the cover of a trunk. 



Saw off the bottom in the same way, and you 

 have, after turning it over, a complete bottom 

 board and stand. Now, the hive itself is com- 

 plete, except the rabbet to hold the frames, and 

 if you have only one partially railed this part, 

 you can take it apart to cut the rabbet, after 

 which the nails can be replaced in their holes, 

 and the whole nailed securely from both ways, 

 for we must have the hive so that when lifted 

 alone there will be no danger of springing out 

 of shape. 



Now, we hereby challenge the beekeepers of 

 the world to tell us what can be accomplished 

 with their patent hives that cannot be done with 

 this, simple and unpretending as it is. The ex- 

 pense is not ever one-half that of hives generally 

 used, and the labor of handling in the apiary, it 

 seems to us, less than one-half. If you wish to 

 raise queens, saw a place in the ends and bot- 

 tom to slide in a sheet of tin, and you can use 

 ten frames as before, and queens raised in one- 

 half. 



We bore a one-half inch hole in the end op- 

 posite the entrance, and cover with the same 

 quilt, which permits either side to be turned up 

 without disturbing the other. By using three 

 end division boards, we have raised a large num- 

 ber of queens with more satisfaction than we 

 ever did before. When a queen is removed and 

 no more wanted, slide out your sheet of tin and 

 all is well. In many cases the workers have 

 passed freely over the division boards or tins, 

 with no quarrelling, and no injury to the queens, 

 even when four were kept in the hive. 



In this case an entrance is made iu each of the 

 four sides, and two frames used in each apart- 

 ment, which allows easy removal for inspection, 

 and the queens can be kept until their brood 

 hatches in these nuclei. 



Now, brother beekeeper, what is to hinder 

 wintering two queens in such a hive ? We shall 

 try several, and we need not enumerate the 

 advantages of extra queens at any season. Sup- 

 pose we had two weak colonies in the spring, 

 could we not unite them in this way without 

 killing either queen, and then using one of them 

 at the propei* time elsewhere ? 



I presume no one will say that we might thus 

 get too much brood in a hive, say in April or May 

 for instance. 



We are indebted to Mr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 

 Ills., for the plan of dividing a hive, see page 

 88, vol. vi. He uses six apartments, one frame 

 each, and, we think, stationary divisions, but 

 we think, we prefer only four, and two combs 

 each.* Many thanks, Mr. Miller. 



Who has wintered two queens in a hive, and 

 is there any difficulty ? We cannot think there 

 is any difficulty. 



Those who are inclined to doubt that coffee 

 sugar syrup, properly sealed up in frames 

 of comb, is not a sure remedy for the bee- 

 cholera, would do well to read carefully the 

 large amount of matter on that subject in the 

 back numbers, although no one seems to have 

 thought, before we mentioned it, that as bad 

 food was the only trouble, chemicals from food 

 or sugar -would be an infallable remedy. 



We cannot give here the host of facts that we 

 have received on the subject, but will say that 

 it seems that not more than four or five pounds 

 of sealed syrup are necessary to keep a proper 

 sized colony during the time they are necessarily 

 in doors, or about four months. We think, but 

 cannot be positive until further experiments, 

 that one quart of young bees is better than more 

 to go into winter quarters, and that one pound 

 of food per mouth will be the average quantity 

 needed. This sealed sugar syrup to be giveu in 

 clear empty combs when they are put into win- 

 ter quarters. But, please, do not run any risk 

 of the little chaps starving. If you give them 

 four times what they require, it will not come 

 amiss in spring when they are raising brood. 

 We shall let them use their natural stores until 

 we put them in doors, about November 1st to 

 15th, according to weather, and then save the 

 balance until they are out again in spring. In 

 regard to pollen, we think, we shall try and give 

 some to each colony, unless it be a few, for ex- 

 periment, without any at all. 



Please report facts all you can, or theories 

 supported by facts, and we shall soon have as 

 little fear of dysentery as we now do of moth 

 millers. 



Well, as we have now seventy-one colonies, it 

 is going to be quite a task to prepare so many 

 combs of sealed syrup, so listen a minute : 



Our tea-kettle feeders will give a colony twenty- 

 five pounds in ten hours, or less ; but two diffi- 

 culties then are here. To get a colony secreting 

 wax, they will have to consume about five of the 

 twenty- five pounds, besides the labor and sticki- 

 ness of carrying around and making so much 

 syrup. 



Our bees are very willing to help whenever 

 they can, as we saw illustrated a few days ago, 

 when some empty sugar barrels were left out 



