1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



41) 



While at the Toronto Convention, Mr. Lang- 

 stroth gave us quite a talk, mentioning 

 many of the very same books you have cited. 

 If I remember correctly, he said the only 

 translation of Iluberthat we have in English 

 is a very poor one. — Little Huber is daily 

 waxing strong in body and mind, and his 

 favorite pastime is now to get up on his feet, 

 with a little help, and then sit down again, 

 and keep doing the same thing over and 

 over. 



HOW 1 USE SINGLE-STORY HIVES. 



SOME GOOD SUGGESTIONS BY FRIEND POPt'LETON. 



Concluded from last issue. 



fiHE details of the woi-k I will now describe are 

 the ones I use when work is crowding, and 

 — there is plenty of available help. Of course, 

 they can be, and are varied at other times; but I find 

 it pays well to use all the help we can at once, finish- 

 ing up as quickly as possible, then do the general 

 apiary work until hives are nearly full again, when 

 the same is done over again. Myself and assistant 

 usually handle the combs out of doors; shaking off 

 bees, wheeling full combs into the snop, etc., while 

 one good active hand does the uncapping and ex- 

 tracting. For the last two or three years my wife 

 and my assistant's wife have done the extracting in 

 the shop, cleaning off frames, and sorting over combs 

 ready to be taken out into the apiary again. 1 like 

 the last way the best, as the two can do the work 

 easier and better than one strong hand can do. 



For carrying combs to and from the apiary and 

 the shop, I have several boxes made of very thin 

 stuff, with tight cover, so they will exclude robbers, 

 if necessary, and are large enough to hold 12 or 14 

 frames. These are carried to and from the apiary 

 on an ordinary wheelbarrow. 



When ready to commence extracting we go to sev- 

 eral of the strongest colonies, taking from each a 

 couple of frames of brood, until I have as many ex- 

 tra ones as I need. Some 20 of these are needed, and, 

 of course, are to be run through the extractor be- 

 fore using. These, together with enough entirely 

 empty combs to make two sets are needed; that is, 

 we have to have two extra sets of combs all the 

 time, one set being extracted from in the shop, and 

 the other being given to the colony that we are work- 

 ing with outdoors. 



As soon as every thing is ready for the real work, 

 my assistant brings out of the shop, on a wheelbar- 

 row, one full set of combs, the ones containing brood 

 in one of the carrier-boxes, the empty combs in an- 

 other. I lay the cover of hive we are to work at on 

 the ground immediately back of us, and on it a box 

 made purposely for this work, same size and shape 

 as a standard hive, but of very thin, light material. 

 We then remove into this box every comb in the 

 hive that contains a sufficient amount of honey to 

 pay for extracting, and then replace them by the set 

 of empty combs, my assistant handing me the combs 

 while I place them, and close up hive, except put- 

 ting on cover. We then shake and brush the bees 

 off the combs directly in front of the hive, placing 

 the full combs, as fast as cleared of bees, in the 

 empty carrier-boxes on the wheelbari-ow. We find 

 it facilitates the work of extracting in the shop, if 

 we put all the combs containing unsealed brood in 

 one box by itself. The assistant then wheels the full 

 combs into the shop, and brings out the other set of 



empty ones, while I am commencing the work of 

 handling combs in the next hive, and so on all day. 

 The last work we do at night is to go to the colonies 

 we want to commence with in the morning, take 

 away all combs that do not contain brood, and in 

 their place put the two extra sets of brood combs 

 we have left over. The brood combs not taken 

 away from these colonies are taken next morning, 

 thus keeping us all the time supplied with the nec- 

 essary extra sets of brood combs. If at ary time 

 while extracting I have any weak nuclei that need 

 strengthening, I give them a frame of brood each, 

 it being less trouble to do this work then than at 

 other times. 



In the shop I use two uncapplhg-cans, or, rathet-, 

 boxes, and two extractors. This is not so much to 

 facilitate rapid work, as it is to enablb me to keep 

 the honey strictly graded. Some of the Combs the 

 first time through them in the season will contain a 

 small amount of dark honey left out of their wiliter 

 stores, the honey from these being, by the use of 

 the sebond extractor, kept separate from the rest. 

 This is very important, if one sells in the wholesale 

 market. 



The honey, as fast as it is extracted, is run into 

 deep tin cans holding nearly 400 lbs. each, where it is 

 allowed to remain as long as possible, when it Is 

 drawn off through molasses-gates near the bottoms 

 of cans, into whatever vessels we may be using for 

 permanent storage, the cans being set up for this 

 purpose high enough to allow our largest-sized bar- 

 rels to be rolled under them. I always allow the 

 honey to remain in these cans over night anyhow, and 

 as much longer as I can do without the use of the 

 can. This not only saves straining the honey, as all 

 foreign particles rise to the top, where they can be 

 skimmed off, but the thin watery honey, if there is 

 any such, will also rise to the top, and need not be 

 drawn off into other vessels until it has had ample 

 time to become evaporated. 



F.\l,L MANAGEMENT 



Consists simply in taking away all surplus combs 

 and honey as soon as the honey season entirely 

 closes, usually with us about the 1st of September. 

 I never leave more than 8 combs during the winter 

 in each colony, and less than that number when col- 

 onies are not very full and strong. Of course, I al- 

 ways select the best combs in the hive to leave for 

 winter, and find it is quite an advantage to have a 

 chance to select the best out of 15 to 25. Those hav- 

 ing the largest amount of sealed, and the least un- 

 sealed honey, are the best. All further management 

 during fall and ;winter is the same as with double- 

 story hives, and need not be detailed here. 



FRAMES. 



What shape of frame is best adapted for use in 

 single-story hives ? The answer lo this must, of ne- 

 cessity, be partly theoretical. I prefer and use a 

 frame 12 inches square, one very similar to the 

 American frame; but one of my near neighbors 

 tells me that he has had excellent success with the 

 shallow Langstroth frame, so I do not consider any 

 particular shape of frame an essential feature of 

 single story hives. The deeper the frame, the more 

 compact is the entire arrangement, and I am satis- 

 fied better results can be secured. If I were to 

 change the shape of my frame at all, I think I should 

 retain its present depth, and make it longer, some- 

 what like the Quinby frame. 



BEES. 



What kind of bees give the best results in these 



