216 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mae. 15. 



box-hives, but at a loss in stores sufficient to 

 pay for a winter case in a few years. When 

 the hive is placed in the latter, the safety of 

 wintering, with proper care and good packing, 

 is insured in our longest and coldest winters. 

 The results of wintering in these hives have 

 also shown that there is far less danger of dys- 

 entery when the two-story hive and winter 

 case is used than in any other style ©f hive now 

 made. At least, several tests in the same api- 

 aries upon the same stores have shown complete 

 immunity from disease when the bees in other 

 hives like the American, the Simplicity, chaff, 

 and several other kinds of hives, some of which 

 were at least three times as large as the Non- 

 pareil winter case, either all died or were so 

 greatly reduced in numbers by dysentery that 

 the colonies built up too late to get a crop of 

 honey. In all of these instances the great dif- 

 ference in results seemed wholly due to the 

 greater depth of the two-story hive, or to the 

 free passageway between the stories. 



THE NONPAREIL BKOOD-CHAMBER. 



The chief feature of this hive is the size and 

 shape of the brood-chamber. It will be noticed 

 that it is a very plain and cheaply made stori- 

 fying Langstroth brood-chamber, with a quar- 

 ter-inch bee-space at the top above the brood- 

 frames, and an eighth-inch space at the bottom 



inch wide by vV thick. The queen-excluder for 

 this hive ismade with continuous passageways; 



THE NONPAREIL BROOD-CHAMBER. 



below the frames. It contains eight Langstroth 

 brood-frames, notched at the ends of the top- 

 bars, similar to the metal-cornered Simplicity 

 frames, the size being 17 inches long by 7 inches 

 deep, outside measure. The top-bar is 18:*a 

 inches long, ^g" thick, and one inch wide. The 

 end-bars are Q% inches long by 3^ thick, by 

 one inch wide; and the bottom-bar is 17 inches 

 long, % inch wide, and )4 thick. To each of 

 these frames we now attach a spacer, made on 

 the principle of the Van Deusen frame-spacers. 

 They fix the frames without destroying the 

 movable function of the Langsti-oth brood- 

 frames. The bi-ood-chamber is 19^i inches long. 

 12K inches wide, and 7% inches deep. The in- 

 side measure is 17^' inches long by 11 14 vvide. 



Owing to the small capacity of this brood- 

 chamber, which contains 830 square inches of 

 brood comb (and after making allowance for 

 bee passageways at the ends and bottom of the 

 combs, not ordinarily over 800 square inches), 

 it is impracticable in the production of comb 

 honey without a queen-excluder. The latter is 

 the wood-zinc combination, the strips of zinc 

 being K in. wide, and two-rowed, as in the cut. 



The perforations are about % inch long, so 

 that the excluder contains about 300 of these 

 perforations, which seem to be essential to the 

 ready ripening of the stores in supers. The 

 framework of the excluder is made of half-inch 

 stuff, rabbeted to receive the slats, which are J-i 



tinker's PERFORATED ZINC. 



that is, the zinc is placed in the framework so 

 as to come over the spaces between the combs. 

 The break-joint queen-excluder is a disadvan- 

 tage: and when the stories of the hive are piled 

 up above 24 inches high it becomes a serious 

 disadvantage. As the system of management 

 with the continuous-passageway queen-exclud- 

 er almost entirely obviates all burr-combs, it 

 will be seen that the break-joint queen-excluder 

 can have no merit on this hive. 



THE NONPAREIL SECTION SUPER. 



This consists of a case with a removable side, 

 containing G wide frames holding 4 sections in 

 each. The frames are made with a center-bar to 

 prevent sagging, of the same shape as the sides 

 of the open-side sections. The live separators 

 are made of wood, and perforated. They are ^ 

 thick, and -iH inches wide, and are placed' 

 loosely in the case, so that any one of the frames 

 of sections can be taken out, and the bees be 

 readily shaken oft', which can not be done 

 whei'e the separators are nailed fast to the wide 

 frames. As the separators come down to the 

 bottom of the sections they entirely prevent the 

 attaohm(>nt of the combs in the sections to 

 them. They are not only cheaper than tin, but 

 are. on account of the less liability to the at- 

 tacliment of the combs, greatly superior to tin. 

 They are also, when sawed, more durable than 

 tin, lasting an indetinite time. The cut of sec- 

 tion super shows the improved malleable-iron 

 clasp. 



THE WINTER CASE- 



This is made of very thin stuff, a little less 

 than ^ of an inch thick, making the case very 

 light and easy to handle, weighing not far from 

 25 lbs. The sides of the case are 22 inches long, 

 and are nailed to the fiamework at the top and 

 bottom, so as to stand upright, making the case 

 both watei-proof and very durable. The bot- 

 tom of the case is made of the same thin stuff, 

 as also a part of the cover. The fi'amework of 

 the bottom is 3 inches wide by one inch thick, 

 the two side pieces being rabbeted to receive 

 the thin stuff' for the bottom. Two braces are 

 nailed into the framework at the bottom, to 

 prevent sagging when a great weight of honey 

 is in the hive. The entrance is ^ by 11 inches, 



THE NONPAREIL SECTION SUPER. 



and is in a line with the bottom, so that any 

 refuse, in wintering, may be raked out. How- 

 ever, we have never found it necessary to do so, 

 as the bees will do it cheaper than we can. 



A block Ihi inches thick, and wide enough to 

 support a qneen-trap, is nailed to the lower 



