\S\r2 



(iLKANINCS IX lUOK ("lII/rURE. 



ll'.i 



NON-inUK-COMll KUAMKS. 



I niiit'f witl) M. II. limit iisiotioiihlc lop-liMr- 

 ill inodilicd llolTinaii frames. Tlicv arc /xr.^v- 

 tii'ii ill incvfiiiiii:; liiiir-coinlis. and cxci'llciu in 

 otinT r(>s|ii'fis: and w iicii made of one jiit'oi'. 

 with till' hci'-spaoc out out with a saw, us you 

 siiRi^i'stiMi last spring (or was it longer ago?) 

 llicy could not he vory expensive or coiii- 

 nlii-ated. Then. too. the new (•(Hiili-guide could 

 lie made the same as in your new thick-top 

 fr.ime. HiKiiKiT IIasskit. 



Monaii'. low a. Jan. ■.'".». 



RAMBLERS HIVE-HOBBY RIDING. 



Pli. llNKKi; KX1M..\1.NS Ills IIIXK .\N1) SVSTKM. 

 AM) now 111'. ( .^MK TO OUKilNATK IT. 



II was possiiiiy unintentional on the part of 

 Kamliler, in i'is sketch of hive-hoiiby riding, 

 page .54. to convey a wrong impression to the 

 pul>lic coiu-erning m>' hive. The idea sought 

 \o be conveyed in hitching my hive to Heddon's 

 is. that I have copied after or borrowed from 

 the New Heddoii hive. If I have an incorroct 

 view of the matter, and it was intended on the. 

 part of Rambler solely as a bit of his inimitable 

 and ever appreciated good liiimor. 1 shall hope 

 he will set me right. I desires to state, liowevei'. 

 once and for all. that my liive is not copied 

 after the Ileddon hive, 'ind that I do not jirac- 

 tice nor recommend any part of the Heddon 

 system. 



The hive I use and recommend is a Lang- 

 strotli hive, and represents no principle not 

 embodied in the Langstroth invention. It is 

 constructed with the bee-spaces and the simple 

 suspended broofl-frames of the great inventor, 

 that are now in use by bee-kee|)ers the world 

 over. It di tiers from the standard iiiveonlyin 

 size: and it may be of interest to know why I 

 made such a hive. 



III ISSl .Mr. Doolittle gave to bee-keepers the 

 first iiublished ideas on the subject of contract- 

 ing 1 (food -chain hers in the production of comb 

 honey. To him also belongs the credit of de- 

 veloping the idea, by writing several articles 

 upon the subject, until many bee-keepers, in- 

 cluding niyseif. were interested. About this 

 lime (18K1I think) Mr. I). A. .Jones introduced 

 (iueeii-excluding zinc to this i-ountry. and the 

 bee-keepers were not a few who saw that, if we 

 contracted our brood -chambers, we should be 

 compelled to u.se a queen-excluder between the 

 brood and sections. So the new zinc came into 

 immediate use. and I began contracting all of 

 my hives used for swarms by means of the zinc 

 Atxiiit this time I made the now well-known 

 wood-zinc queen-excluder, and put it to use 

 extensively. The proper size of a brood-cham- 

 ber for a swarm to be worked for comb honey 

 U) the best advantage was soon determined. 

 It was found that, if the tirood-spaci; given was 

 too small, much pollen would go into the .sec- 

 tions: and if too large, the bees stored a part or 

 all of their best honey in the brood-chamber. 

 After many experiments I decided ihal all that 

 was necessary during the active working 

 season, both for swarms and fcjr full colo- 

 nies, was a •■ iiroodchamber for brood," as I 

 have so many times stated in the bee-papers, 

 and that such a brood -chambiM' contains about 

 8(X) squai'e inches of brood comb. It is then not 

 a half or a divisional part of a brood-chamber. 

 as in the Heddon hive, although it is smaller 

 than the standard; but it represents the utmost 

 limit of profitable contraction, and requires an 

 extra story for spring breeding. As I used a 

 hive of this capacity long before Mr. Ileddon 

 made known his invention, and am also original 



in its use. I believe that, my rights to it will be 

 resjiected by the mass of bee- keejiers. 



For several years I made the hives with 

 t,)uinby frames, but tinally. alioiit six years ago, 

 changed to the suspended Langstroth frame 

 without altering the capacity of the original 

 frame used in my experiments. I have since 

 used no other hive or frame. 



I call it a "storifying" hive bi^cause it is 

 made on the principle of the Simplicity and 

 Cowan bee-hives that wr-re so made that th(i 

 stories could be piled one upon another as high 

 as desired. In using the hive for comb honey 

 the sections are always placed upon th<^ lirst 

 story: and any extra stories that may be on tln^ 

 hive are carried to th(i top of the s(!ctions. I5y 

 conducting these operations at tlii; propc^r time 

 I am able lo prevent swarming, as a rule; and 

 if an occasional swafin does issue in an apiary 

 it is very easily re-united with the parent colo- 

 ny, thus disposing of all undesirable increase. 

 In this management I am also original so far as 

 1 know. 



Thus it will be seen that my hive stands upon 

 its own bottom, and is neither borrowed from 

 Heddon's nor from any one else, nor is the man- 

 agement advised tlu; same in any particular, 

 except in so fai' as bee-hives have always been 

 managed. Dr. (J. L. Tinkkh. 



New Philadelphia. O. 



[The Tinker hive, although shallower than 

 the Langstroth. may resemble somewhat the 

 Heddoii hive: but from the reading of Dr. 

 Tinker's book, the system of manipulating it is 

 very ditl'ei-ent from the plan used by Mr. Hed- 

 don with his hive.1 



COST OF COMB HONEY. 



Ml!. DOOLirTLK CONSIl)KH> 

 FIOURKS. 



.MR. TAVI.OH 



Along in the seventies, a bee-keeper living 

 some three miles from here was afflicted with a 

 cancer. He went to a distant city to be cured 

 of the same. While away he wrote me that he 

 wislied I would go to his place and put his bees 

 in the cellar for him. as it was then time of year 

 for the bees to go in. I went and did as he re- 

 quested, being gone from home half a day, 

 for which 1 chuiged him .Sl.OO. On his return I 

 asked him if he found the bees in good shape, 

 and he replied that they were in splendid order. 

 He then asked ine how mucli he was to pay me, 

 and I told him. Although quite a wealthy 

 man. he thought I had charged him too much, 

 and said he could have got such a one, men- 

 tioning a man whose capacity pi-ople consider- 

 ed worth about his board, to have set the bees 

 in for 2.5 cts. I said nothing at the time, but led 

 him out about the curing of his cancer, and 

 asked him how long the doctor was, all told, in 

 taking out the cancer and dnissing the wound. 

 He thouglit that, if all the time he saw the 

 doctor was put together, it might amount to 

 about two hours. I then asked him what he 

 had to pay him for taking out the cancer, and 

 he said ?=.'>(). I next asked him why he did not 

 get ■"such a one,'" meaning the 2.')-cent man 

 alluded to above, to take out his cancer, and 

 thus save the extra ^49.75 he had paid the doc- 

 tor. He saw the point at once, and, without a 

 word further, handed me out the dollar. 



I was reminded very forcibly of this little 

 incident in n-ading what R. L. Taylor has to 

 sav regarding the cost of comb honey on page 

 5fi" of a late issue of (Jlkanixgs. It seems 

 strange to me that Mr. Taylor should be will- 

 ing to so belittle our pursuit as to allow only 

 -*45 for an apiarist who has suflicient brains U> 



