1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



719 



hives were scarcely known ; the bee-smoker, 

 the only kind known, was a cumbrous-looking 

 two-hand bellows, with a sort of horizontal 

 tube filled with punk, rotten wood, or rags, at 

 its extremity, and these bellows had to be 



kept constantly going or the fire went out and 

 had to be relighted. There were no honey- 

 sections used or known, but a square glass 

 box instead. Comb foundation was unknown ; 

 and for a guide in the supers, only small 

 pieces of broken comb were glued, fastened 

 with hot wax. The extractor had not been 

 invented, and he who wanted liquid honey 

 must strain it through a cloth by crushing 

 the comb. 



We had come to America to grow grapes 

 and bees; but the grape-growing business was 

 then thrown into the shade by the prevalence 

 of mildew and black rot. A friend of ours 

 gave my father two hives of bees, and this 

 furnished him a start in the direction he fol- 

 lowed. He bought the book of H. A. King 

 because it was cheapest, and money was 

 scarce with us. He then made a hive that 

 followed the ideas of both King and Debeau- 

 voys, and had frames nearly square, for this 

 was the size recommended by both these 

 writers. 



A little later he bought Ouinby's Mysteries 

 of Bee-keeping, and, being stri;ck by Ouinby's 

 method's as superior, and also having read of 

 Quinby's great crop of honey, some 20,000 

 pounds, which was sold at about 30 cents per 

 pound, he made a number of hives after Ouin- 

 by's pattern, with eight frames, 11x18, inside 

 measurement. These and the King hives, 

 frames 12x13, were kept side by side for a 

 year or two. The supers used were glass 

 boxes 5x6x6, composed of 4 wooden posts, and 

 top and bottom of thin lumber, with glass all 

 around. But these supers were not sufficient ; 

 and having read, in the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, which had just begun its publication, 

 that Jasper Hazen used side as well as top 

 supers, he manufactured a number of Ouinby 

 hives with a capacity for 1.5 frames, using one 

 movable division-board on each side of the 

 brood-chamber during the spring and fall, 

 and filling the space with super*, such as are 

 mentioned above, in the summer, and with 

 straw or forest-leaves for winter. He even 

 manufactured several hives with a space in 



the back capable of holding six of those small 

 glass boxes, or three brood-frames. A num- 

 ber of these hives are still in use in our home 

 apiary. 



SIDE STORING A FAILURE. 



As a matter of course, the side storing, 

 lauded by Jasper Hazen, was nothing but a 

 " fad," and turned out to be an entire failure. 

 The bees worked in the side supers, but never 

 finished them if they had any room at all 

 elsewhere. It was a move in the wrong di- 

 rection. How many such moves are taken 

 before we get the proper methods! How many 

 new-fangled ideas, or old ideas renovated, 

 are boomed and doted upon, and systematized, 

 like inverting, for instance — systems on which 

 books and books are written before they are 

 realized to be worthless ! 



Well, in this case it was all a mistake ; and 

 as we had the hives, and they were well made, 

 and could accommodate any colony, from the 

 weakest to the largest, we used them. It is 

 probable that, if Mr. Taylor or friend Hutch- 

 inson had imder his control a few such hives, 

 he might be unable to resist the temptation 

 to increase the room for such queens as would 

 be likely to be somewhat crowded on S combs. 

 And if they did this, and had as much room 

 as we did, they might get to think it was a 

 good thing. At any rate, this was how we 

 found that a queen could lay, on an average, 

 over 600 eggs per day, as per Colin, or over 

 2500 as per Taylor. And when there was 

 honey, the swarm weighed more than 6 pounds, 

 as per Colin, and the crop was more than 14 

 pounds. 



By and by the American hives which had 

 been built to contain only nine frames were 

 torn down and rebuilt with a capacity of 13 to 

 15 frames. This was overdoing it, will you 

 say ? That is true. But how were we to know 

 what a hive of bees could do till we gave them 

 a chance? Don't you think the reason why 

 Colin thought a queen did not have a capacity 

 for laying over 600 eggs per day was owing to 

 the small size of his hives ? 



With the large hives we found queens that 

 had a capacity of 4500 eggs per day. Excep- 

 tions, you will say ? Certainly; but it is a very 

 nice thing to give a chance for those excep- 

 tions. And I hold that you can not do this as 

 fully with a two-story eight-frame hive as with 

 a hive that may be enlarged, one frame at a 

 time, till it contains all the room that the 

 queen may need. Your eight-frame hive gives 

 her too much room at once when it is doubled 

 in size. If the season is a little cool, there is 

 a chance of dela3'ing the breeding by chilling 

 the combs. The bees will then concentrate 

 themselves upon the brood and keep it within 

 narrow limits, for the queen will seldom go 

 out of the cluster to lay. 



Does the number of eggs that we have men- 

 tioned seem incredible? Let our reader try 

 an observing-hive. He will learn many things 

 from it ; but one thing he will learn is that a 

 queen can lay six eggs in one minute. Take 

 a pencil, and figure how many eggs that 

 would be in twenty-four hours, if she kept it 

 up at this rate. Actual trial having convinced 

 us that large hives are good, we will now say 



