1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



883 



at the lowest estimate, from $1.00 to $2.00. 

 Yet a man who had an apiary, or one of the 

 boys in his family, could put such an outfit 

 into a school for a few weeks at a cost scarce- 

 ly exceeding temporary use of the glass and 

 bees. 



Of course, the best thing of all is a full 

 stand, and a booming large one, in an at'rac- 

 tive and safe glass hive. With this the boys 

 and girls may actually see and study practical- 

 ly the whole theory and practice of apiculture, 

 from noting the flowers which bees visit, with 

 the hive-products derived from each, to sam- 

 pling the honey of all the different grades, 

 and making at least the chewing test for pure 

 beeswax. 



As already stated, I have used a number of 

 different observation hives — in all, three differ- 

 ent styles. I will stop to describe only the 

 one which I have found best, and on just this 

 point suggestions from any one who has been 

 working along this line will be most gratefully 

 received. 



The hive is made of glass sides, ends, and 

 top, which is removable, set in a frame of inch 

 pine. The strips that go across for the top of 

 the ends and the bottom end strip in front are 

 one inch by two inches at the top, to allow 

 for rabbeting down for the frame supports 1% 

 in., the bottom for a Y% entrance. All around 

 the inside, the frames are rabbeted in % inch 

 by the thickness of the glass. This gives us a 

 plain glass box all smooth on the inside. This 

 is screwed to a bottom-board, into which bees- 

 wax has been thoroughly ironed in on both 

 sides. The bottom-board is made of inch pine, 

 and extends a foot in front of the hive, and 

 through this extension it is screwed to the 

 window-sill. This space between hive and 

 window is covered in by a screen wire tunnel 

 about 10 inches wide and \y 2 deep, and forms 

 the most fascinating place to watch the out- 

 going and incoming streams of busy life, the 

 different-colored pollens, the loads of propolis 

 and nectar, the carrying out of the dead, the 

 most interesting "policing" of the entrance 

 the actions of sneaks and robbers, the recep- 

 tion of a strange bee, or one that has been 

 perfumed in various ways. This space should 

 be provided with sliding doors, one of perfo- 

 rated tin to close the hive and one of tin to 

 close the opening through the board that fits 

 under the window-sash. This is to make it 

 possible to confine a bee for a moment while 

 it is being marked. For marking I have tried 

 a number of devices, but have settled down 

 on ordinary water-colors as the best and sim- 

 plest way, and I use a fine brush that can be 

 passed through the wire screen. It would be 

 a desideratum, both for purposes of observa- 

 tion and ease in marking, if we could have a 

 fine black wire screen with meshes as large as 

 possible, but just small enough to prevent a 

 bee from getting through, i. e., larger-meshed 

 than the common fly-screen. 



In marking bees I get a good dab of any 

 desired color, on the back, between the wings; 

 another on the back of the abdomen, and, 

 most important of all, a good mark on the very 

 tip of the abdomen. Until I discovered the 

 importance of this latter mark I used to lose 



my marked bees for hours at a time, even in a 

 single-frame hive. I finally caught one crawl- 

 ing into a cell, and watched her remain there 

 lying quietly on her back for nearly five hours 

 — resting or asleep? 



The supers are made with glass sides, glass 

 set in narrow wood frames and wooden ends, 

 and the glass frame for the top of the hive ex- 

 actly fits over a super. The whole hive is cov- 

 ered with thick soft quilting, made in rectan- 

 gular pieces to fit both ends and one side, the 

 other side being covered with a long quilt 

 which laps over the top, and is long enough 

 to cover three supers in position. The advan- 

 tage of this mode of covering is that it can al- 

 ways be removed without a jar or creak, leav- 

 ing the bees so completely undisturbed that I 

 have not seen any tendency on their part to 

 propolize the inside of the glass. It is very 

 easdy manipulated, and keeps the bees warm. 

 For winter, in a room that is not heated, I 

 have simply to throw over a few newspapers 

 and large sheets of wrapping-paper, and tie 

 down closely with cord. As I have all my 

 hives under cover, I now propose making them 

 all on this plan; but if any one can suggest 

 improvements I wish he would do so before I 

 get them all made. Materials for hive cost 

 about $2.00, and the bees from $3.00 to $8.00, 

 according to quality, size of swarm, and local 

 prices. Still, it might be run to pay in honey 

 and bees from one to two hundred per cent an- 

 nually. A start might even be made with lit- 

 tle or no expense to the school authorities, if 

 some one who has bees would arrange the ob- 

 servation hive and manage one of his swarms, 

 as suggested, either in the window of a school- 

 room or elsewhere, where the classes could 

 have free access to it. In fact, a bright boy I 

 know of, who became interested in bees in 

 the way suggested, while in the grammar 

 school, bought a swarm with his own money, 

 and has recently volunteered to place one of 

 his swarms in a glass hive which he made him- 

 stlf, at the disposal of his classmates, now in 

 the high school. 



I have used the honey-bee thus in a large 

 grammar school, the hive being located in an 

 attic window; and during two seasons at the 

 Clark University Summer School, and wher- 

 ever introduced, it has proved one of the most, 

 if not the most, fascinating part of a nature- 

 study course. I should rather use pictures 

 than a few dead bees, queen, drone, worker, 

 etc , mounted in a glass case, with a little 

 comb and all that; but when it comes to see- 

 ing things alive and humming, with all the 

 bustle and hustle and go of an actual bee-hive, 

 interest is unflagging and keen to the last. A 

 number of the teachers have taken the sug- 

 gestion home to their own schools. 



Of course, the honey-bee forms a small but 

 very important part of a nature- study course. 

 Altogether the most important part of elemen- 

 tary botany, after the planting of seeds and 

 rearing of plants, is cross-pollination of flow- 

 ers, and, chiefly, how this is accomplished by 

 insects. It is a wonderful coincidence that, 

 among the million or more insect species, this 

 one. so useful and beneficent, should be prac- 

 tically all-sufficient for this important func- 



