608 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1. 



general agricultural paper with a bee depart- 

 ment? 



Bee-keeping seems to work better in this 

 country as a specialty, but not as an entirety — 

 a sole occupation. 



Grayson, Cal., June 21. 



EVOLUTION OF THE HIVE QUESTION. 

 Arguments in Favor of Shallow Brood-chambers. 



BY T. K. MASSIE. 



In this fast day and age of the world — in 

 this day of sharp competition — when we util- 

 ize the elements of nature and do a great 

 amount of our work by steam and electricity, 

 it becomes us to minimize the costs of all the 

 items entering into our pursuits of life ; and 

 in bee-keeping, as in most other pursuits, the 

 element of labor is the principal item of cost. 

 With this idea in view the various inventors of 

 hives have gone on from the box hive or straw 

 skep to the present high state of perfection. 



When I commenced keeping bees I bought 

 two hives of a friend and bee-keeper of several 

 years' experience in the business — his own in- 

 vention. They were on the "long-idea" 

 style, divided into three apartments of 10x12 



EXTRACTOR ANCHORED FOR WORK. 



See Ediloriah. 



X 12 deep. The middle apartment was intend- 

 ed for the brood, and the one at each end for 

 a surplus storage. It is unnecessary for me to 

 tell bee-keepers that the bees refused to 

 "spread out laterally " and take possession of 

 the end apartments, and fill with surplus. I 

 very soon discarded them. 



My next trial was the Simplicity hive with 

 hanging frames with metal ends resting on tin 

 rabbets. I found this hive a great improve- 

 ment on my first hive, but not satisfactory. I 

 tried the Dovetailed, Heddon, Conser, John- 

 son, and other hives, but was not yet satisfied. 

 I then bought the Nonpareil ( Dr. Tinker's) 

 hive, which also had hanging frames. About 

 this time the reversing fad was at its height, 

 and I thought I saw great things to be accom- 

 plished with reversible frames. It looked all 

 right, theoretically at least. I changed all my 

 frames to closed reversible frames ( I am still 

 pleased with this change), supported by a wire 

 from center of end-bars. 



I began a close study of the hive and frame 

 questions, having six cubical hives of my own 

 invention made. But I soon discovered that 

 the capped brood always lies directly on its 

 back, head elevated just the pitch of the cells 

 in the combs (can you, Mr. Editor, tell us 

 what degree of elevation this pitch is?), and 

 in reversing frames containing capped brood 

 we thrt.w the whole economy of the hive out 

 of harmony by turning the brood with its back 

 upward, head lowered just the pitch of the 

 combs. I have never been able to determine 

 the damage such changing of the natural or- 

 der of the hive does to the colony of bees (can 

 any one tell us ?), but it is considerable. Re- 

 versing empty combs turns the pitch down- 

 ward, and bees can scarcely store thin nectar 

 in such combs. Then the only point left to 

 be accomplished by reversing was to get the 

 combs built solid to the bottom-bars. 



But there is a better way to accomplish this. 

 By using a thin and narrow bottom-bar, % X |4f, 

 and having our combs built above a set of 

 combs in a good honey- flow, the bees build the 

 comb solid to bottom-bars without any revers- 

 ing. This is one reason why I use two brood- 

 chambers of shallow frames to the hive. I 

 would class any frame over 8)4 inches deep as 

 a deep frame. By further investigation and 

 study I found that bees winter better, and 

 build up faster in the spring, in a box hive 

 than in a frame hive, and this because they 

 have deep combs and a hive ceiled up air-tight 

 vdth propolis. Then we want a deep comb on 

 which to winter our bees, and a shallow comb 

 — a hive capable of being contracted to a 

 shallow comb without the use of dummies or 

 other loose parts, which requires extra care 

 and labor to take care of and keep in place — 

 over which to produce our surplus. The use 

 of two brood-chambers with shallow frames is 

 the only way I know by which the problem 

 can be solved. A chaff or double-wall hive for 

 outdoor wintering is necessary. It saves hon- 

 ey, and is better every way for the bees. They 

 eat less in confinement, and hence are less like- 

 ly to have diarrhea, but the chaff hive is too 

 costly and cumbersome to handle. 



The next improvement is along the line of a 



