1904 



CLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



64fr 



not familiar with bee-keepinj? in the old 

 countries have probably no idea that hives 

 of straw are even now almost solely used 

 in certain parts of Germany. Gravenhorst's 



A CONICAL STKAW HIVE. 



"Bogen stuelper" is one of the oldest frame 

 straw hives; but it must be tu'ncd bottom 

 up to take the frames out. The majority of 

 straw hives in u e were not frame hives. 

 The writer well remembers the differently 

 shaped straw hives in his grandfather's 

 bee-house. It seems the honey from them, 

 too, had a peculiarly fine flavor not to be 

 compared with our finest section honey. 



Of late, straw hives of square shape have 

 been introduced in Germany, which admit 

 of being manipulated exactly as a Dovetail- 

 ed hive is. The walls are pressed straw, 

 sewn through and through with split cane, 

 and are two inches thick. A wooden frame 

 is secured to the straw at top and bottom, 

 the upper one having a rabbet cut out to re- 

 ceive the frames. As this hive is described 

 in Garfenrat, a horticultural journal print- 



ed in Charlottenburg, German}, it consists 

 of two sections, or rings, each one holding 

 16 short shallow frames (7 inches deep). 

 The hive is closed with a straw cover two 

 inches thick. Such a hive, as the reader 

 will see, is very simple, and ought to be 

 cheap. It is a light hive, and could be 

 adapted to the L. frame. It certainly 

 would be a good hive to winter in, and I see 

 no reason why we could not use it here 

 with good results. They would need to be 

 housed, however, which is a drawback. 

 This might be overcome by using a large 



KANITZ HIVE. 



shade or weather-board instead. When the 

 American bee-keepers see the need of using 

 other material than pine lumber for hives, 

 perhaps they will turn their attention to 

 straw, and they will contrive ways to man- 

 ufacture straw hives in a wholesale way. 

 I hope the time will not be far distant. Of 



A HORIZONTAL STRAW HIVE. 



