5-2 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Front view of Todd's bureau hives modeled after the hive described by Samuel Siininiiis in a " Modern 

 Bee Farm." 



There is another side. A colony the least 

 bit below par will dawdle along in a cold 

 spring until about the beginning of the hon- 

 ey-flow, and then give up the ghost. Last 

 spring (1913) was the worst in twenty 

 3'ears, and it makes my heart sore to open 

 up, as late as the last week of May, hive 

 after hive the whole day long only to find 

 a few hundred beas and a poor queen which 

 is industriously doing her task and laying 

 as many as a dozen eggs in every cell cov- 

 ered by the bees. 



For several years I have pondered much 

 on the problems of temperature and damp. 

 I have seen and handled many kinds of 

 covere and hives, but it would appear to be 

 almost impossible to design one that will be 

 waterproof in the valley of the Lower Fra- 

 ser. Bit by bit I have come to be of the 

 opinion that the real solution will be found 

 in the use of a bureau hive on the lines of 

 the one outlined by Mr. Simmins in his 

 " Modern Bee Farm." I dare say many 

 readers of this journal have wished that Mr. 

 Simmins had given specifieations of the 

 bureau; and since I have worked out the 

 details for myself, made one with my own 

 hands, and supervised the making of three 

 by a first-class carpenter, I am in position 

 to give definite data. 



My duties keep me all summer a hundred 

 miles and more from my own apiary, so I 

 have been unable to make comparative tests, 



but 1 have learned a few of its merits. For 

 instance, it will not permit bees to fly out in 

 a warm day with snow on the ground. Such 

 a condition occurred in my territory last 

 winter, and many beekeepers assured me 

 that the snow was literally black with bees. 

 Much of the terrible spring dwindling this 

 season was doubtless started by this cause. 

 1 have also learned that it is a good winter- 

 ing hive, and one in which brood-rearing 

 advances very rajDidly in the spring. 



The general idea of the bureau hive is to 

 jH-ovide an absolutely waterproof shelter for 

 bees, and one in which an air-space sur- 

 rounds the hive-bodies and so tends to a uni- 

 form temperature in the colony. It is also 

 a handy hive to work, as any hive body can 

 be withdrawn for examination without dis- 

 turbing the others. Furthermore, as all 

 handling is done at the rear of the bureau, 

 any bees that rise from the combs at once 

 fly to the entrance, and so the beekeeper is 

 not annoyed by their buzzing about his 

 person. 



My bureaus are made from 4-inch tongue- 

 and-gToove lumber smoothed on both sides. 

 A little over 100 lineal feet of this wood is 

 required for each house. 



The specifieations that follow are for a 

 hive whose outside measurements are 13% 

 X 19%. They will have to be modified a 

 little for a different size. 



Platform is ISVzxSlVi; sides are 23%x35; 



