864 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



STANDARD HIVE 



BY A. N. CLARK 



The ten-frame liive-bocly has long been 

 the most popular general-purpose hive for 

 those producing both comb and extracted 

 honey in the same apiary, and may long 

 continue in this role, while the eight-frame 

 size leads among comb-honey specialists. 

 But the extracted-honey specialists, wlio 

 realize that both eight and ten frame larood- 

 chambers are too small for them, are using, 

 some twelve, some fourteen, and a few sev- 

 enteen, frames. As yet we have no recog- 

 nized standard above ten frames. The time 

 seems ripe for such a standard. What shall 

 it be? 



The eight and ten frame hives are 20 

 inches long, outside measure, so I suggest 

 that the larger hive for extracted-honey 

 specialists be made 20 x 20 outside measure. 

 _ Such a hive-body holds thirteen frames. 

 Being square it can stand on the bottom- 

 board with frames either at right angles to 

 entrance or parallel to entrance; and this 

 adaptability to quarter rotation on bottom- 

 board is no small advantage. 



Mr. A. C. Miller places frames parallel 

 with entrance; most other people place 



them at right angles to the entrance; but if 

 one can place them either way as he may 

 elect, without any change in bottom-board 

 construction, you will see a number of bee- 

 keepers following Mr. Miller's plan at least 

 a part of the year. 



Some extracted specialists, like Mr. Hol- 

 termann, for instance, use a twelve-frame 

 body ; but why not make it one frame more 

 and have the advantages of a square body? 



I do not believe that thirteen frames is 

 too large for a fairly good queen in an 

 average locality. The best yield per colony, 

 and least labor per pound of honey, that I 

 ever obtained, was from hives with fourteen 

 frames in the brood-chamber. 



Other advantages of the 20 x 20 body are 

 stability against wind, and symmetrical ap- 

 pearance; a two-story hive being an exact 

 cube, 20 X 20 X 20, when the cover is %, and 

 zinc-excluder rim %. Who can imagine a 

 more practical and sensible shape than a 

 cube for economy of construction, manipu- 

 lation, and saving of bee travel? 



Lansing, Mich. 



THE POSITION OF THE HIVES IN THE APIARY AND THE HANDLING 



OF HONEY 



BY THE OUTLAW 



With my bees on the roof, the accessibil- 

 ity of the bees and the handling of the 

 surplus honey could not very well be mo^e 

 inconvenient. But as with me it is only a 

 hobby, and the matter of using a little 

 surplus energy, these points are not essen- 

 tial. I should hardly care to change them, 

 even if I could. In pondering over the 

 above facts, I think I have discovered a 

 reason why apiarists throughout the coun- 

 try have their hives situated in awkward 

 places, and use the crudest kind of methods 

 in handling surplus honey. This reason is 

 that most beekeepers start with a colony or 

 two ; and the manner in which the honey is 

 handled, and the situation of the hive, are 

 of minor importance. As time goes on, 

 and the number of their hives increases, 

 they continue in the manner to which they 

 have become aceiastomed. An example is 

 the manner of handling honey as advocated 

 by the late Mr. Alexander. He carried 

 combs, when extracting, in a box in his 

 hand, and poked them through a hole in 



the side of his honey-house, and advocated 

 it as a good method of handling honey. At 

 several large apiaries in California which 

 I visited several years ago I found that 

 two boxes the size of supers were fastened 

 on the bed of a wheelbarrow. In these were 

 placed the combs on taking them otf the 

 hive. On entering the honey-house, the full 

 combs were removed and replaced with 

 empty frames, the boxes being nailed to the 

 wheelbarrow. 



In the arrangement of the apiaries 

 throughout the country are continually 

 found examj^les of the worst possible meth- 

 ods. Some place the hives in inaccessible 

 places, or on ground which is so rough that 

 it is almost impossible to run a wheelbar- 

 row ; or, again, you find the hives so close 

 together that they have to be worked from 

 the back instead of the side, or else scat- 

 tered out from 10 to 20 feet apart. Again, 

 we find them so situated that, when working 

 one row of hives, the apiarist is dii'ectly in 

 the flight of the bees from another row. A 



