26 



when the latter is removed, 

 and the combs may be exam- 

 ined with more or less ease. 

 Supply-dealers even offer a 

 comb speculum, a small mir- 

 ror to be introduced between 

 the combs for examining the 

 cells; also various classes of 

 introducing - cages, specially 

 for skeps, are manufactured. 

 The queen may be caught by 

 drumming off the swarm, etc., 

 which proves that the skep is 

 rather handier than the com- 

 mon box hive, which, in the 

 regions mentioned, is almost 

 unknown. It should also be 

 borne in mind that straw is 

 one of the best insulating ma- 

 terials. But even the practi- 

 cal beekeeper, able to get eve- 

 ry drop of nectar by careful 

 management, would be at a 

 loss, as too much honey is to 

 be converted into wax, consid- 

 ering the good price that hon- 

 ey brings in Europe. Under normal cir- 

 cumstances few extensive beekeepers figure 

 among the skepjDists; but just here comes 

 the excei^tion. In the most productive hon- 

 ey region of Germany, the Luneburg heath- 

 country, and in a part of Holland, the typi- 

 cal hive is a skep, Fig. 1, with entrance 

 above. 



The size and shape of the skeps in differ- 

 ent regions vary greatly. Fig. 2 represents 

 a variation — the Kanitz hive of eastern 

 Prussia. It consists of two or more inter- 

 changeable bodies and separate straw cover. 

 To avoid the combs being built to the cover. 



GLEANINGS IN BE ECULTURE 



-^ % '3- 



Varieties of the skep. 



top-bars (carriers) with comb starters are 

 placed in the upper story. 



A straw hive of peculiar shape, but 

 adapted to the principle of the modern 

 frame hive, is the "bogenstuelper" invented 

 by Gravenhorst, who died in 1898. This 

 hive contains twelve to sixteen frames, and 

 is especially in favor in northern Germany. 

 Fig. 3 will give the reader an idea of it. 

 The other modern hives are, of course, 

 made of wood. 



At the convention of the German and 

 Austrian beekeepers at Cologne in 1880 

 there was adopted a standard measure for 

 the two countries, 

 and the following 

 size of frames for the 

 brood-room was de- 

 clared as standard : 

 8% inches wide and 

 14 9/16 inches high; 

 frames for honey- 

 room half the height ; 

 dimensions of hive in 

 accordance with bee- 

 spaces. Fig. 4 shows 

 a standard hive from 

 the rear, the door be- 

 ing removed so that 

 some of the empty 

 frames are visible in 

 the brood-room (a) 

 and the honey-room 

 ( b ) . The frames 

 hang i n rabbeted 

 cleats in a transverse 



