JANUARY 1, 1916 



31 



It is only necessary to lift the super-cover 

 and place a division-board containing a 

 be€-escai3e at the side next to the brood- 

 nest. Nor must one do heavy lifting in the 

 removal of honey unless it is desired to take 

 it all away by a single operation. In this 

 case the super can be removed from its po- 

 sition, and an empty one put in its place. 



Fig. 1. — The liive assembled. 



At the beginning of tlie season last year, 

 a colony which had just been robbed out, 

 and probably a thousand or more of its 

 bees killed, was placed in the improved 

 hive, without any stores, and by the end of 

 the season it had overtaken and excelled in 

 all resjoects the best of other colonies in 

 ordinary hives. 



This season, to give it a ditferent test, the 

 fii-st swarm was placed in an improved 

 hive; and on the same day and for the next 

 few following, swarms were put in ordinary 

 hives, under otherwise similar conditions. 

 The last time these swarm colonies Avere 

 examined the one in the improved hive was 

 found to have gained ten combs in honey 

 production over the best of the others in 

 the ordinary hives. 



To summarize, this hive is: (1) The only 

 single-walled hive having its brood-nest at 

 the center, where it naturally should be. 

 (2) It is the only one of great capacity, 

 each part of wliich has its separate cover, 

 etc. — the maximum of convenience with the 

 minimum of disturbance in its manipula- 

 tion. (3) It is the only one giving as much 

 or more comb area in eighty-eight supers as 

 is to be had in a hundred supers of other 

 makes of the same size. (4) It is the only 

 one in which ten supers can all abut direct- 

 ly on the brood-nest. (5) It is the only 

 one in which, on account of all the surfaces 

 of its six sides being used for abutting su- 

 pers, is perfect in its compactness. (6) It 

 is the only one which can be used to pro- 

 tect itself against cold weather during the 

 winter. (7) It is the only one which goes 

 a long way toward being completely rob- 

 ber-proof. 



Before seeing the photogTaphs of the 

 liive, Mr. H. H. Root, managing editor of 

 Gleanings, thought " the connection be- 

 tween the brood-chamber compartment and 

 the supers is so slight that the bees might 

 prefer to clog the brood-combs with honey 



before entering any of the other compart- 

 ments." Again, that '' on cool nights they 

 would desert the surplus apartment entire- 

 ly." 



Referring to Fig. 2, it will be seen that 

 the connection is the reverse of slight, the 

 openings in the sides and ends of the orig- 

 inal brood-chamber being so extensive that 

 only the margins are left to hold it togeth- 

 er. I had thought about it somewhat as 

 Mr. Root had; and therefore, not to dis- 

 courage the bees, I gave them free access to 

 only one of the supers, excluding them 

 from the other three by means of division- 

 boards with but a single bee-space aperture 

 between them. But when I next oj^ened the 

 hive, I Avas surprised to And work being 

 done vigorously in two or three combs of 

 each of the four supers. 



From the results of this hive during the 

 two seasons, I think the idea that cool 

 nights would affect it is erroneous. I once 

 resided in a house which had one very large, 

 low-ceiled room in it. During the winter 

 the temperature in that room was always 

 more equable than in other even much 

 smaller rooms with high ceiling's, the heat- 

 ing apparatus in the different rooms being- 

 similar. The improved hive may be com- 

 pared to the low-ceiled room and the tiered- 

 up ones to the high-ceiled. The long-chan- 

 nel entrance may also soften the air coming 

 in. This can be readily appreciated by 

 those who have been in tunnels of coal- 

 banks, and noticed the total absence of 

 atmospheric disturbance due to outside 

 weather conditions. 



Fig. 2. — The hive taken apart. 



Mr. E. R. Root, editor, objected that: 

 (1) "It would cost a good deal more to 

 make a hive of equal capacity on this plan 

 than it would on the tiering-up plan." I 

 admit there would be the costs for the addi- 

 tional covers and boitoms; also for a few 

 cents' worth of wire netting of worker-bee- 

 size mesh with which to cover the openings 

 in the sides and ends of the brood-nest. But 

 I claim that these costs would be almost 

 immediately repaid, over and over, in the 

 added comb area of twelve or more per cent 

 given to each super; in being able to man- 

 ilDulate each suj^er sej^arately with a maxi- 



