1162 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



CONVERSATIONS with DOOLITTLE 



At Borodino 



BEEHIVES 



The accumulation of the past 

 three years has made me willing 

 to write upon the well-Avorn topic 

 of the beehive, because there is. 

 perhaps, no point relating to bee- 

 keeping about which I am asked 

 so many questions as this. Allow me to 

 say at the start that it is well to under- 

 stand that the bees themselves are not 

 much concerned about the shape or dimen- 

 sions of their home. They will store as 

 much honey, other things being equal, in 

 a shoe-box or part of a barrel as in a hive 

 patented by some elated novice. Hence the 

 form of the hive is only a question of con- 

 venience to the apiarist. The beekeeper 

 may make its shape to secure the object he 

 has in view. But from the stack of letters 

 I have on this subject it would seem that 

 beekeepers have many objects, as hives are 

 wanted for producing comb honey; for ex- 

 tracted honey ; for wintering bees ; for pre- 

 venting swarming; for producing bees; for 

 rearing queens, etc. Fortunately a differ- 

 ent kind of hive is not required for each. 



The hive best adapted to the production 

 of honey is that which the majority are 

 seeking after; and if a hive is to be se- 

 lected for this one object an eye may be 

 had also to other objects that are subsidiary. 

 To illustrate: While queen-rearing is a 

 legitimate department of bee-keeping, yet 

 the characteristics of the hive best adapted 

 to that brancJi are of special interest to only 

 a few, and thus the hive in use for the pro- 

 duction of honey, both comb and extracted,- 

 will generally be found sufficiently service- 

 able for this branch of our pursuit. The 

 successful production of honey is the one 

 overshadowing object of apiculture; and 

 therefore, in my view, there are some posi- 

 tive qualities to be sought for in any hive 

 at all well calculated for an apiary to be 

 conducted for the highest net profit. 



Where an a^iiarist has a love for exploring 

 the inside of the brood-chamber during the 

 honey season, the contraction of the brood- 

 chamber at the height of the flow will bring 

 almost astounding results in white honey, 

 whiich, as a rule, brings almost double 

 price over that from buckwheat or fall 

 flowers; yet, considering that the rank and 

 file are more prone to leave the bees alone, 

 only as manipulation tends toAvard better 

 success, I consider the ten-frame Lang- 

 stroth hive, when used in connection with 

 the Italian race of bees, to be the better 



, New York 



for the average beekeeper. This hive gives 

 sufficient room for the production of brood 

 so that the maximum as to the number of 

 bees can be accomplished in good time for 

 the harvest from clover and basswood, while 

 it allows of sufficient stores to be earned 

 past the winter consumption, so the bees 

 feel no need of retrenching by way of 

 scrimping the brood during the latter part 

 of April or in May. Plenty of stores in 

 sight at all times is with the bees like a 

 good account in the bank with the avei'age 

 thrifty family who have something to in- 

 vest where a profit can be made as well as 

 the wherewith to tide over a period of 

 scarcity. And a colony of good Italian 

 bees seem to know just Avhen and where a 

 good investment of stores looking toward a 

 return in numbers of bees at just the right 

 time in the season can be made, and so we 

 find them using on their stores quite lavish- 

 ly the last half of May and the first two- 

 thirds of June. They will retrench in 

 brood as the flow of nectar becomes more 

 bountiful after June 20 till the close of the 

 basswood bloom in July. Thus with the 

 Italian bees the ten-frame hive will accom- 

 plish all that could be accomplished with 

 the small hive and contraction advocated so 

 vigorously during the latter part of the 

 nineteenth century by the beekeepers living 

 north of latitude 40, and without all of the 

 manipulation and feeding which this con- 

 traction or small hives required. 



The ten-frame liive need not be very ex- 

 pensive. Thirty to forty cents should jiur- 

 chase lumber enough of sufficiently good 

 quality for body, cover, and bottom. Lum- 

 ber with sound knots will answer very well. 

 The apiarist should not be led by one or 

 two good crops into failure in point of 

 economy. Then this ten-frame hive is not 

 cumbersome. Its bulk and weight will al- 

 low of its being handled easily by one man 

 when it contains a colony of bees with 

 stores enough for winter, as a nile. If 

 the hives are to be seldom moved, then a 

 large double-walled or chaff-packed hive 

 may prove an exception. 



In the production of extracted honey I 

 consider this ten-frame hive as good as 

 any, as story after story can be placed or 

 tiered to the utmost requirements of either 

 the bees, queen, or apiarist. If it is un- 

 desirable that the queen have access to 

 all of the hives, a queen-excluder may be 

 placed between any two stoiies, and thus 

 the extraeling-frames kept free of brood. 



