132 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



February, 1917 



I 



c 



LESSON L 



N olden times 

 bees w e re 

 robbed by 

 their owners 

 every fall. The 

 old box used as 

 a hive or straw 

 skep containing 

 the bees was set 

 over a i^it containing burning sulphur ; and 

 when the bees had been brimstoned — killed 

 — the hive Avas turned upside down and the 

 combs of honey dug out. The honey was 

 pressed out of the combs thru a cloth. 

 Since some of the combs probably contain- 

 ed unhatched bees, and others the slightly 

 bitter, mealy-tasting pollen from the flow- 

 ers, the " strained " honey was likely to 

 have a flavor not quite all its own. 



In the last fifty 

 years a greater 

 change b as taken 

 place in honey pro- 

 duction than in all 

 the former history of 

 the world put to- 

 gether. Colonies of 

 bees are no longer 

 robbed by their own- 

 ers and keepers. A 

 normal colony in one 

 season will produce 

 on the average from 

 50 to 100 pounds 

 more honey than the 

 bees themselves can 

 use. It is only this 

 surplus of honey that 

 men take. 



THE MODERN HIVE. 



Other conditions 

 equal, a colony of 

 bees will produce as 

 much in the stump 

 of a tree as in the 

 best hive ever con- 

 structed. The only 

 difference is in the 

 convenience in caring for the colony and in 

 removing the honey. The best hive in use 

 today is a plain box without top or bottom, 

 large enough to hold ten frames of " Lang- 

 stroth " dimensions — which have come to 

 be standard — 9% by 17% inches. The bees 

 build the combs inside these frames, and, of 

 course, the combs, thus surrounded ,by 

 wood, may be moved about or lifted 

 entirely. This is the main difference 

 tween old box hives and modern hives. 



The hive of ten combs constitutes 

 hive-body proper, or the brood-chamber. 

 In this jiart of the hive the queen is kept 



Beginners' Lessons 



1 



secTio*'^ 



.ON*'- 



iptn 



out 

 be- 



the 



and the brood 

 is reared. It is 

 the lowest part 

 of the hive, and 

 there is nothing 

 under it except 

 the floor with its 

 entrance - c o n - 

 THE HIVE. traeting cleat in 



front, and underneath the floor the hive- 

 stand with its sloping alighting-board from 

 the ground up to the entrance. 



Above the bfood-chamber is the super, so 

 named because it contains the SM/jerabun- 

 dance of honey — in other words, the surplus 

 over and above the needs of the bees them- 

 selves. If the honey is produced in the 

 small square sections holding about a 

 pound it is called a comb-honey super, and 

 is about half the 

 depth of the brood- 

 chamber. Sometimes 

 this super contains 

 frames exactly like 

 the brood-frames be- 

 low, except that they 

 a r e shallower o f 

 course. Or the super 

 may be the same 

 depth as the brood- 

 chamber, in which 

 case the frames are 

 identical with those 

 below, tho they are 

 for honey only, not 

 for brood. Usually 

 honey is not sold in 

 t h e large -sized 

 frames. It is sepa- 

 rated from the combs 

 in a centrifugal ma- 

 chine called a honey- 

 extractor, or sepa- 

 rator. 



There may be from 

 one to five or six 

 supers on the hive at 

 once. Above t h e 

 top suj^er is a clcated board called an inner 

 cover, and over all a telescoping metal-roof. 

 If one desires to remove full supers of 

 honey, a board exactly like an inner cover 

 is sli]iped between the supers and the brood- 

 chamber below, except that in the center is 

 a trap called a bee-escape. The bees can 

 then pass down from tlie supers into the 

 brood-chamber below, but can not get back 

 up again. By using the escape, in twelve 

 to twenty-four hours the full supers of hon- 

 ey may be removed with scarcely a bee in 

 tliem, and actually without the knowledge 

 of the bees in the hive-body below. 



