May, 1920 



OLE.^NINGS IN BKE CULTURE 



271 



liavo gone past the age when they can lift 

 heavy supers. Practically the entire cost 

 lies in the first investment of the hive it- 

 self. After that there is but very little 

 expense. 



Not for the Average Producer. 



Now to the important question, "Would 

 such a hive be practicable for the average 

 honey-producer — the man who has plent.y of 

 biawn and muscle, and who may desire to 

 practice keeping bees at out-apiarios, and 

 at the same time do something in the lino 

 of migratory beekeeping?" In answer to 

 this I would say emphatically no. In Cali- 

 fornia where migratory beekeeping is get- 

 ting to be quite common this hive would 

 not answer. However, Mr. Poppleton, in 

 his day the largest migratory beekeeper in 

 the United States, said he liked these hives 

 because when he moved he could pile them 

 up in his boat, one on top of the other, like 

 so much cordwood. To do the loading and 

 unloading he hired negroes. All he had to 

 do was to boss the job. But for the average 

 man who can't hire help, white or black, 

 the Long Idea hive takes too much room 

 or bulk in a wagon or boat and is too 

 heavy to lift alone. When using a regular 

 standard hive, the colony can be confined in 

 one story of small size and weight, and the 

 rest of the equipment can be carried as a 

 separate load. 



But there is another thing yet to be con- 

 sidered by commercial beekeepers. I do 

 not know l)ut there are some, including my- 

 self, who fear that bees do not store honey 

 as well laterally as they do vertically. Heat 

 naturally rises, and bees are inclined to 

 move upward with their stores. On this 

 point, however, our old friend Poppleton 

 thought there might be a slight difference 

 in favor of vertical storage; but he added 

 that the difference was but slight. 



But the chief objection to the Long Idea 

 hive is that it is not a standard save in the 

 size of the frame. 



There is another objection. A whole su- 

 per of extracting-combs cannot be cleared 

 of bees with a bee-escape, as can be done 

 with one or more stories of a regular Lang 

 stroth hive. While a bee-escape can be used 

 in a division-board in a Long Idea hive, the 

 combs would have to be handled individual- 

 ly. On the vertical or tiering-up system 

 the combs can bo handled in groups of ten 

 or eight according to the size of the brood- 

 chamber. Moreover, a super of such combs 

 is handy for toting to and from the ex- 

 tracting-house. In other words, the combs 

 can be handled in lots of ten, while with a 

 Long Idea hive the combs must be put in a 

 box on a wheelbarrow one by one, and on 

 arrival at the extracting-house must be 

 picked out of the box or carrier one by one. 



Recapitulation and Conclusion. 



To recapitulate, the tiering-up or vertical 



system is better adapted to the commercial 



honey-producer, while the Long Idea hive, 



or horizontal system, may be better for the 



queen-breeder, and for women and children 

 or old men, or for anyone else who cannot 

 do heavy lifting. 



When I have explained the merits of the 

 two systems to the commercial honey-pro- 

 ducer, I have heard more than one of them 

 who had got past the age of 50 or 60 say: 

 "I am beginiiing to see the day when I 

 must give up heavy lifting. The elimination 

 of swarming and the elimination of hive- 

 lifting make the Long Idea hive look 

 mighty good to me. I will try a few." 



But down deep in his heart the man who 

 has a thousand colonies or more, even if he 

 is 50 or 60, knows that he cannot afford to 

 change over. It is more practicable for him 

 to hire a husky young man, or several of 

 them, to do the lifting for him. During 

 ordinary times he can do this if he cannot 

 now. 



If the commercial honey-producer thinks 

 he requires a brood-nest larger than a ten- 

 or eight-frame Langstroth brood-nest, he 



Kiii. 5. — Ml-U rntcliai-il and his .s<ju Arliu i'rilrli.iid 

 in the basswood apiary where 50 of the Long Idea 

 hives are in sueies.sful use. Both are expert queen- 

 breeders. 



had better adopt a Jumbo hive. Or, if he 

 feels that he does not want to fuss with 

 two sizes of frames in the apiary he had 

 better use the 13-frame Langstroth hive 

 when his frames will all be Langstroth and 

 all of a size and interchangeable. The back- 

 lotter, if he favors the Long Idea hive, had 

 better try one or two at most, and if he likes 

 these use more later. The average beekeep- 

 er should stick to the ten-frame Langstroth 

 brood-nest, which, when the frames are 

 jiroperly wired, will come near solving the 

 hive question. 



