May. 1920 



G T. E A N I N G S IN BEE C U I. T U II E 



289 



HEADS OF GRAIN MFRQftGfl DIFFERENT FIELDS 



easy to scfure as from the liive scale. When 

 I tried to buy a scale which would be large 

 enough, its cost, together with the neces- 

 sary housing, was prohibitive. Moreover, 



Mr. i^tnilian's scale hive, showing scale and its 

 shelter on the left. 



it was inconvenient and required too much 

 time to open the house to get the weight; 

 so, "necessity being the mother of inven- 

 toin," I took a bottom-board of a hive, and 

 used it for my scale platform, put a piece 

 of iron with a sharp edge under each corner, 

 made a frame to go under the platform 

 fi-oni which I hung iron rods, attached the 

 same as a common wagon scale, and connect- 

 ed it up with a small spring scale in a little 

 A-shaped house at one side, as shown in the 

 picture. Balancing from all four corners, 

 this scale will give the correct weight, no 

 matter on what part of the platform the 

 weight may come, and will weigh anything 

 from one pound up to six hundred pounds. 

 The scale is protected from the weather by 

 a galvanized iron covering, except the glass 

 in front. The scale dial is divided into 

 tenths of pounds instead of into ounces, and, 

 as the platform balance is a ratio of 10 to 

 1, one pound on the platform registering 

 one mark on the dial, and ten pouiuls on the 

 platform registering one pound on the dial, 

 it is very easy to read. It sits in a position 

 near the walk where we pass many times 

 d\iring the day; so, with just a glance, we 

 can take note of any slight change. The 

 total cost of the hive scale, including the 

 glass, was $3.45, other parts being taken 

 from a scrap pile. 



The hive scale tells when your honey flow 

 commences, how heavy it is, when it breaks 



off, etc. It eliminates guesswork and saves 

 needless manipulations. To me now it 

 is not a question of whether we can afford 

 a hive scale, but whether we can afford to 

 be without it. C. F. Strahan. 



Linwood, Neb. 



An Experiment in Several years ago I 

 Transferring. purchased an apiary 



containing a consider- 

 able number of old-style American hives 

 and supers. There were, in all, about 90 

 hives and 175 supers, all with good, straight 

 combs built from foundation. For a num- 

 ber of years I used this equipment, as it 

 seemed too valuable to throw away. About 

 a year ago, however, it was decided that we 

 were losing honey by using these hives, and 

 we determined to dispense with them bv 

 transferring all colonies to standard ten- 

 frame hives. The work was done just before 

 the opening of the clover How. The new 

 hives were prepared by using outer combs 

 of sealed honey, kept over from the previ- 

 ous season in order to guard against starva- 

 tion in case of bad weather, while the mid- 

 dle comb consisted of a frame of brood 

 taken from some other colony, and the re- 

 mainder of the hive body was filled with 

 empty drawn combs. Beneath the hive body 

 was placed a bee-escape board with tin re- 

 moved, and above this a queen-excluder. 

 The queen in the old hive was then found, 

 and, after a considerable number of the bees 

 were shaken into the new hive, she was 

 placed on the frame of brood and a cover 

 put on the hive. Next, the old hive was 

 made tight by closing the entrance and all 

 cracks and openings, and the new hive was 

 then set on top. A new entrance was pro- 

 vided by shoving the hive forward about an 

 inch on the escape-board, and the flight of 

 the bees directed to this entrance by lean- 

 ing a cover board in front. The time re- 



.\rraiij;t niPiit of mw and nld liivc in Mr. Miller's 



plan of transferrinir. Xolict c(jver board placed 



in front to direct flight of bees to the new entrance 



above. 



