478 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



upon it. For temporary exhibition of one 

 comb this has its place; but as an observa- 

 tion hive it is a misnomer and a failure. 

 From their unnatural surroundinpfs, and 

 from the fact that they have no facilities 

 for clustering between protecting combs for 

 warmth, and especially since the bees soon 

 die in it. my opinion is that the contrivance 

 would better be named a tribulation or 

 devastation hive. Another apparatus, orig- 

 inating in England, and intended to secure 

 the desired result, has been made of two 

 series of frames with four or five in each 

 vertical row! Could anything be more ab- 

 surd as a matter of ingenuity, or further 

 removed from the natural condition in the 

 natural hive ? I can imagine nothing. 



THE BIGELOW EDUCATIONAL HIVE. 



These facts, united with the belief that 

 the honey-bees are unexcelled in interest 

 from the nature-study standpoint, have im- 

 pelled me for months to study the subject, 

 and to plan what now seems to be an ideal 

 educational bee-hive, and I have intrusted 

 its manufacture to The A. I. Root Company, 

 who have had extensive experience in build- 

 mg hives for the honey-gatherer; and who 

 are in full sympathy with the nature-study 

 conditions, and who, furthermore, have un- 

 excelled facilities for fine workmanship. 

 The hive is to be made in finely finished pine, 

 ash, or oak, and glazed in first-quality glass. 



The essential feature is an observation 

 chamber backed by a force of bees in regu- 

 lar body hive with glass sides. 



' As the physicist has a battery or motor 

 from which he takes out electricity for such 

 experiments or observations as he may de- 

 sire to make with special apparatus, so here 

 the bee naturalist is provided with the abili- 

 ty to make observations and experiments. "" 



The chamber is supplied with a padded 

 division- board, which serves to divide it into 

 two hives, and which is also useful as a 

 background for photographing results ob- 

 tained in either apartment. The bees may 

 be readily isolated as a separate colony in 

 either section for artificial feeding, for rus- 

 tic comb-building, or for other purposes. 

 The chamber is deeper than the body of the 

 hive, so that the entire extent of the regu- 

 lar frame or other comb-support may be 

 seen or photographed. 



Under each half-chamber is an ingenious 

 arrangement of slot and bee-escape. When 

 the thin metal cover is drawn entirely out, 

 bees go in or out freely; when half in, the 

 bees go out only, and the chamber is soon 

 cleared. Push the metal plate entirely in, 

 and the bees go neither in nor out, but may 

 be instantly removed to another hive for ex- 

 perimental purposes. Not a bee can then 

 take flight to freedom, and there is not the 

 slightest possibility of being stung. By us- 

 ing one or both of these sliding covers, the 

 hive is readily made into two or three hives. 

 Holes in the top are supplied with caps and 

 with jar feeders. 



Observation Super.— A regular Danzen- 

 baker super with thirty-two four- by-five sec- 

 tions is the third story of the hive. This is 

 supplied with observation sides, which give 

 clear exposure from the top to the bottom 

 of the outer sections. 



Removable Hives.— Above this are two 

 traveling hives for temporary exhibition. 

 Bees are let into this by slot and escape de- 

 vice (as is done with each half of the obser- 

 vation chamber), so that bees may be car- 

 ried from place to place or be used for class 

 exhibition, or for nuclei experiments, and 

 without the slightest danger of loss or in- 

 jury either to the insects or to the apiarist. 

 Both have the regular mouth opening for 

 use as a single isolated hive. Many experi- 

 ments that can not be made in the divided 

 observation- chamber can be performed in 

 these removable hives. 



Magnifying Feeder.— This is on the end 

 opposite the mouth of the main hive, and is 

 so arranged that the observer, looking 

 through a powerful lens, faces the window 

 at which the whole hive is located. The top 

 and back of this feeder are of glass. Dilut- 

 ed honey or simple syrup is put in small 

 quantities in a trough one-eighth of an inch 

 wide. Bees stand on a elevated glass shelf, 

 and each one takes the sweets from the 

 narrow space between the two glasses, as it 

 takes the nectar from the flower. Collec- 

 tively they have the appearance of ' ' feeding 

 at the trough like little pigs." 



The powerful lens slides back and forth 

 so as to give a view of any portion of this 

 trough, wherever "the best feeding" is in 

 progress. The lens is set one- eighth out of 



