THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



359 



letting his voice be heard, for he says: 

 " I expect to pass throuRli tliis world 

 but once. Any thing therefore that 

 I can do, or any kindness I can show 

 to a human being, or any word that I 

 can speak for others, or any new light 

 I can throw on bee-keeping, let me do 

 it now. Let me not neglect or defer 

 it, for I shall not pass this way again." 

 How to prevent swarming— or at 

 least how I have prevented it for the 

 past two seasons : I reverse the combs 

 containing unsealed brood once a 

 week during the honey-llow. Wlien 

 so reversed, the bees have invariably, 

 in my experience, destroyed all queen- 

 cells, and gone to work storing honey 

 with renewed vigor. 



REVEUSING COMBS. 



Our mutual friend, Mr. Demaree, 

 on page 260 of the Bee-Keepers' Maga- 

 zine, tells us tliat reversible frames 

 are all fuss and feathers, and says 

 that in his opinion the verdict of 

 practical bee-keepers will be against 

 them. I wish to say that so far as 

 my experiments go I am paid, and 

 doubly paid, if I gain nothing more 

 than the prevention of swarming, and 

 keep my bees at work while I am 

 away attending to other business. It 

 is no small satisfaction to know that 

 they are busy in the hive, and not up 

 a tree ! 



CHEAP HIVES. 



Mr. Pond, on page 275 of the Ameri- 

 can Apicultunst, writes a good article, 

 but I take exceptions to what he says 

 in favor of cheap hives. He thinks 

 that a hive should be constructed as 

 plainly and simply as possible, with 

 as few "contraptions" as necessity 

 demands, and is of the opinion that a 

 plain box with a few rabbets is all 

 that is needed. Would he advise a 

 $1 hive for a SlOqueen V Or a cracked 

 box for a $20 colony of bees ? What 

 would he think if I should advise a 

 S50 harness to put on a S-5 mule i* The 

 business-like modern hive with its 

 reversible brood-combs and reversible 

 section-frames ; with its side-storing 

 arrangements, movable inside upper 

 story and surplus receptacle, ends of 

 brood-nest packed solid to retain the 

 heat ; so arranged that cool nights do 

 not drive the bees out of surplus 

 boxes, nor the hot rays of the sun 

 drive the bees out of the body of the 

 hive— requiring no cellar to winter 

 the bees— but so arrayed that with the 

 division-boards placed close to five 

 frames containing the brood-nest, and 

 above that five frames containing the 

 honey stores, all can be packed out- 

 side with sawdust .5 inches thick- 

 may not be so charming an object to 

 the eye of tlie painter or poet as the 

 artistic little single-walled hive on 

 the verge of a splashing mountain 

 brook near an old-fashioned farm- 

 house, its roof covered with moss, and 

 the queer old couple on their daily 

 rounds among the bees looking for 

 swarms. 



But sentiment is a secondary con- 

 sideration to the practical bee-keeper, 

 and it is the unromantic bee-hive that 

 rapidly coins the golden honey into 

 chinking dollars. A big guarantee 

 from the makers of dollar hives does 



not help a beekeeper ranch when he 

 comes to place his products in the 

 market. There they must stand or 

 fall on their merits, in competition 

 with the honey stored in the new- 

 process hives, and no guarantee can 

 compensate in the slightest degree for 

 the Ignorance of the men who build 

 cheap hives aiul try to persuade their 

 customers that any thing in the shape 

 of a box so fixed as to hold frames, is 

 as good as the best hive ever (miii- 

 structed. We want a hive adapted to 

 good reversible combs, so that we can 

 get the honey out of the brood-nest 

 and up into the sections, and one in 

 which the bees can be readily packed 

 so they will hibernate and pass the 

 winter in safety. Cheap hives are a 

 nuisance to such as believe in out- 

 door wintering, and who prefer chaff 

 hives on hibernating principles. Good, 

 double hives built on hibernating 

 principles and good management gen- 

 erally must now co-operate in order 

 to secure even moderate success, and 

 to build up a highly prosperous busi- 

 nes3,the conditions must be unusually 

 favorable. 



ERAS OF BEE-KEEPING. 



The first era was that prior to the 

 introduction of the suspended mov- 

 able frame. 



The second has lasted for about 40 

 years, and has been marked by the 

 use of suspended movable frames, the 

 extractor, and comb foundation. 



A new era has now arrived, and we 

 are on the brink of a great revolution. 

 Henceforward liives will be handled 

 instead of frames, the extractor rarely 

 used, and surplus honey produced in 

 the comb, and kept storecl in a state 

 of nature until sold and eaten. 



DISCOVERING THE ADVANTAGE OF 

 REVERSING COMBS. 



One day 1 and a few fellow bee- 

 keepers were experimenting in my 

 apiary. Mr. Dakin and myself were 

 looking over a hive, when we acci- 

 dentally broke a very heavy comb of 

 honey in such a way that we could 

 not return it to the hive right side 

 up. Mr. Dakin said that we must put 

 it back somehow bottom side up. I 

 took a saw and cut off both ends of 

 the top-bar close up to the side-bar. 

 Reversing the frame, we tacked a 

 strip to the other side of the frame as 

 a top-bar, so the frame would hang 

 suspended as before, only the other 

 side up. We closed the hive, put on 

 the honey-board, also the sections, 

 and left the hive for about one week. 

 When it was again opened, we found 

 the honey all removed from the re- 

 versed frame and stored in the 

 sections. 



I again tested the effect of reversal 

 with an old box-hive, placing an 

 empty Langstroth hive on top of the 

 box-hive, now bottom side up. We 

 cut a hole in the bottom-board of the 

 Langstroth hive. In less than three 

 weeks the bees had transferred them- 

 selves and all their stores to the 

 Langstroth hive. Many subsequent 

 experiments with reversed frames 

 have satisfied me that bees will work 

 more vigorously and gather just as 

 much honey, and I think more than if 



the extractor is used. IJees appear to 

 get discouraged if you take away their 

 liard earnings with the extractor; 

 whereas, by reversing the brood- 

 combs, the bees find ttie honey out of 

 its natural position, and will at once 

 all go to work to elevate it and place 

 it just where" you want it — in sections 

 ready for the market or table. This 

 is a great advantage, for we all know 

 ttiat honey iti sections will command 

 a higher price than the extracted 

 article, so augmenting the profits of 

 the bee-keeper. 



CHIEF ADVANTAGES OF REVERSIBLE 

 FRAMES. 



I now make my frames not only 

 reversible, but interchangeable, for 

 use in these ways, viz : 



1. As brood-frames. 



2. When empty of combs or founda- 

 tion, they answer for sections. 



8. Ill this form they can be placed 

 outside the brood-frames for side- 

 storing, and when nearly full of 

 honey, they can be lifted out, re- 

 versed, and then placed in top, mov- 

 able,interchangeable surplus-arrange- 

 ments—bees and all. New side-stor- 

 ing sections can be put in their place 

 to be reversed and placed on top in 

 their turn as the honey-storing pro- 

 ceeds. By this means we start the 

 bees at top-storing, and get them the 

 more readily to finish up sections. 



4. When the brood-frames are re- 

 versed and the bees remove the honey 

 " upstairs," the queen has more 

 room to deposit her eggs, and thus a 

 smaller number of frames answers for 

 the brood-nest. 



5. Next follows a most important 

 advantage. All queen-cells will be 

 destroyed and swarming prevented by 

 reversing the brood-combs. If this 

 be done every six or seven days dur- 

 ing the honey-tiow, the bees will 

 devote all their energies to honey- 

 gathering until the harvest is over, 

 when they may be divided, one-hair 

 receiving a new queen. 



DOUBLE-WAIiLED HIVES. 



Having worked single and double- 

 walled hives side by side, I know that 

 fully 50 per cent, more honey can be 

 obtained in the double-walled hives. 

 In single-walled hives the bees are 

 apt to forsake the section cases dur- 

 ing cool days and nights, while on 

 hot days and nights they hang out 

 and refuse to work. It is then that 

 the swarming fever is apt to seize 

 them in the very height of the honey- 

 flow, and much valuable time is lost 

 when it is most precious. The fluctu- 

 ations of temperature do not affect 

 double-walled hives, and the bees 

 keep the even tenor of their way and 

 work while the season lasts, without 

 let or hindrance. By the use of 

 double-walled hives we get brood 

 cjuicker in the spring (as in heat there 

 is life, and in cold there isdeath), and 

 a steady warmth without fluctuations 

 is essential to brood-rearing. 



Recognizing these indisputable 

 facts, various difficulties are sur- 

 mounted, such as, how to keep the 

 bees at home ; how to make them 

 gather honey whenever there is any 

 to be had ; how to make them place it 



