THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



637 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



Readily Movable Hives. 



JAStES HEDDON. 



Much of value has lieeii said about 

 movable combs, and while nearly all 

 know of their worth, few give due 

 iroportance to readily movable hives. 



First let me tell you something 

 about how my hive is made, and then 

 you can better form an idea of what 

 I mean by " readily movable hive." 

 The inside measure is 10 inches deep 

 by 113>^ wide by ISJ^ long, and takes 

 8 standard Langstroth frames. The 

 depth, 10 inches, we always make 

 101^ to allow for shrinkage, which 

 will take place in after years, even if 

 we use the most thoroughly seasoned 

 hmiber. The sides of the hive are J^, 

 the ends %, the bottom %, the cover 

 %. Prom these dimensions we do not 

 vary, and any hive that does vary 

 from them, I believe to be just that 

 much " off." 



I fancy I have more good reasons 

 than I care to take space here to 

 enumerate for using these thicknesses 

 of lumber. Our bottom boards are 

 nailed permanently to the hive, and 

 this fact, and the thicknesses of the 

 lumber thus given, makes our hive 

 easily movable. 



The foregoing describes the brood- 

 chamber, and the surplus department 

 consists of two to four cases, the sides 

 of which being % of an inch thick, 

 the partitions }4 inch, and each case 

 weighs only about 4 lbs. These and 

 the lioney-board make the hive com- 

 plete. The cases, when on, being 

 covered by the brood-chamber cover, 

 and each having a capacity for about 

 25 pounds of honey, they are used 

 upon the tiering-up plan, and not 

 more than three are usually used on 

 a hive at one time. We use no outer 

 case, because none is needed, and in 

 three or f oin- ways such a covering is 

 much worse than useless. The reader 

 will observe that my hive, whether 

 wither without the' surplus depart- 

 ment, is very light, and easily handled 

 compared with others. 



Now, wiien one comes to manage 

 large apiaries, pushing business upon 

 that scale which necessitates dispatch, 

 he will find a hive possessing this 

 easily movable principle of more value 

 than one possessing all the advan- 

 tages derived from cumbersome hives. 

 Our methods of securing increase, de- 

 posing laying workers, preventing in- 

 crease or after swarms, and many 

 other manipulations which we liiid we 

 can accomplish mucli quicker and 

 better witli our peculiar metliods than 

 by any other we know of, demand the 

 use of a light, easily movable hive. 

 Such are not only almost a necessity 

 with the less muscular, but very 

 pleasing to all who carry on business 

 in a practical and profitable manner. 



It is my opinion that this problem 

 of wintering, or cause of dysentery, is 



soon to be understood, and it is further 

 my belief that when it is, the next im- 

 portant question will be, " now that I 

 know how to winter my bees with 

 certainty, how can I 'do this the 

 cheapest," and this will lead to cellar 

 wintering ; and here, again, comes in 

 the advantage of the readily mov- 

 able hive." About one-third of the 

 time I have spent speculating and ex- 

 perimenting in the line of apiculture, 

 has been spent in hives and fixtures 

 pertaining to them, once supposing 

 that, hidden in mysterious depths, 

 was an almost automatic hive. I long 

 since found out how mistaken was 

 that supposition, yet the thoughts 

 and experiments were not in vain, for 



1 now enjoy a hive much nearer to it 

 than the oiie used in the past time re- 

 ferred to. 



I am aware that no one liive em- 

 braces, or can embrace all, or nearly 

 all, the valuable features pertaining to 

 hives that oftentimes combine one 

 such feature. Such combination posi- 

 tively necessitates the omission of 

 two or tlni-e others equally valuable, 

 forcing us to make that more difficult 

 selection of the hive combining most 

 worth, in principles, all things con- 

 sidered. Before closing, I wish to 

 state what I believe to be leading 

 principles, which I have faith that the 

 future wisdom and practice of bee- 

 keepers yet to be, will bear me out in. 



1. All hives should be easily and 

 readily movable. 



2. The stories should move ofl: and 

 on to each other without the necessity 

 of the least upward or downward mo- 

 tion ; that is, no telescoping principle. 



3. There should be no dead air 

 space or double covering over the sur- 

 plus room. 



4. The sections should never rest on 

 each otlier or the brood frames. 



With your permission, I will quote 

 from that portion of the specifications 

 of the Langstroth patent, relative to 

 the shallow chamber, or air space 

 above the frames or bars. 



" The apertures or bee passages in 

 the honey board may be made "with- 

 out being liable to be closed by the 

 bees, as they so frequently are in 

 hives which have not this shallow air 

 space. It will Vie seen that the bees 

 can pass into this shallow chamber 

 from between all the ranges of comb, 

 and from the front and rear walls, d, 

 of the hive, and the sides (c, c, figs. 1, 



2 and 3), of the frames without even 

 passing through the combs at all, and 



.that they can pass from the shallow 

 chamber into any of the honey re- 

 ceptacles, without, as in other hives, 

 losing much time in the height of the 

 honey harvest by crowding through 

 populous combs or contracted pas- 

 sages. 



"This shallow chamberj while it 

 greatly facilitates the storage of 

 honey in large receptacles, is specially 

 adapted to securing it in small ones, 

 which usually meet with the readiest 

 sale. 



"1. Thebuilding of comb requires the 

 bees to maintain a high temperature, 

 and they work to the best advantage 

 when they can economize their ani- 

 mal heat,' but this they cannot do in 

 small receptacles, which communi- 



cate with the hive through such aper- 

 tures as are usually made in its top; 

 such apertures not admitting freely 

 the heat and odor from the main col- 

 ony, and the bees in a small recepta- 

 cle being too few to keep up the re- 

 qinsite temperature. The shallow 

 chamber, however, like the part of a 

 room nearest the ceiling, is in the 

 storing season always full of the 

 warmest air of the hive— thus aiding 

 to keep the small receptacles full of 

 the same. 



" If large openings or bee passages 

 are made in hives having no shallow 

 chamber, for the purpose of giving 

 a freer admission into small recepta- 

 cles, of the heat and odor of the hive^ 

 the bees often connect the combs or 

 the surplus receptacles with those of 

 the mam hive, making it difficult to 

 remove the surplus honey in a proper 

 condition, and the queen being thus 

 able to travel over the combs into the 

 receptacles is much more liable to 

 enter them for breeding, than she is 

 where the interposition of the shallow 

 air space would require her to leave 

 the combs. 



"•2. Bees always desire to work in 

 large numbers, so that they can easily 

 intercommunicate with each other, 

 and the common arrangement for in- 

 ducing them to work in small recepta- 

 cles, IS opposed to this instinct, 

 whereas the shallow chamber affords 

 a place of repose for multitudes of 

 bees engaged in secreting the wax to 

 be used in the surplus receptacles, 

 and as a succession of bees are thus 

 constantly ascending and descending, 

 they work in small receptacles witli 

 scarcely more isolation, and with al- 

 most as much rapidity as though they 

 were merely filling the upper part of 

 their main hive." 



" This shallow chamber answers 

 other highly important purposes : (a) 

 It prevents the bees from cementing 

 the cover or honey board to the tops 

 of the frames or bars, thus enabling 

 it to be more easily removed when 

 access is wanted to the combs. (6) It 

 enables the cover to be put over the 

 frames or bars with much less danger 

 of crushing bees than if it rested di- 

 rectly on their tops, (c) It permits 

 the bees, when the cover is on, to pass 

 from comb to comb above the tops of 

 the frames or bars, (d) It aids to 

 keep a feeder in cool weather filled 

 with the warmest air of the hive, (e) 

 It gives a dead air space between the 

 combs and the cover, thus more etfec- 

 tually guardiu" the bees against ex- 

 tremes of heat and cold. (/) It en- 

 ables us to give the bees better pro- 

 tection against dampness in their 

 hives, as by leaving the apertures in 

 the cover open, in cold weather, there 

 is a much freer escape of moisture 

 than when the cover rests flat upon 

 the frames or bars." 



Dowagiac, Mich., Nov. 27, 1883. 



1^ The 5th annual Convention of 

 the Northeastern Ohio and North- 

 western Pennsylvania Bee -Keepers' 

 Association, will be held at Jefferson, 

 Ohio, .Jan. 16 and 17, 1884. All are 

 cordially invited. 



C. II. Coon, Sec. 



New Lyme, O., Nov. 26, 1883. 



