1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



31 



A SPECIAL INVERTING HIVE-STAND FOR THE GRAVENHORST HIVE. 



French bee managemeut. Baron Berlepsch 

 succeeded in introducing the American idea 

 of a movable-comlj frame at an early date, 

 and Dzierzon himself advocated the hanging- 

 frame idea when once converted, though he 

 never made much use of the bee-space and 

 the movable roof-board. The latter he fought 

 tenaciously, claiming it was bad for the bees 

 in winter and spring. But the man who did 

 more than anyone else in Germany to popu- 

 larize the movable-frame system of manage- 

 ment was Mr. Gravenhorst, for many years 

 editor of a bee paper, and author of a popu- 

 lar work on bee culture, with the title of 

 "The Practical Imker." With considerable 

 inventive faculty he very cleverly adapted 

 the movable idea to the ordinary straw hive, 

 and thus paved the way for greater things to 

 come. Mr. Gravenhorst carefully studied 

 the writings of the most celebrated of Ameri- 

 can writers, such as Langstroth, Quinby, 

 Cook, Root, Heddon, and others, and gave 

 them due credit for their work. Being en- 

 dowed with a considerable amount of what 

 we call "horse sense" he foresaw that he 

 would have to suit the movable-frame idea 

 to the straw hive. The illustrations serve to 

 show how admii"ably he succeeded. No one 

 but a plodding German would have thought 

 of making a frame to suit so pecviliarly shap- 

 ed a construction as a dome-shaped straw 

 hive; yet the frames are readily removable, 

 and a broad frame is in use of the same sort 

 in which sections are placed for fancy comb 

 honey. Just think of it! square 4JX4i sec- 



tions out of a straw hive of the classical 

 school of bee-keeping I Dzierzon succeeded 

 in constructing a very fair hive by combin- 

 ing wood and straw — a sort of hybrid hive. 

 Of course, the work of making these bent- 

 wood frames is considerable, but that does 

 not deter the Germans at all; and as they 

 have no manufacturer to abuse, nothing can 

 be said against the cost of them. 



Of course, these hives are worked on the 

 long-idea-hive system advocated by Mr. Pop- 

 pleton and others; that is to say, the honey 

 is stored at the sides, not on the top. It may 

 be claimed such a hive will give poor results 

 in a good season as compared with the " tier- 

 ing-up " hives; but over against that its ad- 

 vocates would say use more bees and have 

 more hives a la Hutchinson. 



It will be observed that Mr. Gravenhorst 

 learned something from Mr. J. M. Shuck, of 

 Iowa, who had an arrangement for inverting 

 his hives similar to the one here shown, or 

 perhaps Mr. Shuck learned something from 

 the Germans. P^vidently the Germans find 

 these hives get rather heavy, and require the 

 assistance of a labor-saving device. This is 

 one more argument in favor of the shallow 

 hive, which the Germans know not. 



The construction of the straw body is very 

 ingenious, as it still retains the original as- 

 pect of the classic hive, and yet adapts itself 

 to movable frames. Mr. Gravenhorst went 

 further, and invented "a soit of hay-rack 

 attachment" which was used for moving the 

 hives. I am sorry to say this is not shown 



