632 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



MatI 



out into this beautiful retreat, where he is 

 now devoting his entire time to the produc- 

 tion of honey in Heddon's divisible brood- 

 chamber hive. This hive, by the way, he 

 considers far superior to any thing else in 

 the labor it saves in the handling of bees. 

 The big crops of honey he secures without 

 hiring any help show that his opinion is 

 not founded on mere iheory. 



ALLEN LATHAM S OBSERVATION HIVE WITH 



WAY. 



Mr. Miller derives a great deal of pleasure 

 from a good camera, and he has promised us 

 some views of his place. He is a genius in 

 many ways, and we hope our readers will 

 know him better. 



In an extra good honey-flow a colony of 

 bees will sometimes build comb out on the 

 portico, as shown in the other illustration; 

 but cases of this kind are very rare, howev- 

 er, and the photo shown is, therefore, all 

 the more interesting. — Ed.] 



A DOUBLE WALLED GLASS HIVE. 



Converting a Single-comb Observatory 

 Hive into One with the Combs Built 

 Crosswise Against the Glass; How to See 

 the Young Bees Grow in the Cells. 



BY ALLEN LATHAM. 



[The reader's attention is called to the description 

 of the scheme for making bees build comb at right an- 

 gles to and against the glass rather than parallel with 

 it. Maraldi, before the days of movable combs, in his 

 early experiments built a glass hive the two surfaces 

 of which were so far apart that the bees would neces- 

 sarily build crosswise as well as parallel with it. Hu- 

 ber^and Reaumur also conducted experiments alorg 

 the same line. 



Very recently Mr. A. C. Miller and Mr. AlKn La- 

 tham^have revived!;the principle, and it is time that 



we bee-keepers of to-day should begin to avail our- 

 selves of the direct knowledge concerning the actual 

 growth of the bee from babyhood up. The sugges- 

 tions offered by our correspondent are interesting as 

 well as helpful. 



The other scheme, using a double glass for the pur- 

 pose of additional protection, is also a good one. But 

 such glass ought to be the French plate in order that 

 one's vision be not obscured. 



We ought to state that any single-comb observatory 

 hive can be adapted to use the crosswise principle. 

 With this long preface we will now let Mr. Latham 



speak for himself. 

 —Ed.] 



The publish- 

 ers of Glean- 

 ings have ask- 

 ed me to give 

 some of my ex- 

 periences with 

 observatory 

 hives, and to 

 offer what crit- 

 icisms I may 

 have regarding 

 ■what has been 

 said heretofore 

 along this line. 

 My chief criti- 

 cism of most of 

 the advice about 

 observatory 

 hives is that it 

 has been either 

 inadequate or 

 else has been 

 too complex. 

 What the ma- 

 jority of bee- 

 keepers need in 

 the way of an 

 observatory 

 hive is one sim- 

 ple in construction yet sufliciently pliant in 

 manipulation to admit of experimentation. 

 The usual home-made glass hive is built in 

 an unsatisfactory manner, and does not sat- 

 isfy a person eager to go further; while, on 

 the other hand, few of us care to burden 

 ourselves with the bee-metropolis devised by 

 Dr. Bigelow. Let those who care to do so 

 adopt an expensive and gilded hive, and we 

 all respect Dr. Bigelow in his love for the 

 beautiful; yet no one sooner than he would 

 deny that external beauty in a hive or in a 

 girl is a criterion by which to judge what 

 is going on inside the shell of beauty. Are 

 the pretty girls pictured on pages 1580, 1581, 

 better " schoolmarms " than their less for- 

 tunate sisters? One who has leisure, and 

 whose pocketbook will stand it, may And 

 pleasure in contriving observation hives of 

 great expense and complexity. 



To my mind the simplest is the best, and 

 such can be made as follows: Procure a 

 straight-edged board of good material, of 

 sufficient width to allow for inside width of 

 hive (for single comb this inside width should 

 le If inches); for four thicknesses of glass 

 and for two air-spaces, i inch each. If one 

 chooses he can make a still warmer hive by 

 allowing six panes of glass and four air- 

 spaces. Another strip If, or the inside width. 



COMB BUILT IN THE USUAL 



