1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



311 



within foreshadows to it what is necessary for its 

 preservation. Immediately upon acquiring the free 

 use of its limbs it sets about cleansing the hive, pre- 

 paring food for the larvae, starting queen-cells, if 

 queenless, exercising its wings in playspells, gather- 

 ing honey, protecting its hive by stinging, building 

 comb, and on the eleventh day, perhaps sooner, 

 gathering pollen and propolis. It has now acquired 

 a taste for food partly indigestible, and can not sub- 

 sist without an occasional cleansing Hight. It has 

 passed through the stage of habit development into 

 that of decline — it is fully matured. Its habits con- 

 tinue to the end, though less conspicuous. The hab- 

 its of the queen bee, which hatches from 10 to IS 

 days after the laying of the egg, and of the drone, 

 which spends 24 days in the cell, are made, in some 

 cases, to coincide with those of the worker. Thus 

 we see the young worker bee taking its playspell, 

 which in its old age is changed to a cleansing flight, 

 after 13 o'clock, the time of day when the sun's rays 

 have warmed the atmosphere, and rendered it the 

 most safe to leave the hive. So with the queen; aft- 

 er 13 o'clock she leaves the hive to meet the drone; 

 and after 12 o'clock, when not pressed by her moth- 

 erly duties, she leaves on her cleansing flight. The 

 drone is allowed more limit, but chooses the warmer 

 part of the day for his flight. The necessity of a 

 cleansing flight once recognized, the apiarist will 

 see the necessity of protection for bees while taking 

 the flight, and also of conditions that are calculated 

 to lead them to fly. Probably this necessity of a 

 cleansing flight would not exist were bees confined 

 exclusively to digestible food; but as long as they 

 have access to pollen, the indigestible part remain- 

 ing will act mechanically upon their systems, and 

 force an action of the bowels when, if the conditions 

 do not favor a cleansing flight, disease will follow as 

 a result of their confinement to the hive. 



FAVORABLE SITE FOK AN APIARY. 



Grounds descending to the south should be chosen, 

 near a never-failing source of water supply. Noth- 

 ing whatever should be left to shade the ground, and 

 Its surface should be made smooth. Under these 

 conditions nothing will interfere with the labors of 

 the apiarist; the concentrated rays of the sun will 

 dry the grounds rapidly, and surface water will flow 

 off quickly. The atmosphere near the ground will 

 become warmer than on a level surface, and the 

 bees will be encouraged to fly during the heat of the 

 day. For the protection of the bees, should no nat- 

 ural protection exist, a tight board fence should be 

 built on the west, north, and east sides. The hives 

 should be set facing the south, to receive the full 

 force of the sun's raj'S upon the entrances during 

 the hottest time of the day in winter, when the 

 workers leave the hive. They should lean a little to 

 the south; this will cause the water to flow from the 

 entrance, and make it easier for the bees to remove 

 waste material and dead bees. We exclude all shade, 

 that the bees may have the full benefit of the sun- 

 shine throughout the whole year, and exercise the 

 habit of flying from the hive whenever the weather 

 is suitable. No bees but diseased ones leave the 

 hives at unsuitable hours, and these are better out 

 of the hive than in it. We do not allow any thing 

 among the hives to obstruct the circulation of the 

 air, because it will become heated in centers, and 

 the combs melt down, when, if the circulation is not 

 obstructed, they will stand a heat of 110" with safety. 

 We have reached these conclusions by years of ex- 

 perience, and found safety in the sunshine, when 



combs in hives set between trees would soften and 

 break down. 



THE HIVE AND FRAME. 



In handling this subject, one necessarily passes 

 over dangerous ground ; for docs not each one have 

 the best hive, as he does the best dog and the best 

 religion? I will be courteous here, friend Root, and 

 I will be discreet; for I am dealing with matters of 

 opinion and of experience only, and others have ex- 

 periences and opinions. It seems to me that a hive 

 should be large enough to contain a brood-nest of 

 sufficient size to allow the queen room to gratify all 

 her desires for increase, and to contain all the hon- 

 ey that a strong stock of bees can gather while it is 

 evaporating sufficiently to be extracted, and some 

 larger for the convenience of the apiarist, who may 

 be delayed about his work. Certainly if bees gather 

 honey in proportion to the numbers in the hive, the 

 greater the number in the hive, the more honey will 

 be gathered; and the longer they have room to put 

 honey in, the more honey they will collect. Our ex- 

 perience is, that strong stocks of bees gather from 

 three to four pounds of noney a day when there is a 

 good flow of honey; occasionally more. Honey does 

 not become suiBciently ripened to be in suitable 

 condition to extract under 8 or 10 days, and the api- 

 arist frequently meets with delay for a few days, 

 during which time the bees must have room to store 

 honey, or they can not work. A queen, during the 

 best of the season, will lay eggs enough to fill, except 

 near the frame, twelve frames of comb a foot square. 

 Some pollen will be gathered, and placed around the 

 space occupied by the brood. At the above rate, for 

 the bees to gather honey, and allowing two days' de- 

 lay for the apiarist, we shall require ten more frames 

 a foot square, allowing that they hold 4;4 lbs. each, 

 possibly more, if there is an unusual flow of honey. 

 A hive of two stories, containing 13 frames each, is 

 of suitable size, but too high for a windy country. 

 One containing 18 frames below, and small frames or 

 boxes above, will not blow over, and is of sufficient 

 size. 



SIZE OF HIVES. 



For ten successive years we have used hives hold- 

 ing from 9 to 18 frames, a foot square, in the lower 

 part, and small frames or boxes above. Invariably 

 our yield of honey, both comb and extracted, has 

 been proportionate to the size of the hive, two large 

 hives yielding about as much as we got from three 

 small ones. At all times, when wishing to handle 

 the combs, we could drive the bees from the end 

 where we wished to work, and they found room else- 

 where, and the combs could be replaced, and the 

 bees not crushed. In the small hives they could not 

 be kept out of the waj% and some were killed in 

 handling the combs. To the above advantages we 

 must add that of wintering better in the Large hives. 

 The fourth hive from the east end of the nortn row 

 [see page 238 of our last numhcrl is a Langstroth hive 

 of 8 frames. To test the advantages of this hive, if 

 any, we have kept bees in it for the last two years. 

 In yield of honey it compares reasonably well with 

 other hives of the same size — no better, probably 

 no worse. It has the objection of the small hives, ^ 

 mentioned above. The bees can not be kept out of " '' 

 the way of the frames, and necessarily get crushed 

 more or less. The frames are inconvenient to han- ' 

 die, and the combs break out worse than from the 

 American frame. A frame 10 inches deep and 14 

 long would be a convenient size to handle. A hive 

 23 in3hes long by 15 wide and two stories high would 



