March 



THE POMOLOGIST. 



47 



honey from the comb, cutting out queen 

 cells,— tliese things we will not uow take 

 into the account, for almost any shape of 

 hive and frame will do for these manipula- 

 tions. But there are other ends to be ob- 

 tained, toward securing which the shape of 

 hive and frame has a very material efl'ect. 



First, safe idniering. As more bees are 

 lost by the unfavorable weather of winter, 

 combined with an ill-shaped hive, than from 

 any other cause, except loss of queens, this 

 is a matter of the tirst importance in consid- 

 ering the kind of hive we shall use. It is 

 well known that bees cannot winter between 

 solid sheets of honey — that they must have 

 empty cells to cluster in, and at the same 

 time have plenty of honey near, which shall 

 be accessible during a long cold spell. 1 

 know of but one feature in a hive that will 

 always secure the winter sui)ply of honey 

 in the right place, and that feature is tall- 

 ncss. The honey must be abom the cluster 

 of bees, they can tlicn advance upward as 

 thej' consume it. The capacity of the hive, 

 of course, should be the same as in any other 

 shape. It should be nearly square, probably 

 about ten inches inside dimensions, but 

 fifteen inches or more in hight. The bees 

 will then store their winter supply in the 

 upper portion of the hive, just where they 

 need it. In the shallow form of hive, as the 

 Langstroth is usually made, almost all the 

 winter supply will be stored in the ends and 

 sides of the hive, and but little directly over 

 the cluster of bees. Consequently, in such 

 hives the bees are sometimes starved to death 

 in cold weather, with plenty of honey on all 

 sides— the intense cold making it impossible 

 for them to obtain it, as they cannot leave 

 the cluster; and if they could, the honej' 

 would be too cold for them. But in the tall 

 and narrow shape of hive, the honey being 

 directly above the bees, is readily obtained, 

 and is kept warm by the animal heat. 



The next important end to be secured to 

 the bees is, faeility in comb-buiWing. " Can 

 we help the bees in this part of their work ?" 

 does anj' ime ask '? Certainly. I have seen 

 a fair swarm of bees occupying one side of a 

 Langstroth liive, one full comb of brood 

 being given them for a start, which did not 

 build six square inches of comb in six weeks. 

 The reason was, the entire force was needed 

 to cover the one comb of brood, and to gath- 

 er their daily food, there being no force left 

 for comb-buildiug. To construct comb-sells, 

 the animal heat must be economized, unless 

 the weather be sufficiently warm without the 

 help of animal heat ; and if the hive be so 

 large that all the animal heat is dissipated, 

 no progress can be made. If the full comb 

 of brood had not been put into the hive as 

 above mentioned, the swarm would have 

 occupied one corner, and made considerable 

 progress in building comb. In order to 

 facilitate the construction of comb, there- 

 fore, the hive must be adapted to the size of 

 the colony. This can be accomplished better 



by the use of a close-fitting division board, 

 than in any other way ; but the hive should 

 still not be too long ; the space in which the 

 swarm is placed should be about as broad as 

 long. 



The use of the division board is, then the 

 important point under this head. And we 

 can readily see how its use will enable us to 

 adapt the size of the hive to the size of the 

 swarm. Hence, a hive neither very broad 

 no very narrow in either direction, but one 

 of medium dimensions, with plenty of space 

 upward, will, so far, meet our wants. It 

 should however, be larger one way than the 

 other, for if it l)e square, we have but little 

 use for the division board. Let us suppose, 

 for example, that we make our frames ten 

 inches wide and fifteen high, and place tliem 

 in the hive cross-wise, having the longest 

 dimensions from front to rear. Wo may 

 make it long enough for ten frames and a 

 division board half an inch thick, which will 

 be fifteen inches. The inside dimensions of 

 our hive will then be about eleven inches 

 across, fifteen from front to rear, and fifteen 

 and a half deep. This will be large 

 enough for the largest swarms; and for 

 small swarms we can contract by placing the 

 division board near the front, leaving but 

 eight, six, or four frames in the front apart- 

 ment, as need be. 



Siirpliis honey is the next object of impor- 

 tance. How can we secure the greatest 

 amount in the easiest manner? If we wish 

 the surplus in boxes, we need a large space 

 for them, and that near the brood. As a 

 large colony in a good harvest, will occupy 

 and till a space to the capacity of 60 to a 100 

 pounds, our hive should provide this much 

 near the brood. On the top of such a hive as 

 we have indicated, the boxes would be too far 

 from the brood, the bees would not occupy 

 them readily ; and besides, there would not be 

 space sufficient without placing two or more 

 sets of boxes over tlie frames, and that would 

 be too bungling, especially when we at- 

 tempt to remove frames, which it may fre- 

 quently be necessary to do. But on the >,idts 

 of a narrow hive, tall enough for the winter 

 supply above the brood, we may place boxes 

 to the aggregate capacity of one hundred 

 and fifty pounds, or more, according to the 

 depth (if the boxes outward from the main 

 hive. The bees will work in boxes thus 

 placed as readily as if placed over the brood, 

 and they need never be removed in order to 

 take out frames. 



But if it is desired to obtain surplus in 

 fran^es, or by means of the melextractor, one 

 portion of the hive can be set apart by means 

 of the division board, for this purpose, and 

 thus honey be obtained in its purest state 

 with the greatest ease and rapidity. 



Qxicen-rearing is the next object to be con- 

 sidered in the con.struction of hives. Al- 

 though all bee-keepers do not wish to become 

 professional breeders of queens, yet every 

 one ought to rear a few for his own use. — 



And it is of some consequence to be able to 

 do it with as little loss of time, labor and 

 bees, as possible. 



In no way can it be so successfully prosecu- 

 ted, as thinks the writer, as by the use of 

 comb-frames of the size used in the large 

 hives, and by the use of those hives. By 

 using two division boards in one hive, three 

 apartments can be made, each of which can 

 be used for queen-rearing purposes, and 

 when no longer needed for this, the division 

 boards can be removed, and the nuclei uni-- 

 ted without much trouble, making one good 

 colony. Frames can be exchanged at any 

 time with full colonies, and thus brood sup- 

 plied to nuclei, or a nucleus can readily be 

 built up to a strong colony by inserting 

 combs of sealed brood from strong colonies. 

 Our idea of a good hive will thus make it 

 ne(:essary to have an outside casing to cover 

 the boxes for surplus. The casing will also 

 serve to keep the temperature more uniform, 

 — cooler in summer aud warmer in winter. 

 The space for the boxes may be filled with 

 dry chaff or sawdust, or other non-conduct- 

 ing material, for winter protection ; and by 

 having the casing extend two or three inches 

 above the frames, and the space over them 

 also packed, the protection will be abundant. 

 In a hive with an outside casing, the sides of 

 the brood chamber may be made of half 

 inch stuff, or the ends of the frames may 

 constitute the sides of the chamber, and thus 

 the boxes be placed very near to the brood, 

 which is very important in inducing the 

 bees to occupy them early. 



W. C. CONDIT. 



Howard Springs, Cumberland Co., Term. 



Successful Bee KEBPrNC. — The Bir- 

 mingham (Iowa) Enterprise says : " Mr. 

 John Locke, of Cedar Township, Jefferson 

 county, 6J2 miles northeast of our town, 

 furnishes us with the following bee item: — 

 Last spring he had 13 stands in the common 

 Langstroth hive, and one. stand in a double 

 (two-story) Langstroth hive. The bees are 

 Italian aud hyl)rid. From these fourteen 

 stands he got thirteen swarms, and 1,030 

 pounds of surplus honey. From the two- 

 story hive, wliicli did not swarm, he got a 

 trifle over 300 i^ounds. During the last 

 week in August and the first week in Sep- 

 tember, the two-story hive collected over 

 five pounds per day in the upper story alone. 



Stingless Bees. — Several attempts have 

 been made to introduce the stinglcss bee 

 into this country, but hitherto without suc- 

 cess. A few years ago the Department at 

 Washington imported from Brazil several 

 colonies of these bees, and an effort was 

 made to winter them in a conservator}-, but 

 they tailed to raise any young brood, and 

 consequently the experiment was a failure. 



Bees and Cideb. — At the late meeting of 

 Illinois Central Horticultural Society, L. C. 

 Francis read an essay on bee keeping as con- 

 nected with horticulture, in which he said 

 tliat it would be found impossible to keep 

 bees and make cider ; the bees fill themselves 

 with cider, and are unable to reach the hive. 

 Mr. Duulap said he kept bees and made 

 cider too; they never came around his press ; 

 it was under cover. There might be diffi- 

 culty if the press was standing outside. 



