274 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



August 



man can still further winnow out the 

 weaklings and put more strenuous 

 tests still in the path of these marital 

 warriors. I know, of course, that 

 American breeders work and have 

 worked for betterment, but that is 

 not the point I am aiming at. Each 

 now follows his own devices and 

 works only on his own initiative. 

 There is no concerted plan, union or 

 combination. Each breeder now has 

 his own aims, aspirations and deals. 

 I would have the entire body act as 

 one on well-thought-out lines, apply- 

 ing their abilities and energies on a 

 systematic plan laid down annually by 

 a breeders' conference. A later arti- 

 cle will seek to demonstrate how this 

 can be done. 

 Banff, Scotland. 



Hiveless Bees 



HANGING under the cornice of 

 the court house at Visalia, 

 Calif., are two big colonies of 

 bees. The one came as a stray swarm 

 several years ago and settled in an in- 

 accessible position under the cornice. 

 After a year or two of comb-building 

 a swarm issued and settled in a sim- 

 ilar position something like twenty 

 feet away. The bees have been there 

 several years, and from the size of 

 the clusters to be seen from the 

 ground below they must be very 

 strong colonies. In the mild climate 

 of California they do not apparently 

 suffer any inconvenience from the ex- 

 posure to the weather of winter. 



During the short course at Visalia 

 last winter these bees were the source 

 of much curiosity on the part of vis- 

 iting beekeepers. Hanging about 40 

 feet above ground it was impossible 

 to get a very close view. One after- 

 noon the sessions were adjourned to 

 give everybody a chanc : to have a try 

 at photographing the bees in their 

 unique position. There is a large 

 tree standing about 20 or 30 feet from 



the building. It seemed as though 

 the top of the tree should furnish an 

 ideal place to get the desired picture. 

 Jay Smith was the most venturesome 

 photographer in the crowd and with 

 the help of the city fire department 

 with their long ladders he was able to 

 get a big start toward the top. How- 



mi. in spite of the lift, he still had a 

 hard climb to get into the desired po : 

 sition. 



The two pictures shown herewith 

 were taken by our associate editor 

 from a second story of the building. 

 One shows the combs under the cor- 

 nice and the other a group of bee- 

 keepers at the foot of the tree who 

 were watching Smith in his efforts to 

 get a better position. 



With the crowd of beekeepers 

 standing around, the fire department 

 with their ladders and the groups of 

 people at the various windows, pass- 

 ershy were very curious as to the 

 cause of so much commotion when no 

 smoke was to be seen. 



Twin Hives and Others 



By Arthur C. Miller 



THE twin hive plan suggested by 

 Mr. Sladen in the American Bee 

 Journal for April will doubtless 

 attract much attention from the 

 younger beekeepers, and some of the 

 things he suggests that it may accom- 

 plish will probably be noticed by the 

 older boys, but the plan is not new 

 nor is it a panacea for beekeeping ills. 

 Away back in the early eighties, 

 Prof. N. W. McLain, at Aurora, 111., 

 made and used a lot of such hives, 

 and at the start he was very enthusi- 

 astic about them. I saw them in op- 

 eration, listened to his explanations 

 and later experimented with the prin- 

 ciple, but it was disappointing, and 

 like so many other hive schemes, it 

 called for that most expensive item in 

 honey production, "manipulation," in 



Two swar: the court house cornice at Visalia, Califo 



other words, "labor." 



The "Long Idea" hive now receiv- 

 ing some attention was exploited by 

 Gen. D. L. Adair in the early seven- 

 ties and was designed primarily to 

 avoid the necessity of lifting supers 

 when it was necessary to get at the 

 brood-nest. So good a beekeeper as 

 the late O. O. Poppleton used many of 

 them. They do avoid the lifting of 

 supers, but the hives themselves are 

 great, unwieldy things and possess 

 the undesirable features mentioned 

 by the editor. 



Mr. Allen Latham took the "Long 

 Idea" hive, put the entrance at one 

 cud instead of at the side, confided 

 the queen to some frames at the en- 

 trance end, by means of a partition 

 of excluder metal, and called it a "Let 

 Alone" hive. He operated it on a 

 minimum of attention plan, and in 

 his hands it was successful until dis- 

 eases invaded his yards, and I believe 

 he is not now making any new ones 

 of that type. 



Hives have been devised to force 

 bees to do certain desired things, 

 hives for contracting, for expanding, 

 for inversion, for all sorts of protec- 

 tion and all sorts of ventilation, for 

 side storage and top storage, tall 

 narrow hives, short broad hives, 

 round and square and triangular; 

 telescope joints, flat joints, beveled 

 joints, entrances too varied to enum- 

 erate, until one wonder- if it is possi- 

 ble to conceive anything new. 



Just about two styles or sizes of 

 hives remain with us after thirty odd 

 years of use, the much-pushed Lang- 

 stroth and the Quinby. There are 

 variations of both, eight, ten and 

 more frames of Langstroth and the 

 same of Quinby. In judging the value 

 of styles and sizes of hives, by their 

 seeming popularity, one must be care- 

 ful to consider why on 1 ; or the other 

 is mostly in use, whether it is due to 

 intrinsic merit or to advertising. The 

 Quinby hive has held its own un- 

 pushed through these many years, and 

 now that its users are making them- 

 selves heard its use is spreading. 

 (The "Jumbo" is for all practical pur- 

 poses the Quinby, with the advantage 

 of being an article "stocked" by the 

 supply manufacturers). The Lang- 

 stroth has never been stable, every 

 few years seeing some variation, and 

 now the press is filled with urgings 

 for a two-story ten-frame Langstroth 

 hive for constant use. This is better 

 than any new type of hive, less costly 

 tu the beekeeper, but it is far from as 

 cheap as a single-story deep line. 

 It is mure expensive in first cost and 

 more costly in operation and upkeep. 



I lie two-story hive propaganda may 

 "listen good" to the manufacturers 

 with bodies selling at $1.06 each and 

 frames at $6.50 per hundred and foun- 

 dation at 85 cents per pound, but the 

 honey producers must look out for 

 their own interests, too. They must 

 i onsider first costs and also operative 

 costs. These things matter little to 

 the back-yard beekeeper, but to the 

 would-be professional they mean a 

 lot. He must look sharply at the size 

 of his invested capital with its result- 

 ing interest and depreciation charges, 

 and he must also consider the labor 

 cost in handling his hives. It makes a 



