LMTOMOIOGY 



VOL. 11, 



FLINT, MICMM, JMAEY 10, 1889. 



NO. 1. 



Different Hives for Different Purposes; The 

 Best Hive for Financial Honey Producers, 

 For Wintering Bees, and for Summer 

 Management; A Most Compre- 

 hensive Article. 



K. li. TAYIiOK. 



'IVES must vary to meet the demand 

 of various methods; and, as the meth- 

 ods of scarcely two honey producers 

 are alike in all respects, it follows 

 naturally that honey producers differ greatly 

 in their ideas respecting the charactei-istics 

 of the "best " hive. So, when one sets down 

 a certain hive as the one to be preferred 

 above all others, in order to judge of the val- 

 idity of his claim, it is necessary to know 

 for what purpose he wants the hive and how 

 the necessities of his circumstances require 

 him to handle it. Therefore, when I point out 

 what seems to me to be the requirements of 

 the best hive, I wish to be understood as giv- 

 ing ray judgement in reference to those only 

 who are in somewhat similar circumstances 

 with myself. I pursue the business of honey 

 production for financial profit. I keep a 

 considerable number of colonies, so that, 

 even with the hive that gathers the least pro- 

 polis, and that requires the least handling of 

 frames and dummies and other "convenien- 

 cies," I have sufficient scraping of bee-glue. 

 handling of frames, etc., to do, so that it is 

 not necessary for me to adopt a hive that 

 gathers more bee-glue, or requires more 

 handling of frames, merely because it is a 



Eleasure to do that kind of work, as I already 

 ave a chance for all that kind of enjoyment 

 that I have time for. Again, if. like the ma- 

 jority of so-called bee-keepers. I never made 

 any pretence of intelligent management, 

 never peeping into a hive except to ascer- 

 tain if the colony were still alive, and only 

 puttir g on and taking off boxes by guess, I 

 should say that any kind of a hive was quite 

 good enough. So, also, if it were my busi- 

 ness to rear queens, or bees, or both queens 

 and bees for sale, the character of the most 

 desirable hive for that purpose wonld be de- 

 termined by other considerations. 



What are the characteristics of the hive ad- 

 apted to the most profitable production of 

 honey on a considerable scale? 

 I reply, first: It must be reasoaubly well 



calculated to secure the prosperity of the col- 

 ony itself during the entire year. 



Second: It must be well calculated to se- 

 cure the largest possible amount of the 

 most salable honey in the most salable con- 

 dition. , 



Third: It should be so constructed as to 

 require fpr necessary manipulating the 

 least expertise of time and labor, (a) In the 

 movipg of hives either with bees in them or 

 when prepared for bees, (b) For the con- 

 traction and expansion of the hives, (c) In 

 the finding of queens, (d) In the making of 

 internal examinations. 



In my opinion, after' an experience of 

 more than three years with the New Heddon 

 hive, otherwise known as the sectional hive, 

 beginning with a few but having now about 

 four hundred occupied by bees, there is no 

 other hive that, in answering these require- 

 ments, can at all compare with this hive. 

 For present purposes it is only necessary to 

 say that this hive has a horizontally divisible 

 brood chamber. The sections are exactly 

 alike, so that either may be placed above, 

 and they may be interchanged at any time. 

 Each section has a set of eight, closed-end 

 frames, 5% in depth by 18 1-16 inches in 

 length, thus giving it the capacity of five L. 

 frames. The hive is 1-16 of an inch longer 

 inside than the frames, and when the two 

 sections are adjusted there is a bee-space be- 

 tween the two sets of frames, and the frames 

 are firmly fixed by thumb screws operating 

 through the sides of the hive against the cen- 

 tre of the closed-ends. 



Beginning with the first of the above re- 

 quirements, let me give the reasons which, 

 to my mind, account for the superiority 

 which I claim for the hive. 



I have been especially pleased with its 

 wintering qualities, which I attribute mainly 

 to the bee-space between the frames of the 

 two sections. It gives the advantages some- 

 times claimed for the old box hive. It is 

 well known that bees are not adapted to liv- 

 ing solitary, nor even in very small clusters; 

 and the lower the temperature the quicker 

 and more completely the vitality of the bees, 

 either singly or in small groups, yields. Ev- 

 ery experienced bee-keeper knows that the 

 larger frames of eight inches or more in 

 depth are veritable death-traps in the fall, 

 winter and spring. At a high temperature 

 the bees are dispersed through the hive, and 

 when the temperature runs down, the bees 

 seek the central cluster by the nearest, waj;. 



