118 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



we do not want to tear down, but to suggest or 

 add to. If the hoops as we have made them 

 are too light, make them heavier; if j'ou prefer 

 a body made of whole boards, make it thus, 

 but let us preserve the uniformity of dimen- 

 sions if we cau. If this were once well start- 

 ed, some large manufacturing firm could make 

 hives by the thousand at a very low price; 

 and if desirable, the frames could be put in 

 after ward as the taste of the owner might 

 dictate. In the matter of honey boxes alone, 

 if a uniform size could be agreed upon, the 

 saving would be immense. Friend W. we 

 thank you for your caution, and are flrmly 

 determined that none but a most weighty con- 

 sideration shaU ever lead us to think of any 

 other frame than the L.; if we are to furnish 

 hives, we certainly shall adhere to the one 

 that takes any frame that may be ordered. 

 Our object now is to improve that one in 

 every way possible. 



A HO:yX£ MAKE lIIVE-WALL-HAI^Iv. 



^N page 32, VOL, IX, A. B. J., friend 

 ^y^Peirce gave a plan for building a number 

 of hives all in one, that seems to be pretty 

 nearly the hive-wall-hall of Prof. Vogel. The 

 following letter gives something of an idea of 

 how it has answered for the past 3 seasons. 



Last summer we had no surplus honey, and only good 

 swarms gathered eiiougli to winter. I tried to increase my 

 stock to about 20 by feeding, but nearly all my young 

 queens were lost and feeding did not seem to induce them 

 to breed, so that though 1 had 19 or '10 queens in the fall, 

 more than half had few bees. Some had worked in my 

 long hives, but mostly in single 9 frame hives. The full 

 colonies 1 left with the munber of frames they had, the 

 small ones 4 or 5 frames each, sej^arating them by wire- 

 gauze frames, and covering top and sides Avitli quilts. I 

 had 9 colonies this spring, as iu all cases when two or three 

 small colonies were alongside each other only separated 

 by the wire gauze, they had united over the tops of the 

 fraiiies under the quilt into a single colony. All are in 

 good order and strong ; as they had plent}' of honey, I did 

 not feed at all as I had b3gun to doubt its utility except as 

 a matter of necessity. As the colonies were strong, a good 

 deal of honey was gathered from apple blossoms. May 

 20th as white clover began to open, my strongest colony 

 swarmed leaving 13 frames brood and 3 besides filled with 

 honey— I put them into a 9 frame hive, 9 frames empty 

 comb, and in a day or two put on a 40 lb box with 5 

 frames comb and two empty frames— Tuesday 30th. the 

 frames above were full and partly sealed— I put on anoth- 

 er box of same size, having 4 empty frames, upon which 

 they are now at work. I ought to have given more room 

 for brood, but it wasn't convenient at the time, and I 

 have little leisure to give my bees projier attention. I 

 have been able to prevent swarming of late years 

 by giving box room as fast as needed, but with the 

 present abundant white clover bloom (unexampled for 

 15 years), I don't know whether swarming can be prevent- 

 ed. I think my 12 ft. hives for wintering by filling in as 

 described with chaff, cut fodder or any dry non-conductor, 

 and then co\ering each colony of six to nine frames top 

 and sides with quilts, makes the best arrangement I have 

 ever tried, and the best perhaps there can be for this cli- 

 mate and latitude. The filling in of the walls of the hive 

 remains permanently. The bees are dry, warm enough, 

 and can fly when warm enough outside, require only mod- 

 erate supjily of honey and in a siiring of nil kinds of weath- 



er, they are not soon affected by any change. Single hives 

 in the honey and swarming season are more convenient to 

 handle. J. H. Peikce. 



Davton. Ohio. June 2d. 1876. 



Desirable as it may seem in many respects, 

 we fear the idea of building the hives all in 

 one, will never Ije made to answer. However, 

 after expending so much money as we have on 

 the house apiary, we are going to give it a 

 farther trail, and shall perhaps try covering 

 the hives with chaff, another winter, or rather 

 pillows made of chaff so that they can easily 

 be removed when the surplus season comes. 

 At present, the hexagonal apiary as described 

 in Vol. I of gleanings, has given the best re- 

 sults, and is open to the fewest objections of 

 any plaii yet tried. It is not expensive, and 

 can be built up little by little to suit the grow- 

 ing needs of auy cottager, and can be develop- 

 ed to thousands of colonies if desirable. The 

 crop of grapes will more than pay for all the 

 trouble and time spent in beeping the vines 

 and grounds in the neatest and tidiest trim. 

 If by chaff covering or other wise, we can be 

 enabled to keep the bees located permanently 

 the year round on their summer stands, we 

 think it will be very desirable. Make a good 

 hive just as, and just where you want it, and 

 then let it alone. 



niEi I a ■ i« 



OUK OW N APIARY. 



M ND it is June once more ; to-day is the 

 >Q^i 7th, and now the house apiary and every 

 thing else is flourishing. "While warm weath- 

 er is the rule, and cool the exception, the 

 house apiary is very fine, for it is much warm- 

 er nights than the open air. When cool is the 

 rule and warm the exception, it don't answer 

 at all. However; chaff may fix even the house 

 apiary, and so we are going to try once more. 

 Only 10 colonies are left iu it now, and two of 

 these are colonies that were moved into it en- 

 tire, when it was first built. But one is left 

 i on the lower tier on the north side, and that 

 very weak ; 4 are left on the upper tier. On 

 the south side, all but one are gone on the up- 

 per tier, and 4 remain below. F^om this it 

 would seem that the points of the compass 

 make but little differance. As the old colo- 

 nies, or those that were full when put in, came 

 out best, it may be that the loss was some- 

 what owing to having so many on new combs, 

 and that Avere built up last fall. It seems 

 that an impression has been given that we let 

 them all starve ; this is a mistake, for certain- 

 ly not more than a half dozen of the 20 lost, 

 died of starvation. AVhen we took out all the 

 combs, we found heavy ones in many places at 

 the back part of the hives. The honey was in 

 one part of the hive, and the bees in another. 

 Very likely the artificial heat caused much of 

 the trouble, and hereafter, if our bees cannot 

 keeiD tlieraHclvfs warm, they will have to get 

 cold, for we have no more time for any such 

 fussing. 



If the institution is not good for bees, it is a 

 most beautiful invention for moths, for as 

 there was no freezing inside the house, the 

 eggs of the moth were not killed, and day be- 

 fore yesterday we found that minute worms 

 were starting webs finelv in our best worker 



