271 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov, 



Both the top and back side of the hive are 

 movable, and his surplus honey is all built 

 above the frames in his well known section 

 boxes. His hives are made tall enough to 

 hold 3 tiers of the section boxes. On pages 8 

 and 53, of Vol. Ill, we gave description of the 

 hive and section boxes. The Harbison hive is 

 not used to any extent except by himself, we 

 believe. 



By far the graiter part of the hives in use 

 among our readers, perhaps ^^4 of them in 

 fact, are the L. frame, and the hives to hold 

 these frames are principally the L. hive with 

 the portico, and with an upper story made so 

 as to slip over the lower one. The expense of 

 these, their bulkiuess, and the difficulty of 

 having both upper and lower story one and 

 the same thing, have induced many to omit 

 the portico, use a movable bottom board, and 

 have bottom and cover, upper and lower 

 story, one and the same thing. The saving in 

 expense by such a course is considerable in an 

 apiary of 100 hives, and the facility with 

 which these simple bottomless boxes can be 

 stowed away, either filled with frames or 

 empty sections and with which hives can be 

 enlarged to any size, has induced us to make 

 them thus for several years past. For a two 

 story hive, the L. frame on account of its 

 shallowness, has been universally preferred in 

 place of eilher the American or Standard ; but 

 for a long hive, — 20 frames or more — to be 

 used with the extractor, the two latter on ac- 

 count of their shape, seem to be liked best. 

 With the new impulse in favor of comb honey, 

 the L. frame seems by the majority to have re- 

 ceived the preference, yet the other two, in- 

 cluding the Gallup, will perhap do equally 

 well if we use boxes at the sides as Avell as on 

 top. 



The surplus arrangements for comb honey, 

 seem now all tending toward section boxes, or 

 at least toward something that will enable us 

 to separate all the combs from a box, without 

 daubing or breaking the honey. Harbison 

 seems about the first to get this idea started 

 largely, but his section has altogether too 

 much wood in it, and is too expensive to make ; 

 in fact with the demand that is springing up 

 for them, we hardly think any kind of a nail- 

 ed box will be tolerated, for nailing is too 

 slow, and too inaccurate. We must have a 

 section box that shall not vary the 32nd of an 

 inch in making 10.000, and to have it done 

 nicely, and at a small price, we viust bring in 

 machinery. 



If not too much trouble, I wish yoii would give me the 

 dimensions of all the different parts of the two story L, 

 hive, for two sets of main frames or, if required, two tiers 

 of honey boxes. I have about 300 new hives to make, and 

 do not want any mistakes. 



I have become a convert to the fine qualities of the Har- 

 bison hive for swanns and box honey, but extracted hon- 

 ey will sell better, so I want to be prepared for both, or 

 eilher, as I may wish. 



The Harbison frame or ratljer hive is not v/ell adapted 

 for extracting as the frame is too small, and the sill to 

 hold up the upper tier of frames is in the way for rapid 

 work extracting ; nor does it hold honey enough to work 

 to advantage. 



The H. frame will average Si lbs., the L. frame 5* and 

 the Quinby frame 7s lbs. of honey, but the last is too 



heavy to handle easily and requires too much cai-e wlic n 

 the combs are new. Any suggestions you may make will 

 be appreciated. G. F. Meeeia.m. 



San Luis Rey, Cal., Sept. 18th, '76. 



Thank you friend M., for your hints on an 

 unsettled matter. If our people were all 

 agreed on what should constitute an L. hive, 

 we might give you the dimensions in a few 

 words. As it is, we are only agreed on what 

 constitutes what is termed an L. frame, and 

 that it shall be d},^ deep, by 17s. long ; the top 

 bar having supporting arms of ,^4 inch each. 

 Now, how manj' such frams shall we have in 

 the lower story V Some use only 8, but others 

 insist on 11 or 12, and others still wiio have 

 not recovered from the "long idea", insist on 

 as many as 30 or 40. In this as in many other 

 things we shall be safe to take the average 

 used by the masses, which is 10 frames for the 

 lower story, and the same amount of space, or 

 perhaps a couple of inches more, for the upper 

 story. The space needed for 10 franus of 

 brood, is just about 14)4 inches ; a little more 

 will do no harm, and if needful, they may be 

 worked in a little less ; but after using them 

 of difterent widths year after j^ear, we find the 

 14^4, about what is wanted. For the usual 

 style with portico, we want our end boards 

 just I4I4, by IQ inches, and the sides of the 

 hive, 2 feet by 10 inches. We want % at each 

 end of the frame, so we will nail the ends be- 

 tween the sides, so as to have the former just 

 IS^i' apart. This is done so as to leave the 

 side boards projecting only in front, to form 

 the portico. The bottom is made hy nailing 

 matched boards cross- wise the whole length 

 of the side boards and if the front board has 

 been left }g narrower than the back, and nail- 

 ed so as to raise it ^o from the bottom boards, 

 we have the entrance all completed without 

 trouble. Before nailing, the back and front 

 are to be rabbeted for the ends of the top bars, 

 just enough to allow the frames to hang with- 

 in 3*0 of the bottom board. The upper story 

 or cap, is just large enough to slip over the 

 lower story, and it rests on square strips nail- 

 ed to the sides and back end, within j^ inch 

 of the top edge of the lower story ; the roof of 

 the portico is dropped into the sides IJo i"^"i 

 to allow it to be on a level with these strips. 

 To have it shed water, the projecting edge is 

 made thinner than the back where the upper 

 story rests. The upper story v/iU of course 

 need an extra board in each end, where frames 

 are used above, and these boards are rabbet- 

 ed so as to allow the frames to hang within /j< 

 of the tops of the lower frames. This wastes 

 lumber, leaves a loafing space for the bees be- 

 tween these ends, and Inakes the hive heavy 

 and awkward to handle ; yet as some of our 

 customers insist that this is the way an L. 

 hive slwtdd be made, we have gone over it in 

 detail. We might add, that the best made 

 hives have the corners halved in, and the bot- 

 tom board also. 



After the above explanation, we need only 

 to say that the Simplicity hive dispen.ses with 

 the portico, all strips, has both stories exactly 

 alike and the cover and bottom board are one 

 and the same thing. For an entrance, the 

 hive is pushed forward over the bottom board, 

 and on several accounts we prefer such an en- 

 trance to any other ; the cold winds will not 



