1877 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



15 



Tut! tut! friend W., we shall not go craz}' 

 at all, for our bees aud bee letters arc the food 

 ■\ve live on. Wc lament every day that we can 

 not write lona: friendly letters in reply, but we 

 suppose our friends give us credit for doing 

 the best we can. 



To get straight combs, have your hive so 

 small, or your swarm so large, that the bees 

 All it, and if 1>hat don't do, raise the hive in 

 sucli a way that one end of the combs is high- 

 er than the other, the hive being level. If that 

 don't do, make them build every comb between 

 two straight ones — if you have none borrow 

 some of friend Ellis ; we saw some at his 

 house — if that don't do, take the combs out 

 and push them straight, as fast as they build 

 them crooked. If that don't do, fill the frames 

 with fdn. ; if that don't do, come and make us 

 a visit and see whether we are either crazy or 

 have crooked combs. 



P. 8. If that don't — we really believe, now 

 come to think of it, the whole trouble is be- 

 cause you winter them ia the chicken house, 

 and after sucli an indignity how could you 

 expect them to do anything mathematical. 



SIMPtiBCirY BEE HI\'ES: HOW TO 

 MAKE. 



HT may be laid down as a general rule, that 

 J people know what they want, aud if in- 

 stead of arguing in regard to the respective 

 merits of comb and extracted honey, fdn. and 

 no fdn., long hives and two story hives, etc., 

 etc., we should carefully observe that people 

 are buying, perhaps we should get much near- 

 er the truth as to what i.s really wauied. 

 Speaking of the fdn. reminds us that we have 

 right here in Dec, with the mercury away 

 down in the zeros, filled the two following 

 orders, besides a lot of smaller ones. To E. M. 

 Hayhurst, Kansas City, Mo., 200 lbs, and to 

 C. D. Wright, Baxter Springs, Kansas, 50 lbs. 

 both were fur yellow, and the former express- 

 ly stated the fdn., was to be from 5 to sq, ft. 

 to the lb. 



Now through all our experiments on hives, 

 the great mass of our orders have been for the 

 Simplicities, and we have just determined that 

 if the people are determined to have these, we 

 Will by all means furnish them, and we hope 

 this season to give some of a little nicer work- 

 manship than any sent out heretofore. By the 

 way, we are so well satisfied that thin hives 

 was a mistake, that v.'e will upon application 

 send to all who are dissatisfied with them, a 

 good Simplicity in place of all the hoop hives 

 we sent out last season. This of course re- 

 fers only to the hive, for the frames and in- 

 side work, will work readily in either. We 

 find no troubii; in wintering, br.t the bees fail 

 to store honey next to the side oT tlie hive, as 

 thev do in hives of incli lumbtr. 



We will describe the L. hive, but those for 

 any of the other frames are made in a similar 

 way. An L. frame is 9Jg deep, and we want^g 

 under the frame, bgtween it and the bottom 

 board ; therefore, the distance of fi-ames from 

 cenrro to centre, when worked one above the 

 otli'.T, must not vary very much from Q\< in. 

 Neirlect of this very important point,' causes 

 combs lo bo built between the upper and low- 

 er frames, or allows bees to be pinched or 

 crashed when the space is too small. This set- 



tles the question then, that the depth of each 

 single story, not taking the cover into account, 

 shall be exactly 0'.,' inches. This estimate is 

 based on having the hive reach up just level 

 with the tops of the frames, and no more, for 

 if we leave any space above, it will, in addition 

 to the ~3 below, make so much as to have the 

 disagreeable comb building between them. 

 Last season wc decided on a hoop for this pur- 

 po.se, but we have now a far simpler way, as 

 shown in the diagram. 



The suspended frame containing 8 section 

 boxes, as described on another page, will need 

 no explanation. The pieces A, A, are of course 

 the front and back that hold the rabbets. B, B, 

 are 3 inch strips sawed from the 4 sides of the 

 hive, to go under the cover which is shown at 

 C, the cover and bottom board being one and 

 the same thing. If we saw the cover clear ofl' 

 on a bevel as sharp as a square mitre — like 

 that in the corners of picture frames — the sharp 

 edge of the cover and bottom of the hive would 

 be easily injured ; besides when much weight 

 is put on them they would be likely to open at 

 the joints ; to remedy this we will saw in 

 square about ^q of an inch aud then saw 

 in on a bevel from F, to meet this ; the space 

 taken out by the saw, will give sufiicient play 

 to allow the cover to go on easily and yet res?- 

 firmly on the shoulders. The bottom of the 

 hive is beveled iu the same waj', and as thi: 

 shoulder at E, is level with the tops of the 

 frames, it is plain that we have the same space 

 beneath the frames when one hive is jilaced on 

 another, as when it rests on the bottom board. 

 The bottom board — or cover, for they arc one 

 and the same thing, — has a rabbet cut /gx^ 

 all around the upper edge, to keep the hive 

 from sliding about on it when moved. Now 

 to make the entrance we wish to slide it for- 

 ward, aud that we may do this, we make the 

 rabbet across one end of the cover, J^'^^s as 

 seen at G ; this will allow of enlarging to a % 

 entrance the whole width of the hive. When 

 this is too wide, contract it with the sawdust 

 that should always be spread about the en- 

 trance. The hives that filled 4 stories lasr 

 season, had entrances of this description. The- 

 underside of the cover is rabbeted as shown, 

 to allow of being securely cross nailed to th<' 

 strips B, B. 



We have as yet said nothing in regard to 

 the way in which the hive is to be put 

 together ; but to make a clean nice job, the 

 corners should be made on a mitre. By ar- 

 ranging a temporary table top to your buzx 

 feaw, this can be done quite expeditiously, but 

 such a joint is ratlier hard to nail unless we 

 provide especially for it. As we advise all % 

 lumber, wc want the hive just 16x2034, out- 



