187' 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



43 



To be sure your phm Avill work, and is pre- 

 cisely tlie plan we liave U'loptcd, except lliat 

 you Lave to liaiulle all these little frames sep- 

 arately, while we lift a frame of S of them at 

 ouce, or a whole stor^ of 50 ; if the whole 50 

 are tilled with honey, it is ratlier heavy lifting, 

 but if they are only partly lllled, or if they 

 should happen to be entirely empty when the 

 season closes— as nuiii hapi)en, you should all 

 bear in mind — it will be found (luile a relief, 

 to be able to lift olV the upper story with the 

 entire set ot boxes, without any lixing or fuss- 

 ing. Again, according to Doolittle, we should 

 extract all the honey in the fall, before put- 

 ting the partly tilled sections away for winter, 

 and with the whole 8 in a regular full sized 

 frame, we can uncap and extract all at once. 

 You who think it is an easy task to perform 

 all these operations on 50 or GO small frames, 

 in place of having them compactly in 7 or 8 

 large ones, or even all in one whole upper 

 story, had better give it as fair a trial as have 

 we during the past season. You will all learn 

 it by experience, but it may be worth some- 

 thing to be warned before you have made up 

 many hives on a wrong principle. Once more, 

 the bees will cover the bottom bars to your 

 small frames with propolis, which very much 

 injures their appearance and sale. 



SIMPl>2CaT\ BEE HIVES. 



MLXH has been said of the importance of 

 _ having all hives and frames exactly 

 alike ; notwithstanding, ice have never suc- 

 ceeded in having them as exact as we would 

 like. Last season, we made a set of gauges 

 for each of the frames in our list of diagrams, 

 and have succeeded in getting tho frames pret- 

 ty exact. We have jusl, now, had made a pair 

 of frames of ^o inch square iron, that exactly 

 llts over a hive that is just right. One of these 

 frames is shown leaning against the central 

 hive in the engraving on our cover. The 

 boards are cut as shown in the figure, 5 being 

 one of the ends, and 4 a side ; the corners are 

 nailed as shown at 9. Now to nail a hive, 

 we lay one of the square frames on the bench, 

 stand the four boards up inside it, slip the oth- 

 er hoop over the top, and the hive is held ex- 

 actly square while being nailed. It is ver\^ 

 clear that if the boards till the frames, your 

 hives will all be exactly of a size. If you 

 can not make your saws cut all boards pre- 

 cisely of the same size, make the pieces a 

 trifle large, and then dress the ends with 

 a very sharp smooth plane until they fit nicely 

 inside the iron frames. By this means, j'ou 

 may almost defy the stubbornness of boards 

 that will twisianil warp. You have nothing 

 now to fear in the way of outside dimensions, 

 but if your lumber is not perfectly seasoned, 

 the boards may shrink and bring tiie frames a 

 little nearer the bottom board ; to prevent this, 

 have extra well seasoned lumber if you can, 

 but if you can not, make the stuli" a little 

 wide. This leaves the way open for inaccu- 

 racy, we know, but what (.Ise can we do? 

 It will be observed we have cut i-lacre for 

 hand holes iu both the sides ar.d ends, and 

 when you once get at it, it is a very simple 

 matter. If you take livo shirgies and lay 



them together with the thick ends op- 

 p;Osite ways and then cut a pair of washers 

 out of both, it is plain that a saw screwed 

 between these, will have a wal)bling motion. 

 Well, with the f-hingles, we shall not have 

 wabble enough, so we will make some wedges 

 on the same plan, lor we want the saw to 

 cut a slot about ^^ wide. Throw the table of 

 jour saw over back, or take it clear oil", and 

 imt on a temporary one instead. While we 

 think of it, it may be well to have these 

 temporary table tops for various purposes, 

 such as dovetailing for sections, etc., and 

 the advantage of them is that they are always 

 exactly adjusted when screwed to the frame 

 that holds the saw. The pieces that com- 

 pose the hive are to be rested against a strip 

 at one end, while the other is let down grad- 

 ually on the saw, and if the speed is high 

 erough a very pretty smooth slot is cut. 



No. 8 shows a two story hive with frames, 

 of sections above; No. 1, a single story with 

 frames of sections on each side of the brood 

 combs ; No. 2, the same with the entrance 

 turned forward and the sawdust heaped about 

 it. No. 3, shows how the entrance is made 

 by pushing the hive forward so as to project 

 over the bottom board. The plan of enlarg- 

 ing and contracting the entrance with saw- 

 dust we like best of any we have tried. We 

 also prefer sawdust to any kind of alighting 

 board. It keeps down weeds, is readily ad- 

 justed, looks neat, and does not warp and curl 

 up under the influence of sun and rain, as 

 does any kind of a board fixing; when first 

 put down, it may blow about some, but after a 

 few days of sun and rain it bakes over the top, 

 and forms the very best foot-hold for heavily 

 laden bees, that can possibly be imagined. 

 Other kinds of shade have been advised and 

 uf-ed, but we find nothing so efficient and prof- 

 itable as the grape vines. If the vines arc 

 propagated as we directed in Vol. II, it is very 

 little trouble, and one vine will increase fully 

 as fast as your bees increase to n«ed them. 



The chafl* cushion and manner of making, is 

 shown in No. (5, and the cushion or quilt at> 

 No. 7, where it is tacked in the cover; this 

 may be done without trouble, where we use 

 the sheet of duck. No. 8, to keep the bees from 

 biting or propolizing the quilt. We now make 

 these sheets of duck, with a cord of candle 

 wicking run in a large hem all round the out- 

 er edge, for unless we do this, the bees will 

 crowd out past the edge, so that it may be 

 quite ditficult at times to get them out of tha 

 way before shutting the cover down, We- 

 fasten the quilt in the cover, by 8 tacks around 

 the edges ; this allows it to drop close to the 

 duck when the cover is shut down. No. 10, 

 shows a sheet of fdn, with a folded strip of tin 

 at its upptr edge. This strip may be inserted 

 in the frame as at 11, by sliding one end in- 

 first, just as we put in the usual wooden comb 

 guide, entirely getting rid of melted wax, and 

 the sheets of fdn. can be shipped with the 

 frames, and then put iu place after they are re- 

 ceived. No. 13, is the 8 sections in place in 

 the wide frame, filled with sheets of fdn., and 

 No. 13, the same with the tin separators in 

 place, on one siile of each frame of sections. 

 No. 14, is a frame of (aney sections, to be used 

 for parties and weddings. 



