1877 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



63 



stove, is probably quite an item, for it not on- 

 ly keeps everything dry, bul allbrds a ready 

 means of getting perfect ventilation, by at- 

 taching a tul)e to the stove pipe, as has been 

 several times explained. 



FRAME, BAK, OK BOX HIVES, ETC. 



BEARttLEANING.S:— Mr. Langstroth uUereil a 

 ) great trutli when he saiU many bee-keepers 

 ~ would be better off had they never used the 

 frame hive, and we will add, had they never used any. 

 In our experience (which is large) we have not seen 

 one hive in 50 lit to put bees into, to eay nothing about 

 mangling and murdering in the vain attempt to handle 

 them. Give us either a hive or a cook stove, or a 

 steam engine at Uili speed would be preferred to some 

 so called hives we have seen. Hayhurst of Kansas 

 city comes nearer making a fiivc than any we have 

 yet seen. A man to build a bee hive should be a first- 

 class mechanic as well as a practical bee-keeper, or 

 rel u on some one who is. 



Had H. A. King for the past 25 years worked with 

 Langstroth instead of against him, apiculture to-day 

 would have been much less mixed up, and many 

 thousand less American humbugs for kindling wood. 

 King wab the man to push things, had he got hold the 

 other end of the rope. Give us Heddon's bar, or even 

 a box hive in preference to a badly constructed frame 

 hive. Few, however, if any, esteem Langstroth and 

 his system more highly than do friend Heddon and 

 ourselves, for from his system we liave become able 

 at a glance from the outside, to ju<lge quite correctly 

 the condition of tiie interior. We regretted that 

 Langstroth himself could not have received our SlO.OO 

 for a right to use tbe frame, etc. But so is life, one 

 sows, and another reaps. 



It seems to us that friend Doolittlc should be able 

 to reach the same results with half the expense and 

 fixtures. Few stocks of bees, if in hives of proper di- 

 mensions, ever need a division boanl, in our opinion. 



Yes Novice, please tell VV. E. Forbes that heavy 8- 

 penny finishing nails resting on plain metal rabbets 

 a hi Wm. Reynolds, beat Novice's tin corners all to 

 fits. We use wire staples to hold frames at bottom 

 and can beat any ruan handling bees who does not, all 

 tilings considered, and can prepare 10 stocks for safe 

 shipment in as many minutes. The value of fixtures 

 about a hive depends almost entirely upon the lualce 

 and manner of using. When we can no longer use 

 nails and staples as above described about a bee hive, 

 you may consider us as belonging to that dejiartment 

 called "Bar box hives," which by the way Will soon 

 be practiced by some of our mobt skilful apiarists. 

 'Tis true an expert can get lots of honey from a rough- 

 ly made hive and fixtures, but then it's so nice. Nov- 

 ice, to have everything about our liives go and come 

 like clock work. 



We suppose that friend Cameron is aware that 

 Bingham is liable to slide ofl" a big pile of nice comb 

 honey just above those three little "sticks"' he speaks 

 of. Mr. Editor, shouM you ever visit Iowa give us a 

 a call. we are but 10 miles from Des Moines, tlie capital 

 of the state. 



Yours and every body elses' for cheap, plain and 

 practical facts. Chas. IIastinus & Son. 



Carlisle, Iowa, Jan. loth, 1877. 



We fear our friend forgets that frames made 

 with nails, must contain an amount of lumber 

 that we never thinly of using with the metal 

 corners, and they are not as strong even then. 

 Nails ifiYZ crush bees, unless you are pretty 

 careful. Try a frame of each kind, it can be 

 done very easily, before making a great 

 number. 



Oini OWIV APIARY. 



T is very near the middle of February, and 

 we have not lost a colony so far, although 

 too many dead bees by far, are found at the 

 entrances, and in the bottoms of the hives. 

 This certainly should not be, for some few, 

 have already lost half the bees in the hive, and 

 a great many, have lost a pint or more. Even 

 if but few are lost at a time, if the process 

 keeps on all winter, the hives soon become too 

 much weakened to resist the ^fleets of the 

 spring dwindling, and are lost after having 

 consumed enough honey to carry almost any 

 colony safely through. This losing the bees 

 after they have eaten honey all winter is cer- 

 tainly more expensive than the old brimstone 

 way, but: we feel sure neither arc necessary. 



The most of those in the chafi' hives are, as 

 we have said before, wintering almost without 

 loss, but we are troubled at finding one or two 

 of even these, bringing out a great many dead 

 bees. Still further, several of the hoop hives 

 are wintering as well as any in the apiary ; 

 we do not know that we feel particularly bad 

 about this, but after all it is rather perplex- 

 ing, and inclines one to feel that bees some- 

 times winter well in spite of — of — learning (?) 

 and at other times, they don't winter well in 

 spite of all we can do. The Quinby hive is 

 again wintering as it did last winter, almost 

 without the loss of a single bee. The bees do 

 not fly in this hive, until the weather is very 

 warm indeed, and not until almost every other 

 hive in the apiai-y is out. This hive has per- 

 haps a more perfect protection, because the 

 chaff is in one continuous body all over and 

 around the bees, while the cushions, unless we 

 are very careful, will leave cracks or inter- 

 stices between them. 



One hybrid colony that resented any inter- 

 ference, were put into a chafi" hive in Dec, and 

 to get them into a small compass, a cushion 

 was put each side of them ; they were put on 

 combs of solid sealed honey, and were so 

 crowded, that they did not all get inside until 

 the weather was quite cold. Not a dead bee 

 was seen at the entrance of this hive, and we 

 have no fear but they will winter as well as 

 the Q. hive. So much for "learning." On the 

 9th, we found a colony with more than half 

 the bees dead. This hive had brood taken 

 away from them the last thing in the fall, to 

 strengthen another ; they had honey in the 

 ends of the combs, Ijut none close to the clus- 

 ter, and their hive had a chaff cushion on- 

 ly over the frames ; it was an old style 

 Langstroth. "We put them into a chaff hive, 

 and pushed them up close, on 4 frames well 

 filled. If these are saved, we shall give chaff 

 all the credit. 



Perhaps half a dozen of our L. hives were 

 left with no entrance blocks, and everyone of 

 these showed an unusual quantity of dead 

 bees ; we are well satisfied that the entrances 

 should be closed up small, tight and warm, for 

 winter, and would favor a single auger hole, a 

 little above the bottom board. 



What a fine thing it is to have plenty of 

 sealed honey in frames. In looking over the 

 bees, we find occasional!}', a colony that for 

 some reason, is a little short, and as we always 

 like to make things safe — when we have the 



