e (5)ee- 



\ 



eepeps' jAe\^ieL). 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to tl^e Interests of HoiqeLj Producers. 



$L00 A YEAR. 



W. Z. HDTCHiNSON, Editor and Proprietor. 



VOL IX. 



FLINT, MICHIGAN, DEC, 10, 1896, 



NO. 12. 



AV'ork at ISd^icliigan's 



Experirtiental 



^piarv. 



K. L. TAYLOK, APIAKIST. 

 THE HIVE. 



T HAVE found 

 i myself willing 

 to write upon the 

 well-worn topic 

 of the bee-hive, 

 because there is 

 perhaps no point 

 relating to bee- 

 keeping about 

 which I am asked 

 so many ques- 

 tions as this. 

 It is well to un- 

 derstand that the bees themselves are not 

 much concerned about the characteristics of 

 their hive, they will make as much honey, 

 other things being equal, in a shoe-bos or a 

 nail- keg as in a hive of the latest pattern or 

 patent. So the form of the hive is a mere 

 question of convenience to the apiarist. He 

 may shape it so as best to secure the object 

 he has in view. But bee-keepers have many 

 objects, so hives are wanted 1, for catching 

 moths ; 2, for pleasure ; 3, for preventing 



swarming ; 4, for producing bees ; .5, for 

 wintering bees : <3, for rearing queens ; 7, 

 for producing extracted honey ; S, for pro- 

 ducing comb honey. 



Fortunately, a different kind of hive is 

 not required for each of these objects ; if a 

 hive is to be selected for one object, an eye 

 may be had also to points calculated to se- 

 cure other objects that are subsidiary and 

 yet necessarv to the full attainment of the 

 main one, thus, whatever the main object, 

 the hive must be such that it will prove as 

 little fatal to the bees in winter time as 

 possible. Still, no particular hive is likely 

 to prove the best for all purposes. 



The numbers of those who delight in hives 

 simply on account of their moth catching 

 qualities are of course small, but as there 

 are some whose chief pleasure and occupa- 

 tion in life is to tame mosquitoes and train 

 fleas to perform tricks, we are not to be sur- 

 prised that there are some whose chief con- 

 sideration it is to trap wax moths. It might 

 be well if all of that type of bee-keepers 

 were confined to moth trapping. 



To be classed with these are those who 

 keep bees and select hives for pleasure only; 

 not that they are equally eccentric, but be- 

 cause the prescribing of hives for each of 

 these two classes is alike outside the lines of 

 apiculture proper. 



Intermediate between these two classes 

 and those that have an eye strictly to finan- 

 cial returns are those who are intensely in- 

 terested in non-swarming, producing bees 



