1862. 



THE ILLmOIS FARMER. 



177 



For the Illinois Farmer. 



Patent Bee Hives. 



Ed. Farmer : — A great deal has been said and 

 written about patent bee hives, or those that 

 have the moveable frames, and I propose to say 

 a few words more, not in the praise however of 

 either Langstroth'e or Phelps' patent, which dif- 

 fer so little that the advantage of one over the 

 other exists only in the brain of the persons 

 who iill the air with their cries, at our State and 

 County fairs, to the disgust of all sensible peo- 

 ple. I have had the charge of a small collection 

 of swarms for the past three years, the hives 

 consisting of Langstroth'e, both single and double 

 chambers, Phelps' moveable frame and two sec- 

 tion hive. I propose to take each in its order as 

 above, and point out the defects of each, as they 

 appear to me. The colony first consisted of four 

 swarms in four of Langstroth's patent hives, two 

 being in single hives, and two in double hives, 

 having an air chamber between the boxes ; the 

 two swarms in the first mentioned hive done well, 

 and have each year made from five to fifteen 

 pounds of surplus honey, have also thrown off a 

 young swarm, and are this season doing well ; 

 those in the double hive have not made one pound 

 of surplus honey, have only swarmed once, at 

 this writing one is destroyed, and the other bare- 

 ly alive. The cause of this is easily explained, 

 the air chamber being large the miller had free 

 access, and every crack, joint, corner and crev. 

 ice was filled with eggs, which raquired daily at- 

 tention, and having been sick a week, I found on 

 my recovery that every comb was full of worms, 

 and all the bees dead. Having received a couple 

 of Phelps' hives, the young swarms were put in- 

 to them, and although all who worshiped Lang- 

 stroth's hive said the bees would all die, they 

 have all done well and made more surplus honey 

 than those in Langstroth's. I consider them 

 the best hive of the two, because the frames are 

 shorter and higher than the Langstroth's, the 

 bees are not in so much danger of freezing in 

 •winter, not having to spread out so much over 

 the combs. I also had a double section hive of 

 Phelps' patent, it consists of two separate boxes, 

 with a passage between for the bees, and a com- 

 mon entrance from the outside to both. Being 

 told by old bee keepers that the bees would cer- 

 tainly perish, I had some misgivings about put- 

 ting in a swarm, but having used all the other 

 hives on hand, I put in one swarm.they staid un- 

 til near ni<.'!;t and then took french leave. A 

 good begin i:;- i h ink's L The bees knew that 



if they staid in that hive they would die, so 

 prompted by instinct they movek to safer quar- 

 ters in some old tree, but not being so easily 

 convinced as the bees, I determined to try it 

 again, but remembering of seeing cross sticks in 

 the old box hive for the bees to roost on, I con- 

 cluded to put in some, as the hive does not con- 

 tain frames, being a square box with a glass 

 back. Well when the next swarm issued they 

 were put into this hive, they staid perhaps two 

 hoars, then came out agait, lighting near by, I 

 caught them again, put them back, and it being 

 near night, fastened up the entrance t© make 

 sure of them for the night, early the next morn- 

 ing removed the blocks and they went to work, 

 but near night they came out again, lighting 

 near by, I put them back, and probably con- 

 cluding that they might as well stay there and 

 die as anywhere else, they staid. They went to 

 work, filled up the section that they were hived 

 in, then the other section, and then filled three 

 surplus boxes full and nearly filled another, each 

 containing about eight pounds of honey. One 

 of my Langstroth friends said they would die 

 when winter came because the bees were divided 

 some being in one side and some in the o|.her, 

 but when the honty season was over, those bees 

 in the second section moved into the first one 

 andetaid there until spring, when the honey 

 was removed, as they required it for their young 

 brood. The queen bee has never left the section 

 that she was hived in, or at least has never laid 

 any eggs in the other part, and I expect to get at 

 least forty pounds of honey and a good new 

 swarm from this hive this year. There has been 

 many millers around this hive, but the boxes be- 

 ing made tight, all their efforts to get in have 

 proved futile. There is a moth trap at the bot- 

 tom of the hive and many worms have been ta- 

 ken out of it, but if the crack had not been there 

 for the miller to lay eggs in they would not have 

 been there, so I conclude it is of no real advan- 

 tage, as any cracked board laid on or around the 

 hive would answer the same purpose. 



Now from my little experience and observatiofi 

 I have come to the following conclusions : first, 

 that patent hives of whatever kind are as unnee- 

 essary to keep bees successfully as the curl to a 

 pigs tail ; second, that a box ten by twelve inch- 

 es square and fourteen inches high, with a loose 

 bottom board, cross sticks and a space above for 

 surplus honey boxes, will answer just as well, 

 and be better than a patent one ; third, that the 

 miller will get into any hive if not^well made, if 



