189 
THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
orchard, and vineyard can never go, and the 
very best use that such places can be put 
to is to make them the home of the honey bee. 
San Diego, Ventura, Los Angeles, Santa Bar- 
bara, and San Bernardino counties ought to 
maintain 500,000 colonies of trees, that would 
produce §5,000,000 worth of honey and half-a 
million dollars’ worth of bees-wax per annum. 
Nature furnishes the raw material ; the honey 
bee under proper handling, will throw in the , 
necessary amount of industry, if man will 
take the trouble to throw in a little industry 
and skill to give to commerce this vast amount 
of wealth that would add so greatly to the 
pleasure of the palate as well as to the health 
of humanity. For it is a fact that pure Cali- 
fornian sage honey contains medicinal proper- 
ties that, properly used, will add greatly to 
the health of most people. — C. N. Wilson. 
I11VES AND THEIR MANAGEMENT 
FOR COTTAGERS. 
By C. N. W hite. 
From British Bee Journal. 
The first question a cottager must solve is, 
" What hive shall I ase ? ” and we who 
endeavor to carry out the primary object of 
the existence of the British and County Asso- 
ciations, viz., the bettering of the condition of 
the cottager by urging him to adopt a more 
humane and more profitable system of bee- 
keeping, should, if we intend to assist him, 
have put to ourselves and solved this question, 
“ What hive shall 1 recommend? ” 
It has frequently been stated that almost 
anything will do to put bees into. That is 
quite true ; bees may be kept in almost any- 
thing in which combs may be built — straw- 
skep, box or bar-frame hive. I have even seen 
stocks in old casks, wooden and zinc pails, and 
have taken from them for the owners a nice 
lot of honey. But although almost anything 
may be used and a nice surplus obtained, both 
the pleasure and the profit are much increased 
if the bees are kept in suitable hives, well 
and accurately made, and whether straw -skep 
box or bar-frame hive, well painted. The 
best and most economical materials for hive 
construction are certainly straw and wood. It 
would, 1 think, be a pity to banish the straw- 
skep from modern apiaries, for it has a rustic 
appearance which is greatly valued by many 
old and some advanced beekeepers. Person- 
ally, I should not like to see my apiary with- 
out a few stocks in straw skeps, because I like 
to Bee that mo^t pleasant (sometimes moat 
annoying) of all sights to a beekeeper — bees 
swarming. Hence nothing would induce me to 
entirely prevent natural swarning from skeps. 
The object of this article being to assist the 
cottager I shall be glad, with the Editor’s 
permission, to more fully explain at a future 
time any part I may not make sufficiently clear. 
In the first place, I must recommend the 
beginner straw skeps worked on the system 
explained below, or if it is his intention to 
become possessed of bar-frame hives I should 
say commence with the “ Champion Cottager.” 
This is a hive which I have designed with a 
view to its being used on the fixed-comb 
principle, as when skeps are used, and for the 
production of sections or run honey. When 
the fixed-comb system has been given up this 
hive will not have to be discarded as useless, 
but may then be used permanently as a 
section-crate. 
Somersham Skep System 
The Hires.— Two binds of hives are used, 
and these I term stock hive and super. Both 
should be closely and neatly made so as to fit 
accurately either above or below each other ; 
and they are exactly alike in every respect 
except depth, the stock hive being ten inches 
and the super six inches without the crown- 
boards. The outside measurement is exactly 
fifteen inches across, while the crown-board is 
sixteen inches across, half an inch thus pro- 
jecting all round. The crown-board is made 
of two pieces of light wood about half an inch 
thick, securely fastened across the grain to 
prevent warping, the upper half being 
bevelled half-an inch, so that the rain running 
down the side of a super will fall on the bevel 
of the lower hive and drop from the projecting 
half-inch of the lower half of the crown-board. 
The floor-board is similar to the crown-board, 
except that a piece about six inches wide and 
three inches deep is cut out of the lower half 
to give the bees access to the hive through a 
hole I J inches wide by six inches long, cut in 
the upper half about three inches from the 
edge. A piece of wood projecting about four 
inches is then nailed under to act as an 
alighting-board, and form the floor of the 
passage into the hive. The object of this 
arrangement is to allow the bottom edge of 
the skep to remain perfectly level all round. 
This is not the case when the entrance is cut 
out of the floor-board, as that part of the skep 
immediately over the entrance is sure to fall 
by pressure above and will then fit no other 
part of the floor- board. The hole in the 
crown boards of this kind of hive non- in use 
in this district is two inches wide and eight 
inches long. This hole is apt to give a little 
trouble, though the immense advantage it 
gives over a small circular hole should be 
more than compensation for it. I now, there- 
fore, recommend what I have found to give 
little or no trouble, viz., six holes eight inches 
long, J-incli wide, 8-inch apart and running 
parallel in the centre of the crown-board. 
Management. —For each swarm there should 
be provided one stock hive and at least two 
supers, a floorboard and cover — an earthen 
pan if not too heavy. First give the outside 
of the hives at least two coats of light-colored 
paint ; if white is used the combs will bo less 
likely to give way when the hive is exposed 
to the full rays of the sun. In very hot 
weather it is advisable to shade the hives a 
little. The bottom edge of the skeps and 
