bee-stocks ought always to be raised sufficiently from the ground to
protect them, not only from the baneful effects of damp, but from the
incursions of vermin, &c. But inattention on this point is sometimes
met with so gross, that we cannot forbear giving place to the preceding
engraving, from a drawing made on the spot in Dorsetshire, illustrating
the treatment to which the poor bees may be sometimes subjected by
indifference or deplorable ignorance.
WOODEN BOX HIVES.
As far as we have proceeded, our attention has been directed
principally to Straw hives. Those, however, of Wood have in modern
times come pretty generally into use, when cost is not an object, as
being more durable, less liable to harbour vermin, and better adapted,
from their square form, for a convenient arrangement of the combs,
besides admitting of glass windows.
As regards the plainer kind of boxes, either intended for use on
the swarming system, or on that where deprivation is practised,
I adhere to the opinion expressed as to straw hives, and prefer
those constructed broad and shallow to such as are high and narrow.
They may be made of the lighter and more porous kinds of deal,
some preferring red cedar; but whichever is made use of, it should
be thoroughly seasoned, and well put together; observing that the
grain of the wood always runs in the horizontal direction, when its
tendency to expansion or contraction is rendered of no importance.
Conflicting opinions prevail as to the best size for bee-boxes;
but, like almost everything else where these insects are concerned,
something must be left dependent on circumstances and locality, as
well as the intended mode of working them. A fair average size for a
plain box is eleven and a half inches square, by eight inches deep,
withinside; or, perhaps better, twelve by seven or seven and a half
inches, clear; the thickness of wood throughout being not less than
an inch, or, if exposed, more than this. The cover of the box should
have a small projection on all sides, for better appearance, and to
afford convenience for lifting. On the top a two- or three-inch hole
may be cut in the centre, for the purposes of supering, of feeding, or
ventilation. Instead, however, of one central hole, some persons like
to have three smaller ones, cut triangularly; affording convenience for
the use of a single large, or three small glasses. It is best to leave
the roof of the box, withinside, unplaned, as the bees have sometimes
a difficulty in making the first combs adhere to too smooth a surface.
A window may be placed at the back, and another at one side, about four
inches high, and six wide. The glass should be thick, and secured by
putty; but it must not fit too tightly, or it is apt to crack from the
swelling of the wood. There are various ways of covering the windows,
but the best is, perhaps, by a sliding shutter of zinc. Round the
window there must be a projecting moulding, mitred at the corners. On
one side the piece of moulding is moveable, and to the back of this is
screwed a plate of sheet zinc. This passes into a rabbet to receive it,
cut, on the remaining three sides, at the back of the lower edge of the
moulding. Where uniformity of appearance is studied, blank windows may
be made opposite to the real ones.[K] No entrance-way should be cut in
the box, as this more properly belongs to the floor-board.
[Illustration]
[K] As regards windows, they are always useful to inspect a hive, but
should, as a rule, be kept darkened. At the same time there is no doubt
that bees will work exposed to the light, when the option of darkness
is not allowed them. A friend put a swarm into a unicomb hive, made
without shutters on each side, and exposed to the full glare of light
at a window, which I frequently inspected. The bees filled the hive
in a short time, paying apparently no attention to the eyes often
observing their operations. It is to be remarked, however, that whether
bees are in light or darkness, the one or the other must be continuous,
as alternations disturb and alarm them. We shall hereafter give a
design for an experimental _Light Hive_.
A reference to the engraving will show a box thus made, with its
sliding shutter. It ought to be painted a sufficient time before use,
or the smell is offensive to the bees; indeed, I have known a swarm
forsake a box in consequence. I may observe, however, that some persons
prefer boxes, when in a house, to be unpainted. They are always best
placed under some kind of cover, as protection from wet and a hot sun
is necessary to prevent warping and splitting, and not unfrequently
the melting of the combs. Some German bee-keepers have recommended
box-hives made long from back to front, and narrow from side to side.
WOODEN BAR BOXES.
An undoubted improvement on the box described in the last section,
consists in the addition of separate moveable bars of wood, crossing
the top of the hive, in parallel lines, to which the combs are to
be attached. By this means any comb, on removal of the cover, can
be separately extracted, adhering to its own particular bar. The
_bar-system_, as we may call it, has had many advocates, but to none
are we more indebted than to Dr. Bevan and Mr. Golding, for reducing
to fixed rules what had previously been undefined and uncertain. The
latter, however, appears to have a preference for straw hives, and
has given instructions for adapting bars to them. We shall hereafter
describe a hive of this kind, but varying in some respects from Mr.
Golding's. With Dr. Bevan, many prefer boxes; and a square form is
better than any other, as in these every bar has the advantage of
being alike, fitting anywhere, either in the same or another box. At
all events, "whatever the construction of the hive," says Mr. Golding,
"without some such facility as bars, whereby every comb can be made
individually available, there is something wanted, something wrong."
With no claim, therefore, to the invention of any new principle, the
boxes I have constructed are modifications of those that preceded them;
the object in view being to render these, at a small extra cost, more
manageable to the amateur. In short, I know of no hive more completely
under control.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
I may premise that the boxes (as illustrated in a former edition),
following those described by Dr. Bevan, were adapted for the reception
of seven bars. Subsequent experience has shown that these may be
advantageously increased to eight in number, extending the square of
the hive, but diminishing its height. In thickness the wood ought not
to be less than a full inch. The dimensions withinside are thirteen
and a quarter inches square; the height being seven inches, inclusive
of the bars. As regards windows, there may be one at the back and
at the side, four inches high by seven or eight inches long; with
sliding shutters, like those described in the preceding section. The
glass ought to be so fixed as to leave as little recess as possible
withinside the box, otherwise the extraction of the combs is impeded.
Indeed, it is better to have the panes introduced flush, and cemented
from the inner side into a fine rabbet. The best kind of cement for
this purpose is a mixture of powdered chalk and glue. The bars must
be one and an eighth inch wide, and half an inch thick; being best
unplaned on the under side, to enable the combs to adhere to them.
Recesses of a full eighth of an inch are cut from the upper inner edge
of the box, to receive the ends of the bars, into which they should
fall easily, ranged from front to back. It is essential to follow the
rules laid down by Dr. Bevan, who says, "if the distances of the bars
from each other be nicely adjusted, there will be interspaces between
them of about half an inch. The _precise_ width of the bars should
be attended to, and also their distances from each other, as any
deviation in this respect would throw the combs wrong. It is better
to be somewhat _within_ the rule than to exceed it by ever so little,
for the tendency is generally to make the combs approximate. This has
induced me to vary a little the relative distances of the bars, the
three (four) centre ones being placed only seven sixteenths of an inch
from each other, whilst the rest gradually recede from that distance."
For the purpose of ensuring the needful uniformity and correctness of
workmanship requisite in all points, I constructed a pattern gauge,
as seen in the annexed engraving. It is made of sheet metal, brass
being the best, of the same dimensions as the interior square of the
boxes, exclusive of the end projections. These latter denote the exact
interspaces between the bars; so that if the gauge is placed upon the
inner edge of the box, the position of the recesses into which the bars
are intended to fall may be indicated at each end. Moreover, the gauge
gives a correct pattern for making the bars, as also the position of
the holes through the crown and centre boards.
[Illustration]
It may be well here to allude to what some have thought to be an
improvement in the construction of the bars, the object being to render
the combs more accessible, and the usual cutting, to detach them
from the sides of the hive, avoided. A reference to the accompanying
engraving will exhibit a bar with a frame suspended beneath it, but so
made as not to touch either the sides or bottom of the hive, and within
which the combs are, or ought to be, wrought. Doubtless, advantages
may arise from the facilities thus given for removal, provided these
are not counterbalanced by the evil of greater complication, and the
inconvenience arising from the possible attachment by the bees of
the frame itself to the sides of the hive, and so setting them fast.
Moreover, as such frames curtail space in the hive, allowance is
necessary in its external dimensions.
[Illustration]
A cover or crown board, three quarters of an inch thick, clamped at
the ends, and projecting all round nearly half an inch, is fixed down,
flush with the bars, with two or three long screws. To prevent rusting,
these may be of brass.
Some objection has been raised against screws, as being occasionally
troublesome to remove. The engravings annexed (drawn half size) show
another mode of attaching the crown board by means of brass rings,
elongated like the link of a chain, and held loosely at the bottom by
the head of a screw, inserted at the side of the box. An aperture is
cut in the projection of the crown board, through which the link passes
to the top, into a recess made to receive it, and where it is fixed by
a moveable lateral pin, leaving a flush surface. On removing the pin
the link drops down upon the screw head, and the crown board becomes
released. Instead of a ring, a similarly formed link can be cut from a
piece of sheet metal.
It is not always that amateurs are possessed of the nerve requisite
to perform, periodically, the operation of changing the cover
immediately over a populous stock. The construction of my bar-hive
renders this unnecessary. Through the cover are three openings, cut
as a passage upward for the bees into a super. For convenience, two
of these are placed within three inches of the front of the box
(measuring inside), to the centre of the holes, which are one inch
and a quarter in diameter at the outer end, lengthening towards the
centre to three inches; there diminished to a point, and leaving two
intermediate inches between them. I have found it well in this part to
give an increased facility to the bees in passing over the bars, which
otherwise too much intercept the passage. To accomplish this, let the
crown board be turned bottom upwards, grooving out the central portion
coming immediately underneath and between the two holes, for the space
of six or seven inches long, one and a half inch wide, and three
eighths of an inch deep. The third hole is made an inch and a half from
the back of the cover (measured inside); of the same size and form as
the others, but an inch shorter. This will be useful in working glasses
and in feeding. The elongated form given to the holes is best adapted
to prevent killing or maiming the bees in introducing the dividing
slides. The latter are plates of stout zinc or copper, two inches wide,
sliding within a recess or groove, cut their own thickness, across the
top of the crown board, over the holes. The slides are long enough
to meet in the centre, their outer ends being a little turned up for
convenience. If the last inch is perforated with small holes, the slide
becomes a ventilator, by drawing it out a little.
This hive may be used either for single or double hiving, or with any
kind of super; but to render it complete for all purposes, there ought
to be three boxes, forming a set, as seen in the engravings at p. 56, in
which the stock-box is the bottom one. In many seasons and localities,
however, the third box might not be called for. For convenience of
description, the numbers 1, 2, and 3, are used in reference to the
_stock-box_, the _first super_, and the _centre box_; all to be of equal
size as to the square. No. 2 should be fitted with bars and windows, like
the first; but in height it may be one inch, or sometimes two, lower.
Moreover, there must be no holes through its crown board, for whether
two or three boxes are in use, No. 2 is always the upper one. A great
convenience is given by the introduction of a loose centre board, placed
on the top of the stock-box, and of the same dimensions; being in fact an
adapter to the super, which can be lifted upon it, on removal. It is of
half-inch wood, clamped, having openings cut through, corresponding in
form and position with those of the stock-box, but without any recess.
The slides move beneath the centre board, opening or shutting off the
communication from box to box, as required. No. 3 box differs from the
others in being still shallower, and having no moveable bars. Moreover,
the central portion of its cover is cut through into the semblance of
a grating, as shown in the illustration, with six bars, nine inches
long, of an inch and an eighth in width, and with interspaces of half an
inch. In certain very productive seasons, and when the super No. 2 is
filled, No. 3 may be introduced _between_ the two others; not removing
the upper box till the bees have commenced working in No. 3. A temporary
close cover must then be placed over the grated one of the latter. Many
experienced apiarians, however, object to using more than one super
hive, preferring to give any further room that may be required, at the
_bottom_ of the stock. The box No. 3 is equally well adapted for either
alternative; for it may go as a nadir, beneath the stock-hive, taking its
place on the hive-board, in which latter is the entrance for the bees, no
other being permitted.
A hive-board suitable is either like the one shown at p. 43, or that at
p. 44; the boxes being placed upon it, with the bars ranging from front
to back. Some persons are inclined, instead of one central entrance to
the stock-box, to prefer two smaller ones, placed respectively at the
outer extremities of the front, of course cut from the floor board; and
it is probable that this departure from the general practice may not
be without its occasional advantage, in winter especially, in a broad,
shallow hive.
[Illustration]
These boxes, like all wooden hives, should be placed in a house of some
kind, if possible; but instances occur where such a convenience is not
available. To meet these, I will describe a substitute, which gives
effectual protection, though it would still be better standing under
a shed. A recurrence to the engraving in the next page will show that
our plan comprises an outer casing, in two compartments, and surmounted
by a top cover or roof. They may be of half-inch wood, large enough
in the square to drop loosely over the boxes, the lower compartment
resting upon the rabbet of the hive-board, which may be made as shown
at page 44, and wide enough to leave, on three sides, an outside
margin of an inch. On the front side a rather more extended margin
may be expedient. The height of the lower compartment, measuring from
the rabbet of the floor board, reaches to the top of the stock-box,
except just as much as will allow the slides to pass over its edge. A
good-sized elliptical opening faces the mouth of the hive; or increased
to two, where there is a second entrance. The other compartment of
the case should be high enough to enclose within it the two upper
boxes. To its outer bottom edge, a band or fillet, about two inches
wide, and nearly half an inch thick, is appended, half its width. The
other half-width is intended to overlap the outer upper edge of the
lower case, when placed one upon the other; and this part should be
chamfered, so as to go on and off easily. For appearance' sake, another
band is appended to the upper case, near its top; unless any other
exterior architectural embellishment is preferred. A reference to the
engraving will show the whole design is completed by a hipped roof or
cover. Under the four projecting edges of the latter is a suspended
cornice, about two inches deep, on its outer sides. When in its place,
about three quarters of an inch of the cornice ought to overhang,
dropping loosely over the upper outer edge of the case (a little
chamfered); to regulate this, recessed at the four angles, within the
cover, are attached cross corner blocks. For the purpose of ventilating
the roof, long lateral openings are cut out on the four sides, from the
upper part of the cornice, under the projecting edges of the roof. The
total projection of this may be two inches, or a little more. The cover
ought to fit equally well upon either compartment of the case; for in
winter the edifice can be reduced to one story only.
The stand for the whole is simply an open frame, of the same outside
dimensions as the cases; with inch-thick rails, four inches deep,
framed at the corners to four posts or legs. These may be two inches
square, and eighteen inches high; either sunk into the ground, or
placed upon it, by means of cross-pieces, pinned or pegged down. The
hive-board drops loosely down into the frame, and rests upon the
rails, showing a projection all round of an inch; the cross bars on its
underneath side retaining it steadily.
[Illustration]
In a former edition, this kind of hive, when thus fitted up with an
outer covering, obtained the name of the _double_ bar-hive, by way of
distinction from another mode of constructing it, which will now be
detailed.
Whatever may be said about the inexpediency of placing wooden hives
in exposure to the weather, the one we are now proceeding to describe
was intended to meet the wishes of some bee-proprietors, who objected
to the small degree of trouble, involved in using any kind of outer
casing; obtaining from this circumstance the appellation of the
_single_ bar-hive.
[Illustration]
The three boxes, forming the set, differ but little from those last
described; the interior dimensions, bars, windows, crown-boards, &c.,
being similar; but the centre board is omitted, and the thickness of
the wood must be increased to not less than one and a quarter inch. A
rabbet of a quarter of an inch is cut round all the crown-boards, to
receive a super box, or the roof cover; the better to retain it in
its place. The outside projection should be extended to not less than
an inch and a half; this part being chamfered to throw off wet. The
plan of the roof cover will be seen on reference to our illustration.
The square appended within it is in interior diameter the same as the
boxes, to fit over any of them, resting upon it sufficiently to allow
the projecting parts of the crown-board to be seen as a cornice. Beyond
this, there is a further projection of the roof of an inch, provision
for ventilation being made by a double set of openings, cut as shown
in our engraving. For better security in winter, loose wooden blocks,
to the stock-box, may be made to fill the space intervening between
the glass windows and the sliding shutters. The hive-board may be that
shown either at p. 43, or 44, of the same dimensions as that of the
crown-boards, and chamfered off. The stand to receive it is like the
one described and shown at p. 66, the square of its frame being the
same as that of the exterior of the boxes. Our engraving exhibits a
simple method of adding a useful kind of porch to the entrance of the
stock-box, by means of a strip of zinc or other material, of the width
of the front projection of the floor board. It can be bent into the
form of an elliptical arch, the two lower extremities being held by
going down within the sunken part of the board, whilst the upper part
derives support by being pressed back beneath the window moulding.
[Illustration]
Those who study economy may, instead of the entire set of boxes just
described, retain the stock-box only, with a cover to receive any kind
of super, as shown above. The cover will do if made of half-inch wood,
nine inches high to the square of the roof; the outside dimensions
being the same as in the stock-box. A slanting projecting roof forms a
part of the cover. Under its projecting edges openings for ventilation
can be cut. The cover is retained in its place by a rabbet cut round
the top of the stock-box, and preventing the admission of wet.
The object of the bars we have said is to furnish parallel foundations
on which the combs are to be worked, for without an observance of this
regularity, subsequent extraction becomes impossible; showing the
necessity for a proper _beginning_. To induce the bees to preserve a
straight direction, it has usually been found expedient to append what
are termed _guide-combs_ to three or four of the centre bars of the
stock-box, previously to hiving a swarm into it; and for the purpose
some pieces of clean _worker-comb_ ought to be kept in reserve. In
giving the needful directions for fixing the guides, we cannot do
better than use the words of Mr. Golding, who says, "this is easily
effected by heating a common flat-iron, slightly warming the bars with
it, then melting a little bees'-wax upon it. The comb is now drawn
quickly across the heated iron, and held down upon the centre of the
bar, to which it firmly adheres, if properly managed. These pieces of
guide-comb need not be more than two or three inches in diameter. Care
should be taken that the pitch or inclination of the cells is upwards
from the centre of each comb." Or it may do equally well, if the edge
of the comb is dipped in melted wax.
In the absence of guide-combs another mode of proceeding has been
sometimes successfully resorted to. Take a flat piece of tin or zinc
(or stiff paper might do), of the length and width of one of the bars:
cut out the central portion to the extent of half an inch in width.
Lay the pattern thus prepared upon the bar, and with a brush smear,
in a straight line, some melted bees'-wax along the central half-inch
opening, and so proceed with four or five other bars. The bees will
usually commence working first upon the waxed part of the bar, and
this tends to uniformity subsequently. Nothing can be more beautiful
than a box of honey-combs thus regularly worked; nor is it possible
in any other way to have them so perfect and unbroken, when detached.
Indeed, the convenience of moveable bars can only be appreciated
by those accustomed to their use. Their advantage is apparent when
it has become expedient to remove old combs from stock-hives. They
may be made available in cases where one box has more and another
less of sufficient store of honey: in such event, or as a substitute
for feeding, a loaded bar or two can be transferred from the one to
the other; or from a super to a stock-box. For the object of making
artificial swarms great facility is given, more especially when a comb
contains a royal cell. A brood-comb may in like manner be taken and
inserted in a weak stock, to strengthen the population; or for the
purpose of rearing a Queen artificially, in a hive wanting one. So
also, in the swarming season, supernumerary royal cells may be cut out:
likewise, a superabundance of drone-combs can be removed, and the bees
will fill the vacancies with common ones.