_Orchard, Iowa._
[For the American Bee Journal.]
The Gallup Hive.
I wonder sometimes how many bee-keepers have tried the Gallup Hive,
there being so many other hives that are so highly recommended. I have
made and used, now for two seasons, more than a dozen of the Gallup form
of hive; and thus far I think it is good for all that Gallup claims for
it. Simple in its construction, easily and cheaply made, and for one, I
cannot conceive how any hive could be better adapted or more convenient
to form nuclei with full sized combs, to raise queens, to equalize bees
and stores, build up stocks, exchange combs promiscuously from hive to
hive, &c., &c. No trouble about the frames hanging true, and I think I
can handle a set of frames in the Gallup form of hive in as short a time
as I can in the Langstroth standard; and I am using both. If the several
parts of the Gallup hive are correctly made and put in place, it is
almost air-tight; and yet any amount of air, whether much or little, can
be given and regulated, even to the extent of suspending the hive in
mid-air, with top and bottom off, if it were necessary. Its surplus
honey arrangement can be made to suit location or fancy. I do not
suppose that Novice or Grimm, or some others, would do any better by
using the Gallup hive; but my circumstances are very different from
theirs. And as it is of the utmost importance to me to use only one kind
of hive, I intend to use the Gallup form exclusively as soon as I can,
without material loss.