The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1879-09-24


North, where the cold is so intense
that one halt, or nearly so, of winter
is freezing, thick log would winter
bees better than common board
hive, but this does not prove it to be
the best and most suited for success
full bee culture, as there are methods
of wintering bees successfully in the
frame hive. Again, some have argued
that deep frames was the best, that
such seemed to be approaching nearer
the nature of the bees. Taking the
tree for their belief that hollow trees
was designed for them, no doubt
there is some truth connected with
the fact of the statements made, that
bees winter better in a deep hive
than a shallow one in cold climate.
This we proved more than forty years
ago. In deep hive the bees deposit
the greater portion of their honey
above them, while in the shallow hive
the greatest portion of the honey
lays on the ends and sides of the
hive. In a cold climate it requires
the honey to be above the bees. The
heat generated by the bees, like
other heat, arises, which enables the
bees to rise with it, thereby enabling
them to draw their food as they re-
quire it, when, if they were in low
hive, they generally occupy the full
depth Of it. Their stores are ex-
hausted above them and this happen
ing in cold freezing time, the mois-
ture that has accumulated from the
breath Of the bees has passed to the
sides of the hive, freezing as fast as
it accumulates, which soon forms
circle of ice, it being upon the sides
of the bees-the heat generated by
them that is calculated to protect
them does them no good, and in this
condition they often perish in the
midst OF plenty. We have witnessed
hundreds of such cases, and this being
q fact has given publicity to the deep
hive, while the low shallow hive pos
sesses more excellent qualities than
a deeper one, but is better adapted
to warm climate, where bees can
fly out every day or two, which gives
them chance to locate in any part
of their comb. The shallow hive pos
sesses rare qualities over the deeper
one first, the frames are handled
with twice the ease than that of
deep one; second, they are not so
liable to be crooked, they have less
chance to wave as ffy DO in deep
combs; third, it givgs q mtici gFear07r'
capacity for surplus honey, if both
hives are of the same sizes fourth,
the bees will work much quicker in
the boxes; this being fact with the
great ease of handling them, would
alone give the shallow frame the
preference, and more especially in a
climate like this. Our standard frame
is Skis in the clear, with nine frames
to the hive; can use two sets of
frames if desired; we can use from
three to five tiers OF small frames if
desired, giving us from one to three
hundred pounds capacity at one time,
and if honey is our object we place
upon the hive tier of racks. AS soon
as the bees commence in these we
raise them up and place an empty set
beneath them, we keep this up as
long as the brood nest seems to be
crowded ; by so doing we give the
queen full control of the brood-nest.
This gives large increase which will
greatly swell the number of the work
ing class, and the result will be a
large surplus of honey as well as OF
bees. The hives should be made as
simple as can be, and possess the
advantages of handling bees success
fully. We use no bevel edges for
straight combs; our frame is flat,
cheap and simple. We use either
small piece or full rack of comb
foundation a very small piece
answers a good purpose, but a full
frame advances the work enough to
pay the expense Of it. Comb toun-
dation is one of the Indispensable to
successful bee culture, and small
quantity of it does much in the adj
vancement of an apiary, the bees ac-
cept it readily, and their work upon
is wonderful. We are using quail
ity of it made upon tin.foil; it has
never sagged particle. and is held
as firmly as when placed in the frame.
Our advice to new beginners is, to
go carefully but steadily and firmly ;
adopt nothing calculated to impede
your progress, use nothing but the
simplest and most useful aparian sup
plies, avoid complicated bee hives
and all complicated fixtures OF any
kind; study we'll the nature and hab-