A Description of the Bar-and-Frame-Hive: With an Abstract of Wildman's Complete Guide for the Management of Bees Throughout the YearMunn, William Augustus
Science
A Description of the Bar-and-Frame-Hive: With an Abstract of Wildman's Complete Guide for the Management of Bees Throughout the Year
Munn, William Augustus
Bee culture; Beehives; Bees
The use of this "observation frame" must now be explained more fully:
the top lid of the bee box, Plate I, fig. 1. G. H. being thrown up,
will screen the "operator" from the bees, which are flying in and out
in the front of the hive or box. The back lid, I. J., is let down, and
supported by the quadrants Q. Q., and forms a table, the box having been
raised from the ground by the four legs, L L L L. The observation frame
is placed opposite to whichever bee-frame is to be examined; the two
pins, _a, b_, fig. 3, running into the holes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, &c., made
in the bottom board. The small bolts, Plate I, secured at the top, as
at _r_, and the back _m_: the long spindle, S, is run through the 2/8
hole in the back of the observation frame, as at Z, and the end of the
spindle screwed into the screw socket _t_, at the back of the bee-frame
_w_; the two pieces of tin on the right and left of the bee-frame are
pulled out (of course the observation frame being empty, and having the
piece of tin from its front taken out), the operator holding by the
handle, _z_, of the spindle, gradually draws out the bee-frame into the
observation frame, and after examining the bees and comb, gently returns
the bee-frame into its groove in the floor-board: the two slips of
tin are then replaced in the backs of the bee-frames: the spindle is
unscrewed and withdrawn, the bolts are unfastened, the observation frame
being kept firmly in its place, held by the left hand of the operator,
whilst with the right he runs in the long slip of tin, _d_, fig. 3, into
the front of the observation frame, to keep the bees (escaped from the
returned bee-frame), until the observation frame is again fixed opposite
to another bee-frame, when the tin is withdrawn and the bolts fastened
as before. It has been shown that by these means, each bee-frame, and
the bees and comb contained in it, can be easily drawn out and examined,
without interfering with any other part of the hive, or occasioning the
loss of a single bee.
The whole of the interior of the hive is thus open to inspection at any
moment, and a choice can be made of the combs containing the most honey,
or the bee owner enabled to trace the devastation of the honey moth,
and ascertain the presence of any other enemy, and this without the
assistance of smoke, which must be injurious both to the bees and their
brood.
When the bee-frame is returned and secured, the observation-frame is
removed; then the lid, I J, being shut up and bolted, and the upper lid,
G H, closed, the box may be locked up. When the bees have been shut in
with the slide in the front, the hive or box is ready to be transported
anywhere, to procure new pasturage for them, which, as every experienced
bee-keeper knows, is of the greatest benefit to prolong their
honey-harvest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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