The apiary; or, bees, bee-hives, and bee culture [1878]: being a familiar account of the habits of bees, and the most improved methods of managementNeighbor, Alfred
Science
The apiary; or, bees, bee-hives, and bee culture [1878]: being a familiar account of the habits of bees, and the most improved methods of management
The stock hive we are now describing measures sixteen inches and
three-quarters from front to rear, and seventeen and a quarter from
side to side, within; the height is nine inches and a half, and it
contains eleven frames and one division board or dummy. Each of the
frames is fitted with a false bar, which is intended to be under the
bar proper: by taking a frame and pressing this bar out, an arrangement
will be found for enclosing and holding tightly fixed the impressed
sheets of wax for guides. The ends of the frames rest in the front and
back of the hive; the top edges of the latter being deeply grooved
along their centres to reduce the bearing surfaces, so that there
may be less danger of crushing a bee when the frames are placed in
position. These are now kept apart, and the spaces between are closed
by wooden slides as in the octagon Stewarton hive; thus the advantages
claimed by Scotch apiarians are here to be found in a square bar-frame
hive. The sides and lower ends of the frames have projections which
touch and keep each other steady, so that the combs are not so liable
to be pressed together.
The super is four inches deep and equal in diameter to the stock hive,
and is furnished, like it, with false bars, which have slits for
inserting those infallible guides, the impressed waxen sheets. These
are surmounted with another row of movable bars with the Stewarton
slides between as before explained.
The back of the hive has a circular revolving disc of wood of half
thickness let into it, in which are three three-quarter inch holes
covered with perforated zinc, so that ventilation may be given or not.
The alighting-board is made to slide in and out in grooves beneath the
floor-board, which arrangement is convenient for transit of the hive to
the moors or anywhere else. The entrance is opened or closed by means
of sliding shutters, one on each side.
Outside covering from the weather is needed, and this we are also in a
position to provide. This is beyond doubt an ingenious useful hive, and
how so much labour can be bestowed and yet the hive cost so little is a
marvel.
§ XVII. NEIGHBOURS' UNICOMB OBSERVATORY HIVE--OUTDOOR.
The unicomb hive here represented has many advantages over similar
hives as previously constructed. The illustration shows the interior
divided into six compartments; these are six Woodbury frames. The inner
sash opens, to admit of hanging up the frames on the notches prepared
for them. The width of the hive between the glasses of the sashes is
just sufficient to admit of one thickness of comb, with space on each
side for the bees to pass and repass between the glass and the comb.
Any one possessing a Woodbury box or straw frame hive can readily
commence a unicomb, and as readily put the combs and bees back into the
square hive again.
[Illustration]
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