§ X. GENERAL HINTS ON FRAME HIVES.
It may not unnaturally be asked by some, Why all this trouble about frame hives? No one, however, who has carefully read the previous sections of this chapter, and especially those on "Artificial Swarming" and "Queen-Rearing," can require any further answer to such question. Briefly, frame hives stand immeasurably above others from the full command over the bees which they afford. The facility of inspection for ascertaining the strength of the colony or the stock of its honey, or for incidental purposes, such as the detection of disease and the extirpation of enemies such as the bee-moth, and again the facilities provided for giving ventilation or for contracting the dimensions to suit a small population, are among the minor but still great advantages which the use of these hives secures. In skilful hands these advantages may be used successfully; though in the hands of the unpractised and unskilful the contrary may be the result.
It is a great desideratum that all the bars and frames in an apiary should be of precisely the same dimensions, so as to fit every hive. A hive that is weakly may often be advantageously strengthened by having put into it a comb of brood from a populous stock, to which an empty frame from the weak one may be given; no bees must be on the brood-comb—these should be shaken off or gently dislodged with a feather into the hive from which the comb is taken. The frames of combs should then be, one by one, placed so as to fill in the vacancy, leaving, the empty frame nearest the side.
In the British Bee Journal of March 1875, Mr. Cowan gives the following excellent description of his system of working frame hives. He says: "The method is very simple, but is one that requires much attention, which is, however, well repaid by the extra quantity of honey obtained. The hives I use are the ten-frame Woodbury, and thirteen-frame on the Woodbury plan, only longer. In the autumn I transfer the bees into clean hives and leave them seven or eight frames, and should they be short of food or of bees I add those I may take from the cottagers in the neighbourhood. I feed with sugar and water of the strength of two pounds of sugar to a pint of water boiled a few minutes. They are fed up to a weight of thirty pounds. During winter they have ample ventilation—the hives being raised about one-eighth of an inch from the floor-board, and the top board is also raised about the same height, so that there is a constant current of air through the hive. While I am on the subject of wintering I may mention that I have tried several plans. With the above I have always been free from mouldy combs. I have also tried wintering without crown-boards, by merely placing an empty super on the top, and I have done so successfully—in fact, the hive which produced the largest quantity of honey last year was wintered in this way. Condensers I have tried, but give the preference to crown-boards without them. I am trying the quilts on some of my hives, but must reserve my opinion about them until later on.
"I generally supply my bees with plenty of food in the autumn, so that they require no further attention until about the end of February, when, if the weather is fine, the bees are all thoroughly roused into activity and induced to commence and continue breeding until the honey-gathering season commences, by which time every frame in the hive is filled with brood, and the hives are so strong that it is easy to make an artificial swarm and to ensure a good supply of honey besides. If the weather is fine, about the end of February (or if cold, then I defer a little longer) the bees are transferred into clean hives; and in this way I get to know the exact state of the community. Now suppose it is a ten-frame Woodbury hive. I do not return the whole of the eight frames which the bees had for wintering on, but only from five to six of the centre ones, and contract the size of the hive to the six frames. I then unseal the honey-cells of two of the frames, and allow the honey to run down inside the hive. This thoroughly rouses the bees; and the queen at once begins to lay. The running honey is very soon collected and stored; and in a few days I do the same with a couple more frames, and so on until all the frames have been unsealed. I find this a great advantage, as much of the honey that has granulated, and which the bees will not touch, is removed by them out of the hive, and gives them increased space.
"I now commence very gentle feeding, for which purpose I use the very fine strainers found in Loysell's coffee-percolators, and allow each hive from a quarter to half a pint of food a day, of the strength of about three pounds of sugar to a quart of water. When there is sealed brood in three or four of the frames I add two more—making eight—and serve them in the same manner as the rest; then when there are six with sealed brood, the colony will be sufficiently strong to have the remaining frames added. The same plan is adopted with the thirteen-frame hive. They must be constantly watched so as not to allow them to store too much food, which would diminish the space for egg-laying; and if such is found to be the case, food should be withheld for a day or two, or until they are getting short of it. In this way I keep them going from day to day; watch them carefully, or it might happen that a hive full of bees—and at swarming point—might, if not watched and supplied with requisite food for existence, swarm or decamp. So by the time there is an abundance of honey abroad the hives are completely filled with bees and contain brood in every frame hive; and then it is that I put on my supers and discontinue stimulative feeding.
"In the place of the crown-board I place a sheet of five-thirty-second perforated zinc, and supers same size as hive and five inches deep. The supers are provided with bars which are sawn down the centre, enabling me to fix a strip of impressed wax sheet without any difficulty. The bees generally take to these supers at once; and in a day or two the crown-board of super is removed, and I place a second super without top board between the first one and stock hive. The supers are also provided with traps [[page 201]] to enable bees to leave after they have deposited their load, instead of passing through the stock hive. Now it sometimes happens that for some days the weather is fine and the bees begin storing a large quantity of honey in the supers (as they have no room in the stock hive), when suddenly the weather changes and cold sets in. As soon as this happens I remove the supers and watch the bees, and if they require small quantities of food I give it them, and when the fine weather returns they go again into the supers when replaced on top. In this way it sometimes takes only a week to fill a thirty-eight or forty pound super with some of the best honey that can be obtained in this part of the country [Horsham]. I discard old queens and generally select young and prolific egg-layers."
Agreeing as we do very much with the hints Mr. Cowan gives, we commend them to the careful carrying out of intelligent and painstaking apiarians.