Fig. 56.—Glass Frame Hive, with Super.
It is usual now to pack a certain number of these into a frame or "crate," so that they may conveniently be placed upon, or removed from, the top of a hive. If kept properly warm, and well protected by their cover, not only do the bees, when needing room for storage, readily take to them, but they afford means of collecting, in a very neat, attractive, and convenient form, large quantities of purest and sealed honey. Thousands of hundred-weights are now annually secured in this manner in our own country, and tons of such filled sections are every year imported from America, from which country, we believe, was derived this ingenious little invention, which has done so much towards the promotion of the pleasure and profit of bee-keeping among us.
Some people, however, still prefer to secure their super-honey in bar-frames similar, except in point of depth, to those of the stock hive. Such an arrangement may be seen on the preceding page, which represents one made by Messrs. Neighbour and Son.
A form of hive first brought out at Stewarton, in Scotland, and named after the place of its original manufacture, is a great favourite with many bee-keepers, and certainly often yields admirable results in the way of super-honey. We are warranted, therefore, in giving some account of it.
It consists (see [Fig. 57]) ordinarily of four octagonal boxes. Three of these, A, B, and C, are called "body-boxes," and serve as abodes for the bees, for nurseries and supplies of food, for rearing the young and for winter use. Each is fourteen inches in diameter in the widest parts, and five and a-half inches deep inside. Nine bars range along the top of each. These are not movable, but serve as guides to the bees for building straight combs. Between them, and beyond the outer ones, are ten narrow strips made to slide in grooves in the bars, so that the top is completely and securely covered. The figure represents the way in which the slides shift. The top box D is that in which the honey to be taken by the bee-master is stored. It is four inches in depth, its other dimensions being similar to those of the boxes below it. It is furnished with only seven or eight, instead of nine bars, the object being to induce the bees to build longer cells for depositing honey in. This not only secures a greater quantity for less expenditure of wax, but prevents the queen laying eggs in them, if she should go up into the top box.
Fig. 57.—Stewarton Hive.
For her majesty, finding it impossible to reach the bottom of the cells to place her eggs as she has been accustomed to do, will retire to the lower boxes, where she finds places perfectly adapted to her instincts or her needs. The honey is thus kept free from brood, and it presents a massive and rich appearance. Bees seem greatly to appreciate this form of hive, and a strong swarm will often fill the two lower boxes with comb in ten days. To get the full advantage, however, of this system, it is best to put a swarm into each of the lower compartments, or in the first and third, if two colonies of bees cannot be procured on the same day. If they be kept asunder a few days by slides with perforations, to let their odours commingle, they may be allowed to join their forces, and the queens will settle the sovereignty by a battle, ending in the death of the weaker. When the stock-boxes have become well filled with bees, admission may be given to the honey-box, and, in a good season, splendid combs of honey may be secured in this way. We have seen supers of great weight and beauty taken from the Stewarton hive. Its merits have been well described from time to time in The Journal of Horticulture and The Bee Journal, by a "A Renfrewshire Bee-keeper."
Mr. C. W. Smith designed a modification of the above hives which he named the Carr-Stewarton. In it the square form is substituted for the octagonal, so as to secure the interchangeability of all combs—an important matter in the practical affairs of an apiary.