On the construction of A bee-hive

A bee-hive should be made of sound boards, free from shakes and cracks; it should also be planed smooth, inside and out, made in a workmanlike manner, and painted on its outside.

Remarks.

That a bee-hive should be made perfect, so as to exclude light and air, is obvious from the fact, that the bees will finish what the workman has neglected, by plastering up all such cracks and crevices, or bad joints, as are left open by the joiner. The substance they use for this purpose is neither honey nor wax, but a kind of glue or cement of their own manufacturing, and is used by the bees to fill up all imperfect joints and exclude all light and air. This cement or glue is very congenial to the growth of the moth in the first stages of its existence.

The moth miller enters the hive, generally, in the night makes an incision into the glue or cement with her sting, and leaves her eggs deposited in the glue, where it remains secure from the bees; it being guarded by the timber on its sides. Thus, while a maggot, (larva) the moth uses the cement for food until it arrives so far towards a state of maturity as to be able to spin a web, which is more fully explained in remarks on Rule 10.

The size of a hive should be in accordance with the strictest rules of economy, and adapted to the peculiar nature and economy of the honey-bee, in order to make them profitable to their owner.

The lower apartment of the hive, where they store their food, raise their young bees, and perform their ordinary labors, should hold as much as a box thirteen inches and one half or fourteen inches square in the clear.

If the hive is much larger than the one described above, with the chamber in proportion, which should hold about two-thirds as much as the lower apartment, the bees will not be likely to swarm during the season.

Bees in large hives never swarm; and those in hives much less than the one already described, do but little else than raise young bees and lay up a sufficient quantity of food to supply them through the coming winter, and are more liable to be robbed.

All hives of bees that swarm are liable to swarm too much, and reduce their colonies so low in numbers as to materially injure them, and is frequently the cause of their destruction by the moth, which is more particularly explained in remarks on Rule 2.

The changer of the hive should be made perfectly tight, so as to exclude all light from the drawers.

Drawers should be small like N, for all purposes except such as are used for multiplying colonies and transferring, which should always be large like N.

Hives should have elects on their sides, so as to suspend them in the air some distance from the floor of the apiary, the better to secure the bees from destruction by mice, reptiles, and other vermin.

The back side or rear of the lower apartment of the hive should slant forward, so as to render the same smallest at the bottom, the better to secure the combs from falling when cracked by frost or nearly melted in hot weather.

No timbers or boards should be placed very near the lower edge of the hive, because it facilitates the entrance of depredators. That the back side should slant forward, is obvious from the fact, that bees generally rest one edge of their combs on that side, and build towards the front in such a manner as to enter upon the same sheet where they intend to deposit their stores, when they first enter the hive, without being compelled to take any unnecessary steps.

The bottom of the hive should slant downward from rear to front, so as to afford the greatest facility to the bees to clear their tenement of all offensive substances, and let the water, which is occasioned by the breath and vapor of the bees, run off in cold water. It also aids the bees very much in preventing the entrance of robbers.

The bottom board should be suspended by staples and hooks near each corner of the hive, in such a manner as to afford a free entrance and egress to the bees on all its sides, which will better enable them to keep their tenement clear of the moths.

There should be a button attached to the lower edge of the rear of the hive, so as to enable the apiarian to govern the bottom board in such a manner as to give all the air they need, or close the hive at pleasure.

The hive should have two sticks placed at equal distances, extending from front to rear, resting on the rear, with a screw driven through the front into the end of the stick, which holds it fast in its place, and a ventilator hear the top of the lower apartment of the hive, to let off the vapor which frequently causes the death of the bees in the winter by freezing.

The door to the chamber should be made to fit in the rabitings of the same against the jambs, in such a manner as to exclude the light from the windows of the drawers, and also to prevent the entrance of the little ants. It should also be hung by butts, or fastened by a bar, running vertically across the centre of the door, and confined by staples at each end. There should be three sheet-iron slides, one of which should be nearly as wide as the chamber, and one or two inches longer than the length of the chamber. The other two should be the same length of the first, and half its width only.

All hives and all their appendages should be made exactly of a size and shape in the same apiary. The trouble of equalizing colonies is far less than it is to accommodate hives to swarms. Much perplexity and sometimes serious difficulties occur, where the apiarian uses different sized hives and drawers. But this part of the subject will be more fully discussed under its proper rule.