The Best Hive.
Reading edition
In answer to many inquiries as to the best hive, we will here state that is a mere matter of choice. Many good movable frame hives are now in use, free from patents, and while we prefer the Langstroth, there may be others just as good.
Apiarists differ as to what constitutes the best hive. Novices in bee culture generally think that they can invent a better hive than any in use, but after trying their invention for awhile, conclude that they are not as wise as they thought they were. Many hives are patented yearly by persons ignorant of the nature of the honey-bee, and few, if any, are received with favor by intelligent apiarists.
The requisites for a good hive are durability, simplicity, ease of construction and of working, and pleasing to the eye. We think the Langstroth embodies these. It was invented by the father of modern bee-culture. He gave to the world the movable frame; without its use, we might as well keep our bees in hollow logs, as our fathers did. Different sizes of movable frames are now in use, but two-thirds of the apiarists prefer the Langstroth.
Upon many farms, bees may be found in salt barrels, nail-kegs, etc., doing little good for their owner, while if they were put into hives, where the surplus could be obtained in good shape, they would become a source of income. Specialists either manufacture their own hives, or buy them in the flat, in the lumber region. As the farmer may need but a few hives, he may find leisure in winter to make them.
Every farmer needs a workshop, and if he has none, should provide himself with one. It need not be large, and can be made quite inexpensively. In his barn, if it is large, partition off a room for a workshop 12 × 14 feet, and if he not be blessed with a good large barn, why a thousand feet of common boards, and a load of good stout saplings, with a little mechanical skill and some muscle, will provide a very good farm workshop.
Get a few tools, such as a saw, square, plane, hatchet, a brace, and a few bits, and before twelve months pass away you will wonder how you ever managed to do without one before; many a singletree or doubletree can be made, or broken implements repaired during leisure, or the rainy days of late winter or spring, and the boys will go there to try their hands, and develop their mechanical skill; exercising both brain and muscle. Remember that the school of industry is second to no university in the land.
Now for the hives; in the first place you need a pattern. Purchase of some dealer or manufacturer of apiarian supplies, a good Langstroth hive complete with section boxes. Then get a couple of hundred feet (more or less) of ten inch stock boards, mill dressed on both sides, then with your pattern hive, workshop, and tools, you are master of the situation. After your hives are made, don't forget to paint them; it is economy to paint hives as well as dwelling houses.
LANGSTROTH HIVE.
For the benefit of those who may not be able to obtain a pattern hive, or frame, we will give the dimensions. The sides of the Langstroth hive are 10 inches wide, by 23 inches long, the ends are 12 inches long, the back end the same width as the sides; front end, 3/8 inches narrower, and recesses or sets back 33/8 inches from portico, all 7/8 inches thick. The Langstroth frame is 17¼×9¼ inches outside measure. The length of top bar of frame is 19¼ inches, the frame stuff is all 7/8 wide, the top bar is 5/8×7/8, and is V shaped on the under side for a comb guide—the upright pieces ½×7/8, the bottom pieces ¼×7/8.
The above are the dimensions of an eight frame hive. Strips ¼×7/8 inches are nailed on the outside of the hive ¼ inch from the upper edge, and the cap or upper hive rests upon them. We make the cap 221/8 inches long by 137/8 inches wide in the clear, and ten inches high.
Some apiarists omit the porticos, but we like them, and the bees appear to enjoy them. Right angled triangle blocks, made right and left, are used to regulate the entrance. By changing the position of these blocks on the alighting board the size of the entrance may be varied, and the bees always directed to it by the shape of the block, without any loss of time in searching for it—in case of robbing the hive, the hive can be entirely closed with them. A board was formerly used to cover the frames, but is now generally abandoned, apiarists preferring duck, enameled cloth, or heavy muslin.
Mrs. L. Harrison.
No Safer Remedy can be had for Coughs and Colds, or any trouble of the Throat, than "Brown's Bronchial Troches." Price 25 cents. Sold only in boxes.
MISCELLANEOUS.
ARM & HAMMER BRAND
& SALERATUS
TO FARMERS.—It is important that the Soda or Saleratus they use should be white and pure, in common with all similar substances used for food.
In making bread with yeast, it is well to use about half a teaspoonful of the "Arm and Hammer" Brand Soda or Saleratus at the same time, and thus make the bread rise better and prevent it becoming sour by correcting the natural acidity of the yeast.
DAIRYMEN AND FARMERS
should use only the "Arm and Hammer" brand for cleaning and keeping milk-pans sweet and clean.
To insure obtaining only the "Arm and Hammer" brand Soda or Saleratus, buy it in "POUND or HALF-POUND PACKAGES," which bear our name and trade-mark, as inferior goods are sometimes substituted for the "Arm and Hammer" brand when bought in bulk.
"THE BEST IS THE CHEAPEST."
ENGINES, SAW MILLS, THRESHERS, HORSE POWERS,
(For all sections and purposes.) Write for Free Pamphlet and Prices to The Aultman & Taylor Co., Mansfield, Ohio.
THE FAMOUS EASY-RUNNING Monarch Lightning Sawing Machine
IT BEATS THE WORLD FOR SAWING LOGS OR FAMILY STOVE WOOD.
SENT ON 30 DAYS' TEST TRIAL.
The boy in the picture on the left is sawing up logs into 20-inch lengths, to be split into stovewood for family use. This is much the BEST and CHEAPEST way to get out your firewood, because the 20-inch blocks are VERY EASILY split up, a good deal easier and quicker than the old-fashioned way of cutting the logs into 4-feet lengths, splitting it into cordwood, and from that sawing it up with a buck saw into stovewood. We sell a large number of machines to farmers and others for just this purpose. A great many persons who had formerly burned coal have stopped that useless expense since getting our Machine. Most families have one or two boys, 16 years of age and up, who can employ their spare time in sawing up wood just as well as not. The
MONARCH LIGHTNING SAWING MACHINE
will save your paying money and board to ONE hired man and perhaps TWO men.
The boy at the right in the picture is sawing up cordwood in a buck frame. You can very easily use our machine in this way if you have cordwood on hand that you wish to saw up into suitable lengths for firewood.
A boy sixteen years old can work the machine all day and not get any more tired than he would raking hay. The machine runs very easily, so easily, in fact, that after giving the crank half a dozen turns, the operator may let go and the machine will run itself for three or four revolutions. Farmers owning standing timber cannot fail to see the many advantages of this great labor-saving and money-saving machine. If you prefer, you can easily go directly into the woods and easily saw the logs into 20-inch lengths for your family use, or you can saw them into 4-foot lengths, to be split into cordwood, when it can be readily hauled off to the village market. Many farmers are making a good deal of money with this Machine in employing the dull months of the year in selling cordwood.
It makes a great difference in labor and money both in using our machine, because you get away with a second man. It takes two men to run the old-fashioned cross-cut saw, and it makes two backs ache every day they use it. Not so with our saw.
We offer $1,000 for a sawing machine that is EASIER OPERATED and FASTER RUNNING than ours. Every farmer should own our machine. It will pay for itself in one season. Easily operated by a sixteen-year-old boy.
Lumbermen and farmers should GET THE BEST—GET THE CHEAPEST—GET THE MONARCH LIGHTNING SAWING MACHINE.
E. DUTTER, Hicksville, O., writes:—It runs so easy that it is JUST FUN to saw wood.
C. A. COLE, Mexico, N. Y., writes:—With this machine I sawed off an elm log, twenty-one inches in diameter, in one minute, forty-three seconds.
Z. G. HEGE, Winston, N. C., writes:—I have shown your machine to several farmers, and all pronounce it a PERFECT SUCCESS.
WM. DILLENBACK, Dayton, Tex., writes:—I am WELL PLEASED with the Monarch Lightning Sawing Machine. My boys can saw WITH ALL EASE.
L. W. YOST, Seneca, Kan., writes:—I will bet $50 that I can saw as much with this machine as any two men can with the old-fashioned cross-cut saw.
T. K. BUCK, Mt. Vernon, Ill., writes:—I have given the Monarch a fair trial, and can truly say it is ALL YOU CLAIM FOR IT, a complete success, enabling a boy to do the work of two strong men, and indeed, more. I would not take $75 for the Monarch and be deprived of the privilege of having another like it. I sawed off a twenty-inch solid water oak log twelve times yesterday in Forty-Five Minutes.
J. M. CRAWFORD. Columbia, S. C., writes:—I tried the Monarch on an oak log to-day before twenty farmers. All said it WORKED PERFECTLY.
N. B.—We are selling SIX TIMES as many Machines as any other firm, simply because our Machine gives perfect satisfaction. Our factory is running day and night to fill orders. Send in your order at once. The BEST is the CHEAPEST. Our agent sold four machines in one day. Another sold twenty-eight in his township. Another agent cleared $100 in one week. BE SURE AND MENTION THIS PAPER.
WE WISH A LIVE, WIDE-AWAKE AGENT IN EVERY COUNTY IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA. ☞ Write for Latest Illustrated Catalogue giving Special Terms and scores of Testimonials.
MONARCH MANUFACTURING CO. 163 E. RANDOLPH STREET, CHICAGO, ILL.
Remember that $2.00 pays for The Prairie Farmer one year and, the subscriber gets a copy of The Prairie Farmer County Map of the United States, free! This is the most liberal offer ever made by any first-class weekly agricultural paper in this country.
