CHAPTER VII. [95]
ADVANTAGES OF AN IMPROVED HIVE.
In this chapter, I want to talk about certain desirable, even necessary, qualities of a good hive. I have neither the taste nor the time for disparaging other hives. I prefer inviting the attention of other bee-keepers to the importance of these requisites; some of which, as I believe, might be found in no hive but my own. Let them be most carefully examined, and if they commend themselves to the enlightened judgment and good common sense of other bee cultivators, let them be employed to test the comparative merits of the various kinds of hives in common use.
1. A good hive should give the Apiarian a perfect control over all the combs: so that any of them may be taken out at pleasure; and this, without cutting them, or enraging the bees.
This advantage is possessed by no hive in use, except my own; and it forms the very foundation of an improved and profitable system of bee-culture. Unless the combs are under the complete control of the Apiarian [bee keeper], he can have no effectual mastery over his bees. They swarm too much or too little, as suits themselves, and their owner is almost entirely dependent upon their caprice. [96]
2. It ought to afford suitable protection against extremes of heat and cold, sudden changes of temperature, and unhealthy effects of dampness.
In winter, the interior of the hive should be kept dry, and no frost should ever get inside; and in summer, the bees should not be overworked in extreme and almost suffocating heat. (See these points discussed in the Chapter on Protection.)
3. It should permit all necessary operations to be performed without hurting or killing a single bee.
It has been common that hives were constructed so that it was impossible to work with the bees, without, at times, injuring or destroying some of the bees. The mere destruction of a few bees, would not, except from a viewpoint of humanity, be of much consequence, if it did not increase the difficulty of managing them. Bees remember injuries done to any of them for some time, and often find an opportunity to avenge them.
4. It should allow every thing to be done that is necessary in the most extensive management of bees, without incurring any serious risk of exciting their anger. (See Chapter on the Anger of Bees.)
5. Not a single unnecessary step or motion ought to be required of a single bee.
The honey harvest, in most places, is a pretty short event; and all the arrangements of the hive should help, as much as possible, the work of the honey gatherers, who have got enough to do. Tall hives, for example, and other that may force bees to travel with heavy burdens of pollen, through densely crowded combs, can be a problem. The bees in my hive, instead of forcing their way through thick clusters, can easily pass into the surplus honey boxes, not only from any other comb in the hive, but without having to interfere with the combs at all. [97]
6. It should afford suitable facilities for inspecting, at all times, the condition of the bees.
When the sides of a beehive are of glass, as soon as the outer cover is elevated, the honey farmer has a view of the interior, and can often at a glance, determine its condition. If the hive is of wood, or if he wishes to make a more thorough examination, in a few minutes every comb may be taken out, and separately inspected. In this way, the exact condition of every colony may always be easily seen, and nothing left, as in the common hives, to mere conjecture. This is an advantage, the importance of which it would be difficult to over estimate. (See Chapters on the loss of the queen, and on the Bee Moth.)
7. While the hive is of a size adapted to the natural instincts of the bee, it should be capable of being readily adjusted to the wants of small colonies.
If a small swarm is put into a large hive, they will be unable to concentrate their group's natural heat to their best advantage, and will often appear to become discouraged, and even abandon their hive. If they are put into too small a hive, its limited area will not allow for suitable accommodations for increase. By means of movable partitions, your hive can, in a few moments, be adapted to the needs of any colony of any size.
8. It should allow the combs to be removed without any jarring.
Bees dislike any sudden movement of the hive; for that can loosen and detach their honeycombs. However firmly fastened the frames may be in a well designed and constructed hive, they should be able to be easily loosened in a few moments, without injuring or exciting the bees. [98]
9. It should allow every good piece of comb to be given to the bees, instead of being melted into wax. (See Chapter on Comb.)
10. The construction of the hive should induce the bees to build their combs with great regularity.
A hive which contains too large a proportion of irregular honeycomb, cannot be expected to prosper. Such comb is only suitable for storing honey, or raising drones. This is one reason why so many colonies never flourish. A glance will often be enough to show that a hive contains so much drone comb, that it is unfit to be used as a stock hive.
11. A well designed beehive should furnish the means of gathering honeycomb to be used as a guide to the bees, in building regular combs in empty hives; and to induce them more readily to take over the surplus honey receptacles.
It is well known that the presence of honeycomb will motivate bees to begin work much more readily than they otherwise Would: this is especially in the case of glass vessels.
12. It should allow the removal of drone combs from the hive, to prevent the breeding of too many drones. (See remarks on Drones.)
13. It should enable the honey farmer, when the combs become too old, to remove them, and supply their place with new ones.
No hive can, in this respect, equal one in which, any comb can be removed, and the part which is too old, be cut off quickly. The upper part of a comb, which is generally used for storing honey, will last without renewal for many years.
14. It ought to furnish the most possible protection against the Bee-Moth.
Neither before nor after it is occupied, ought there to be [99] any cracks or crevices in the interior. All such places will be filled by the bees with propolis or bee-glue; a substance, which is always soft, especially in the summer heat of the hive, and which forms a proper surface for the deposit of the eggs of the moth. If the sides of the hive are of glass, and the corners are sealed with a melted mixture, three parts rosin, and one part bees-wax, the bees will waste little time gathering propolis, and the bee-moth will find not much opportunity for laying her eggs, even if she should succeed in entering the hive.
Wood hives should be built so that they may be thoroughly painted inside and out, but, without being so smooth as to annoy the bees; for they pass over the frames to which the honeycombs are attached. In this way, whether the inside surface is glass or wood, it is not liable to crack, warp, or absorb moisture, once the bees set up housekeeping.
If the hives are painted inside, it should be done some length of time before they are used. If the interior of the wooden hive is brushed with a very hot mixture of the rosin and bees-wax, the hives may be used immediately.
15. It should furnish some place accessible to the beekeeper, where the bee-moth can be tempted to deposit her eggs, and the worms, when full grown, to wind themselves in their cocoons. (See remarks on the Bee-Moth.)
16. It should enable the Apiarian, if the bee-moth ever gains the upper hand of the bees, to remove the combs, and expel the worms. (See Bee-Moth.)
17. The bottom board should be permanently attached to the hive, or, it will be inconvenient to move the hive when bees are in it, and next to impossible to prevent moths and worms.
Sooner or later, crevices will appear between the bottom board and the sides of the hive, through which moths might get into the hive, and under which the worms, [100] when fully grown, will hide to spin their webs, and to be changed into moths, to enter in turn, and lay their eggs. Movable bottom boards can be a nuisance in the beehive, and the construction of my hive, which enables me entirely to dispense with them, helps protect against the bee-moth. There is no place where they can enter, except at the entrance for the bees, and this may be contracted or enlarged, to suit the strength of the colony; and from its peculiar shape, the bees, like Horatio at the bridge, are able to defend it against intruders.
18. The bottom-board of the beehive should slant towards the entrance, to assist the bees in carrying out dead bees, and useless substances. It also aids them in defending themselves against robbers, helps carry off moisture; and prevents the rain and snow from beating into the hive. As a farther precaution against rain and snow, the entrance ought to be have a cover, which should not immediately lead into the interior of the hive.
19. The bottom-board should be so made in such a way that it may easily be cleared of dead bees in cold weather, when the bees are unable to attend to this business themselves.
If dead bees ARE allowed to remain, they may become moldy, and endanger the health of the colony. If the bees drag them out, as they normally do, they may fall with them on the snow, and are so chilled that they cannot get up again, for a bee generally retains its hold in flying away with the dead, until both fall to the ground.
20. No part of the interior of the hive should be below the level of the place of exit.
If this design recommendation is ignored, the bees must drag their dead, and all the refuse of the hive, up hill. Such hives will often have their bottom boards covered with small pieces of comb, bee bread (a mixture of pollen and nectar or honey), and other "trash", [101] in which the bee moth likes to lay her eggs and which furnishes her progeny with nourishment, until they are able to get access to the combs on their own.
21. It should afford facilities for feeding the bees both in warm and cold weather.
In this respect, my hive has very unusual advantages. Sixty colonies in warm weather may, in an hour, be fed a quart each, and yet no feeder needs to be used, and no risk incurred as a result of robbing bees. (See Chapter on Feeding.)
22. It should allow of the easy hiving of a swarm, without injuring any of the bees, or risking the queen. (See Chapter on Natural Swarming, and Hiving.)
23. It should allow the safe transportation of the bees over any distance.
The permanent bottom-board, the firm attachment of the combs, each to a separate frame, and the relative ease with which, in my hive, any amount of air can be given to the bees when shut up, help it meet this need.
24. It should furnish the bees with air when the entrance is shut; and the ventilation for this purpose ought to be unobstructed, even if the hives should be buried in two or three feet of snow. (See Chapter on Protection.)
25. A good hive should furnish facilities for enlarging, contracting, and closing the entrance; so as to protect the bees against robbers, and the bee-moth; and when the entrance is altered, the bees ought not to lose valuable time in searching for it, as they must do in most hives. (See Chapters on Ventilation, and on Robbing.)
26. It should give the bees the means of ventilating their hives, without enlarging the entrance too much, so as to expose them to moths and robbers, and to the risk of losing their brood by a chill in sudden changes of weather. (See Chapter on Ventilation.) [102]
For this reason, the ventilators must not only be independent of the entrance, but they their efficiency should be due mainly to the cooperation of the bees themselves, who will have a free admission of air only when they want it. To depend only on the beekeeper to open and shut the ventilators should not be an option.
27. It should furnish facilities for admitting at once, a large body of air; so that in winter, or early spring, when the weather is at any time unusually mild, the bees may be tempted to fly out and discharge their fæces. (See Chapter on Protection.)
If good ventilation cannot be provided in hives which are thoroughly protected against the cold, the bees may lose a favorable opportunity of emptying themselves; and thus be more exposed to diseases resulting from too long confinement. A free flow of clean air is also necessary when the weather is very hot.
28. It should enable the beekeeper to remove the excess of bee bread from old stocks.
Bee bread commonly accumulates in old hives, so that in the course of time, many of the combs are filled with it, making them unfit for the rearing of brood, and the reception and storage of honey. Young stocks, on the other hand, will often be so deficient in this important mixture, that, in the early part of the season, so as to seriously interfere with breeding. Thanks to my movable frames, the excess of old colonies may be made to supply the deficiency of young ones, to the mutual benefit of both. (See Chapter on Pollen.)
29. It should enable the honey farmer, when he has removed the combs from an older hive, to place them with the bees, brood, honey and bee bread, in an improved hive, so that the bees may be able to attach them in their preferred positions. [103] (See directions for transferring bees from an old hive.)
30. It should allow of the easy and safe dislodgement of the bees from the hive.
This is especially important to for the union of colonies, when it becomes necessary to break up some of the stocks. (See remarks on the Union of Stocks.)
31. It should allow the heat and odor of the main hive, as well as the bees themselves, to pass in a free manner, to the surplus honey receptacles.
In this respect, all the hives with which I am acquainted are lacking in this. Therefore, the bees are forced to work in receptacles difficult to access, and in which, especially in cool nights, they find it impossible to maintain the animal heat necessary for comb-building. Bees cannot, in such hives, work to advantage in glass tumblers, or other small vessels. One of the most important arrangements of my hive, is that by which the heat ascends into all the receptacles for storing honey, as naturally and almost as easily as the warmest air ascends to the top of a heated room.
32. It should permit the surplus honey to be taken away, in the most convenient, beautiful and salable forms, at any time, and without any risk of annoyance from the bees.
Honey may be collected in tumblers, glass boxes, wooden boxes (small or large), ceramic jars, flower-pots; in short, in any kind of receptacle which may suit the fancy, or the convenience of the bee-keeper. Or all these may be dispensed with, and the honey may be taken from the interior of the main hive, by removing the frames with loaded combs, replacing them with empty ones.
33. It should admit of the easy removal of all the good honey from the main hive, that its place may be supplied with an inferior article. [104]
Bee-Keepers who have only a few colonies, but who want the largest yield, may remove the loaded combs from a hive, slice off the covers of the cells, drain out the honey, and restore the empty combs. Then, if the season of gathering is over, they can add cheap honey for the use of the bees.
34. It should allow, when quantity is the object, for the largest amount of honey to be gathered; so that the surplus from strong colonies may, in the Fall, be given to those which don't have a sufficient supply.
By having a lower box of the same dimensions, the combs may all be transferred to this box, and the bees, when they begin building, will descend and fill the lower frames, gradually using the upper box, as the brood is hatched out, for storing honey. In this way, the largest possible yield of honey may be secured, as the bees prefer to work below, rather than above the main hive, and will never swarm, when allowed in season, ample room in this area. The combs in the upper box, containing a large amount of bee-bread and being of a size adapted to the breeding of workers, will be better for aiding weak colonies.
35. When proper, it should compel the colony's efforts to be mostly directed to raising young bees; so that new brood may be on hand to form new colonies, and strengthen feeble stocks. (See Chapter on Artificial Swarming.)
36. It ought, while well protected from the weather, to be built so that in warm, sunny days in early spring, the warmth and light of the sun can penetrate and warm up the hive. This encourages early breeding. (See Chapter on Protection.)
37. The hive should be equally well adapted to be used as a swarmer, or non-swarmer. [105]
In well designed hives, bees may be allowed, if the beekeeper chooses, to swarm just as they do in common hives, and be managed in the usual way. Even this way, the great protection against the weather which it affords, and the control and access to all the combs, will be offer great advantages. (See Natural Swarming.)
In spite of your precautions, non-swarming hives managed in the ordinary way are liable to swarm unexpectedly. If not closely watched, the swarm is lost, and with it its potential profit for that season. By having control of the combs, the queen in my hives can always be caught and deprived of her wings; thus she cannot go off with a swarm, and they will not leave without her.
38. It should help the honey farmer, if he allows his bees to swarm, and wants surplus honey, to prevent them from more than one swarm in a season.
Second and third swarms must be returned to the old stock, for the largest quantities of surplus honey. It is troubling to do this, to watch them, deprive them of their queens, and restore them to the parent hive. They often come out with new queens again and again, wasting both their own time, and the beekeeper's. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." In my hives, as soon as the first swarm has occurred, and been hived, all the queen cells except one, in the hive from which it came, are cut out, and, this way, additional swarms easily and effectually be prevented.
(See Chapter on Artificial Swarming, for the use to which extra queens may be put.) When the old stock is left with but one queen, she runs no risk of being killed or crippled by rivals. As a result of these "battles", a colony is often left without a queen, or in with one too weak or maimed to be of any service to the hive.
(See Chapter on the Loss of the Queen.) [106]
39. A good hive should enable the beekeeper who relies on natural swarming, and wishes to multiply his or her colonies as fast as possible, to make vigorous stocks of all the small after-swarms.
These swarms contain a young queen, and if they can be carefully strengthened, usually make the best stock hives. But, if hived in a common hive, and left to themselves, or in very favorable seasons, they seldom thrive. They generally desert their hives, or die out over the winter. If they are small, they cannot be made into strong colonies, even by the most generous feeding. There are too few bees to build comb, and take care of the eggs which a healthy queen can lay. When fed, they are apt to fill the cells in which young bees ought to be raised, with honey. This makes the care of the beekeeper serve only to hasten their destruction. My hives make it possible for me to supply all such swarms at once with combs containing bee-bread, honey and nearly mature brood. This way, they are made strong, and flourish as well, often better than the first swarms which have an old queen, whose fertility is generally not so great as that of a young one.
40. It should enable the Apiarian to increase colonies with certainty and speed which would not be possible, if depending upon natural swarming. (See Chapter on Artificial Swarming.)
41. It should enable the honey farmer to supply destitute colonies with an opportunity to acquire a new queen.
Every beekeeper would find it, for this reason, if for no other, to his or her advantage to possess, at least, one such hive. (See Chapter on loss of Queen.)
42. A well designed and maintained hive should enable the honey farmer to catch the queen, for any reason, especially to remove an old one whose fertility is diminished by age, to replace her with a young [107]one. (See Chapter on Artificial Swarming.)
43. While a good hive is adapted to the needs and wants of those who desire to practice bee-keeping on a large scale, or at least to manage their colonies the best, most efficient way, it ought also be suited to the needs and wants of those who are too timid, ignorant, or indisposed, to manage them in any other than the common way.
44. It should enable a single individual to superintend the colonies of many different persons.
Many people would like to keep bees, if only they could have them taken care of by those who know how, just as a gardener does the gardens and grounds of his employers. No person can agree to do this with the common hives. If the bees are allowed to swarm, he may be called in a dozen different directions, and if any accident, such as the loss of a queen, happens to the colonies of his customers, there's nothing he could do about it. If the bees are in non-swarming hives, he cannot multiply the stocks when this is needed.
With my plan, those who desire it, may have the pleasure of witnessing the industry and sagacity of this wonderful insect, and of gratifying their palates with its delicious stores, harvested from their own hives, without incurring either trouble or risk of injury.
45. All the joints of the hive should be water-tight, and there should be no doors or slides which are liable to shrink, swell, or get out of order.
The importance of this will be sufficiently obvious to any one who has had the ordinary share of vexatious experience in the use of such fixtures.
46. A properly designed hive should enable the bee-keeper entirely to dispense with sheds, and costly Apiaries; as each hive when properly placed, should should be able to protect against heat or cold, rain or snow. (See Chapter on Protection.) [108]
47. It should allow ALL the contents of a hive, bees, combs... everything, to be taken out; so that any necessary adjustments or repairs may be made.
This may be done, with properly designed hives, in a few minutes. "A stitch in time saves nine", you might say. Hives which can be thoroughly overhauled and repaired, from time to time, if properly attended to, will last for generations.
48. The hive and fixtures should present a neat and attractive appearance, and should admit, when desired, of being made highly ornamental.
49. The hives ought not to be liable to be blown down in high winds.
My hives, being intentionally constructed with low centers of gravity, would require almost a hurricane to upset them.
50. It should enable any beekeeper who worries about thieves, to lock up the precious contents of his hives, in some cheap, simple and convenient way.
A couple of quality padlocks with some inexpensive fixtures easily attained at any Walmart or Ace Hardware, will be enough to secure a long range of hives.
51. A good hive should be protected against the ravages of mice in winter.
It seems almost incredible that so puny an animal should dare to invade a hive of bees; and yet not infrequently they slip in when the bees are compelled by the cold to retreat from the entrance. Having once found admission, they build themselves a nest in their comfortable abode, eat up the honey, and such bees as are too much chilled to make any resistance; and fill the premises with such an abominable stench, that on the approach of warm weather, the bees often in a body abandon their desecrated home. As soon as the cold weather approaches, all my hives may have their [109] entrances either entirely closed, or so contracted that a mouse cannot gain admission.
52. A good hive should have its alighting board constructed so as to shelter the bees against wind and wet, and thus to facilitate to the utmost their entrance when they come home with their heavy burdens.
If this precaution is neglected, much valuable time and many lives will be sacrificed, as the colony cannot be encouraged to use to the best advantage the unpromising days which so often occur in the working season.
I have succeeded in arranging my alighting board in such a manner that the bees are sheltered against wind and wet, and are able to enter the hive with the least possible loss of time.
53. A well constructed hive ought to admit of being shut up in winter, so as to consign the bees to darkness and repose.
Nothing can be more hazardous than to tightly shut up an poorly protected hive. Even if the bees have an abundance of air, it will not answer to prevent them from flying out, if they are so disposed. As soon as the warmth penetrating their thin hives tempts them to fly, they crowd to the entrance, and if it is shut, multitudes worry themselves to death in trying to get out, and the whole colony is liable to become diseased.
In my hives as soon as the bees are shut up for Winter, they are most effectually protected against all atmospheric changes, and never desire to leave their hives until the entrances are again opened, on the return of suitable weather. Thus they pass the Winter in a state of almost absolute repose; they eat much less honey [12] than when wintered on the [110] ordinary plan; a much smaller number die in the hives; none are lost upon the snow, and they are more healthy, and commence breeding much earlier than they do in the common hives. As some of the holes into the Protector are left open in Winter, any bee that is diseased and wishes to leave the hive can do so. Bees when diseased have a strange propensity to leave their hives, just as animals when sick seek to retreat from their companions; and in Summer such bees may often be seen forsaking their home to perish on the ground. If all egress from the hive in Winter is prevented, the diseased bees will not be able to comply with an instinct which urges them "To leave their country for their country's good."
54. It should possess all these requisites without being too costly for common bee-keepers, or too complicated to be constructed by any one who can handle simple tools: and they should be so combined that the result is a simple hive, which any one can manage who has ordinary intelligence on the subject of bees.
I suppose that the very natural conclusion from reading this long list of desirable factors, would be that no single hive can combine them all, without being exceedingly complicated and expensive. On the contrary, the simplicity and cheapness with which my hive secures all these results, is one of its most striking peculiarities, the attainment of which has cost me more study than all the other points besides. As far as the bees are concerned, they can work in this hive with even greater facility than in the simple old-fashioned box, as the frames are left rough by the saw, and thus give an admirable support to the bees when building their combs; and they can enter the spare honey boxes, with even more ease than if they were merely continuations of the main hive. [111]
There are a few desirable conditions to which my hive makes not the slightest pretensions! It promises no splendid results to those who purchase it, and yet are too ignorant, or too careless to be entrusted with the management of bees. In bee-keeping, as in other things, a man must first understand his business, and then proceed on the good old maxim, that "the hand of the diligent maketh rich."
It possesses no mystic or cosmic influence by which it can convert a bad situation, i.e. for honey, into a good one; or give the Apiarian an abundant harvest whether the season is productive or otherwise.
It cannot enable the cultivator rapidly to multiply his stocks, and yet to secure, the same season, surplus honey from his bees. As well might the breeder of poultry pretend that he can, in the same year, both raise the greatest number of chickens, and sell the largest number of eggs.
Worse than all, it cannot furnish the many advantages enumerated, and yet be made in as little time, or quite as cheap as a hive which proves, in the end, to be a very dear bargain.
I have not constructed my hive in accordance with crude theories, or mere conjectures, and then insisted that the bees must flourish in such a fanciful contrivance; but I have studied, for many years, most carefully, the nature of the honey-bee; and have diligently compared my observations with those of writers and practical cultivators, who have spent their lives in extending the sphere of Apiarian knowledge; and as the result, have endeavored to adapt my hive to the actual wants and habits of the bee; and to remedy the many difficulties with which I have found its successful culture to be beset. And more than this, I have actually tested by experiments long continued and on a large scale, the merits of this hive, that I might not deceive both myself and others, and add another to the many useless contrivances [112] which have deluded and disgusted a credulous public. I would, however, most earnestly repudiate all claims to having devised a "perfect bee-hive." Perfection can belong only to the works of the great Creator, to whose Omniscient eye, all causes and effects with all their relations, were present, when he spake, and from nothing formed the universe and all its glorious wonders. For man to stamp upon any of his own works, the label of perfection, is to show both his folly and presumption.
It must be confessed that the culture of bees is at a very low ebb in our country, when thousands can be induced to purchase hives which are in most glaring opposition not only to the true principles of beekeeping, but often, to the plainest dictates of simple common sense. Such have been the losses and disappointments of deluded purchasers, that it is no wonder that they turn from everything offered in the shape of a patent bee-hive, as a miserable humbug, if not a most bare-faced cheat.
I do not hesitate to say that those old-fashioned bee-keepers, who have most steadily refused to meddle with any novelties, and who have used hives of the very simplest construction, or at least such as are only one remove from the old straw hive, or wooden box, have, as a general thing, realized by far the largest profits in the management of bees. They have lost neither time, money nor bees, in the vain hope of obtaining any unusual results from hives, which, in the very nature of the case, can secure nothing really in advance of what can be accomplished by a simple box-hive with an upper chamber.
A hive of the simplest possible construction, is only a close imitation of the abode of bees in a state of nature; being a mere hollow receptacle in which they are protected from the weather, and where they can lay up their stores. [113]
An improved hive is one which contains, in addition, a separate apartment in which the bees can be induced to lay up the surplus portion of their stores, for the use of their owner. All the various hives in common use, are only modifications of this latter hive, and, as a general rule, they are bad, exactly in proportion as they depart from it. Not one of them offers any remedy for the loss of the queen, or indeed for most of the casualties to which bees are exposed: they form no reliable basis for any new system of management; and hence the cultivation of bees, is substantially where it was, fifty years ago, and the honey farmer as entirely dependent as ever, upon all the whims and caprices of an insect which may be made completely subject to his control.
The "chamber hive" is usually the best. No other type of hive which does not furnish a thorough control over every comb, can be considered as any substantial advance over the design of the chamber hive. Of all such hives, it is the least expensive, gives the greatest amount of protection, and offers readiest access to the spare honey boxes.
Having thus enumerated the tests to which all hives ought to be subjected, and by which they should stand or fall, I submit them to the candid examination of practical, common sense bee-keepers, who have had the largest experience in the management of bees, and are most conversant with the evils of the present system; and who are therefore best fitted to apply them to an invention, which, if I may be pardoned for using the enthusiastic language of an experienced beekeeper on examining its practical workings, "introduces, not simply an improvement, but a revolution in bee-keeping."
