Double Bottom-board

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section ten of The American Bee Journal, Volume one, number three,
March eighteen sixty one. This is a LibriVox recording. All
LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by
Katy Johnstone, the American Bee Journal, volume one, number three,

(00:22):
March eighteen sixty one. By various double bottom board. The
usual mode of enlarging hives so as to furnish room
for the storage of honey, adopted by those who use
common hives, is called storifying, and consists in piling hives
or boxes honor against each other, with a free communication

(00:42):
between them. When an empty box or hive is placed
on a full one, it is called superine. One placed
under the full one it is called knatterine, and one
placed against the side of the full one, with a
communicating passage in the adjoining sides it is called collateral hiving.
Though these several processes have long been employed, they have

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not in any case been permanently attended with satisfactory results.
A different mode is now adopted by those practical bee
keepers in Germany who still use the common hive, and
is found to yield all the advantages which were expected
from the former without any of their disadvantages. The desired
enlargement is affected by means of what they call a

(01:25):
double bottom board, constructed to accommodate two hives or boxes.
This board is twice as long as an ordinary one,
and in its central portion, a channel twelve inches long
and four inches broad is scooped out in such a
manner that its greatest depth midway is three quarters of
an inch, extending thence either way to the ends with

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a gradual upward slope. The central portion of the channel
is covered with a piece of boards six inches square
and one quarter of an inch thick, which is lead
in flush with the surface of the bottom board, thus
forming a covered way or tunnel half an inch in
the clear at its deepest part, and amply large enough
for the passage of the workers. In the middle of

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this board, a narrow slit is cut four inches long,
or just the width of the channel, into which a
piece of sheep brass may be inserted to close the passage. Below.
Figure one shows such a double bottom board as constructed
for hives which have the entrance for the bees in
their base or lower edge. When the board is wanted.

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For hives which require the entrance to be cut in
the bottom board. The construction is as shown in Figure two. Fig. Two.
In this three entrances are provided such that whether the
board is placed lengthwise or broadwise, there will in either
case be a front entrance. The other entrances are of

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course kept closed when not in use. Another and simpler
kind of double bottom board, chiefly intended for a different purpose,
is represented by Fig. Three. In this the channel is
eighteen inches long, four inches broad, and three fourths of
an inch deep throughout. The hives are placed on it

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six inches asunder, and the intervening portion of the channel
is covered by a piece of thick glass six inches broad,
set in the board flush with the surface. This is
protected by a suitable board with a piece of dark
colored woolen cloth intervening. The entrances are cut in the
bottom board if the hives used require it. The manner

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of using these double bottom boards will be explained when
treating of the management of bees in common hives superstition
among the peasants of Livonia. The genuine beekeeper never pronounces
the word bee, as he believes the expression would inevitably
bring misfortune on his apiary. He always speaks of them

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as forest birds, and however frequent or severely he may
be stung, he bears the pain with mute, stoical fortitude,
never giving utterance to his feelings, for fear he should
offend his forest birds. Ants are frequently troublesome pests in
an apiary. To get rid of them, mix equal parts

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of potash and sugar, pulverizing the whole in a mortar.
Set the mixture in shallow plates in places which the
ants frequent. End of Section ten