Untitled record

E. CORNER.

Bee Hive.

No. 34,034.

Patented Dec. 24, 1861,

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N. PETERS. Photo-Lithographer. Washington. 0. C.

United States Patent Office.

EDWIN CORNER, OF COLUMBUS, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN BEE-HIVES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 34,034, dated December 24,1861.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Edwin Corner, of Columbus, in the county of Franklin, in the State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Bee-Hives; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which—

Figure 1 is a horizontal section, and Fig. 2 is a side elevation, of a bee-hive having my improvement thereto.

The nature and object of my invention consists in so constructing a bee-hive as to lessen the labor of the bee-keeper, and to make a hive so simple and so easily understood that any one disposed may safely and successfully embark in the culture of bees without previous training' in the art, and at once perform the part of an apiarian.

To enable others to make and use my improvement, I will proceed to describe the same with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The outside appearance of mybee-hivewhen the doors are closed very much resembles the old-fashioned box-hive, with an addition A of six inches i n height for a chamber in which are honey-drawers B, after the manner of the old Vermont hive. My front board is twelve and three-fourths inches wide and two feet long. My back board C is twelve and three-fourths inches wide and sixteen and one-half inches long. I attach, by screws or nails, a piece of plank one and one-half inch thick and eight and one-fourth inches wide and seventeen inches long to the inner surface of the front board up and down in its center and within one inch of the lower end of said front board. To this again I attach another piece, of plank one and one-half inch thick and four and three - fourths inches wide and seventeen inches long, screwed or nailed to the center, the upper ends of both to be eighteen inches from the lower end of the front board. Then upon the middle of the inner surface of the back board C, I attach a piece of plank one and one-half inch thick and one and threefourths inch wide andfifteen and three-fourths inches long, and made even with its upper end. I then connect the front and back boards together in the middle of each by two girders or cross-ties of one and one-half inch wide up and down and one and one-fourth inch thick, with tenons on each end, to reach entirely through the two pieces of plank attached to the front board and through the one piece on the back board C, the upper girder to be threeeighths of an inch below the upper end of the back board C and directly square with it, the lower girder .to be about one inch above the lower end of the back board 0. These two girders or cross-ties, to be thirteen inches long, will make the front and backboards to be (calling them inch stuff) j ust fifteen inches apart. Having the front and back boards connected by these girders, I make them more firm by placing a top board D to the bees’ department, twelve and three-fourths inches wide and sixteen and one-half inches long, nailing it to the front board and also to the upper ends of the two pieces of plank attached to it, and by nailing the back end to the top end of the back board C, the top board D to extend over and back of the back board C two and one-half inches, with a groove to hold the lower side of the sliding door 0 to close up the honey-drawers chamber.

The side boards F and F of the hive below the honey-chamber stop half-way upon the edges of the top board D to the bees’ department, and are both hung upon hinges, as doors F and F, to the outer edges of the front board, and when shut are held to the back board C by hasps G and G. You can in a moment unhasp either, and by opening these doors F and F full' access is had to the interior of the hive by an outward turn of the comb-frames Η Η H, which are also hung upon hinges—the first, No. 1, to the front board, No. 2 to the edge of the eight-and-onefourth-inch plank, and No. 3 to the four-andthree-fourths-inch plank. The comb-frames are all hung three-eighths of an inch below the top board D. The fourth or middle comb is stationary, attached to the girders above and below. The comb-frames are similar in part to a gate-frame without the palings, and swing out one after the other, by which operation the entire combs and every inch of the interior of the hive can be expeditiously examined. Both sides of the hive are the same in structure, only reversed.

The comb-frames Η Η H are hung on hinges

34,034 that are made to lift up and off, and by which they are transferable to any hive of like build and dimensions. Asthere are no hinges ordinarily made of the proper size and kind, I take a very small wrought butt of iron or brass and cut off the upper connection of the two-sided side, and I have a hinge adapted to lifting off, which can be done in a moment. My comb-frames are substantially made, the lunge-bar three-fourths by one and one-fourth inch, the end and outer bars five-eighths by one and one-fourth. I brace them by cutting pieces of tin to suit the two hinge-corners, and nail lhenr fast, which extend each way about three or; four inches. I place screws in the middle of each comb-frame, which act as stops when closing the comb-frames, keeping them at their proper distance (one-half inch) from each other and from the doors, which when shut and hasped hold every frame firm in its place, so there is no crushing of bees nor chafing of the combs. ; My comb-frames are made to give ample room for the bees to pass over and around them On both sides and ends. The back board of the hive being one and one-half inch shorter on its bottom end than the front board, the hive has to stand upon an inclined bottom board I to make it perpendicular. This inclination is made to favor the bees in removing whatever is offensive to them. The lower ends of the comb-frames have the same bevel.

The lower ends of the four boards that make tho body of the hive are beveled off to near one-eighth of an inch to avoid as near as may be the crushing of the bees in turning up and in replacing the hive, which is most sure to be done if they are left the full size. The foregoing is all that is material in the formation of the bees’ department of my hive. Upon this I. build a chamber B for surplus honey-drawers.