1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



the maintenance of the brood-chamber, no 

 matter what its size. Instead of violent 

 breaks in the connection of the established 

 l)arts of tlie hive, as i)revails when the su- 

 per next the brood-chamber is raised, I aim 

 to take about half the tilled or partly filled 

 combs out, till the vacant space with empty 

 comb, then set the new super on top, having 

 the empty frame above the empties below, 

 and thentake the combs which have been 

 removed and put them 

 above their former com- 

 panions. This leaves the 

 bees with an unbroken 

 old and established con- 

 nection to the top of the 

 hives, and tends to crowd 

 less honey into the brood- 

 chamber." If comb foun- 

 dation is used, the ten- 

 dency to clog is even 

 greater; but this is alike 

 true with the small anil 

 the large hive. The eight- 

 frame-hive man is no bet- 

 ter off than the twelve- 

 frame, on account of the 

 tendency to set up the 

 swarming imjiulse iier- 

 haps even worse. 

 Brant ford, Canada. 



Then if they live in this arid country (es- 

 pecially) their hives look as in Fig. 2B. 

 Bees easily start robbing at these corners, 

 and mice often gnaw the holes larger and 

 get into the hives. As soon as this spread- 

 ing of the corner begins, the half-inch end- 

 pieces down as far as the hive-rabbet si)lit 

 off very easily. I have had this happen in 

 dozens of instances on both hives and su- 

 ])ers. 



THE RIGHT AND WRONG 

 WAY OF MAKING THE 

 DOVETAILED COR- 

 NER. 



BY WESLEY FOSTER. 



Ever since the dovetail- 

 ed corner has been used 

 in the making of hives, 

 the manner of cutting 

 the top corners so as to 

 obtain the strongest joint 

 has varied. The desira- 

 Ijle corner is the one which 

 allows the S or 10 penny 

 cement-coated nails to be 

 driven each way nearest 

 the upper corner and in- 

 to the J^-inch wood. If 

 an 8-penny nail should 

 be driven through the 

 %-inch wood at the top 

 in Fig. 2A, the nail would 

 be so close to the end of 

 the wood that splitting 

 would most likely occur 

 in the first board; and the 

 end of the hive, being 

 only half-inch stuff at 

 this point, would split, or 

 the nail would run outside 

 the wood unless dri\en 

 very carefully. Most bee- 

 keepers who get hives 

 made as shown in Fig. 

 2A do not drive a nail 

 at the top, but as shown. 



THE PROPER WAY OF CONSTRUCTING THE DOVFiTAILED 

 CORNER. FIG. o IS THE BF;ST FORM. 



