1893 



GLEANINGS IN KEE CULTURE. 



845 



young orange-trees that have been planted 

 within the past three years, and are now being 

 planted, get into bearing, there may be such a 

 great preponderance of orange honey from this 

 portion of the State that it will all be sold for 

 orange honey. Our friend P. doubted at first 

 that the beans of Ventura produced a surplus 

 of honey; but he finally had to believe it; and 

 it will turn out the same, we predict, with the 

 orange. 



1 wish also to say a word in defense of the 

 editor of Gleanings, where he states that bar- 

 ley hay is the California staple; and I would 

 state that he is just as near right as our friend 

 of the North; for barley hay is certainly the 

 staple all through Southern California; and 

 during my two years' residence here I have not 

 seen a bale of oats upon the market. Barley is 

 sown here upon the dry lands, just before or at 

 the commencement of the rainy season. If the 

 rains are abundant, the barley crop will be 

 good. Alfalfa, as the irrigation area is extended, 

 is becoming more and more a competitor of bar- 

 ley; but as it is cut just before bloom it is of 

 little value to the bee-keeper. 



I have several other bones to pick with our 

 friend in relation to our cherry and apple local- 

 ities, whicli can not be excelled. Even our 

 Spanish bayonets are not of the scrubby kind 

 he is familiar with in the foggy atmosphere 

 that surrounds the bay where he lives. We 

 bee-keepers invite our friend to a more extend- 

 ed trip in our country, where ht^ will be certain 

 to find many new things to interest. When, a 

 few years ago. the Rambler held the lucrative 

 office of school trustee in his eastern home, an 

 Irish lad wished to secure the position of teach- 

 er for his sweetheart, and said, in conclusion to 

 his ardent solicitation, "Sure. Mr. Rambler, 

 along with the rist of the applicants ye's must 

 give her a s/ioo " (show). It is so with the 

 people south of the Tehachapi. We want our 

 northern friends to give us a " shoo," and we 

 are bound to have it. Rambler. 



ADVANTAGES OF SELF-SPACING FRAMES. 



DR. MILLER ASKS, WHAT HIVE AND FRAME 

 SHALL A BEE-KEEPER ADOPT IF CIRCUM- 

 STANCES ARE SUCH THAT HE IS IN 

 POSITION TO START ANEW ? 



When one has settled on a frame, he has 

 gone a long way toward deciding the hive he 

 shall use. As I prefer the frame that is used 

 in the Dovetail, with only such variations as 

 shall make no difference in the size of the hive, 

 perhaps I can do no better than to adopt the 

 Dovetail. But it will do no harm to talk the 

 matter over before deciding. 



On looking at a Dovetail hive, my first 

 thought was, " I shall never be satisfied with a 

 hive having only hand-holes for handling, with 

 no cleats." And thafs my last thought on that 

 point, after quite a little experience. A hand- 

 hole doesn't give you so good a hold as a cleat 

 made of % stuff. The cleat gives a choice as to 

 what spot you will lake hold, and it is often 

 more convenient or easy to take hold at some 

 other point than right at the center of the 

 width of the hive, where the hand -holes are. 

 Then, too, I don't always handle a hive alone, 

 but often want to lift it with some one else. 

 Two persons can very readily pick up a hive 

 with cleats, but it's a V(!ry awkward affair if 

 there are only hand-holes. You may reply. 

 "It's much better for one to handle a hive 

 alone." You may not always say that. Be- 

 sides, you can handle it alone better with cleats. 



The weakest part of a hive is the thin piece 

 left by rabbeting the upper part of the ends. 



This is often split off. Put on a cleat flush 

 with the upper surface, and there is no dan- 

 ger of splitting. 



But I suppose there is no law against putting 

 cleats on the Dovetail, and that can be done 

 whether it has hand-holes or not. 



The distinctive feature that gives to the 

 Dovetail hiv(^ its name — that is, the dovetail 

 joint — is the joint desirable, I think, above all 

 others. In strength for holding the parts 

 together without warping, and for convenience 

 and surety in rapidly putting together with 

 exactness, it excels. 



If I am not mistaken, friend Root, you have 

 made the length of the Dovetail hive such 

 that the space between the end-bars of the 

 frames and the ends of the hives is f\^, or -^^ less 

 than that which has been in common use. A 

 sixteenth of an inch is not a matter of very great 

 consequence, perhaps; but so far as it makes 

 any difference, is that difference for the better 

 or worse? So far as it makes any difference, 

 it makes it just so much harder to lift out a 

 frame without striking it against the end of the 

 hive, and thus makes manipulation slower. 



In my old hives, with a ^s space, with a varia- 

 tion in the end of the hive, or in the end-bar of a 

 frame, or in both, it sometimes happens the space 

 becomes so much less than 9^ that the bees fill it 

 withglue,and then there is trouble. The f,; space 

 makes less probability of combs built in the 

 space, but that doesn't often occur with •?^'. and 

 perhaps never if the space is exact. But even 

 with exact spacing, if the bees were somewhat 

 crowded for room it is possible they might do 

 some building in the -'^ space. There is also 

 very little chance for the hive-ends to warp 

 with the dovetail joint, and frames may be so 

 strongly made that they can not get out of 

 square, in which case there would be no danger 

 of bee-glue in the space. So it is not well to 

 conclude too hastily that 9's would be better. 



In making the hive for frames at fixed dis- 

 tances, how far shall the frame be from the 

 side of the hive? If the combs are built true, 

 and if the upper parts are filled with sealed 

 honey, there will probably be left between two 

 such sealed combs a space of about J4 inch. 

 Now, if one of these combs be pushed tight up 

 against the side of the hive, it will make a space 

 of ,V inch between the combs and the side of 

 the hive. To make the space }4 it will be nec- 

 essary to move the comb out3t of an inch, so we 

 must nail in each corner of the hive little strips 

 }-s in thickness. 



So far as my experience has gone with the 

 Dovetail hive and fixed distances, I think the 

 worst thing is the trouble of getting out the 

 dummy. If wedged in with a stick, that stick 

 is glued in tight, and it takes no little tugging 

 and prying to get it out, if, indeed, it is not 

 broken in the operation. Is there any need of 

 wedging in ? The main object of fixed frames 

 is to have exact spacing; and if the frames are 

 all pushed up snug to place, isn't that enough 

 without wedging? And is it necessary for the 

 dummy to fit in so tight? In my old hives with 

 loose hanging frames, the dummy hangs loose 

 like the frames, and I don't see any great ob- 

 jection to the same thing with fixed frames. 

 We are not planning to have the hives turned 

 upside down; and in hauling or handling there 

 is no danger that the frames can move enough 

 to do any damage, even if the dummy has a 

 little play. 



Let us see how the space will figure out in an 

 eight-frame Dovetail. We start with an inside 

 width of 1~^-H inches. After nailing in each 

 corner the V^-inch strips, there is left 11%. The 

 8 frames will take 11 inches, leaving %. In 

 that J< space we are to hang a dummy, say ^ 

 thick. In order to make sure the dummy shall 



