1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



21 



the cleat hold the board secure against warping; 

 and although my covers are not painted, I have as 

 yet had no trouble from splitting. The grooved 

 cleat will xometimeg split, and then it is of little use. 

 The plain cleat I think is stronger, and I like so 

 much better the flat surface. For my use, the slot- 

 ted hand-holes are not satisfactory to lift the hive 

 by; and as it will be easy to add a cleat at each end 

 to carry the hive by, 1 think I shall add them. Aft- 

 er all I've said, the Dovetailed is the only hive I 

 have ever seen that I like well enough to make nie 

 think of changing gradually— very gradually, how- 

 ever— from the hives I am using. (;.C. Miller. 

 Marengo, 111., Nov. 18, 1889. 



I know, friend Miller, that it would have 

 been a little reckless to put out a new thing 

 in the way the Dovetailed hive was, pro- 

 viding it had been new. As you intimate, 

 there was really nothing new about it. It 

 is not even a new combination of old things. 

 With the exception of the dovetailed corner 

 it is almost the identical hive that O. M. 

 Blanton, of Greenville, Miss., uses — one, 

 too, which has been sold by C. F. Muth for 

 some time back, and it is also about as near 

 the old-style Ileddon hive as any thing can 

 be, with the exception of the surplus ar- 

 rangement and dovetailed corner. If these 

 two hives, then, Heddon's and Blanton's, 

 were a success, would it be dangerous to 

 put forth the same thing with the dovetail- 

 ed corner V The section-holder, I grant, is 

 a little new to the bee-keeping public ; but 

 it was tested, nevertheless, before we ever 

 thought of using it here. O. J. Hethering- 

 ton, of East Saginaw, Mich., uses essential- 

 ly the same thing, or at least he did do so, 

 besides others whom I might mention. 

 You say a few will want to cut the stuff for 

 their own hives themselves. Very true ; 

 but they can never make the Dovetailed 

 joint. That will have to be delegated to 

 the supply-dealer, on account of the expen- 

 sive machinery required. Any one desiring 

 to make the Dovetailed hive would have to 

 make the ordinary box or lap joint ; and, of 

 course, it will not be the Dovetailed hive, 

 but a hive embodying its principles. Now 

 as to the matter of unequal shrinkage and 

 swelling of the sides or ends of the dovetail- 

 ed corner. Very likely there ought to be a 

 great deal of trouble from this source from 

 a theoretical point of view ; but practically 

 there is little or none. We have sold, we 

 estimate, 10,000 Dovetailed hives during the 

 past season, and we can not remember to 

 liave had a single complaint that the bodies 

 would not go together by reason of unequal 

 shrinkage of sides or ends. Let me tell you 

 why. Green pine lumber will shrink from 

 i to I of an inch in a foot ; but good weath- 

 er-dried pine (such as we use in all our 

 hives) will shrink or swell, under varying 

 conditions, but a very small trifle. Now, all 

 the Dovetailed hives we have nailed togeth- 

 er in our establishment since we have had 

 our machinery perfected would never at one 

 side or end vary in width more than i^g of 

 an inch, and this only in rare cases; and 

 even when it does do this, the man who 

 nails up the hives says that the wood itself 

 will yield so that the hives can be driven to- 

 gether without splitting ; but in 99 cases out 



of 100, the sides or ends, if made from the 

 same lumber, will not shrink unequally. 

 All our Dovetailed hives are made of lum- 

 ber that has been in the yard from eighteen 

 months to two years ; and if the hives have 

 been made from the same lot, the unequal 

 shrinkage or unequal swelling is inappre- 

 ciable. Of couipe, if any one will take the 

 pains to put the ends next to the stove, and 

 the sides exposed to the damp weather, he 

 might then experience trouble ; but we 

 should be assuming that he would do some- 

 thiner that he would not be likely to do. 

 Packing - boxes of small dimensions have 

 been made for years, and we don't have any 

 complaints made against them on account 

 of unequal shrinkage. As to the cover, 1 

 don't know that I could quite agree. We 

 have had one cover in the apiary, nailed in 

 the way \o\\ state, and there wassome warp- 

 ing. It is true, that a plain board can be 

 slid on to a hive a little easier, but not 

 enough easier, it seems to me, to make it 

 of enough moment to warrant us in making 

 a change'. A cover-board slid into a groov- 

 ed cleat, and nailed, is a good dtal less liable 

 to warp than one simply dependent upon 

 nails, I think. However, time will decide 

 which would be the better way. This is a 

 point we can change, if future needs should 

 demand it, and yet not interfere with the 

 other parts of the hive. Now, doctor, I 

 thank you for bringing up these points, not 

 because it substantiates the superiority of 

 the dovetailed corner, or the hive in par- 

 ticular, but because it gives me an opportu- 

 nity to answer others who have doubtless 

 raised similar questions in regard to the 

 corner. Ehnest. 



PACKAGES FOR EXTRACTED HONEY. 



WHAT SELLS THE BEST. 



It seems to me the honey-producers^sbould know 

 more of the honey-trade as conducted in our cities. 

 Who will tell us the most acceptable and economic- 

 al package for retailing extracted honey in our 

 large cities? If we run our honey into barrels we 

 incur an expense that the consumer will bear no 

 part of. I imagine that e.xtracted honey must be 

 in glass of some kind to retail well by the city gro- 

 cer. It is the only way I can get the grocerymen to 

 sell it for me in their stores, and it must be in a 

 small one. Once they could sell extracted honey 

 in tin pails holding from five to ten pounds, by 

 making it about five cents lower than comb honey. 

 But comb honey retails heie in our groceries at li}-< 

 cts., and I do not feel that I can profitably produce 

 extracted at five cents less. I find on trial, that the 

 small l.'o-lb. glass pail filled with light-colored hon- 

 ey holds its own in the market here, sold at ^5 cts., 

 with 10 cts. paid for pail on its return. If I try to 

 get 10 cts. per lb., and cost of the glass, I make it 

 cost more than honey in the comb; and after a 

 while my patrons feel that they have so many of 

 the pails that they do not want to pay for any more. 

 If honey-producers and honey-merchants cotild 

 agree on a glass holding the right amount, one that 

 looks well enough to set on the table as it came 

 from the bee-keeper or the honej -man. it seems to 

 me it would be much to our mutual advantage. If 

 the retailer would allow the glass to be returned he 



