9(i 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



of places, at least at certain times of the year. 

 Even with the i! space, I have sometimes had the 

 entire space filled with propolis, and all my top- 

 bars, I think, have propolis on top. With a J4inch 

 space I should expect to have some top-bars and 

 sections glued tog-ether. Still, this difiiculty may 

 not be so great in other places. Let us bear In mind, 

 that what will succeed in one case may not neces- 

 sarily succeed in another; and it may be well not 

 to decide too hastily. The thickness and width of 

 the top-bar may be changed in a few hives for ex- 

 periment, without changing any hives. Strips nail- 

 ed on the sides of top-bars may increase the width, 

 and in that we may find whether top-bars I's inches 

 wide, with 14, inch between them, will answer the 

 purpose. To change the thickness of the top-bar, 

 either the hive must be changed, or the depth of 

 the brood-comb. Let me suggest for consideration 

 a plan for trying a few top-bars of increased depth. 

 Take a piece of tin one inch wide, and as long as 

 your brood-frame, and nail it on one side of the 

 top-bar, letting the edge of the tin come flush with 

 the top of the top-bar. Now nail a similar piece on 

 the other side; and if your top-bars are g thick the 

 tin will cover % inch of comb, making your top- 

 bars practically one inch thick. If it is desirable 

 at the same time to make the width of the top-bars 

 % inch greater, wooden separator stuff ,V thick 

 may be used instead of the tin. 



CLEATS FOR COVER-BOARDS. 



And now a word with Ernest. 1 don't want to 

 appear quarrelsome, but I feel pretty sure that, 

 after you have tried side by side a sufficient num- 

 ber of the two kinds of cleats mentioned on page ^0, 

 you will change your mind, and— your cleats. Ac- 

 cording to my experience, the difference in conven- 

 ience in handling the two kinds is sufficient to 

 justify considerable trouble and expense in making 

 a change. The only advantage you claim for the 

 grooved cleat, if I am correct, is that it secures 

 greater immunity from warping. You say, " A 

 cover-board slid into a grooved cleat, and nailed, is 

 aiiood deal less liable to warp than one simply de- 

 pendent upon nails, I think." Let us see. What 

 prevents warping? 1 suppose it is the strength of 

 the cleat, and the firmness with which the cleat is 

 held on the cover. I think you will readily admit, 

 that a groove taken out of a cleat makes it weaker. 

 The only question, then, is, does the groove hold 

 the board more firmly than nails alone? Undoubt- 

 edly it does a little, if the cleat is equally stiff, and 

 if the thin place left by the groove does nut allow the 

 cleat til split. About 8 per cent of my grooved 

 cleats split before a nail was driven— a thing im- 

 possible with the others. You say you had a cover 

 like mine, and it warped. Was the cleat the same 

 size as the grooved cleats? I have two or three 

 hundred that have been in use several years, and I 

 have had no trouble from warping. The nails hold 

 the cleats firmly in place; and on account of the 

 greater stift'ness and lesser liability to split, I think 

 the plain cleats will allow less warping than those 

 that are grooved. C. C. Miller. 



Marengo, 111., Jan. 4. 



No, no, doctor, you do not appear quarrel- 

 some. If you did so at times, 1 should 

 know it was with the desire to get at the 

 truth, rather than the desire to establish a 

 point which you had previously put forth. 

 I have talked with our man about grooved 



cleats, and I told him that eight per cent of 

 yours split. He seemed very much aston- 

 ished. He said he had nailed up something 

 like a thousand cover-boards, and not one 

 cleat had split, and yet the groove is just a 

 snug fit over the end of the board. Now, it 

 must be, doctor, that yon did not put the 

 cleats on right. You can not drive it on, 

 both ends at once, neither can you plow the 

 end of the board, as it were, through the 

 entire length of the cleat, beginning at one 

 end. The proper way is to start the cleat at 

 one end. If the board is a little warped, 

 press on the bowing side, at the same time 

 that you crowd the cleat down. If you put 

 it on thus, I venture to say you will never 

 have trouble. The cleat may be weakened 

 a very small particle after the grooving ; 

 but we calculate that it is more than ample 

 to prevent warping, even then ; and I still 

 think that such a cleat will hold a board 

 truer than one simply nailed on the end. 

 Another thing, the end of the board in a 

 groove is better protected from the weather. 

 A still more important consideration is, 

 that the cover-boards for grooved cleats 

 happen to be of just the right length to 

 make a box to hold the inside furniture of 

 five or ten hives, without crating, and this 

 in the matter of saving freight is a consid- 

 erable item. Were we to make a cover as 

 you describe, it would spoil the unique ar- 

 rangement of the bottom-board, and neces- 

 sitate a large box around the inside furniture 

 when they are shipped out. Ernest. 



THICK top-bars; no brace-combs or honey- 

 boards. 



1 notice in our last number of Gleanings that 

 there is a good deal said about the width and thick- 

 ness of the top-bars to our brood-frames. I notice, 

 too, that some are getting a little sick of their hon- 

 ey-boards and queen-excluders (at least it looks that 

 way to me), and I have felt just that way for four 

 years. Now, about the top-bars. I have used thick 

 top bars for four seasons, and without honey- 

 boards or queen-excluders, and I have yet to find 

 any brood in my surplus combs, excepting about a 

 dozen drone-cells in the bottom of one section. 

 This was on a very strong swarm this season, from 

 which I had taken nearlr all the drone comb. 



It is very seldom indeed that I find any brace 

 or burr combs between the brood - frames and 

 honey-crate, although my frames are only Ji inch 

 wide, and spaced 1'/^ inches from center to center, 

 leaving quite a space between the top-bars. Now, 

 although I use this kind of frame, and have dis- 

 carded honey-boards and queen-excluders entirely, 

 and am not troubled much with brace-combs or 

 brood in surplus cases, I really do not believe it 

 makes any material difference whether the top-bars 

 are one inch thick or half an inch, provided we have 

 just the right space between them and our supers, 

 and the bottom of our supers or crates are proper- 

 ly constructed; but as I have never used any other 

 thickness for top-bars than ?8, 1 am unable to say 

 what their use might bring about. One thing I am 

 sure of; and that is, that we very seldom find brace- 

 combs unless the bees find room for them, either 

 by the sagging of frames or the improper adjust- 

 ment of fixtures. I have 58 swarms of bees in my 

 care— 44 of my own, and 14 of my brother's, and 



