1890 



GfLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



125 



to 30 times as large as they have had in former win- 

 ters; and my hope is, to have friend Board man's 

 advantages without tlie attendant disadvantages. 

 So far I am fully satistied; and as I look into each 

 hive and see the nice clusters hanging down sur- 

 rounded with abundance of air, I can not but feel 

 I have made quite a gain. 



Now, If you please, Ernest, let me attend seria- 

 tim to your objections. 



" More expensive." Yes; but five cents per hive 

 will, I think, cover the extra expense, and 1 believe 

 the advantage will pay it in a single winter. If it 

 is valuable, we ought to be willing to pay for it. 



" A body adapted to such a bottom-board could 

 not be used for a super." Certainly— all , you need 

 is to put on the plane side of my bottom-board a 

 ?8-inch strip at the back end and the two sides, just 

 like your present bottom-board, and it will be all 

 right for the Dovetailed hive. 



"Why not leave the bottom-board off entirely?" 

 The bees will winter as well, possibly a very little 

 better, with the bottom-boards off entirely; but I 

 think that, when advantages and disa<ivantages 

 are considered, I would rather have the bottom- 

 boards on. The screws are put in once a year only. 

 I want them just as secure as for shipping; and if 

 the '* loop and stick " does not make a hive secure 

 enough for your shipping, it is not secure enough 

 for my hauling. The hives are put into the cellar 

 just as they were in the out-apiary; and when they 

 are taken out in the spring, ten seconds will make 

 each hive ready to put back on the wagon. About 

 a hundred hives in the home apiary were taken in- 

 to the cellar without having bottoms fastened, and 

 that experience makes me think that, hereafter, I 

 should fasten on bottom-boards if there were no 

 other reason for it than the convenience of carry- 

 ing into the cellar. Please remember thatitls a very 

 short job to drive in four screws, when the hive does 

 not have to be turned over. One trouble with these 

 hives carried in without reversing bottoms, was, 

 that, when we went to lift them up, a considerable 

 cluster of bees was left on the bottom-board on the 

 stand, and we had to prop up each hive at one end 

 two or three inches, and let them stand thus a num- 

 ber of hours for the bees to get off the bottom- 

 board; and then when we did carry them, a good 

 many bees kept spilling out, and occasionally an at- 

 tack was made, while those with bottom-boards 

 fastened on could be picked up at any time, and 

 carried into the cellar, with no trouble. Another 

 item that I value is, that, with these bottom-boards, 

 mice are completely shut out by the 'j'-inch-mesh 

 wire cloth that is pushed into the saw-kerf at the 

 entrance (I am sorry the illustration on page 50 

 does not show the saw-kerf). It is all well enough 

 to say mice should not be allowed In the cellar; but 

 I have not succeeded in keeping them out; and 

 with the old way, I always carried some in, in the 

 hives. 



Now, my dear Ernest, while I am not fully satis- 

 fied with these bottom-boards, I strongly suspect 

 that, if you should give them as much of a trial as I 

 have done, you would find yourself pronouncing 

 them "good " till something better was found to 

 take their place. Although I have fought your ob- 

 jections with all the strength "la grippe" has left 

 rue, I am none the less thankful for your criti- 

 cisms. C. C. Miller. 



Marengo, 111., Jan. 23. 



I agree exactly with the sentiment you 



express in the first sentence, doctor. While 

 I may appear contrary, I only wish to get at 

 the ifacis. I know that, when any thing 

 works well, as you say your bottom-boards 

 do ill your cellar, it takes a multitude of 

 controverting testimonies to make us even 

 change our opinion. Boardman's plan of 

 piling up hives without bottoms does work 

 most admirably, so far, in my cellar ; and 

 the fact that such men as L. C. Root, G. M. 

 Doolittle. P>lwood— yes, and I believe Capt. 

 Hetherington— and R. L. Taylor, all of 

 whom, I believe, winter bees successfully, 

 use no bottom-boards, or, at least, raise the 

 hive up so far from the bottom-board that 

 it amounts practically to the same thing, 

 has great weight with me in arguing in fa- 

 vor of no bottom-boards. 



You say, friend M., that you suspect the 

 closing of the three sides would make no 

 material difference. Perhaps you are right. 

 But Mr. Cutting asked me, when he visited 

 my cellar, what temperature I tried to main- 

 tain. I told him 45. He then remarked 

 that he thought he could get better results 

 by having it as low as 40 degrees in his cel- 

 lar. Upon questioning I found that his 

 hives had bottom-boards like yours. Now. it 

 will be evident that the internal tempera- 

 ture of the hive whose bottom is covered 

 will be higher than that of a hive without a 

 bottom-board. Hence, if hives have bot- 

 tom-boards, the temperature must be kept 

 lower in the cellar than in a cellar where 

 hives have no bottom-boards ; and during 

 very warm weather we all know that it is 

 difficult to keep the temperature down so 

 low as 40 . 



In regard to those screws, I know from 

 experience that we can not always screw 

 the bottom-board in the same place — that 

 is, so the screw-holes of the bottom will 

 match the screw holes in the hive ; and un- 

 less we can make them match, we are al- 

 ways having a whole lot of holes either in 

 the bottom-board or in the hive ; and after 

 a while it will be one big hole. I am quite 

 sure that the loop which Rambler uses, or 

 the double loop, to hold the cover and bot- 

 tom, will stand more rough roads than will 

 the loose hanging frames which you use, 

 however well they may be stuck down with 

 propolis and brace-combs. 



You say, that carrying in hives that are 

 bottomless w'ill result in the loss of a con- 

 siderable number of bees which will cling 

 to the bottom. Yery true, under some cir- 

 cumstances. But you know, doctor, that 

 Mr. Boardman explained that the bottom- 

 less hives should not be carried into the cel- 

 lar unless the weather is moderately frosty, 

 or cold enough to make the bees cluster up 

 pretty tightly in the frames; that is, clear 

 away from the bottom -board. We carried a 

 few hives and found bees clinging to the 

 bottoms. We waited till it got colder for 

 the rest, and had no trouble. 



Now, doctor, I have argued in favor of 

 the bottomless side of the question. Here 

 is a letter which will sustain your side : 



REVERSIBLE BOTTOM-BOARD; ITS USE FOR CELLAR 

 WINTERING, MOVING, ETC. 



Dr. Miller and others give us some good ideas of 

 a space below the frames, but they do not seem to 



