744 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Oct. 15. 



enough to ride in a spring wagon over some of 

 the York State roads; but to sit in a lumber- 

 wagon without springs, and that on top of a 

 barrel, must have been — ah! well, exhilarating 

 and exciting. Your picture leaves us in doubt 

 as to whether you or the Imrrel arrived at des- 

 tination " right side up with care." Eknest. 



CONDUCTED BY ERNEST R. ROOT. 



THE r)OVETAn.P:D HIVE FOK 1890 AND "91. 



I have already explained that my trip to the 

 East was made largely for the purpose of ascer- 

 taining how the mammoth bee-keepers of York 

 State dispense with 'burr-combs and honey- 

 boards. Scarcely secondary to' this was the 

 matter of fixed distances. I visited some 2.5 or 

 30 representative apiarists, after whom the 

 lesser lights follow. The former own an aggre- 

 gate of perhaps .50,000 colonies, and manage 

 them successfully ^^'itllOut using honey-boards: 

 and the wonder to them was, why they should 

 be deemed necessary by the Western bee- 

 keepers. 



Now that I have come home, and the enthu- 

 siasm has somewhat subsided, so that I can 

 take a somewhat cool view of the situation, I 

 am thoroughly satisfied that we should do be- 

 ginners a great harm by offering them slatted 

 honey -boards* next year, when there is some- 

 thing so obviously better and cheaper. Your 

 " committee " (as one of our subscribers has 

 already begun to call it), comprising J. T. Cal- 

 vert, business manager; J. S. Warner, our 

 superintendent; A.I. Root, the " big boss," as 

 he is familiarly called. Dr. C. C. Miller, and 

 your humble servant.t after talking the matter 

 over in all its bearings, have decided to offer 

 the Dovetailed hive the coming year without 

 the honey-board; and, in lieu of it, thick top- 

 frames in the brood-nest. The bee-keepers of 

 the East do not exactly use this style of frame, 

 but they use a top-bar heavier and wider than 

 those of the West ordinarily do. Their bars 

 are, as a general thing, from }{ inch to % thick, 

 to about an inch or a little over wide. To be 

 on the safe side, our top-bars of the hanging 

 frame in the new Dovetailed hive are to be l^V 

 wide and J< thick. The engraving below shows 

 the frame as well as the hive. 



THE NEW DOVETAILED HIVE. 



* Tliis does not apply to queen-excluders. 

 + We have also liad some eorre.spondeiice witli tlie 

 W.T. Falconer Co. 



With the exception of the thick - top - bar 

 frame and the absence of the honey-board, its 

 general appearance is the same as before. But 

 we have changed the hive a little; or, rather, 

 we have made its inside width l'Z}4 inches in- 

 stead of being \1% as before. You will remem- 

 ber, Dr. Miller spoke of the advantage of having 

 an eiglit-frame hive wide enough to take in a 

 follower on 1% s])acing. While we ohject<'d to 

 it at the tini<% your humble servant, while on 

 his Eastern trip, saw that the advantages of 

 the movable follower were so decided that he 

 at once recommended to the committee the 

 widening of the hive; " for," said he, "if fixed 

 distances ever get to be the rage (and it looks as 

 if tiiey would be in time), either a follower or 

 an open-side hive will b( indispensable. Even 

 for hanging frames it will be a very great ad- 

 vantage." Mr. Calvert suggf^sted that widen- 

 ing the hive would also necessitate widening 

 the super. And this will permit us to use 

 wooden separators with IK sections, or 7-to- 

 the-foot sections without separators. Your 

 committee then decided, with Dr. Miller's in- 

 dorsement, to widen the hive. Some of you 

 will argue that this will make confusion; that 

 old hives will not be interchangeable with new 

 ones. Oh I yes, they will. With beveled 

 edges it would not do at all; but with square 

 edges the new bodies will project only 34 inch 

 on each side over the old bodies, the length be- 

 ing the same. With this very slight change, 

 you that already have the old hives would de- 

 cide that the very great advantage to new 

 purchasers^ is such as to warrant us in making 

 the change. 



FIXED FKAMES FOR THE DOVETAILED HIVE. 



I think I may say, that, with very few excep- 

 tions, the very best bee-keepers of York State 

 use fixed distances; and the favorite frame 

 seems to be the closed-end and the Hoffman. 

 One is used in York State about as much as the 

 other, and both have peculiai' advantages; and 

 as it is a fact that these leading lights in api- 

 culture can handle these frames as rapidly as 

 the hanging frames, or, as Mr. Elwood calls 

 them, the "'swinging" frame, is it not wise to 

 let those who wish to follow in the tracks of 

 Elwood, Hetherington, Hoffman, and others, do 

 so if they wish, and yet use the Dovetailed hive 

 or the hive they already have in use? Mr. Cal- 

 vert assures nie that fixed frames, either the 

 Hoffman or the closed ends, will cost only 5 

 cents per hive more than the same hive with 

 hanging frames; and as our United States is 

 made up of bee-keepers of all shades of opinion 

 and preferences, we have decided to accommo- 

 date all if possible. 



The Hoffman frame is already familiar to 

 oui' readers: so is the closed-end; but as to 

 how it should be used in the Dovetailed hive or 

 any hive adapted for hanging frames, may not 

 ha altogether clear. Well, instead of having 

 these frames stand on inside projections, we 

 propose to have them haiuj in an ordinary hive 

 rabbet like any suspended frame. The top-bar, 

 instead of itrojecting. is sa\\n off even with the 

 end-liar, aiul a good sulistantial blind-staple 

 will be driven into the end of the top-bar just 

 the right distance for a bee-space between the 

 top of the cover and the, frames. Mr. Calvert 

 has made a diagram, which, being photo-en- 

 graved, is shown on the next page. 



B, B, etc., shows the body; C\ C,,the super; 

 A, A, the cover: A, ^^.the bottom -board ; / 

 shows the closed-end frames, and/i the thick- 

 top hanging frames; fe the comb-guide, audi 

 the groove with the comb-guides left out for 

 wiring. A staple is driven into the top-bar at 

 k, and hangs in the rabbet, as seen in the dia- 

 gram at the right, like any ordinary hanging 



