1901 



GLEANINGS IN BHH CULTURE. 



663 



*'iu the interest of science." Whatever friend 

 Jenkins thought of it, he immediately put my 

 suggestion into effect, and, presto ! how in- 

 furiated those bees became ! Instead of at- 

 tacking his snakeship they literally poured 

 out (punched) their vials of wrath on our 

 faces. For my cruel suggestion I received no 

 less than five stings around one eye, and broke 

 my glasses in the bargain. By the way Mr. 

 Jenkins was performing, slapping his face and 

 neck, I concluded he was being served in like 

 manner ; but, nothing daunted, he kept on 

 "steering" the aforesaid snake with a stick, 

 toward the entrances. Those bees would rush 

 out and make for us. A clcsar scrutiny (when 

 the bees would give us a chance to see) show- 

 ed that the skin of the snake was so tough 

 that stings had no effect on it. However, the 

 replile had no desire to crawl into an entrance 

 When we found we couldn't get the bees to 

 kill it, Mr. Jenkins dispatched it in the good 

 old-fashioned way, with a slick. 



CONSTRUCTION OF HIVE-COVERS AND BOTTOM- 

 BOARDS. 



Peculiar Conditions in Cuba. 



BY W. W. SOMERFORD. 



As time glides along, progress is constantly 

 bubbling up and out to the readers of 

 Gleanings, especially through Trade Notes. 

 As "simplicity," cheapness, and durability 

 are essentials to success, I will offer a few ob- 

 servations for Trade Notes. 



Covers have often been under discussion. I 

 saw in one of Dr. Miller's Straws that, so long 

 as his ' ' covers came, from Medina, ' ' even when 

 new, they would continue to be "stuffed with 

 rags." I was surprised to see such a slam 

 from the doctor on the Root hive-covers, as 

 I have read Gleanings for more than fifteen 

 years, and distinctly remember that Dr. M. 

 figured very prominently in " the Medina del- 

 egation " when it met to discuss and devise a 

 perfect hive — a hive without a blemish from 

 top to bottom. The Root Dovetailed hive, 

 with flat cover, was the decision of the Me- 

 dina commission. I have used said hive since 

 its birth, and am sieve it is perfect, and espe- 

 cially the flat-cover feature. I have had those 

 same flat reversible covers in use since their 

 birth, and have yet to see the first robber bee 

 go under them But deliver me from such 

 trash as the Excelsior cover. I had a ship- 

 ment of them last October. They are now 

 spreading their wings as though to fly, and 

 summer hasn't come yet either. Still it would 

 take a bagful of rags to make them all bee- 

 tight, even to-day. " Unless otherwise speci- 

 fied, this cover will be furnished with all our 

 hive combinations." Deliver us ! 



As the good old Medina flat reversible cover 

 has come for ever to stay, I will discuss it just 

 a bit. 



It is easier than the easiest to put together, 

 and will last longer than the longest, because 

 necessarily made of the best material. It will 

 ventilate better than the best by lifting and 

 pulling back just one inch, so as to catch the 

 end cleat on the front of the hive. It will 



keep warmer than the warmest by using a top 

 cloth under it. In fact, it is simple perfection. 

 In making you have only thiee pieces to nail 

 together. In making the Excelsior cover you 

 have six pieces to nail together. 



Now comes the question for the poor " bug- 

 man." I say " poor," for I've never known 

 one any other way. The price .? That is the 

 question that caused me to write this letter. 

 It is, of course, high, as such lumber runs 

 "in the fifties," and lumber at $50.00 per 1000 

 makes dear covers, although good ones. 



Now, to cut the price I began experiment- 

 ing ten years ago with thickness. I tried >^ 

 inch in thickness ; found it to be too thin ; 

 then I tried y%, and have used them for years. 

 I have just completed 500 of them, and can 

 assure any one that a cover |^ thick is nicer, 

 lighter, and cheaper, by a lot, than the old 

 inch-thick cover adopted years ago. The thin- 

 ner ones warp with less force. It will last a 

 lifetime, if painted, and never need rags if oc- 

 casionally reversed. In fact, they are for me 

 a happy solution of the vexed cover question. 

 Now for bottom-boards. 



The bottom-board question has troubled me 

 more than the cover question ; but I have 

 solved it too, at last. The fact is, I belong to 

 the 90 per cent or more who set bees on the 

 ground, or very close to it, for many good 

 reasons. I find that, the closer to the ground, 

 the better. Why ? They are warmer in win- 

 ter and cooler in summer when standing flat 

 on the dirt. These are facts ; and no queens 

 ever get under the bottom-boards and get lost 

 — a big thing here in Cuba, where hives are so 

 often opened to empty them. 



A friend of mine, with a 300-hive apiary, 

 said he had the real hive-stand, two railroad 

 irons on the ground, side by side, and 15 

 inches apart (cost him a lot, though, and had 

 to throw them away very soon, as, in going 

 over with the first extracting after getting 

 over, he found 37 queens out of 300 black ones 

 between the rails under the hives, with bees 

 and combs started). The best bottom-boards 

 must have the % bee-space, in order to handle 

 big colonies in a hurry, as, with the J^ space, 

 bees don't pile up and clog under the frames 

 when rammed in in a hurry — a very important 

 item. The way I solved the bottom-board 

 question, I began using the % side of the 

 Danzenbaker bottom-board — set them flat on 

 the ground, and soon learned that Don Carlos, 

 one of our big tough Cuban grasses, would 

 find the joints in the bottoms, and crawl right 

 up through them, ramming the tight joints 

 out to bee-entrances — a bad thing, too — many 

 of them in the same bottom-board. So I 

 scratched my head, knowing there was not a 

 hive factory in the world that could make of 

 wood a bottom board to rest on the ground 

 and keep Don Carlos out, to say nothing of 

 decay and wood-eating bugs that are so numer- 

 ous down here. As I said, I scratched my 

 head, got on my wheel, and started off with a 

 Spanish-talking American bee-keeper, to a 

 tile-brick factory. We soon found the jolly 

 owner, and told him just what we wanted — 

 smooth and straight flat-pressed brick, 16 

 inches wide by 21 long. He smiled, and said 



