1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



189 



with square edges (that is, unbeveled), hav- 

 ing a plain bottom-board cleated at each 

 end ; a plain cover, likewise cleated, with 

 this difference, that the cleats have a longi- 

 tudinal groove $ inch wide, and i inch deep, 

 to admit the ends of the cover-board, as 

 shown in the cut. The front of the bottom- 

 board is cut out so as to permit contracting 

 the entrance in the same manner as is done 

 with the Simplicity hive with the alighting- 

 board. The brood-chamber may be used 

 for an upper story for extracting if desired. 

 Each body is of the width of an eight-frame 

 hive, and deeper than a Simplicity frame by 

 a bee-space, making a total depth of exactly 

 91 inches. The frame-rabbets are simply 

 plain wood bearings (without tin rabbets), 

 which bring the top-bar of the frame flush 

 with the top edge of the hive. " Take care, 

 there ! " you will say ; " you have made a 

 mistake— there should be a bee-space above 

 the frames in the hive." Let me explain. 

 In order that the brood-chamber may be 

 used interchangeably as a brood-chamber 

 proper and as an extracting super, you will 

 see, upon a moment's reflection, that the 

 body should be deeper by a bee-space than 

 the extracting- frame. If a bee-space is left 

 on top, and a bee-space below, when one 



THE DOVETAILED HIVE. 



body is put on another there will be a dis- 

 tance of I inch, calling a bee-space f$ of an 

 inch. How, then, do we provide for a bee- 

 space above the frames? Use a honey- 

 board, to be sure, bee-spaced on both sides. 

 Judging from reports that have come in, and 

 the statements of our most extensive honey- 

 producers, and from our own experience, we 

 feel sure that the honey-board will save not 

 only time but patience, and in the present 

 state of our knowledge of apiculture it is in 

 reality an indispensable fixture to the hive ; 

 therefore the honey-board of the Dovetailed 

 hive is to have a bee-space -/% inch above 

 and below the slats or zinc, as the case may 

 be. 



We now come to the surplus apartments. 

 In the present state of progress in hives and 

 supers, you and I scarcely know what kind 

 of a surplus arrangement we may be using 

 or advocating, say two years hence. Dr. 

 Miller has made a similar statement in 

 print, I think, in his " Year Among the 

 Bees." In view of this fact, were it not 

 well, since we are making a new hive, to 

 construct a super for it that can, with no 

 very great difficulty, be adapted either to a 



T super proper or to a wide-frame arrange- 

 ment ? If this year we adopt the T super, 

 possibly next year we shall find it to our ad- 

 vantage and to our interest to change to a 

 wide-frame arrangement, if we can do so at 

 no very great expense. Well, a T super 

 should be 4£ inches deep— that is, I inch 

 deeper than the 4i section, so as to leave, 

 after proper shrinkage, fW bee-space above 

 the sections. With this fact in view, how 

 shall we adapt it to a wide-frame arrange- 

 ment ? We did it this way. The en- 

 graving below shows the section-holders, as 

 we shall call them, to distinguish them from 

 the wide frames proper. 



SECTION-HOLDERS FOR THE DOVETAILED 

 SUPER. 



You will notice there are no top-bars, the 

 reason of which will be made obvious pres- 

 ently. The end-bars are i inch thick, and 

 exactly 4i inches long, and 1£§ inches wide. 

 The bottom-bars have openings to corres- 

 pond with the openings in 1|| sections, 

 and are" exact ly j 3 , T inch thick. Our super- 

 shell, you will remember, is 4f inches deep. 

 Into this we set these section-holders, the 

 ends of which are supported by a strip of 

 tin. The sections are 4i inches deep ; adding 

 to this J*, for the bottom-bar of the section- 

 holder we have 47 g . This figure, subtracted 

 from 4| (the total depth of the super) will 

 leave - t 3 g bee-space above the sections. This 

 bee-space, I grant, is rather scant; but 

 there are those who claim that if there is 

 just barely enough room for bees to crawl 

 through, they will not propolize. At any 

 rate, we deemed it better to leave the top of 

 the sections unprotected by a top-bar than 

 to protect them. One of my greatest ob- 

 jections to the wide frame proper is that 

 propolis is deposited between the top-bar of 

 the wide frame and the top of the sections, 

 for the reason that the sections sag away 

 from the top-bar ; but the amount of propo- 

 lis is reduced to a minimum between the 

 bottom of the sections and the bottom-bar, 

 for the reason that gravity draws the sec- 

 tion close in contact with the support below. 

 Now, then, if we should prefer to use T su- 

 pers, w r e shall have to close the space up at 

 the two ends, with a board i inch thick— 

 the space occupied by the end-bars of the 

 section-holders. The T tins may then be 

 put in, and the sections be placed in the su- 

 per, and an ordinary T super is the result. 

 You may urge, why not make the T super 

 shorter ? For a reason I will not attempt 

 to explain here, I will say this can not be 

 done very easily, so that the adoption of the 

 i-inch board seems to be the only solution to 

 us thus far. 



