1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



321 



In a short time we arrived at the place in 

 question. 



"This cellar," said Mr. Boardman, as he 

 opened the door, " is one that I partitioned 

 off." 



As before, Mr. Boardman and I examined 

 the colonies at random, and found them to 

 be in good condition. 



" Now," said he, " here is one colony that 

 I put in by way of experiment. I do not 

 know how' they will winter. It was very 

 weak, and I thought I would put it in just 

 to see how they would winter." 



Turning the hive up we could detect no 

 signs of life. He set the hive down again 

 and lifted up the cover, and, lo ! every thing 

 was as still as death. When I came to ex- 

 amine the size of the colony I was not very 

 much surprised myself. There could not 

 have been very many more than 200 bees, 

 even at the outside, in the cluster; but the 

 evidence seemed to point to the fact that 

 they had only just died. 



u Ordinarily," said my friend, " we unite 

 such weak ones ; but as a general thing we 

 can winter weak colonies— that is, if not too 

 weak — as well as we can strong ones." Aft- 

 er putting the hive back in its place, he con- 

 tinued, " You will notice the cellar is very 

 dry. Some bee - keepers claim that they 

 could winter bees in a cellar ' reeking with 

 dampness,' if only the food were right. I 

 am not so particular about the food, but I 

 am particular about a dry warm place." 



All of Mr. Boardman 1 s bees, as he subse- 

 quently told me, were wintered on whatever 

 stores they happened to have in their hives. 

 If the food is well ripened, the colony not 

 too weak, and the cellar dry and warm, he 

 does not worry very much over probabilities. 

 While he can and has wintered bees on hon- 

 ey-dew he prefers the nectar of the flowers. 

 As we stepped out of the repository Mr. 

 Boardman said, " Here at this apiary I em- 

 ployed an inexperienced boy. I should have 

 had more money in my pocket had I paid 

 him the wages I did and had him stay at 

 home. He made enough muss and trouble 

 to more than offset all the good he did." 



Mr. Boardman prefers a man grown— one 

 with sufficient maturity of judgment to do 

 what he is told to do. 



To be Continued. 



Recent Development 



CONDUCTED BY ERNEST R. ROOT. 

 THE DO VET AILED HIVE 



1Tp GOOD many suggestions concerning 

 ^Mk the new hive have come in. One or 



0* two of the friends think that plain 

 -^*- ordinary box joints will answer all 

 practical purposes, and that the dove- 

 tailed corner is just so much more useless 

 exj tense. Having perfected special ma- 

 chinery, the item of dovetailing is a very 

 small one indeed in the construction of the 

 hive, and the attendant advantages are too 

 great to be ignored. To test the strength of 

 a dovetailed corner we drove one hive to- 

 gether without paint or vails, and found it 

 was nearly as rigid as a Simplicity nailed. 

 Again, we drove together the dovetailed 



body, having previously dipped the dove- 

 tailed edges into some thin paint. The 

 hive was then allowed to become thoroughly 

 dry. To test its strength I then put my 

 whole weight, 150 pounds, upon it in such a 

 way that the pressure was exerted on the 

 diagonally opposite corners. I then pounc- 

 ed it upon the floor, balancing myself milk- 

 stool fashion. I presume that something 

 over 200 pounds upon the opposite corners 

 was exerted before I could hear any thing 

 crack. Mind you, all this was ivithout a sin- 

 gle nail. But on account of the daubiness 

 of paint, our man prefers to nail them to- 

 gether and then cross-nail. It is impossible 

 to cross-nail an ordinary box corner — that 

 is, where one board simply laps across 

 another. A cross-nail joint is very much 

 superior in point of strength and durability 

 to the plain box corner. 



There are some people who will be sure 

 to get a hive together wrong if there is a 

 possibility of getting it so. Eor instance, 

 with a box or lap joint they will lap the end 

 across the end of the side, or vice versa, 

 when the opposite is intended. Carelessness 

 in this respect results in the wrong inside 

 dimensions of the hive as a matter of course. 

 With the Simplicity or with the dovetailed 

 corner, such a thing is impossible. You 

 may say that a man of ordinary common 

 sense ought not to do such a thing. Some 

 very foolish blunders are made, as we know 

 from experience, by some of our customers. 



If there is any warp in a side or end, the 

 dovetail, when "driven together, will take it 

 out, and prevent any further trouble from 

 that source. No, sir, the dovetailed corner is 

 considerably better than a box joint. 



As announced in our last issue, I here- 

 with present the modified engraving of the 

 Dovetailed hive as we now make it. 



THE DOVETAILED HIVE. 



The principal change noticeable on the 

 hive will be the changing of the bee-space 

 to the top of the brood-frames, instead of at 

 the bottom as before announced. You will 

 notice what a good-sized entrance we allow. 

 By the accompanying wood-engraving you 

 will see the construction of the bottom- 

 board. It is simply a 

 cover-board, hardly good 

 § ( nough to be used for a 

 cover, eleated at both 

 ends like a cover, with a 

 quarter-inch strip nailed on each of its two 

 sides. One of the end cleats is leveled 

 down, so to speak, to allow an entrance- 

 way. This bottom-board can be used for a 

 cover, but the cover can not be used very 

 well as a bottom-board. In general, the 

 construction of the hive is now such that, 

 in whatever combination it may be made, a. 



BOTTI IM-BOARD, 



