706 



GLEANINGS IN BEE (CULTURE. 



Sept. 



1 much prefer the bevel omitted. If I had hives 

 with the beveled edge, I do not thinl< I should throw 

 them asvay. Yes. They are much more simple, 

 cheaper, less apt to split, and more readily closed 

 without crushing- bees. A. J. (jOOk. 



Perhaps not on the Siinplicit>- liivc. Uniformity 

 is a great boon. The advaniages of square joints 

 over beveled edges arc mainly to be found in the 

 perfect lateral movement they allow when adjust- 

 ing- the edg-es together when bees arc contaim-d 

 within the stories. .Tamks Heddon. 



On this 1 have nothing- to say, as I do not use 

 beveled-edge hives. We keep all our bees in quad- 

 ruple hives, and they have square joints. 1 should 

 think those thin beveled edges would get split off 

 in handling. E. Fk.\nce. 



If my hives were all of the beveled-edge pattern, 

 I would do some hard thinking- before I made any 

 change. If all the hives in the world were beveled, 

 and 1 were commencing- anew, I would have square 

 joints, for the sake of simplicity and ease of mani])- 

 ulation. C. C. Mili^er. 



The beveled edge is " a delusion and a snare." It 

 was devised to keep the water out; but instead it 

 seems to suck the water in worse than the square 

 joint. Still, it may be better for Mr. Koot's factory 

 to go on making the bevel rather than to change. 

 My favorite way of supering is with no upper story 

 at all, consequently I am not bothered with either 

 bevel joint or square joint, and yet all the surplus 

 is take^ by top storing. E. E. Hasty. 



I fail to see what bearing the number of beveled- 

 edge hives in use has upon the question of their 

 abandonment. The objections to the beveled edges 

 are, that they are more difficult to make, and an- 

 swer no useful purpose. They afford greater facili- 

 ties for the bees to stick the two stories together 

 with propolis, and when stuck together they are 

 more difficult to separate— it being well nigh im- 

 possible to insert a knife or screwdriver, without 

 mutilating the edges of the hive. When using 

 hives two stories high these beveled edges are reg- 

 ular " bee-killers," as they go together upon the 

 telescope principle, and there is no chance to avoid 

 killing bees if the colony is so strong that the edges 

 of the hives are covered with bees. With a plain 

 edge the upper story may be put in position with a 

 cornerwise movement that will brush away instead 

 of killing the bees. No joint can fit any closer than 

 a plain square joint: and if there is any crack, the 

 bees soon stop it with propolis. 



W. Z. Hutchinson. 



I am not at all surprised, friends, at the 

 answers given to the above query ; for, as 

 you will notice, very few have evei- used it 

 at all. Some of the other friends seem to 

 be unacquainted with the way in which the 

 Simplicity hive is designed to be used. In 

 regard to propolis fastening the liives to- 

 gether, the Simplicity hive was never in- 

 tended to be used so the bees could fasten 

 the joints with pro])olis. Tiie enamel cloth is 

 to be fitted so closely that no bee ever gets 

 above it with a load of propolis, therefore 

 tlie cover always conies up as easily as the 

 cover of a tool-chest. 1 am well awai'e. 

 however, tliat very few take pains enough 

 to keep the bees from Idling these cracks 



with propolis. In our apiary we use the 

 Simplicity hive mainly for qiieen-rearing ; 

 and one great point in making the hive with 

 beveled edges is to give us facility in hand- 

 ling them while empty— piling them into a 

 wagon, for instance, tiering them up in a 

 honey-liouse, or stacking them up outdoors, 

 if you choose. They never slip or jostle, 

 and do not tumble down or get 1)lown otf . 

 Friend Hasty says they do not keep the 

 water out any l)etter than the square joints. 

 My experience Jiardly agrees with him in 

 this ; and besides, if they don't keep the 

 water out they certainly do keep the wind 

 out better than a poorly made square joint ; 

 that is, unless said joint is filled with propo- 

 lis, and we don't want any propolis at all to 

 hold the cover on or to hold the upper story 

 on. The only way we can change our meth- 

 od with the thousands of hives already in 

 use, is to make them the usual way unless 

 ordered otherwise than we have been pre- 

 pared to do. Our books will show, however, 

 that not one customer in a thousand wishes 

 them made with square joints, especially if 

 they have already commenced with the bev- 

 eled joints. If we are going to use the sto- 

 ries in the shallow form recommended by 

 friend Heddon, perhaps the square joint 

 would be preferable, for the reasons that 

 have been already discussed in our pages. 



Vue.sfioji No. ,>. — How much do you estimate it 

 costs you per pound, in an average season, to pro- 

 duce comb honey ? How much for extracted ? If 

 you can not say exactly, estimate as nearly as you 

 can. L. M. K. 



Three cents for extracted honey. K. Wilkin. 



About half a cent for extracted. 



Dr. a. B. Mason. 

 For comb hone.v, 8 and W cents. For extracted, 

 3 and 4 cents. Dadant & Son. 



For comb, 10 cents. I can not tell as to extracted, 

 with my limited experience. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



As nearly as I could make it, I find that it cost 

 me at least 3 cents per pound for comb honey, and 3 

 cents for extracted honey. Paul L. Viallon. 



According to the price of other commodities and 

 of labor, both skilled and unskilled, I should say 

 10 cents for comb and 6 cents for extracted. 



G. M. DOOIilTTUE. 



For comb honey, to put on the market, it costs 

 me something- like 5 cents per pound, independent 

 of labor. If labor be added, the cost may reach IH 

 cents. C. C. Miller. 



There is such a vast ditt'erence between seasons, 

 different bee-keepers, and different locations, that 

 I will not pretend to definitely answer this question 

 in figures and amounts, nor do I attach much value 

 to any number of attempted answers to it. 



James Heddon. 



The answer to this depends almost entirely on 

 the estimate placed on one's own value, which de- 

 prives all such answers of much value to others. I 

 could make a fair living- in Iowa, raising extracted 

 honey at ti cents per lb., net, wholesale. 



O. O. Poppleton. 



One of ray intelligent bee-friends says that ex- 

 tracted honey costs 5 cents and comb 8, and that 



