20 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



thing- wrong with the management 

 when a man canH get away from it if 

 necessary. 



I do not wish to convey the idea that 

 the managing of an apiary can be 

 systemized in the same manner as it 

 can be done in office work, but, for 

 pity's sake! you can pile all of the 

 emptj^ hives in one place can't j'ou? 

 You can have another for the empty 

 supers, another for supers filled with 

 sections, another for honej'-boards, an- 

 other for bottom-boards, and so on, 

 through the whole business? You can 

 sweep up the floor, and have a place 

 for each tool, and keep each in its 

 place. I have actually felt sick at 

 heart when I have entered some honey- 

 houses. A cyclone could not have 

 scattered things worse than I have 

 seen them scattered. 



Then there should be a sj-stematic 

 way of working in the apiarJ^ I don't 

 suppose any man goes into the apiary 

 and extracts the honey from one colon}' 

 here, from another there, but he begins 

 at one row, and goes straight through, 

 extracting from each colony that needs 

 it. This same method, or system, 

 should extend through all of the work 

 that is done. There ought, also, to be 

 some method of marking each hive, 

 where there is a queenless colony, for 

 instance — something that could be 

 easily and quickly seen without squint- 

 ing at some written record. I believe 

 some man used a brick on top of a hive. 

 The brick on the side had a meaning, 

 on its edge, another meaning, on end, 

 another. Then whether the brick was 

 in the middle of the hive, or toward the 

 front of the hive another. 



But I have written enough. Begin 

 at the bottom and systemize your work 

 from bottom to top. Systemize it all 

 that it is possible. Bring in order. 

 "Always do the same thing in the same 

 way," as much as possible. By so do- 

 ing 3'ou can accomplish twice as much 

 work, and feel good all the time you 

 are doing it. 



HIVE-MAKING. 



Shall it be Done by the Bee-Keeper, or Shall 

 He buy His Hives? 



In view of the sharp advance in the 

 price of hives, I, a short time ago, in 

 the Review, urged bee-keepers to make 

 their own hives. Bro. Root, of Glean- 

 ings copied my editorial, and com- 

 mented upon it to the extent of a page 

 or more. Bro. Root and myself have 

 been friends for many years, are 

 friends now, and will probably remain 

 as such. Our friendship is not depend- 

 ent upon the fact that we usually agree, 

 but rather that it is of such a character 

 that it allows us to indulge in good 

 hard arguments, without any injury 

 to the bond that binds us. Such being 

 the case, and this subject being really 

 an important one, I take pleasure in 

 copying the remarks of my Bro. edi- 

 tor. Among other things he says: 



Part of what Mr. Hutchinson says 

 is true. There are times and places 

 where soine bee-keepers can go to their 

 nearest planing-mills and get their 

 hives made, and perhaps save some 

 monej'. This is conceded; but in the 

 great majority of cases it will be a 

 inoney-losing venture, I think. The 

 large manufacturer of bee-hives can, 

 as a rule, supply hives ready to put 

 together in lots of 100 at a price equal, 

 or nearly so, to what the bee-keeper 

 would have to pay for the same grade 

 of lumber at the average planing-mill 

 without any work put on it. This 

 seems like a broad statement, but let 

 us see how it works out in fact. Good 

 clear first-class lumber, such as the 

 manufacturers are now putting out in 

 their hives, with few or no knots in, 

 will cost at the planing mill between 

 $50 and $60 per 1000 feet; but we will 

 say it is 5 cents a foot. A standard 

 eight-frame Dovetailed hive has 20 feet 

 of luinber in it, including waste neces- 

 sar3'. This makes the lumber in that 

 hive cost Si. 00. At 6c a foot it will 

 cost $1.20. Let us now look at a 1904 

 catalogue. We find that the price of 

 an eight-frame hive in lots of 100 is 

 $1.25 (for it would be folly for any one 

 to make less than a hundred hives). 



