50 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



he will allow its publication, send me 

 a hive all properly arrang-ed, and I 

 will have drawings made and let the 

 description and illustratioiis appear 

 in the April Review. 



If you are willing- to pay $1.00 to 

 have this matter published, don't wait 

 and say: "Oh, there will be enough 

 others who will attend to this." If 

 they all take this view, the matter 

 won't be published. Yovi will not be 

 asked to send your dollar, unless there 

 are enough other dollars promised so 

 that my New York friend feels the 

 number will be sufficient recompense 

 to justify him in giving- to the world 

 this product of liis brain. 



I shall head the list myself with SS.OO, 

 and if others feel like g-iving-i-nore than 

 $1.00 each, well and good, for I am 

 exceedingly anxious that this method 

 should be given to the world, as it will 

 be readily seen what a vast advantage 

 it will be to be able to step into a large 

 apiar}' and decide, almost at a glance, 

 with no lifting of supers, exactly which 

 colonies are making preparations for 

 swarming. 



«-«j-»<^*^«^<« 



HOME-MADE, VERSUS FACTORV-M ADE 

 HIVES. 



There is no subject that the Review 

 has ever taken up that has brought 

 such a flood of correspondence, letters 

 and articles, as has that of making 

 hives at home. Some of these articles 

 are most excellent, helpful and reason- 

 able, while others are full of sarcasm, 

 even of abuse. I have given a few of 

 the best in this issue. They are 

 samples of many others that I have 

 received, but I doubt the wisdom of 

 publishing any more of them, or of 

 continuing this discussion, unless some 

 one has been wronged, or misrepre- 

 sented, or misunderstood. For ex- 

 ample, Ernest Root has sent me proof 

 of an article that he expects to print in 

 the next issue of Gleanings, and he 

 explains in that that he had in mind a 

 story and a half hive, an eight-frame 



hive with a super, when he gave the 

 price as $1.25 each, by the 100, and the 

 estimate of the amount of lui-nber as 20 

 feet — counting waste. He says that 

 such a hive as I described, only it will 

 be one inch wider, with dovetailed 

 corners, tin rabbets, and division- 

 board, can be furnished by the factor}', 

 in 100-lots, at 87 cents each, and the 

 lumber will be practically clear. It 

 gives me pleasure to publish this, as 

 I wish to be entirely fair to all con- 

 cerned. Mr. Root saj's, still further, 

 that, in this comparison, in order to 

 be fair, we ought to figure on exactly 

 the same equipment, viz., clear lumber, 

 dovetailed corners, Hoffman frames, 

 pe^iked roof covers, tin rabbets, a di- 

 vision-board, etc., and then he goes on 

 still furtlier, and says that the factory 

 ought to be able to furnish these things 

 cheaper than the man can make them 

 at home, as the factory can buy lum- 

 ber in 100-car lots at greatlj' reduced 

 prices. I admit the force of all this, 

 but I expressly said that I looked at 

 these extras as useless expenses, that 

 I would rather have hives without 

 them, that a bee-keeper could i-nake 

 his own hives more cheaply than he 

 could buy them, if he would only get 

 rid of the idea that these "fixings" 

 were necessary'. 



Mr. Root, in liis reply to my article, 

 speaks of the 37^4 cent hives that I had 

 made, as made of "knotty lumber, 

 some of the knots loose, and the knot 

 holes covered with pieces of tin, the 

 boards probably roughly sawn, and 

 probably not at all accurate." Beg 

 pardon, Bro. Root, but none of these 

 were true of the hives that I had made. 

 There were knots in the boards, but 

 they were sound, the lumber nicely 

 planed, and accurately and smoothly 

 sawed. All that I said on this subject 

 was that knotty lumber could be used, 

 and that loose knots could be managed 

 in some parts of the hive. 



But as I have already said, I doubt 

 the wisdom of using more space in 



