2 



Tif£ AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



under it, it is easily cleaned and above 

 all, it give.- a chance for unlimited 

 lower ventilation. I wanted the open 

 bottom, or something approaching it, 

 in winter, and I wanted the bottoms 

 fixed, in summer, so I adopted a bottom 

 board that by a little trouble gives me 

 both advantages. I do not know how 

 much there is in it of originality, 

 possibly nothing. 



It is simply a 

 'shallow box open 

 at one end, \h 

 inches deep. The 

 hive stands on this 

 the open end at the entrance. Thus 

 there is a space of 2 inches between 

 bottom bars and bottom boards, with an 

 opening at the entrance full width, 2 

 inches high. Thehive is fastened to the 

 bottom board by means of screws, one 

 near each corner, driven through the 

 side of the hive in a slanting manner. 

 When the hive is set in its place for 

 the summer the screws are loosened, 

 the bottom-board reversed and the 

 hive placed on it, leaving the old 

 shallow .-pace under the hive ; in other 

 words, it is a loose boottom board 

 through the summer. When all stor- 

 ing is over for the season the bottom 

 is reversed and the screws fastened, a 

 2 inch nail driven into the cover at one 

 corner and one at the corner diagonally 

 opposite, and top and bottom are left 

 thus fastened until after the hive 

 is hauled home, wintered, and hauled 

 back again in the spring. Of 

 course, the bees are fastened in at the 

 time of hauling. To do this there is 

 a saw-kerf in the rim of the bottom- 

 board at each side of the entrance 

 aud a little gate of doubled wire cloth 

 slid into this, fastening the bees in. 



After the hive is hauled home a piece 

 of wire with three meshes to the inch 

 is slid into the saw-kerf and no mice 

 can get in. 

 Marengo, III. 



ai m mm 



Queen Excluders in the Pro- 

 duction off Comb Honey. 



BY DR. G. L. TINKER. 



The practical utility of queen ex- 

 cluders, both the wood-zinc and those 

 made of whole sheets of perforated 

 zinc, in the production of extracted 

 honey, is now generally admitted 

 among bee-keepers of experience. But 

 as to their use in the production of 

 comb honey there seems to be doubt 

 as to their value, as well as to the 

 proper conditions for their use. For 

 the last two years the writer has taken 

 everv opportunity to advise against 

 the use of queen excluders on brood 

 chambers of large capacity as being 

 an expedient of no utility or advantage 

 of any kind, yet hundreds of such 

 hives have been sent out the past 

 reason fully equipped with section 

 supers and queen excluders in the lat- 

 est fashion, on the supposition that 

 the latter were just as useful on one 

 kind of hive as another. Now that it 

 is known that they are not, it is sought 

 to dispense with queen excluders alto- 

 gether, rather than to modify the hive 

 to the requirements of the queen ex- 

 cluder in the production of comb hon- 

 ey. The question is not raised as to 

 the practicability of raising comb 

 honey without the queen excluders, 

 that is not disputed, but the question 

 is: Can comb honey be raised in larger 

 quantities and more profitably with 

 than without queen excluders, where 

 the hive is made to conform to their 



