1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



99 



ANSWERS BY DR. MILLER. 

 A list of questions has been sent me by a 

 correspondent, J. W. C. G., Illinois, which I 

 will here answer in order; and, for the sake of 

 saving space, I will not repeat the questions. 



1. My opinion of the siatement of W. W. 

 Somerlord, that the ten-frame Dovetailed is 

 the best hive in the world, is that it is all right 

 for some cases, but not for all. For some a 

 larger hive is needed. Two stories of eight 

 frames each may be better, but require more 

 engineering. Por some a hive with larger 

 frames may be better. For one who pays al- 

 most no attention to his bees the year round, 

 the ten-frame is better than the eight-frame. 

 And something larger may be still better. 

 But I don't set a very high estimate on my 

 opinion, and it's liable to change at any time. 



2. I think any one who knows how to useT 

 supers properly, and who hasn't some special 

 facility in handling section-holders that I 

 never learned, will decidedly prefer T supers. 



3. I use on my supers the regular hive-cover 

 that I use on the hive when no super is on. 



4. On my old hives I use Heddon slat honey- 

 board under supers. On my newer hives, 

 with thick and wide top-bars, I use no honey- 

 board unless for some special purpose I want 

 to bar the passage of the queen, in which case 

 I use a wood-zinc queen-excluder. But it isn't 

 needed to keep the queen from entering the 

 supers. 



5. I put full sheets of foundation in brood- 

 frames and in sections. In brood-frames that 

 means the foundation touches the wood on all 

 sides, being slid into a saw-kerf in the top-bar, 

 and between the two split halves of the bot- 

 tom-bar, having little sticks of wood instead 

 • of wires. The sticks are ^ inch square, run- 

 ning perpendicularly, first boiled in beeswax, 

 and pressed into the foundation while hot. A 

 56-inch bottom starter is used in sections. 



6. I use eight-frame hives, most of them of 

 old pattern, having frames varying from the 

 legular Uangstroth just enough to be a nui- 

 sance. I'm working into eight-frame Dove- 

 tails just as fast as I can. 



7. I run for comb honey, using a T super 

 12) s inches wide inside, and long enough for 

 four sections. That makes it take easily 24 

 sections of popular size. 



8. I use separators always. Some do with- 

 out them; but the character of the honey-flow, 

 or else ignorance on my part, makes separa- 

 tors a necessity with me. 



9. My T tins are loose. 



10. I winter in cellar. My experiments in 

 wintering on summer stands have been rather 

 expensive; but it is quite possible that, if I 

 knew enough, that might be the better way. 



11. All my queens are clipped as soon as it 

 is convenient for me to clip them after they 

 begin laying. 



12 If I hived a natural swarm I should 

 put it on the old stand, moving the old, set- 

 ting the mother colony beside it, and taking 

 the mother colony to a new place in about a 

 week. 



13. Yes, I am fairly entitled to the title 

 " M. D.," having worked hard for one that I 

 received from the University of Michigan a 



good many years ago But what between ad- 

 vancement made in the science of medicine as 

 well as in apiculture, and forgetting for want 

 of practice some of the old-fashioned things I 

 did learn, I wouldn't urge your sending for 

 me in case of dangerous illness if you have a 

 reliable family physician within a hundred 

 miles. Dr. C. C. Miller. 



♦fr/» cy%» 



dTRADE NOTES 



BY E.R.ROOT. 



HAND-HOLE CLEATS FOR HIVES. 



A short time ago I promised to show you 

 something in the line of cleats in combination 

 with a hand-hole to lift hives. We have final- 

 ly got them perfected — or at least so they suit 



us, and now offer them in all our Dovetailed- 

 hive combinations'. They are nothing more 

 nor less than short pieces of molding bevel- 

 ed at each end, and nailed so as to come di- 

 rectly over the top edges of the hand-holes, as 

 shown above. The following illustrations 

 show a little more of the detail. 



Perhaps the question may be asked why the 

 hand-hole cleat alone would not be sufficient. 

 It is muchj more convenient than the hand- 



