THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



193 



ceipts by way of subscriptions and 

 advertisements are sufficient to pay 

 all bills and future liabilities of the 

 concern, and the Apiculturist will 

 continue to appear from month to 

 month as it has for nearly four 

 years past. 



We invite all to send in articles 

 for publication, or questions for an- 

 swers, and thus help to make the 

 " Api" one of the best bee-papers 

 published. 



The "Api" will be conducted in 

 the interest of the beekeepers, and 

 the editor will from time to time 

 express his opinions without fear 

 or favor. 



Henry Alley, 



Manager. 



THE REVERSIBLE HIVE. 



One season's experience with the 

 reversible hives has satisfied us 

 that there is no advantage in such 

 an arrangement over the common 

 frame except to prevent swarming. 

 The idea that by reversing the 

 combs the bees will remove the 

 honey from the brood-chamber to 

 the sections is mere theory. We 

 reversed several hives to test the 

 matter. After several weeks, some 

 of the capped honey at the bottom 

 of the frames was removed, but we 

 had no idea that it was stored in the 

 sections, as at the time of revers- 

 ing, the bees were at work on white 

 clover, and the honey in the brood- 

 chamber was gathered from apple 

 and other fruit blossoms. Any ex- 

 perienced beekeeper knows that 

 bees will not mix different kinds 

 of honey. In all probability the 

 capped honey was used in brood- 

 rearing or to mai<e room for brood. 



Notwithstanding the above ex- 

 perience, we really believe the 

 reversible hive is the hive for all 

 purposes. The fact that such an 

 arrangement gives the apiarist full 

 control of swarming is all the in- 



ducement the live beekeeper needs 

 to adopt the reversible method. 

 No one should think of using a re- 

 versible frame, as such an arrange- 

 ment is as far behind the times as 

 the box hive is behind the movable 

 frame. 



There is no style hive in use that 

 can be made so easily and cheaply 

 as a reversible hive, and this one 

 fnct alone should induce all who 

 intend to purchase new hives to 

 adopt the reversible arrangement. 



Of course the hive need not be 

 reversed except when necessary or 

 desirable, therefore one need not 

 be afraid to use it. 



Then, we now have a reversible 

 section-case, which is as useful, 

 as cheaply and easily made, as is 

 the reversible hive. The section- 

 clamp we devised is merely two 

 pieces of boards for sides in which 

 any number of sections are placed 

 and all clamped togetiier by a bolt 

 which runs through the middle rows 

 of the sections. 



This style hive has other advan- 

 tages over the common frame hive 

 which we will speak of at some 

 future time. 



THE HONEY CROP OF 1886. 



The present season has been a 

 very peculiar one. Bees never 

 came tiirough the winter in better 

 condition, and never was the 

 weather more favorable for bees 

 than it has been the past four 

 months. Nor was there ever more 

 forage for the bees to work and 

 gather honey from in any year 

 during our experience in bee cul- 

 ture. Notwithstanding all this, 

 bees have not done as well as us- 

 ual. The outlook for a large crop 

 of honey never was more promising 

 than at the beginning of the pres- 

 ent season. 



Unfavorable weather has pre- 

 vented the bees from gatherino- 



