82 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 7, 



tho«e in single-wallod hives, while the safety of their winter- 

 Ing'successfully is more fullv assured ; for the less honey con- 

 sumed by a good colony of bees insures their mora perfect 

 wintering Where hives are wheeled right into the cellar, as 

 I do mine, the labor of putting them in is little more than with 

 single-walled hives, and this labor question is all there is 

 against the matter, except that a less number can be put into 

 a given space, and the saving of honey, will, I think, more 

 than compensate for the extra room needed, and pay for build- 

 ing a little larger, where it should be necessary. 



Borodino, N. \. 



Making Hives— Full Sheets of Foundation, Etc. 



BY R. S. CHAPIN. 



As asked bv the editor, I will contribute my share to the 

 American Bee Journal, which will perhaps be of some value to 



''^'l make all my hives, frames, supers, etc. I have a foot- 

 power sawing machine, which I constructed myself, to help 

 me on in such work. I have it so I can screw the table up 

 any desired height for the purpose of doing rabbeting. 



My hives are made to take eight Langstroth frames, 

 which are 9J^ x 11%, top-bar 1^ inches The hives are «nade 

 from one inch lumber, well seasoned. The body of the hive 

 is iust 3 8 inches long, 12 inches wide and 9^ inches deep, in- 

 side measurement, with no bee-space above the frames. 

 An entrance, 5 inches long and % deep is cut in the bottom 

 edge of one of the end pieces. There is also a ^b inch bee- 

 space below the frames. There is a M inch rabbet at the top 

 of the outside edge of the side pieces to the hive, bodies and 

 supers. The lower inside edge of the side pieces to the supers, 

 has a corresponding rabbet (the side pieces of the supers are 

 made H inch wider than the end pieces for this purpose) 

 which projects into the rabbet on the hive body. 

 These rabbets keep the super from being misplaced 

 in any way, and allows of tiering up. I ^^aye not 

 yet found any objection to these rabbets, exc^ept the trouble 

 of making them. The corners of the hive bodies and supers, 

 are also rabbeted, and nailed both ways, which makes an 

 extra strong corner, and I think equal to the dovetailed The 

 bottom-board is made 8 inches longer than the liive bodies, to 

 form an alighting place. There is a cleat nailed on the under 

 side of each end to prevent it from warping. 



The cover is made from one whole, sound board, and 4 

 inch larger each way than the outside dimensions of the hive. 

 There are 2-inch cleats nailed all around the edge of the 

 cover to keep it from warping, and also to keep it in place on 

 the hive The Ji inch extra size, is so it will not work tight 

 on the hive, because you know we must have no jarring 



around the bee-hive. ■, » » 1 ,.u„ „„„ 



The super is just 5M inches deep, made to take the sec- 

 tion holder arrangement. The section-holder rests on little 

 cleats, I4 inch square, nailed to the lower inside edge of each 

 end piece. This makes a li inch bee-space below the section- 

 holders and none above. 



I use separators and full sheets of extra thin surplus foun- 

 dation. This secures full, even combs of honey in the sec- 

 tions. When one super is nearly full I raise it up and slip an 



empty one under it. , h ^< ^ . u -j 



The top-bars to the brood-frames are 1 1/16 inches wide, 

 and % inch thick, with a saw-kerf in the center of the under 

 side, for the purpose of fastening in foundation. I use full 

 sheets of heavy brood foundation in wired frames. I would 

 not dispense with wire when full sheets are used, for many 

 reasons Of course it is quite a bit of trouble putting the wire 

 in I pierce 4 holes through each end-bar. The first one 

 about 1 inch from the top-bar, and the last one IM inches 

 from the bottom-bar. The remaining two holes are at regu- 

 lar distances between these two. The wire is laced back and 

 forth through these holes and held at the ends by a small 

 tack The wire holds the foundation in the center of the 

 frame, holds it from sagging, and holds the comb from break- 

 ing down when extracting, or at other times. 



FULL SHEETS OF BROOD FOUNDATION. 



The value of full sheets of brood foundation, in my esti- 

 mation, is far greater than the cost. The .Prjn'^'P'i °^J«^ ,'^ 

 that it secures straight combs. Using full sheets s the only 

 way that straight comb will be built clear down to the bottom- 

 bar It also prevents the wholesale breeding of drones. Another 

 good reason is, that when a new swarm is hived on full sheets, 

 the queen can go right to laying without leaving to wait for 

 comb to be built, and there is also a chance for all the workers 

 to commence at once, which they cannot do when they have 

 to commence on the top- bar without foundation. 



WINTERING ON THE SUMMER STANDS. 



I winter my bees in chaff hives on the summer stands, 

 and practically without loss. I make the winter hives of M 

 inch lumber, 3 inches larger, on the inside, all around, than 

 the outside dimensions of the summer hive. The chati hive 

 is just 17 inches deep on the inside. It has a gable cover 

 which is covered with roofing-tin. It has corner posts made 

 from 1 inch ash lumber. The sides and ends are nailed to 

 these corner posts with No. 4 shingle nails. 



To pack for winter I put 2 inches of chaff in the bot- 

 tom, set the hive in, and put a super on. I then put a bridge 

 in over the entrance, and pack chaff in all around clear to the 

 top of the super. I then put a Hill's device, of my own make, 

 on top of the brood-frames, and on top of this is put a chaff 

 cushion. The summer covers are all left off. 



I have yet to find out what plan of wintering is better 

 than the above for this locality. Marion, Mich. 



Mr. Abbott's " Notions "—The '< Dovetail " Joint 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



Brother Abbott is out with his war-paint, anticipating ia 

 advance that bee-keepers would be "hopping onto his 

 notions "as they are developed in his series of articles. 1 

 don't care to " hop " a great deal, but " take my pen in hand 

 to inform "him of a few points in which I think some may 

 not agree with him. 



As to the kind of joint for a hive, he seems a little ont of 

 joint It is entirely true that the so-called " dovetail joint 

 s not dovetail at all. By the way, will some one please arise 

 and tell us what is its right name? Is it ' fingered or 

 what? But, Bro. Abbott, will you please explain why yos 

 object to the name dovetail, after it has come into general use 

 in all the books, catalogues and papers? Haven't you been 

 using it in just the same way ever since the first sections were 

 madl-' And yet I never heard a word of objection to it until 

 it was'used in a hive? Why didn't some one give us a picture 

 of a true dovetail years ago when dovetail sections were hrst 



""^"^You sav that a true dovetail joint when it is once in place 

 " could not pull apart very well if it did not have a nail m it. 

 I am somewhat familiar with true dovetail joints, hav ng 

 made and put them together in boyhood, and if they are not 

 nailed they are just as easily pulled apart as the kind used in 

 sections and hiU only they will pull apart only in one 



'^'''^n'T'have counted straight you raise three objections: 

 difficulty of making square; unequal shrinkage; cracks for 

 wa^er to get in. I am a little surprised at the first objection. 

 Tor havMnI a number of such hives I found it Possible to get 

 every one of them put together square whereas with a 

 common joint or a halved joint, if the stuff is not cut exact y 

 t^e it is much more difficult, indeed almost impossible to 

 make a square joint. With one of these last joints if you 

 don't get everything exactly square before the whole thing is 

 put together there is no remedy. With the dovetail you can 

 put the hive together, try it with a square, and if it isn t 

 exactly square you can push or knock it square, and then you 

 can nail U there'. At any rate, I have halved-jointed hives m 

 Urge number, and I don't think they are as true as the 

 dove^UUs.^^^^^^^ for unequal shrinkage is objectionable, and 

 on that account I would never allow the stuff to lie a year 

 wUhout being put together. If put together before any 

 chance for shrinkage, I don't know that there is likely to be 

 anv trouble. The unequal shrinkage of two pieces of wood, 

 each an inch wide and an inch thick, is not likely to make a 



^^" As the corners of a hive do not give out first, I don't 

 suppose there is danger that water getting iuto cracks will 

 make any great trouble. 



The dovetail corners have the advantage of the halved 

 ioint that they are cross nailed, with this substantial advan- 

 age that part of the wood being twice ^he .thickness heav.e 

 nails can be used without danger of splitting. Besides, you 

 can make a surer job of having them square. In fine, the 

 dovetail joint is the strongest joint made, if I am any judge of 



*"'''^Now"i"all others were out of hearing, and just you and I 

 were alone, I'd say that I think the halved joint is a really 

 good joint, and if you like it best there's no law against your 

 using it, but you have such a way of vigorously denouncing 

 everything that doesn't entirely agree with your •' notions, 

 al you call them, that a beginner reading these articles, and, 



