THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



hives, after they are set out in the spring, 

 the (UfiFerence with nie in favor of colo- 

 nies so treated was so slight that I was 

 unable to detect it, hence I use nothing 

 but single-walled hives. I envy those, 

 however, who use them and make a suc- 

 cess in wintering bees on their summer 

 stands; for the hardest and' most disagree- 

 able work about out-yards is the hauling 

 of colonies back and forth. If one is run- 

 ning a number of out-yards it is not 

 practical, for many reasons, to have a 

 suitable wintering-cellar for each yard. 



The hive I have most largely in use, 

 and the one I prefer as a single-story 

 .brood-hive, is a plain eight-frame hive 

 made on the same principle as the dove- 

 tailed hive. Of course, dovetailed cor- 

 ners add nothing to the convenience or 

 utility of a hive; still, I consider the dove- 

 tailed or lock-corner joint the strongest 

 and most durable joint possible to be 

 made for a hive; and my locality, subject 

 to profuse dews at night, hot sunshine 

 and drying winds in the day time, is a 

 good place to test the hive joint question, 

 e.specially it the hives set right out in the 

 sun unprotected as most of mine do the 

 greater part of the season. 



In my opinion any one who follows our 

 pursuit in a large way for the profit to be 

 derived from it, will ultimately come to 

 the conclusion that he wants a single- 

 walled hive without porticos or beveled 

 joints. One feature that I would not like 

 to dispense with is to have the brood - 

 chambers so made that they can be readi- 

 ly tiered up. 



I consider any covering above the 

 brood frames and sections, except a flat 

 board cover, as entirely unnecessary, ex- 

 cept under some conditions when it pays 

 to use a shade-board. 



I want thick top bars for brood-frames, 

 and no honey-boards. With thick top- 

 bars hone)'-boards are unnecessar}-. I 

 know there are able men in our ranks 

 who prefer to use honey-boards; but how 

 or why the}' can if they have given thick 

 top bars a fair trial is something I can 

 not understand. 



I consider the money well invested, 

 and the time it takes well spent, to have 

 hives and supers painted. However it 

 may be with others, with me an unpaint- 

 ed hiye made out of ordinary lumber is 

 not in use more than seven or eight years 

 before the corners gape, the wood checks 

 and begins to decay, so that, as a whole, 

 I find it pays to paint. For reasons that 

 I will not take space to explain, I will ad- 

 mit that my locality is undoubtedly a very 

 hard one on hives; still, I own some 

 painted ones that have been used by my- 

 self and others for about twenty years, 

 and they are in good condition yet. As 

 for bees doing better in unpainted hives, I 

 have never been able to observe any- 

 thing in their favor in this respect; al- 

 though I have used both painted and un- 

 painted hives ever since I have kept bees. 



The cover is an important part of a 

 hive. I like a cover that is flat on both 

 sides; and the best one of this kind I have 

 found is made of two boards, either 

 matched, or with a tin joint held in place 

 by a saw-kerf in the upper edge of each 

 board. With two boards I find them less 

 inclined to warp or check than when 

 made from one wide board. Then there 

 is the Higginsville cover; a number of 

 which I have in use. This cover is flat 

 on the under side, but partly gabled on 

 top; made so by the outer edges of the two 

 boards of which it is composed being bev- 

 eled or thinned down to about half the 

 thickness they are in the center. This I 

 consider a poor cover; for, aside from the 

 fact that, here in this countr}-, bees should 

 be protected in the spring and fall by a cov- 

 er the whole of which is at least J/s of an 

 inch thick, with me this cover warps and 

 twists badly. Sometimes these thin edges 

 warp up in the center when the ends are 

 held true b\- the cleats. It is no more 

 than fair, however, for me to say that 

 mine is not the improved cover, of this 

 style, as made during the last year or 

 more. Another thing that I do not like 

 aVjout covers of this kind is that it is more 

 difficult to tier hives up with them in use. 

 It is true that hives with this cover can be 



