42 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



be easily changed, it is so far superior to the 

 old, ten-frame, telescopic jointed, metal rab- 

 beted, raised-covered Simplicity, that we are 

 ready to hold up both hands in its support. 

 It is called the "Dovetailed Hive," because, 

 not only the hive, but the supers, are dove- 

 tailed at the corners. We look upon this as 

 one of the minor points in hive construction. 

 Plain, square joints, firmly nailed, give suf- 

 ficient strength; and, in our opinion, noth- 

 ing more is needed. Dovetailing is an un- 

 necessary expense. This new hive is practi- 

 cally the old, eight-frame, Heddon hive, 

 with loose bottom board; but Bro. Root has 

 made one or two mistakes, which we feel 

 sure he will be glad to have pointed out. He 

 has made the brood frames flush with the 

 top of the hives. To overcome this error, he 

 proposes using a honey-board with hvo bee- 

 spaces; one above, the other below. It is now 

 a well established principle that a bee-space 

 is necessary between all the disconnected 

 parts of a hive, from bottom board to cover. 

 Now, this bee-space must be upon the same 

 side of every part, else confusion and compli- 

 cation are the result. The next error is in 

 trying to use wide frames without top-bars, 

 ( "section holders" he calls'them )in a T super, 

 with the T tins removed. The T super is 

 two shallow for this purpose. To overcome 

 this error he removes the top bars to the 

 wide frames, and reduces the bottom bars to 

 only 3-l(}. To this there are two very serious 

 objections. The bottom bars, being so thin, 

 will sag terribly, and this will bring them 

 so near the slats in the honey board, that 

 they will be stuck fast with propolis. When 

 the first super is partly filled, and is raised 

 up to put under an empty one, the bottom 

 bars of the upper one will be sagged, be- 

 cause there is the weight of honey upon 

 them, those in the lower one will not be sag- 

 ged, because they do not, as yet, have upon 

 them any weight; the result will be that the 

 bottom bars of the upper "section holders" 

 will almost, if not quite, touch the tops of 

 the sections in the lower super, and all will 

 be completely stuck tight with propolis. 

 The other objection is this, 3-16 is not large 

 enough for a bee space, 5-16 is the bee space. 

 When we go below this the bees begin to ob- 

 ject by using propolis, and the lower we go 

 the greater the objection, and when we get 

 down to 3-1(3 the bees will completely plaster 

 the opposing surfaces, even connecting them 

 in places with little mounds of wax and i)ro- 

 polis. For the love of bee-keepers, Bro. 



Root, put a bee-space in the top of youi* 

 bottom-board, in the top of your hive, in 

 the top of your honey-board, and in the top 

 of your supers, and stick to the T super. 



THE BEST BEES. 



•Judging from the reports in this number, 

 we were entirely correct when intimating 

 that we Northern bee-keepers had no use for 

 Syrian or Cyprian bees. Italians, Germans 

 and Carniolans are the three varieties from 

 which to choose. Before attempting to make 

 a decision, let the bee-keeper well consider 

 his honey resources; together with all the 

 accompanying conditions. Let him also de- 

 cide whether he is to produce comb or ex- 

 tracted honey. Let no bee-keeper be caught 

 by that phrase, "general purpose" bee. The 

 bee-keeper who thoroughly understands his 

 resources, knows exactly what he wishes to 

 accomplish, and chooses the best hive, the 

 best bee, and the best methods, to secure 

 the desired ends, will far outstrip the 

 "general purpose" bee-keeper, with his 

 "general purpose" hive, "general purpose" 

 bee, and "general purpose" methods. For the 

 production of extracted honey, the Italian 

 bees stand without a superior. Were it not 

 for the difliculty of dislodging them from 

 the combs, they would, for this purpose, be 

 well nigh perfect. In search of honey, they 

 will fly far and wide. Though the recom- 

 pense be slight, they toil on. If the yield of 

 honey is abundant, and the source of supply 

 near by, the blacks will bring in as much 

 honey as any bees — some say more — and. 

 once the nectar is in the hive, they handle it 

 in a manner that is truly artistic. The Ital- 

 ians are the better field icorkers; the blacks 

 the better hoitse-kee2)ers. In this respect the 

 Italians are like man, while the Germans 

 resemble woman; to carry the simile still 

 farther, they omjht to marnj. In plain Eng- 

 lish, the best results will be secured, espec- 

 ially in raising comb honey, by uniting these 

 two varieties. Don't let the union be brought 

 about in a hap hazard way, but understand- 

 ingly, according to the plan given by us last 

 month, and mentioned again by a corres- 

 pondent this month. For raising extracted 

 honey, we would use Italians or hybrids; in 

 the production of comb honey, we would 

 employ blacks or liybrids. Now then, after 

 we have thus conclusively shown, that a 

 judicious cross between the Italians and 

 Germans, is the best "bee for business," up 



