10 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



them in the Feb. Review; tho special topic 

 of which is to be: "Mistakes in Boe-Keeping." 

 Remember this: the class of mistakes we wish 

 to describe are those that are now being made, 

 or likely to be made: a pabljcation of the 

 mistakes of a dozen years ago, mistakes that 

 have long since been corrected, would be of 

 little value. Should there be any in our 

 ranks who have made no mistakes them- 

 selves, they may be able to point out the 

 mistakes of their less fortunate brothers,and 

 such accounts will be equally welcome. As 

 a commencement, we will say that om- great- 

 est mistake has been in keeping too few bees. 

 The next in order is that of rearing 

 queens instead of devoting our whole ener- 

 gies to the production of comb honey. In our 

 locality there is more money in honey than 

 in queens, and we have known it for some 

 time, but there is a fascination about queen- 

 rearing that we have not yet been able to re- 

 sist — may never be able to. We believe that 

 many bee-keepers are now making the mis- 

 take of not keeping enough bees. We say, 

 keep as many as it is profitable to keep: us- 

 ing such hives, fixtures and appliances as 

 will allow the apiary to be jnanaged with the 

 least labor. There is another mistake made 

 by many bee-keepers, that of judging by 

 results alone. As that excellent bee-keeper, 

 Mr. R. L. Taylor, said, in the April Review, 

 "The greatest actual results do not prove the 

 method of management by which they were 

 produced to be the best. Time, and labor, 

 and thought, and care, and material, and 

 capital, are all money, so the greatest results 

 numerically may be obtained at a loss, while 

 the least apparent result may yield a profit." 



the OHAEACTERISTICS OF A GOOD HIVE. 



Before saying one word in the way of sum- 

 ming up on the hive question, we wish to 

 call attention to the fair, honest and gentle- 

 manly way in which this discussion has been 

 carried on ; not only in our paper, but in the 

 Apicidturist. If bee-hives can be discussed 

 so harmoniously, we need not hesitate for 

 fear of unpleasant strife, to take up any 

 topic. 



While there will probably always be users 

 and advocates of large hives, of chaflf hives, 

 and of hanging frames, it is evident that the 

 present tendency is toward shallow, fixed 

 frames ; small brood-nests : and a system of 

 management that requires but little if any 



frame manipulation. With such hives the 

 bees must be wintered in the cellar or the 

 winter protection be such that it can be re- 

 moved in the summer. Such hives allow 

 the principle of tiering up to be carried to 

 its highest perfection ; contraction of the 

 brood-nest is equally perfect, the top of the 

 brood-apartment always being the same 

 size ; in short, such hives allow of " short 

 cuts," of a sort of wholesale management 

 that an attempt to follow with other hives 

 brings in a whole lot of loose pieces and an 

 endless amount of manipulation. It is 

 pleasing to notice the unanimity with which 

 beveled corners, telescopic joints, cloths and 

 quilts, and fast bottom boards are being 

 discarded. We wish to notice in detail a few 

 of the points mentioned by our correspon- 

 dents. Mr. Foster objects to the Heddon 

 hive because it is more difficult to remove 

 and introduce queens. W^e have never used 

 a hive in which this can be accomplished 

 more readily, and are at a loss to understand 

 how Bro. Foster arrived at such a conclusion. 

 Next he objects to it because of the difficul- 

 ties attending examinations for foul brood. 

 Admitting this to be true, what would our 

 friend think if a hive were recommended 

 upon the ground that : " It was an awful good 

 hive to manage foul brood in." We would 

 suggest that Dr. Miller make his bottom 

 boards with the grain running in the oppo- 

 site direction. A cleat across the front end 

 will prevent warping. The Doctor also says 

 that he would have something between the 

 brood frames and the cover. He can't en- 

 dure to break the brace combs every time 

 he opens a hive. As a general thing, our 

 honey boards are left on the year round, 

 when, of course, there is no trouble in re- 

 moving the cover. Whenever it is necessary 

 to open the brood-nest, and this is seldom, 

 then the honey-board must be removed ; and 

 its removal is essentially the same thing as 

 removing a cover when no honey-board or 

 quilt is used. We insert the blade of a 

 pocket knife under each edge and give it a 

 little twist to break the propolis, then the 

 honey-board is given a little twist to break 

 the brace combs, and off it comes. We 

 don't know how our friend, the Doctor, re- 

 moves quilts, but whenever we have witness- 

 ed the operation it is something as follows : 

 Turn up one corner of the quilt, blow in a 

 little smoke, turn it back a little farther, 

 blow in a little more smoke, set down the 

 smoker, strike a beut-over-straddled-out-atT 



