THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



293 



That yoke is au old device. I saw it used by 

 butter-milk venders and water carriers forty 

 years ayo, but that was wliere porridye was 

 a staple article of food and wells aud pumps 

 few aud far betweeu. It was generally on 

 the shoulders of an old woman in those days. 

 Mr. Boardman's horned cart would be a 

 good thing if hives were all cleated at top 

 and bee yards as level and smooth as an 

 asphalted avenue: but they are not. In most 

 yards I fear the jolting of the wheels would 

 create an uncomfortal^le commotion among 

 the tenants of the impaled hive. 



Your method of arranging the hives in a 

 cellar diflfers somewhat from my practice. 

 Instead of leaving a vacant space between 

 the hives when piling them up, I place mine 

 as close together as I can put them when the 

 first row is completed. I remove the honey 

 boards (there is still a cloth covering on top 

 of the frames). I then spread two or three 

 thicknesses of old carpet on top of the entire 

 row. Upon this I put twt) tixi scantling, one 

 along the back of the hives and the other 

 along the front. Upon these I place the next 

 tier, and so on to the top. After trying a 

 number of devices I have settled down to the 

 above plan and have practiced it with satis- 

 factory results for six or seven years. 



Owen Sound, Canada, Nov. 9, 18!tl. 



Trying New "Fads." — Double Wall Hives 



Objectionable.— Advantages of Divisible 



Brood Chamber Hives in Winter. — 



A Little House Apiary. 



B. TATLOK. 



IRIEND HUTCHINS( )N.— The press of 

 work has eased up a little and I have 

 concluded to write you a line or two. 

 In a late number of Gh'anings the junior 

 editor gives it as his opinion that I am given 

 to trying all the new " fads." Thank you, 

 friend Ernest, for the compliment. What a 

 skeleton this world would be if there were 

 no cranks to try the new "fads;" for 

 how can we know things unless we do know 

 them ? For instance, I have been for thirty 

 years using a fixed frame that is pronounced 

 by all who have fairly tried it in comparison 

 with the Hoffman frame to be incomparably 

 better than the one friend R. believes in and 

 recommends. But how could I have known 

 this unless I had given his favorite frame a 

 fair and exhaustive trial ? I did so and can 

 now speak as one having authority. 



The small outside clusters of bees in good, 

 tight hives chill to death in large numbers 



even when the weather is no colder than 

 frosty nights in ( )ctober. But I should have 

 never known this if anew "fad" had not 

 caused me to lift the combs and bees of l.W 

 colonies out of their hives into other cheap 

 ones for wintering. I made 100 nice double 

 walled hives last spring for the very purpose 

 of having the bees kept warmer in late fall 

 and early spring. But how would I have 

 found out that there were more chilled bees 

 in the double walled hives than in single 

 walled ones of the same size and number of 

 frames, had I not made this experiment ? 

 But such was the fact. I am greatly sur- 

 prised at it and should never have known 

 this strange truth if the new " fad " had not 

 led me to look into every part of the many 

 hives. I can account for the fact only by 

 supposing that the double walls cut off the 

 benefit of the warm rays of the sun during 

 the day. Now these same hives as well as 

 single walled ones when used two stories to- 

 gether, as double brood chambers, had no 

 dead bees on the outside of the clusters, and 

 this was easily accounted for by the fact that 

 there was a bee space through the center of 

 the hive, and this gives all parts of the swarm 

 easy connection with the center of the warm 

 cluster. Yes, the double brood chambers are 

 splendid hives for winter for this reason, and 

 I am trying a new " fad," that of putting a 

 rim one-half inch deep between the brood 

 chambers, making, with the bee space, a 

 three-quarters inch chamber right through 

 the center of the hive for the bees to cluster in 

 and thus bring all the small rooms of the 

 hive into immediate connection with each 

 other by a warm Iiall in their midst. Dr. 

 Miller once said he would like the " warmth 

 that the entire closed-end framee would 

 give." No sir, a deep closed-end frame is 

 cold and bad just because it cuts the brood 

 chamber into many small rooms having no 

 convenient connection with each other ex- 

 cept around the cold outside, and on this 

 very account shallow frames are good for 

 wintering even in single brood chambers, 

 because it is less distance around them. 



Yes, I have the new " fad " ready to set 

 the hives into. It is a nice little house 0x8 

 feet, 7 high, nicely made and painted in 

 fancy colors. The hives, twelve in number, 

 are placed eight on the south side and four 

 on the east end. The entrances are made so 

 as to use the swarm catchers on them. My ! 

 Do you suppose that after last summer's ex- 

 perience I am going to have any kind of 



