ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS ASSOCIATION 



111 



I can get it cut out at the mill for about 

 that price, and it is a good hive. But 

 perhaps it could be improved quite a 

 little. While I had a Langstroth hive 

 when I was about lo years old, yet I 

 have not had very many hives since, for 

 the last few years not over 5, and it 

 seems to me I could learn a great deal 

 about hives. The hive that we have is 

 a dovetailed; that is a little more ex- 

 pensive than necessary, it seems to me, 

 but I don't know. Perhaps 20 years is 

 long enough without painting, but if 

 they last 20 years without painting, they 

 ought to last considerably longer if they 

 are painted; but it is a question that I 

 think all of us are very much interested 

 in. Personally, I like the halved cor- 

 ner better than the dovetailed corner. 



A Member — Can you get that for 25' 

 cents ? 



Mr. Sewell — I mean just the brood-- 

 chamber. The hive I use is a very plain 

 hive. I den't know that I need to des- 

 cribe it, but I would like to hear more 

 said about this matter. A great many 

 of us want more hives. We want them 

 as cheap as we can get them. We want 

 them as plain and as easily operated 

 as possible, and we want them to last 

 just as long as possible. 



Mr. Taylor — I have had considerable 

 experience in using hives and in making 

 them. Some here have had more ex- 

 perience than I have, but I should say 

 that if a person wishes to use a Lang- 

 stroth hive, to make it just as plain as he 

 possibly can. If he wants anything over 

 and above the boards sawn square across 

 at the ends of the hive, he can make it 

 a little firmer at the corners, but I do 

 not think that is necessary. If made out 

 of good, fair lumber, what we used to 

 call "cull lumber" — they don't call it 

 cull lumber now (lumber with some oc- 

 casional "shakes" in it, or a worm- 

 hole) — ^and nailed together at the cor- 

 ners, it will last 30 or 40 years, with 

 reasonable care. All it wants is a plain 

 bevel at the ends inside, and it does not 

 want any cleats around the outside; it 

 wants handholds, and that is all I should 

 •put in a hive. There is no need of pay- 

 in $1.50 or $2.00 for a hive, when you 

 can make one from which you can get 

 just as much honey for 25 cents. 



W. Z. Hutchinson — For the bottom- 

 board I would just have a plain board. 

 Some make a board with a cleat at the 

 end to keep it from warping, and a rim 

 on each side. I agree with Mr. Taylor 



about the sides — just plain boards nailed 

 together. 



Dr. Bohrer — How thick do you make 

 your bottom-board? 



Mr. Hutchinson — Ys inch. Plain 

 handles to lift it by ; cover and plain end ; 

 plain rabbets at each end to hang the 

 frames in; and all-wood frames. 



Mr. Abbott — I am interested in where 

 these brethern live, that they can buy 

 lumber enough to make a box as big 

 as a hive frame for 25 years. Take any 

 hive-frame, make it 12 inches long, 

 where can you buy that amount of 

 lumber ? 



Mr. Taylor — How many feet are in it? 



Mr. Abbott — You can figure it your- 

 self. They charge down in our country 

 for the cheapest kind of ship-lap that 

 you can get — that is, so full of knots 

 you can't put your finger down where 

 there isn't a knot — $2.50 a hundred. 



Mr. Taylor — Move into Michigan. 



Mr. Abbott— And for any kind of 

 lumber such as used in a modern bee- 

 hive you have to pay from $3.50 to $4.50 

 for the lumber. We could go back and 

 wear homespun jeans, if we wanted to; 

 we could go back to the long-horned 

 Texas steer; we could go back to a 

 great many things ; we could go back to 

 homely men and women if we wanted 

 to; but in these modern days we want 

 a good looking woman, a well-dressed 

 man; a fat, sleek cow; a fine house and 

 an automobile; and I do not see why 

 a bee-keeper is not entitled to just as 

 good things as other people. Thirty 

 years ago they said tha.t cheap clothes 

 made a cheap man. There is a good 

 deal of truth in that. And cheap bee- 

 hives make a kind of cheap bees and a 

 Cheap John affair all around. 



Mr. Taylor — We are not proposing to 

 go back. We are proposing to go ahead. 

 These men who are making supplies are 

 inviting purchases, and they are asking 

 big prices, and men who have not very 

 much experience — who have not the 

 ability to make their own hives — are 

 buying them. When they get those hives 

 and put bees in them and look after their 

 crop, where are they going to get the 

 money, after paying for all this stuff, 

 to buy their fine Jersey cows and their 

 automobiles and their fine houses? I 

 tell you, we are in the business to make 

 something out of it, and we can't make 

 anything out of it if we go to these men 

 and buy the stuff that they offer at their 

 prices. That is the way I look at it. 



Mr. Stuebing — I think every bee-keep- 



