722 
REVERSING 
date, the pin heads are revolved so as to 
point to the proper place. There is no 
writing, and nothing to do except to turn 
the pointers to the right place. 
RED CLOVER.— See Clover. 
REVERSING. —This, as the term signi¬ 
fies, is a scheme or plan for inverting, or 
turning over, the comb. It may be accom¬ 
plished by inverting the frames individ¬ 
ually or the whole hive at one operation. 
Reversing began to be discussed in 1884; 
and for three or four years following there 
was much said on the subject. Reversible 
frames and reversible hives were invented 
by the dozen. Some of them were quite 
ingenious, while others were clumsy and 
impractical. 
Taking into consideration the fact that 
the bees store their honey immediately over 
the brood, and that, as a consequence, their 
combs at this point are much better filled 
out, certain beekeepers conceived the idea 
of turning the combs upside down at fre¬ 
quent intervals. “Why,” said they, “when 
the combs are reversed, bringing the bot¬ 
tom-bars uppermost, the combs will be 
built clear out to the bottom-bars, and the 
honey next the top-bar, which is now at 
the bottom of the hive, will be carried up 
into the supers, just where it is wanted.” 
This seemed very nice in theory, and even 
in practice it seemed to be partially car¬ 
ried out. Many beekeepers reported that, 
when the combs were reversed, the bees, 
rather than have the honey in the bottom 
of the combs, near the entrance, and acces¬ 
sible to robbers, would uncap it and take it 
up into the sections. Unfortunately, honey 
carried above was often poor and dark in 
color. Many times also the bees did not 
cany the honey above but allowed it to 
stay at the bottom of the hive, so that the 
only real advantage secured was getting 
the combs filled actually to the bottom-bars, 
now at the top. 
A very few claimed that reversing, when 
done at the proper time, would destroy 
queen-cells, and so control swarming. Rut 
this worked better in theory than in prac¬ 
tice. 
The only real and direct advantage of 
reversing is in getting combs filled out solid 
in brood-frames. (See Manipulation of. 
Colonies.) When hunting queens it is 
much easier to find one where there is no 
horizontal space between the edge of the 
comb, and the bottom-bar,, and no holes to 
furnish her hiding-places. Moreover, hav¬ 
ing combs filled out solid gives better fas¬ 
tening to the frame and increases the ca¬ 
pacity of the hive just in proportion to the 
new comb built after reversing. Nearly 
every frame that is not reversed is liable 
to have a space of % inch or % between 
the top of the bottom-bar and the comb; 
and this is a waste that ought to be utilized 
if possible. To a certain extent this space 
can be filled in non-reversing frames by hav¬ 
ing sheets of foundation reach from frame- 
bottom to top-bar, wired in with perpen¬ 
dicular wires; but even such combs are 
never as well filled as those reversed. Hav¬ 
ing the combs built in the upper story 
causes the bees to build them down to the 
bottom-bar much better than when built in 
the lower story. 
Several good reversible frames have been 
proposed; but no one should think of 
adopting any of them unless it has some 
points of merit outside the one exclusive 
feature of reversing. A reversible frame 
that is not good for all-around use—easy 
to handle—would be very unprofitable. 
The Van Deusen reversible frame. 
One of the first practical reversing 
frames was the Van Deusen, having metal 
corners or ears. This was essentially a 
standing frame, and could be used just as 
well one side up as the other. The frames 
were spaced apart by “spacing-ears,” and 
these very ears offered some distinctive ad¬ 
vantages in the way of handling the frame. 
This frame was used very largely by the 
one-time most extensive beekeeper in the 
world, Captain J. E. Hetherington of New 
York, also by his brother in Michigan. Out 
side of its reversing feature it offered one 
very decided advantage; namely, the facil¬ 
ity with which it could be handled like the 
leaves of a book. By taking out one or 
two frames the rest could be thumbed over 
without lifting them out of the hive. Not¬ 
withstanding, it is not now used. 
