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62 



SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL EEP©ET OF THE 



We will now have a paper bv INIr. C. 

 P. Dadant. 



THE PROPER SPACING OF 

 FRAMES. 



(C. P. Dadant.) 



The question of frame spacing was called 

 to mj^ attention in the summer of 1916, by 

 Allen Latham, when ho remarked, at the 

 Connecticut meeting, at Storrs, that the 

 1 3-8 spacing of combs, from center to 

 center, is the greatest promoter of swarm- 

 ing. 



longer be natural — the bees build their 

 combs at varying distances from each 

 other; in some cases the combs beinc built 

 so closely that there is not room for brood 

 and the bees have to use onlj^ one side, 

 while in other cases and especialh' when 

 honey storing is in progress, the combs maj' 

 be built two inches apart and even further. 

 Dzierzon gave IJ^ inches as the right 

 distance, from center to center. Berlepsch 

 and others disagreed with him and proved 

 that, in a majority of cases, the brood 

 combs were built 1 3-8 inches apart. 

 Following these masters, our early teachers. 



J 



C. p. DADANT. 



The 1 3-S spacing of brood combs, from 

 center to center, has been practiced for 

 years, on a large scale, since practically all 

 th.'j manufacturere of bee hives use this 

 spacing. They certainly investigated fully 

 the opinion of many of the educatore as 

 well as that of the practical bee-keepers 

 before they adopted this standard. But 

 there are differences of experience even 

 among the best authorities. 



If we go to nature and examine the 

 riaturally built combs, in logs, gums or 

 box hives and skeps, we find that unless a 

 guide has been given — and this would no 



Langstroth and Quinby disagreed. Langs- 

 troth made his 10-frame hives 14 1-8 

 inches wide inside, allowing for each frame 

 a fraction over 1 3-8. The spacing of 1 3-8 

 would require only 13% inches of room. 

 Quinbj- accepted the Dzierzon spacing of 

 13^ inches. Adopting the Quinby system, 

 we adopted also the Dzierzon spacing of 

 ly^ inches. In our redsion of Langstroth, 

 we advised the use of this spacing for two 

 reasons : 



1. It facilitates the removal of the 

 frames, giving a little more room to handle 

 them, and thus aids in interchanging combs 



