1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



461 



here, that, Mhere I am, after a little flow in 

 March and April, there is very little honey- 

 flow — honey flowers — till the sumac bloom) . 

 As I have had bees in fully as good condi- 

 tion cut out an all-wax foundation I really 

 attach but little importance to that expe- 

 rience of non-acceptance of that sheet, ex- 

 cept it has suggested to me the probable or 

 possible desirability of using my device in 

 full sheets in divided or two-part frames; 

 also the fabric, if cloth, should be of the 

 lightest and hard-spun thread. It may 

 well be that a tough paper of manilla tissue 

 would be preferable to woven fabric. Paper 

 tissue I have never tried; but I have used a 

 frame filled with a wax-saturated cloth, 

 plain, with no cell-markings, with the most 

 perfect success — so far as its acceptabilUy 

 went; but you may well imagine that the 

 cell formation looked as though there had 

 been a diminutive earthquake, as each bee 

 seemed to begin just where it happened to 

 be, and without regard to the work of the 

 others. 



I believe you will find this device one of 

 the greatest helps in the brood-nest and in 

 the extracting-supers brought out in many 

 years. 



[We have noted carefully all you say in 

 reference to your invention. This is a very 

 old idea, worked out and used by A. I. Root 

 some thirty-five years ago. He made and 

 sold it, but had to abandon it because the 

 bees sooner or later would gnaw down the 

 combs that were made on it. The same 

 idea has also been patented in one form and 

 another by other people, notably by one 

 party in Cuba, who recently obtained a 

 United States patent. Your claim is limit- 

 ed to the use of a "permeable reinforcing 

 fabric medium," and, as such, is very lim- 

 ited and narrow. We doubt if the patent 

 would ever be worth any thing to you, be- 

 cause if there had been any thing in the 

 idea we would have used it many years ago. 

 The thing has been invented over and over 

 again, and in every case, so far as we know, 

 has had to be abandoned. Foundation 

 made of cloth makes beautiful combs to 

 start with. The product, when drawn out 

 into combs, looks all right; but you will 

 find more trouble just exactly like what 

 you describe. It is easy enough to make 

 such foundation, but the two objections to 

 it are, first, the expense of the fabric; and, 

 second, the fact that the bees are hostile to 

 any thing like fiber. In the dull season 

 they are apt to gnaw down the combs, as 

 they will do sometimes, until they are in 

 shreds. Sometimes combs of this kind 

 from reinforced foundation will run for two 

 or three years. 



We do not like to throw cold water upon 

 your proposition or invention, but think it 

 is only fair to give you our experience. In 

 view of the citations and the write-ups that 

 were made of this very product years ago in 

 the back volumes of the bee-journals, your 

 patent would be of little or no value. — Ed.] 



SIZE OF HIVES. 



The Eight-frame, Formerly Considered the Best, 



Now Giving Way to the Ten-frame; A. I. 



Root's Opinion on the Subject. 



BY BARRETT PIERSOX. 



It is interesting to read the discussions 

 upon the merits of the ten-frame hive as 

 against the eight-frame. The editor has put 

 himself upon record, page 338, June 1, as 

 being in favor of the ten-frame, and Dr. 

 Miller seems inclined that way also. 



I quote the following from page 145 of the 

 A B C of Bee Culture, 1891 edition, which I 

 think was the last edition entirely written 

 by A. I. Root. "The eight-frame L. hive 

 is' now generally conceded to be the best 

 working size; and it is plenty large for gen- 

 eral purposes. The queen will seldom lay 

 in more than eight frames in the brood-nest. 

 If lier brooding capacity extends beyond 

 this, unless she is restrained she will go into 

 the top story. In the ten-frame hive, Ital- 

 ians especially will fill eight frames with 

 brood, and the two outside ones with honey, 

 and this quantity of stores is apt to make 

 them quite loath to enter the super. If the 

 lower eight frames are filled with brood just 

 at the beginning of harvest, and there are 

 no more frames below, just as soon as the 

 flow of nectar begins the bees are obliged to 

 put it where we want it — that is, in the up- 

 per story." 



There are few bee-keepers who have ob- 

 served the habits of bees closer, or devised 

 more articles to meet their needs, than A. I. 

 Root, and the above shows that the eight- 

 frame hive was the right size in 1891. 



Prof. Beal, of the Michigan Agricultural 

 College, once said that farmers had uncon- 

 sciously improved corn by always selecting 

 the bes\ ears for seed As bee-keepers and 

 queen-breeders have always selected the best 

 queens in their yards for breeders, the bees 

 of to-day are better, and the queens are more 

 prolific than tliose of 1891. 



In almost all apiaries thereare some queens 

 whose needs an eight-frame hive would bet- 

 ter meet than a ten-frame; but as the de- 

 mand for supplies shows that the ten-frame 

 has the preference, it follows that the bee- 

 keepers believe it is better to use eight- 

 frames in a ten-frame hive for the poor 

 queens than to crowd the more prolific 

 queens in the eight-frame hive. 



Flint, Mich. 



[The paragraph in the old 1891 edition of 

 the A B C of Bee Culture, which you credit 

 to A. I. Root, was written by E. R. Root. 

 The logic of the times and the experience of 

 hundreds of bee-keepers, the tendency of 

 the bee-keeping public to change from eight 

 to ten frame hives, and our own personal 

 experience, led us to believe that ten-frame 

 hives are better than the eight-frame. If a 

 queen can not quite fill ten it is a very easy 

 matter to reduce ten down to eight-frame 

 capacity; but it is not so easy to add two ex- 



