1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



99 



J was using what I called the Simplicity chaff 

 hive — a hive IS^ inches squareinside. with three 

 or four inches of packing at each end of the 

 frames. The hive stood on a chaff- packed bot- 

 tom-board, and at the sides 1 used a cushion or 

 I'haft'-packed frame, cloth on one side and thin 

 boards on the other side, turning the cloth to- 

 ward the bees in winter, contracting the brood- 

 nest to four, five, or six combs, as it was neces- 

 sary; and in the spring, as early as convenient, 

 I cleaned out the hive and turned the board 

 side of these side cushions toward the bees. 

 When I nailed on these board sides, in the first 

 place I laid two or more thicknesses of cloth on 

 the ends and bottom of this side frame, and let 

 the cloth project from % to }4 inch beyond the 

 frame. The cloth is used as a heat retainer or 

 confiner, to prevent the heat from escaping 

 around the end of the frame. 



Well, those thirteen frame hives very often 

 had eleven frames of solid brood, except the top 

 corners of the frames that were filled for three 

 or fourinches with pollen and honey; and. what 

 is more, they not often swarmed. I used two 

 styles of surplus-cases on them. One was the 

 wide frame for 8 sections; the other, a case for 

 4 sections in a row, to place the sections cross- 

 wise of the frames, and use separators, ten sec- 

 tions from fi'ont to rear, making 40 sections to 

 the one-tier case, and using two cases high. 

 The sides of these hives were 28 inches long, be- 

 cause they were made of % lumber. 



Now for the reasons of the chaff eftds to the 

 hives: I had always noticed that, in winter, in 

 the single-walled hives, hoar frost or needles of 

 ice formed between the ends of the frames; and 

 by this packing I got rid of that frost in the 

 hives. Then in the case of the ISi.., inches in 

 the width of the hive, I had a place to use a 

 side frame of )^ sections at each side, and a half- 

 inch division-board with eight or nine brood- 

 frames before the bees were so numerous as to 

 necessitate putting on a top case. 



Besides these large hives I used others, vary- 

 ing from seven frames up to thirteen. At that 

 time, and for thirteen or more years, I was tak- 

 ing care of bees for other people, either wholly 

 myself or by supervision, besides taking care of 

 my own bees, and for years I had the charge of 

 from 1()(» to 300 hives of bees, located in six or 

 eight towns, in apiaries varying from six or 

 seven hives up to sixty. 



A good many objected to these large hives be- 

 cause of their expense, as they had, besides this 

 chaff-packed end and chaff-packed bottom, an 

 outside shell 12 to 1.5 inches deep, that, for win- 

 ter, was let down to the bottom, and in summer 

 it was raised so the lower edge was 2 inches be- 

 low the top of the hive-body, and a cleated and 

 rinimed-top cover. Because of the objection of 

 expense, and the inconvenience of handling and 

 moving these large hives, I made and used for 

 other persons hives holding ten and eight 

 frames; and I can, from experience and close 



comparison during years of practical use, say 

 that the large hives were, in dollars and cents, 

 and profitable results, every way the least ex- 

 pensive. But if you will take a pencil, and fig- 

 ure up every thing, the figuring will prove that 

 these large hives cost the most every time, and 

 that is where figures do actually and practically 

 lie. But with the practice of fewer hives, and 

 the time of changing place to work from one 

 hive to another, the time of hiving swarms, and 

 I could name a dozen other items, to say noth- 

 ing of the larger number of finished sections 

 from each hive, that alone is item enough to 

 make the preference for the large hive. But 

 when you go above that limit of the square, 18.V 

 inches by 9*-s, then you can just stop— just step 

 down and out. That I have tried, and had to 

 own up beat. 



THE HOFFMAN FKAME — WHY I LIKE IT AND 

 WHY I don't like it. 



It is not the spacing and fixedness of it that 

 are its best features, but I will admit that the 

 spaced stationary feature of the Hoffman frame 

 is reason enough to make it universally adopt- 

 ed. On account of the forming of ice at the 

 ends of the frames being the reason for using 

 packing at the ends of the hives, I adopted the 

 Hoffman frame in 1879. A pattern of this I ob- 

 tained from J. H. Nellis, with the wide part of 

 the end-bar made wide for .5 inches, which gave 

 me very gratifying results; but these results 

 the first season only raised the question of how 

 I was to get rid of a cussed nuisance that I had 

 heard more cursing and swearing about than 

 would be necessary to send all the employes of 

 A. I. Root to Satanic regions; that is, the plas- 

 tering of comb and honey at the ends of the 

 combs in the hive. How many hundreds of 

 times I have seen the plastering done when 

 there happened to be one of those sudden heavy 

 flows of honey! and that very disgusting thing 

 happened in 1893 and 1894 with the Hoffman 

 frames that you have sent out with those short 

 wide ends. Only this past season I was called 

 twice to tell parties what to do to stop the trou- 

 ble of having the honey there at the ends of the 

 frames, and both parties said they wished the 

 ones who made the frames and hives were— not 

 in heaven—" further than they were out of it." 



Now, then, friend Root, make that wide part 

 just ^4 of the length of the end of the frame; 

 make the ends fully % thick, and stop that 

 sharpening of the edge. You go and see how 

 many will be shoved by each other, and hear 

 the swearing that I have heard, and you will 

 make no more sharp edges to cause cursing. 



I began using the Hoffman frame in 1878. In 

 1879 and 1880 I used a few with the end- bars 1% 

 wide the whole length, and I began to practice 

 reversing them; and after 14 years' use, in all 

 sorts of places, 1 am forced to say, give me the 

 full-length Hs-wide end-bar, just -^^ thick; and 

 having used 3000 pair of your reversing-wires, I 

 do not want wood rests, for two reasons: 1. 



