1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



533 



THE RIGHT AND WRONG KIND OF FRAME- 

 SPACERS. 



THE WANDER SELF SPACING FKAME HIVE. 

 By EimcHi: A. Wander. 



The body of the hive can be the same as any 

 in use. The hives with which I experimented 

 are of the Quinby, Langstroth, and Gallup 

 types, with the addition of slideways, which 

 are affixed at opposite sides. The frames may 



also be those used in other hives with the ad- 

 dition of pins or screws driven or screwed in at 

 their respective places in end-bars; viz., two in 

 each end-bar about one inch from the end. 

 The slideways are so adjusted that they slide 

 smoothly and easily. Closed frames with comb 

 can easily be planed off on sides, and used. I 

 prefer the slideways made by cutting parallel 

 mortises in inside of ends of hive-body, and 

 fastening flat strips of tin to the ridge remain- 

 ing, as will be seen below. 



^v-^-^-; 



.v\n;^:\<\\\<x k ■IsN.N. vvo 



It is the most perfect and easy hive to manip- 

 ulate that I know of, being able to do almost 

 every possible thing with it with ease, such as 

 moving or shipping without loss of time in 

 preparation, and possibility of fixtures getting 

 loose and killing the bees; also perfect spacing 

 through the center, top, and bottom, and at 

 sides of frames; reversing frames or hives; ease 

 in withdrawing or inserting frames without 

 destroying bees or danger of killing the queen; 



the frames do not have to be pried loose in tak- 

 ing out, and most other features which will 

 readily be recognized upon examination. Every 

 thing is interchangeable. The little extra in 

 cost of making the hive is soon balanced by 

 profit, to say nothing of the pleasure of han- 

 dling it. Eugene A. Wander. 

 Hartfoid, Conn., May 18. 



[Perhaps I ought to say that spacing-devices 

 that are part and parcel of the hive, and not of 

 the frames themselves, have not proven to be 

 very popular among bee-keepers. I have no 

 doubt that friend Wander can remove the 

 frames; but he by his plan loses some very im- 

 portant advantages. For instance, suppose he 

 wants to examine the brood-nest. He desires 

 to take out an outside frame, we will say, full 

 of honey. In order to put in the center of said 

 brood-nest an empty comb, and yet keep all the 

 rest of the combs in their same relative posi- 

 tion, he must remove at least half of the 

 frames, then put each one back in a notch or 

 trough next to the position it formerly occu- 

 pied, in order to give frame-space in the center 

 of the hive. Suppose, now, the spacers were a 

 part of the brood-frames themselves. We 

 simply remove the outside frame containing 

 honey, and shove the whole four or five frames, 

 as the case may be, over en masse at one oper- 

 ation, and in less time than friend Wander 

 can remove a single frame. There is now 

 space on the center of the brood -nest to insert 

 an empty comb for eggs. I have mentioned 

 only one disadvantage; but there are others, 

 though it is hardly worth while to give them, 

 and I know of no advantage that this plan has 

 over spacing-devices attached to the frames 

 themselves. In saying this I do not wish to 

 throw cold water on Mr. Wander's invention, 

 but it is a duty I owe to the younger ganeration 

 of bee-keepers to inform them why such self- 

 spacing arrangements have not proven to be 

 popular. 



And here is another one that employs the 

 same principle— or, rather, the spacing-arrange- 

 ment is in the rabbeted part of the hive: 



I have thought of a self-spacing device I will 

 use— a staple made of copper wire, tt inch thick, 

 and driven into the rabbets of the front and 

 rear end-boards of the hive, and made as 

 shown at the top. The staple will support 



(i 



Jffe 



the frame, and do the spacing, while keeping 

 the bees from sticking the frames fast to the 

 boards. The wire being ^, the bends will just 

 make the quarter-inch space, and will be bet- 

 ter than tins, nails, or tacks, not causing so 

 much moisture as tins, and better for winter. 



I had thought of making the support of one 

 piece of ,V wire, as shown in the bottom. 



Cuba, Kan., May 23. Wm. H. Eagerty. 



This is open to the same objection as the one 

 previously described — namely, the impractica- 



