1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



775 



them to lick up all the drip. It may then be 

 slipped into the block, and secured to the block 

 E by means of a little melted paraffine or wax, 

 painted along the edgos of the comb in contact 

 with the wood. 



B is paraffine, or waxpd paper, to cover the 

 candy A, and is the same idea that is used on 

 our export Benton. 



Of course, the use of sealed honey in queen- 

 cages is very old; but how olten it has happen- 

 ed that we have gone back to some old things! 

 In this case we combine a new and an old idea 

 together. If the candy fails, the honey is at 

 hand to relieve the siluLilion. 



A year ago one of ihe friends in Australia, I 

 forget his name, urged the use of a little piece 

 of comb honey, as he had tried it with success. 

 Weil. Manum. in this country, got ahead of us, 

 and I guess has made a better job of it. — Ed.] 



THE RIGHT KIND OF FRAMES. 



THE V EDGE TO HOFFMAN FRAMES; SELF-SPAC- 

 ING frames: ob.jections to the Stephens 



SPACER ; furniture -NAILS NOT ENTIRELY 



satisfactory; wire finishing-nails pre- 

 ferred. 



By Dr. C. C. Miller. 



While the controversy has been going on as to 

 the proper size of hive, I've been trying to settle 

 on a frame — not the size of frame, for the size 

 17^ X 9:18 is so well established that I haven't 

 thought worth while to consider that further; 

 but there hasn't been the same stability as to 

 the kind of frame. Just as something seemed 

 to be coming generally into use, some change 

 would be made, and I might as well be picking 

 out all the good points I could find in order to 

 unite them in a frame that would satisfy me at 

 least partially. 



At first I thought I liked the Hoffman frame 

 with the shouldered top-bars, and didn't see the 

 sense of the Medina people in so soon making 

 the change to the V-edged end-bar. But on 

 longer use I found in actual practice that there 

 was such an accumulation of propolis that each 

 frame was practically i^,, of an inch wider at the 

 shoulders. Nothing so very bad in that if the 

 hive had been wide enough; but as it added 

 half an inch to the total width of eight frames, 

 they were so crowded in the hive that it was a 

 difficult job to get out the first frame. I'm not 

 sure that it wouldn't be a good thing to have 

 the inside width of a hive 12,' 3 or more, instead 

 of 12,V ; but I've always tried to keep as closely 

 as possible in the beaten track of that which is 

 most generally in use. 



The Hoffman frames, as now made by the 

 A. I. Root Co., have the advantage that, no 

 matter what the accumulation of propolis, by 

 squeezing hard enough and long enough you can 

 get them into place, because that V edge cuts 

 its way through the soft propolis. But they 

 have the disadvantage that such an amount af 

 propolis is none too easy to pull apart. 



Another thing about all frames that are spac- 

 ed only a portion of the way from the top, is 

 that, when you lift a hive and look under, you 



are surprised to see the irregular spacing of the 

 bottom-bars. To obviate that, the frames should 

 be spaced at the bottom as well as at the top. 



As it seems pretty well settled that the dis- 

 tance between top-bars should be H inch, I 

 know no good reason why the same distance 

 should not be preserved between end- bars and 

 bottom-bars. With the usual wider space, 

 there is some trouble with brace- combs. 



By spacing at bottom as well as top, it is pos- 

 sible to have a much smaller point of contact 

 between the frames; and the smaller the point 

 of contact, of course the less trouble with pro- 

 polis. So I had some frames made with top- 

 bar, end-bar, and bottom-bar all the same 

 width, IV in.; thickness of top-bar X- If there 

 were no other reason for this thickness, there is 

 reason enough in the fact that it keeps the 

 brood-combs and the sections that much far- 

 ther apart; and when the sections are too near 

 the brood-combs they are darkened thereby. 

 End-bar ^g thick; bottom-bar }{. 



I studied a good deal on the matter of spac- 

 ers. The Stephens spacer, with its two nearly 

 cutting edges at right angles, gives the smallest 

 point of contact of any thing I have seen, and 

 smallness of contact surface is the especial de- 

 sideratum to fight propolis. An objection to 

 the Stephens spacer, however, is the fact that 

 it spaces the frames from center to center at a 

 fixed distance; whereas the thing desired is to 

 have an exact space between the frames. One 

 of these would secure the other if ail frames 

 were made exactly true; but, unfortunately, 

 there will be variations in thickness; and a va- 

 riation of ^ in the thickness of top-bars may 

 cause the distance between two top-bars to vary 

 anywhere from a space of ^ inch' to -Y. 



I wanted something, much on the principle 

 of the Stephens spacer, and searched Chicago 

 twice to find some kind of staple that would 

 project >8 inch above the surface into which it 

 was driven, two antagonizing staples being at 

 right angles to each other. The nearest I could 

 come to it was the common double-pointed 

 tack; but this could not be driven into the 

 wood without splitting it. The only fear I had 

 about an arrangement of this kind, providing I 

 could get something that would drive without 

 splitting the wood, was that each staple, being 

 only V in. distant from the opposite frame, the 

 bees would fill that ^s in. with propolis. But 

 that would be nothing like the amount of glu- 

 ing done with the Hoffman frames. 



As a temporary shift, I used wire finishing- 

 nails, knowing well the danger of these nails 

 catching in the adjoining frame. I also used 

 some furniture-nails. The latter I don't like, 

 upon trial, as well as I expected to. While they 

 do not catch as do the finishing-nails, the bees 

 feel it their duty to fill out with propolis all the 

 space between the whole of the nail-hea.d and 

 the opposite frame. As a result it takes quite a 



