1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



165 



what is correct, to obviate all this difficulty? 1 am 

 not troubled in this respect in my new hive, but I 

 know thiit manj' of the standard hives are not per- 

 fect in these points. Now, while we are about it, 

 let us overhaul the whole hive. What say the 

 readers of Glean iNfis? C. H. Dibbern. 



iMilan, 111.. Feb. 3. 



Your testimony, friend Dibbern, is anoth- 

 er drop in tbe bucket that establishes the 

 value of wider and thick top-bars. On ac- 

 count of the difficulty of getting lumber of 

 odd thicknes.ses we decided to make top- 

 bars J inch thick, as a good many seemed to 

 prefer them so, but more particularly be- 

 cause I lumber, after being rabbeted out, 

 can be ripped up into bars one inch, Ij'ei or 

 li. In regard to the bottom-bars and end- 

 bars, we decided to use only ^ lumber, par- 

 ticularly on account of cheapness. Were we 

 to make them of the same width as the top- 

 bar, we should have to charge considerably 

 more per hundred for the frames. There 

 noay be some advantage in having wide end- 

 bars ; but we hardly think it is enough for 

 the extra expense. However, we shall be 

 glad to hear from our readers on this point. 



E. K. 



DEEP TOP-BARS. 



•JAMES HEDDON ARGUES IN FAVOR OF HONEY- 

 BOARDS YET. 



Friend Root:— With pleasure I have been read- 

 ing February 1st Gleanings. I see that our 

 friends feel more and more positive that the deep 

 top bars are g-oing, once and for all, to settle the 

 brace-comb trouble. I have to laugh at their en- 

 thusiasm over this new thing, as it seems to be to 

 most of them, although it is so old a one to me. 

 You will find that the depth of the top-bars has 

 very much more to do with discouraging brace- 

 combs than does the width of it. If I were bound 

 to space my top-bars just /g apart, I would use them 

 only Ji wide, and then put more combs into a hive. 

 Don't you see, that, the more space you give a 

 comb, the more apt the bees are to store honey 

 just below the top-bar? Of course, you know that, 

 where the top cells of the comb are used for honey 

 instead of brood, brace-combs are much more apt 

 to be built in between the top-bars and between 

 their top surface and the receptacle or cover 

 above. 



Let me tell you how you can arrange top-bars to 

 prevent brace-combs with almost as much certain- 

 ty as the break-joint honey-board will do; but you 

 will not do it, because there are serious objections 

 which you will see at a glance. 



Make your top-bars % or 'a of an inch deep be- 

 fore the bevel begins, if you use a bevel. Place 

 them just u-, apart, but do not have the top-bars 

 more than '» wide. This will give you closer spac- 

 ing of your combs from center to center, and that 

 alone will help you materially. Now make section 

 boxes just as wide as the distance of your top-bars 

 from center to center, so there will be just as many 

 openings between the sections as there are be- 

 tween the top-bars in the hive. Now make these 

 openings exactly break-joints with the openings 

 between the brood frames, the same as the honey- 

 board does, and you will have but few more brace- 

 combs than you would have above the honey-board. 

 But don't you know, friend Root, that no one 



wants to use such narrow sections? and that settles 

 that; but, at the same time, it is a fact that that ar- 

 rangement, and that only, will come very near to 

 the delightful condition of affairs regarding brace- 

 combs which is so anxiously hoped for without the 

 use of the honey-board, by your enthusiastic cor- 

 respondents in last issue. 



Let me now toll you what I believe I know is the 

 best method, and I have a number of hives ar- 

 ranged accordingly, which I have had in use for 

 years. Use a top-bar U or % deep. Do not space 

 them more than \% apart from center to center, 

 and 11^ will do very well. Use the break-joint bee- 

 space honey-board above them, and any kind of 

 sections you prefer above that. Let your bee-space 

 in the honey-board and in the top of the hive be- 

 low the honey-board be ■-,; scant, or ,'!• Then you 

 are safe against brace-combs above the honey- 

 board. You will have much less below the honey- 

 board; you will have a solid top-bar that will not 

 sag; one in which bees will build nicer, straighter 

 combs, when they are not compelled to build them 

 so by the use of wires and full sheets of founda- 

 tion. 



Please mark this article with a blue pencil, and 

 put a book-mark in your file; and by and by, when 

 the excitement of deep top-bars is all over and set- 

 tled, take a vote and look back and see if what I 

 here state is not just what will then be the prevail- 

 ing sentiment. I think my locality is much like 

 others, and my bees have much the same instincts. 

 1 have experimented years and years upon this 

 point— yes, upon every part of it, that I find men- 

 tioned in Gleanings. Honey-boards are a bless- 

 ing which came to us long ago, and came to stay, 

 multiply, and cover the earth. 



We have all had " la grippe " here, but no deaths 

 in our little city of 3500. The open winter is espe- 

 cially mild, and free from snow, in this locality. 

 Bees are in perfect condition out of doors, and I am 

 lucky enough to have over four-flfths of mine out. 

 My 70 colonies in the cellar are apparently in very 

 good condition, but I know they are not as strong 

 as those outdoors. My son Will, who wrote you the 

 article on paper packages for extracted honey 

 some months ago, I suppose we shall lose from our 

 family of bee-friends, as he is studying electrical 

 science, and takes charge of our electric-light plant 

 which is just now being completed in this city. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Feb. 10, 1890. James Heddon. 



You say you had to laugh at the enthusi- 

 asm of the advocates of thick top-bars, be- 

 cause the subject is such an old one to you. 

 Please don't laugh just yet, Bro. 11.— at 

 least not right away. In the progress of 

 the times, good things like the honey-board, 

 that have served their purpose well, are 

 sometimes discarded for something better. 

 It is really astonishing that so many have 

 tried these heavy bars for so many years, 

 and liked them, and these same people say, 

 too, they never had any brace-combs, and, 

 of course, have no need of a honey-board. 

 Sf^ many testimonies are coming in to this 

 effect that it will be impossible for us to 

 publish them all, however valuable they 

 may be ; but the few that we do give place 

 to are a pretty fair sample of what we re- 

 ceive. Heavy bars are not a new thing : 

 they are only being brought to public no- 

 tice. Yes, the closer the spacing the less 

 burr-comb there will be. , But that will not 



