328 



Gi.EANINGS IN BEE CULTUBE. 



May 



pose that each one must settle this for himself. At 

 present I am sure that /do not. 



I have used hives with l}i inches for each frame 

 almost entirely in the past, and I am entirely satis- 

 fied that 1?8 in. is the proper distance from center 

 to center for brood-frames. In the extracting su- 

 per I wish I'/^-inch spaciQg-. With the hive 1 use, 

 the difference of spacing- Is easily obtained, and is 

 no objection. I hope to hear from others in regard 

 to wiring, as that has been somewhat of a hobby 

 with me. 



CHAFF PACKING AND DEAD-AIR SPACES. 



I was much interested in the answers to Question 

 No. 156. It is a question which I have spent con- 

 siderable time discussing, and experimenting on. 

 I have hives packed with six inches of chaflf, and 

 many packed with four inches; also some with only 

 two inches ; and I am firmly convinced that two inch- 

 es of chaflf packing around the brood-nest is a great 

 plenty. Allow me to modestly state, that I have 

 lost only one colony of bees in wintering, in all my 

 beekeeping experience. That colony died this 

 winter. 



I have two hives that have only an inch dead-air 

 space around the brood-nest. The hive is made of 

 good material, and well made. I have wintered 

 bees year after year in those hives, and they have 

 come through strong in numbers and stores. They 

 have never failed to give me a fair yield of surplus 

 honey. 



Now, I do not give the hives the whole credit; but 

 I am certain that no packing is needed if onr or both 

 walls of the hive are close jointed. It seems to me 

 that the same principle applies to hives that ap- 

 plies to houses. However, I shall still pack with 

 chaff or straw, because my hive material is narrow; 

 but in future I shall use only two inches of packing. 

 I use the Hilton chaflf hive, and winter outdoors. 



Fremont, Mich., Mar. 2il. Wm. B. Gould. 



Friend G., I am very glad to have you put 

 in a good word for tin bars. I know the 

 bees do sometimes leave them uncovered ; 

 but during a good flow of honey we succeed, 

 usually, in getting bees to rear brood right 

 over them, as you mention ; notwithstand- 

 ing, I should be glad to get along without 

 them if we can. I feel sure that the hori- 

 zontal wires would do nicely with tin bars, 

 as you suggest; but I am not so certain 

 that the horizontal wires alone are going to 

 answer. See the letter below, from another 

 friend, on this matter. 



WIRING FRAMES. 



IN FAVOR OF THE PERPENDCDLAR PLAN. 



I HAVE just read with a great amount of interest 

 Mr. Foster's method of wiring frames, a^d also 

 your remarks thereon; and if you can find space 

 for a few lines, I should like to add my experience 

 also. 



To begin with, I am a great admirer of wired 

 frames, notwithstanding all I continually read re- 

 garding the " useless and needless expense " of so 

 doing. It is possible, however, as I have not used 

 any quantity of unwired combs, that I have acquir- 

 ed a clumsy fashion of handling such, that occa- 

 sionally causes accidents, which do not take place 

 with wired frames, that I can not be induced to go 

 slow enough to prevent, and therefore mj' adhesion 

 to something substantial. 



Well, I have tried all systems in order to make 

 the labor and expense as little as possible; and for 

 vertical wiring I now prefer, and will use no other 

 than eightwiresfor the standard Langstroth frame. 

 I also use a wire upright, to prevent the bowing-up 

 of the bottom-bar (I don't like the tin bars for the 

 reason you give); and as I use a % top-bar I see no 

 use for the two diagonal wires. My preference for 

 the eight wires is because I have no trouble with 

 wavy combs; and when I imbed a sheet of founda- 

 tion in such a frame, I know I shall have no further 

 trouble with it. 



Often, after having wired until I was tired, I 

 would sit down and think that no other plan would 

 woi-k as well; and you can therefore imagine what 

 a relief it appeared to me when I noticed in the Re- 

 vised Langstroth that the horizontal plan was a 

 success with them. Accordingly I lost no time in 

 preparing several hundred frames for the past sea- 

 son's use; but instead of putting in only three 

 wires I put in four, thinking that, if three were 

 good, four might be better, and might prevent 

 any bulging or curling of the combs, should there 

 be any tendency in that direction, as I must con- 

 fess I was a little afraid there might be. The wir- 

 ing was perfectly done, and all were as taut as 

 a flddle-string, and, as with all other things that 

 pleased me, I hurried away to show my good wife, 

 whereupon she remarked, "Why, Frank, that looks 

 ever so much nicer, and I think it can be done 

 with half the labor and expense; and if you wilt 

 wire, give this plan a trial at once, for it does seem 

 as though it would work nicely." Now for the re- 

 sult. 



I confess I could scarcely wait for the first swarm 

 to come oflf, so it could be hived on the new frames; 

 and when it did come, the progress was eagerly 

 watched. I found things went on swimmingly with 

 the upper half of the sheet of foundation; but a 

 slight curve would appear between the second and 

 third wire; while between the third and fourth, the 

 bowing was not only quite perceptible, but alto- 

 gether too much so for me, and, worst of all, the 

 space between the fourth wire and the bottom-bar 

 bore evidence that the foundation was bound to 

 take a trip to the top-bar, so badly was it curved in 

 an upper direction. This one example did not, 

 however, discourage me; but after hiving about a 

 dozen more swarms 1 concluded some other plan 

 would have to be followed, and I therefore resorted 

 to my old method ; but wishing to use these frames, 

 I placed them in the surplus apartment, and found 

 less trouble than when hiving bees directly on 

 them, but still sufficient curving to cause me to 

 dispense with that method until I had received 

 more light on the subject. 



Now, friends, can you offer any solution to this 

 difficulty with me? The foundation was made by a 

 practical man, on a Given press, and the hives were 

 all protected by shade-boards, a la Heddon. Would 

 the result have been different had the foundation 

 been made on a Root or Dunham machine? or do 

 you think I made a mistake in putting in four 

 wires, instead of three? Any suggestions will be 

 thankfully received through Gleanings. 



Stratford, Ont., Apr. 15. F. A. Gemmell. 



Friend G., we can not solve your difficulty^ 

 any more than to suggest that the Given 

 foundation may have had something to do 

 with it. We know this, that foundation 

 with good high walls did not trouble nearly 



