18S0 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



363 



'WHICH FRA.lIi: IS THE BEST '. 



^E see, in the Gleanings for July, that you 

 advise every bee-keeper to get away with 

 every hive which will not hold the standard 

 Langstroth frame. We cannot let such a sweeping: 

 condemnation pass without protest. For about 12 

 years, we have had in our apiaries three kinds of 

 frames,— Langstroth, Quinby, and American. The 

 hives of each are side by side; therefore we have 

 tried them comparatively and thoroughly, having as 

 many as sixty at least of each style; and our decis- 

 ion is that the Quinby hive (old style enlarged) has 

 given comparatively the best results; so much so 

 that we continue to keep the other slyles to fill the 

 orders for colonies in those hives, but for our own 

 use we have adopted the Quinby hive, keeping on 

 hand the same number of the other styles, but in- 

 creasing every year our stock of Quinby hives, 

 stock which amounts now to more than 350. 



You know, as well as we do, that the Langstroth 

 frame is not fit for outdoor wintering. It is also too 

 shallow for a good laying of the queens. Our Quin- 

 by hives, every year, show more brood than our 

 Langstroth, and consequently give more honey. 

 The queen, in a shallow hive, is more apt to go into 

 the surplus chamber; and, lastly, the Langstroth 

 hive swarms more. For more than 12 years, the 

 number of natural swarms in our Quinby hives did 

 not exceed 3 or 4 per cent; while it is impossible for 

 us to control the natural swarming in our Lang- 

 stroth hive s. For all these reasons, we regret that 

 a standard frame be indicated witJaout any test 

 as to its comparative merits; for the question is 

 not, "Is the Langstroth frame good?" but, "Is it the 

 best?" 



We do not write this article to praise our wares, 

 for we are not manufacturers of hives; but because 

 we know by experiments, on a large scale, and con- 

 tinued during a great number of years, that the 

 Quinby frame is ahead of all the others. 



Chas. Dadant & Son. 



Hamilton, 111., July 8, 1880. 



Many thanks for your testimony, friend 

 Dadant. It is of especial value, because it 

 comes from one having had so many years 

 of experience. Observe that yon have the 

 largest frame in use, or at least in common 

 nse. Well, I agree with all yon say, unless 

 it is your remark that the L. frame is not 

 adapted to wintering ; but while we hold on 

 to all yon have said, let us note the fact that 

 OUT friend Doolittle goes point blank the 

 other way, and uses the smallest frame 

 known, and backs up the evidence that his 

 decision is aright one, by making the best 

 report of comb honey, right along, year after 

 year, of any bee-keeper in the known world, 

 excepting perhaps some cases from ( 'alifor- 

 nia, and I have good reasons to believe that 

 friend LVs locality is little if any better than 

 the average. Do 'you not see, friends, that 

 there are a great many sides to this subject? 

 I have been watching the reports carefully 

 and perhaps eagerly for years, and have been 

 forced to the conclusion that I shall meet 

 the wants of the greatest number, by advis- 

 ing a frame about midway between these 

 two extremes in size. Neither Dadant nor 

 Doolittle, if I am correct, nse hives to any 

 extent in a two story form. The greater 

 part of the people prefer to have a hive that 



can be used with two storit^s. In view of 

 this, is not the rather shallow, L. frame best? 

 To those who claim it is too shallow, I 

 would point to friend Bingham and his good 

 reports from a frame only six inches deep. 

 Perhaps I might amend my decision by say- 

 ing to all who have JOO or "more good frame 

 hives, to read what I said, substituting their 

 frame for the L.; then, "wheel away'' every 

 thing else. I presume there always will be 

 those wlK) will succeed with the extremes, 

 but I think the safer path, for the great 

 masses, will be just where our old friend, 

 Mr. Langstroth, settled down after his 

 lengthy experiments. 



USING OTHER FRAMES THAN THE LANGSTROTH. 



Are you not putting it pretty strong on page 340, 

 July Gleanings, in, reference to other hives than 

 the Langstroth? In 187+, I started building up an 

 apiary, read Gleanings closely, and you then 

 strongly advocated the Adair frame. Wishing to go 

 with the majority in this matter, I followed, and 

 pushed ahead fast and have 150 hives in good shape; 

 and now the same teacher advises me to throw them 

 all away or burn them up, when, at the same time, 

 but few of the prominent bee-keepers of the east 

 use the L. hive. Chas. H. Rub. 



Manalapan, N. J., July fi, 1880. 



I did put it pretty strongly in regard to odd 

 sized hives and frames ; but I alluded prin- 

 cipally to the A B C scholars, who deliber- 

 ately start in with some patent or something 

 of their own getting up, and different from 

 those of anybody else. With the number 

 you have all of one size, I do not know that 

 I would advise a change, but I certainly 

 would advise you to do just as I said rather 

 than get new sizes into your apiary. It is 

 true, I did, years ago, advise the Adair 

 frame, but the advent of the fdn., which I 

 could not well foresee, obliged me to decide 

 to go back to the Langstroth. If we want 

 to use a hive two stories high, we do not 

 want a frame deeper than the L., and I am 

 fully satisfied that in no other way can we 

 obtain so good results. 



PARIS' FOUNDATION MACHINE. 



nkw developments. 



Mil. ROOT: -The anxiously looked for July 

 number of Gleanings was received last 

 " evening at about nine o'clock. The first 

 thing read was your description of the new founda- 

 tion machine which you told us about last month. 

 As it was too late to commence a day's work, I had 

 to content myself with reading the description, 

 which I did several times. This morning, I. set 

 about making a machine, and, at three o'clock P.M., 

 I was turning out as nice foundation as you could 

 with your fine metal rolls. 



Now the main object in writing this is to tell you 

 of the improvement (or at least I deem it such) 

 which I have made in the machine and manner of 

 working it. Instead of attaching the strips of leath- 

 er to prevent the plates from opening too far, and 

 handling by the upper lid, I sawed out two strips of 

 pine | in. wide and % in. thick, and about 6 in. 

 longer than the width of the plates. Place one of 

 these on each side, across the shortest way of the 

 plates, and fasten them to the frames by means of 



