1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



423 



sell for vei'y nearly as much as comb, and it 

 would be better worth the price than it is to- 

 day. 

 Birmingham, O. 



[Our correspondent has made some very 

 good points, some of which we have taken 

 the liberty of italicising in order that the 

 reader may be sure to see them. 



We can only repeat, as we have already 

 done, that in considering the Alexander 

 methods we must take into consideration his 

 peculiar environments, and the fact that his 

 main honey-flow begins some weeks after the 

 honey-flow of most bee-keepers in the North- 

 ern States comes on. — Ed.] 



WOODEN SPLINTS VERSUS WIRES IN 

 FRAMES. 



The Comparative Advantages of Each. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



A correspondent asks me to reply in Glean- 

 ings to some questions about foundation- 

 splints. These questions are mainly answer- 

 ed in a slip that The A. I. Root Co. sends 

 out with the splints; but in view of an 

 awakening interest in foundation-splints it 

 may be well for me not only to answer them 

 here but to discuss the whole subject quite 

 fully. 



I do not think of any advantages that wir- 

 ing has over splints, and I do know of ad- 

 vantages that the splints have over wiring. 

 With horizontal wiring there is testimony to 

 stretching of the foundation. Although this 

 testimony is pretty general, there are prob- 

 ably thousands of bee-keepers who have nev- 

 er suspected any evil results from horizontal 

 wiring, and yet the evil results are there all 

 the same. Sometimes the stretching is 

 enough so that drone brood will be found in 

 several rows of cells under the top-bar. Of 

 course, this will be noticed; but oftener the 

 stretching, while not enough to allow the 

 cells to be used for drone brood, is enough 

 to prevent them from being used for worker 

 brood. 



I remember one very good authority say- 

 ing that, with the Langstroth frame, there 

 would always be something like two inches 

 of honey between the brood and the top-bar. 

 This is probably quite generally true, be- 

 cause horizontal wiring is in general use, 

 and the cells for some distance under the 

 top-bars are so stretched that the queen will 

 not use them. But with perfect worker-cells 

 under top-bars there will be no such margin 

 of honey. In the height of the queen's lay- 

 ing I'll show you frame after frame with the 

 brood clear up to the top- bar — not a cell of 

 honey between brood and top-bar. Later on 

 in the season, as the honey encroaches on 

 the brood-nest it will encroach at top as 

 well as sides. 



Is there any need to discuss horizontal 

 wiring further, so long as splints give per- 

 lect worker-cells clear to the top-bar? 



But what about vertical wiring? I've had 



hundreds of frames wired vertically, and the 

 cells under the top-bar were faultless. But 

 in order to have the wires sufliciently taut to 

 be straight, the stretching bowed the bottom- 

 bars. This, while in reality changing the 

 depth of the frame, made it practically im- 

 possible to bring the foundation clear down 

 to the bottom-oars unless the foundation 

 were cut curving — a difHcult thing to do,, 

 seeing no two curves were alike. Vertical! 

 wiring might do all right with bottom-bars; 

 I thick, but that is hardly desirable. 



I have not mentioned all the objections to- 

 wiring, but is it necessary? Better tell about: 

 splints. 



Foundation-splints are made of basswood 

 — for any thing I know, other wood would 

 do — about yij of an inch square, and about |. 

 inch shorter than the distance between top 

 and bottom bars. They might be made long; 

 enough to touch at both top and bottom, but 

 that would make slow work about putting; 

 in. For each frame of usual length, five 

 splints are used, placed vertically. 



Take a shallow dish — a square pie-tin is; 

 good; put in it enough beeswax so that, when 

 melted, it will be | inch or so deep. Put in 

 enough splints so the dish will not be too 

 crowded, and it will froth up by means of 

 the steam from the moisture in the wood. 

 When it stops frothing you are ready to op- 

 erate. The heat should be properly gradu- 

 ated, either on a kerosene, gasolene, or some 

 other stove, so that the wax shall not be kept 

 too hot, otherwise not enough wax will cling 

 to the splint to coat it. If too cold it will 

 not be easily cemented to the foundation. 

 So long as the wax is kept liquid it is not 

 likely to be too cold. The work should be 

 done on a hot day or else in a hot room, so 

 the foundation will be soft. 



Wiring is done before the foundation is 

 put in the frame. Splinting, on the con- 

 trary, is done the last thing, the foundation 

 being fastened in whatever way to the top- 

 bar, and being cut large enough to fit close 

 to the bottom- bar and end- bars. It is a little 

 better to have a divided bottom-bar, as in 

 the Miller frame, so the foundation shall go 

 down between the two parts of the bottom- 

 bar; but with a plain bottom-bar the founda- 

 tion merely comes down to the bar. 



Take a board that will fit easily inside the 

 frame, perhaps | inch smaller than the in- 

 side dimensions, and put stops on the edges 

 so the foundation shall just rest on the board. 

 It will make the work a little easier if you 

 have on the board a mark where each splint 

 is to go, a straight black line heavy enough 

 to show through the foundation. There is to. 

 be a splint an inch or so from each end, a 

 splint in the middle, and a splint midway 

 between the center and each end splint. 



With a small pair of nippers having square 

 jaws, pick up a splint by the center out of 

 the hot wax and lay it in place. It doesn't 

 matter whether it touches the top- bar or the 

 bottom-bar, or whether it is part way be- 

 tween. Don't fret if you don't lay it within 

 an inch of the right place. In the hot room 

 it isn't going to cool right away, and you can 



