JUNE 1, 1912 



The most durable 

 pigments are oxide 

 of zinc, white lead, 

 lampblack, yellow 

 ocher, and Venetian 

 red. There are many 

 others that are good, 

 but I have found 

 these the most suit- 

 able for hives in this 

 locality. I have had 

 opportunity of test- 

 ing many colors in 

 sign-painting, and in 

 old signs I have 

 found that letters 

 painted with lamp- 

 black or white lead 

 show the longest. 



The i)aint most 

 recommended for du- 

 rability is one coat of 

 pure linseed oil thick- 

 ened with pure yel- 

 low ocher well brush- 

 ed in, and one coat of 

 oxide of zinc or white 

 lead ground in lin- 

 seed oil to a good 

 body and well brush- 

 ed in. What I mean 

 by brushing in is 

 rubl:)ing the paint 

 well into the wood and applying the sec- 

 ond coat only when the preceding one is 

 thoroughly dry. Two coats of paint thus 

 applied will last two or three years. Many 

 complain of white lead "chalking." This 

 difficulty would be overcome if more lin- 

 seed oil were used. Lead beautifies and 

 fills the surface, and the oil holds it there. 



Many have asked whether it is practica- 

 ble to paint the hives while the bees are in 

 them. There is no objection to this; but it 

 is well to add a little drier, such as japan 

 and turpentine, so that, if the paint is put 

 on in the afternoon, it will be dry by the 

 next morning. 



Any one who has done any buying of 

 late years can understand why the price of 

 linseed oil, pigments, etc., has advanced. 

 The question of the supply and the purity 

 of the product make these high prices. In 

 many of the States I believe there is a law 

 specifying the purity of linseed oil and tur- 

 pentine, so that those who sell them dare 

 not label them pure unless they are. I am 

 informed that in one State some of the 

 merchants are selling their oil and turpen- 

 tine as adulterated, though purchased and 

 sold in good faith as being of the highest 

 quality, simply to protect themselves in 

 case of a possibility of adulteration. 



But even at the present prices, good paint 

 is to-day the cheapest commodity we have 

 to buy. Paint is a form of insurance that 

 prevents the slow type of burning known 

 as decay. Painters claim that only 25 per 

 cent of the perishable property of this coun- 

 try is protected by this efficient form of in- 

 surance. Shall we not insure our hives? 



Platteville, Wis. 



339 



A hive which has never been painted, showing how the nails 

 drawn and the corners permitted to gap apart. 



FRAMES WITH BOTTOM-BARS HALF AN INCH 

 THICK 



Are Not the Standard Bottom-bars too Thin ? 



BY FRITZ BOHNE 



Some six or seven years ago I maiie all 

 my brood and extracting frames myself (by 

 hand), and made all the bottom-bars in 

 both brood and extracting frames half an 

 inch thick, and the bottom-bar with an off- 

 set or rabbeted end, so that I could nail it 

 both ways by driving a nail through the 

 bottom-bar into the end-bar and one 

 through end-bar into the end of the bottom- 

 bar. This gave the frames more strength. 

 It is almost impossible to break or pull the 

 bottom-bar from a frame made in such a 

 manner. 



The main reason I made the bottom-bar 

 half an inch thick was to start the bees 

 to building the comb lower down in the 

 frame — especially in those extracting- 

 frames which were almost entirely filled 

 with comb, and the comb fastened in most 

 instances to both the bottom-bar and the 

 top-bar. 



Then with frames having half-inch bot- 

 tom-bars I did not run the risk of tearing 

 the comb loose from the bottom-bar nor of 

 splitting it in the middle, as would some- 

 times happen when taking out a frame with 

 a quarter-inch bottom-bar having the comb 

 fastened to bottom-bar. 



The half-inch bar does not bend as the 

 quarter-inch bar does when the bees fasten 

 the extracting-frames to the brood frame 



