86 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



END-SPACING. / 



The end-Spacing is done by means of the usual 

 frame staple, about three-eighths of an inch wide. The 

 staple is driven into the end-bar, immediately under the 

 lug of the top-bar. This lug being only half an inch long, 

 there is room for a bee to pass between the end of the 

 lug and the upper edge of the hive-end, so no propolis is 

 deposited there. I like this feature as much as some 

 dislike it. They complain that with so short a top-bar the 

 frames drop down in the hive — a nuisance not to be tol- 

 erated. I do not have that trouble, although the hold 

 of the. top-bar on the tin support is so slight that if the 

 work were not exact I can easily imagine the frames 

 dropping down. Possibly those who complain do not 

 have very exact work. I am not sure but I would put up 

 with a little dropping down of frames, rather than to 

 have the ends of the top-bars glued. 



It will be seen that while the frames are automat- 

 ically spaced very firmly, the points of contact are so 

 small that the frames are always easily movable. Those 

 points of contact are the thin metal edges upon which the 

 top-bars rest, the two end-staples, and the four nail- 

 heads. The same spacing is in use in other frames, only 

 staples are used for side-spacing instead of nails. The 

 staples do not seem quite so substantial, and there is 

 more danger, when the frames are crowded hard to- 

 gether, that the staples may be driven in deeper, or that 

 the head of the staple may dig into the adjoining wood. 



The top-bar and end-bar being 1% wide, and the 

 spacing of the nails 54 bich, the frames are spaced just 

 1^ from center to center. It is just possible that a little 

 wider spacing than 1^ might be better, but 1^ is the 

 general fashion, and so far as possible I like to adopt 

 standard goods. I may be asked, then, why I should use 

 a frame not regularly made by manufacturers. Possibly 

 prejudice has a little to do in the case, but I think the 

 Miller frame enough better than anything I can find 



