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Space Bees will Least Likely 

 Fill with Wax. 



Written for the Amerlcmi BeeJofu/nial 



QuEKY 709. — There is undoubtedly a cer- 

 tain space which the bees are least inclined 

 to fill with wax or propolis. What, accord- 

 ing to your own experience, is the exact 

 measurement of the correct bee-space? — 

 New York. 



Three-sixteenths of an inch.— Euoene 

 Secoe. 



About % of an inch. — J. P. H. Brown. 



Five-sixteenths of an inch. — G. M. Dog- 

 little. 



Scarce % of an inch ; about five-sixteenths 

 of an inch. — A. J. Cook. 



A little less than Jj of an inch. — Dadast 

 ■& Son. 



Five-sixteenths of an inch, as nearly as 

 jou can get it. — H. D. Cutting. 



Three-eighths of an inch ; possibly a shade 

 scant. — Mrs. L. Harrison. 



A strong quarter of an inch, or five-six- 

 teenths of an inch, is just right. — C. H. 



DiBBERN. 



I may not be authority, but I use % of an 

 inch.— J. M. Hambadgh. 



Three-eighths of an inch is generally sup- 

 posed to be the correct bee-space. — Will M. 

 Barnum. 



I do not know. It is less than % of an 

 inch, and more than J..^. Perhaps five-six- 

 teenths of an inch is about right. — C. C. 

 Miller. 



Five-sixteenths of an inch, but with a 5%- 

 inch space there is but little, if any, more 

 wax or propolis deposited. — A. B. M.1SON. 



More depends upon having absolutely 

 smooth surfaces, than on the distance 

 apart. I have not determined, to my own 

 satisfaction, the exact space. One-fourth of 

 an inch is not far wrong. — M. Mahin. 



If I could be always sure of having what 

 I wanted, I would have bee-spaces % of an 

 inch ; but as wood so often springs, allow- 

 ance must be made so that the bee-spaces 

 may not be too small. — R. L. Tatlok. 



The proper space is just between too wide 

 and too close ; and I think that a shade less 

 than five-sixteenths of an inch is as near as 

 can be practicably reached. Wood will 

 shrink and swell a little, and top-bars of 

 frames will get a little "off," no matter 

 how accurately made, and the best that I 

 can do is to aim at a five-sixteenths of an 

 inch space. — G. W. Demaree. 



The same that Father Langstroth gave us 

 over 30 years ago— scant ^j, of an inch, or, 

 more exact, five-sixteenths of an inch 

 above the frame ; -^g of an inch will do very 

 well at the ends of the frames, and }4 inch 

 is all right at the bottom, below the frames. 

 — James Heddon. 



The exact measurement of the correct 

 bee-space is ',4 of an inch, or a space that a 

 bee can move in freely ; but five-sixteenths 

 of an inch is the space that should be pro- 

 vided between the brood-frames and the 

 ends of the hive, to facilitate the removal 

 of the frames without killing bees. Queen- 

 •excluders that come within '4 of an inch of 

 the top-bars of the brood-frames, greatly 

 lessen the building of burr-combs. — G. L. 

 Tinker. 



It is impossible to fix frames in practice 

 so that they will space exactly throughout 

 the whole hive. I use the ID -frame Lang- 

 stroth hive, 14i4 inches wide, spacing the 



frames so that a •'„inch dummy will fit 

 closely in one side of the hive. I use the 

 dummy for convenience in working, and 

 consider the spacing as above stated to 

 be as nearly right as is possible to get it. — 

 J. E. Pond. 



The exact measurement of the space 

 required for bees, for easy passage, is five- 

 sixteenths of an inch, but they will not fill 

 a space with comb which is not more than 

 ^s of an inch in size.— The Editor. 



SPACING- COMBS. 



The Proper Distance — Number 

 of Cells to the Inch. 



Written Jot the American Bee Journal 

 BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



I have been much interested in read- 

 ing the article on page 313. Some 

 things in it make me think of Mr. Faj- 

 lor as a careful and independent e.x- 

 perimenter, finding accepted theories 

 wrong, while other things in his article 

 raise the question whether his own 

 theories are not too hastily formed. 

 That "the black bee is rapidly giving 

 way to the 4 and 5 banded Italian," I 

 think is hardly correct. Most bee- 

 keepers have only 3-banded Italians, 

 and I doubt whether many of them 

 care to increase the number of bands. 



With regard to the spacing of combs, 

 I am glad that he has called in question 

 the practice of many, whether he be 

 right or wrong. The fact is, it seems 

 to me that too many have settled upon 

 If inches, or some other distance, 

 without any reason for their conclusion, 

 and it is high time to ask why is 1',, li 

 inches, or any other distance, tlie 

 proper one for spacing ? Mr. Faylor 

 gives us a weighty argument when he 

 gives us the testimony of the bees 

 themselves. 



Novv, if, as Mr. Faylor says, all the 

 main combs in a box-hive are placed 

 not less than IJ inches apart, there 

 should be some very good reason for 

 spacing closer. I am sorry to say that 

 I have no readj' means to verify his 

 observations. I think that it would be 

 a favor to the fraternity, if a number 

 would report in the American Bee 

 Journal, as to the distance from cen- 

 ter to center of the central combs in a 

 box-hive. Even if we should find li 

 inches the rule in box-hives, the advo- 

 cates of closer spacing might say that 

 bees left to themselves will use a 

 spacing that will allow the building of 

 drone-comb; and we don't want drone- 

 comb. 



The argument that wide spacing 

 gives more room for storing hone}' 

 above the brood-nest for winter, has 

 force. 



That "bees are mor(' liable to swarm 

 where the combs are hung too near 

 each other," may be true, hut if less 

 than li inclies is considered "too 

 near." it runs violently afoul of Mr. 

 Pond's plan of preventing swarming 

 by shaving combs down to J of an 

 inch, and leaving only a bee-space be- 

 tween, thus spacing from center to 

 center, I5 inches, or less. It would 

 require a good deal of testimony, I 

 think, to make the mass of bee-keepers 

 think that spacing less than lA inches 

 induces swarming. 



Do the observations of others agree 

 with those of Mr. Faylor, that more 

 brace-combs are found with IJ or If 

 spacing than with IJ ? 



NUJIBER OF CELLS TO THE INCH. 



When I read that Mr. Faylor intends 

 to throw away his old foundation 

 machine, and use one that will make 

 4J cells to the inch, I cannot help won- 

 dering if he is fully posted as to exper- 

 iments already made in that line. 

 Years ago, Mr. A. I. Root made foun- 

 dation 4J cells to the inch, and received 

 some left-handed " blessings " for it. 

 I had some of it. The bees did not 

 seem to know whether it was drone or 

 worker comb, and did not appear to 

 reli-sli it for either. 



Mr. Faylor is a very brave man to 

 intimate that bees, of their own accord, 

 build worker-cells larger than 5 to the 

 inch. Are all the books and observers 

 of the last hundred years in error on 

 this point ? If Mr. Faylor does not 

 want to lose reputation as a careful ob- 

 server, he will do well to make some 

 critical measurements, and send sam- 

 ples to the editor. I think that I caa 

 find combs by the hundred, from 5 to 

 20 years old, that contain cells measur- 

 ing 5 to the inch, and yet they produce 

 just as large workers as when the 

 combs were new. I think that others 

 have given testimony to the same eft'ect. 



P. S. — I ought to say that bees do not 

 build comb exactly 5 cells to the inch, 

 but about 4 4-5; and that comb founda- 

 tion is also made the same size. Until 

 I measured, I supposed that exactly 

 5 cells to the inch was correct. 



Marengo, Ills. 



ILLINOIS. 



Report of the Capital Bee- 

 Keepers' Convention. 



Written for tlw American Bee Journal 



BY C. E. YOCOJI. 



The Capital Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion met at Springfield, Ills., on May 

 7, 1890. The convention was called 

 to order by President P. J. England. 



From the report of the members, we 

 gather that of the 599 colonies left ou 



