200 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



and pry it straight up, a procedure 

 that is not g^ood for the frame, the bees, 

 or the temper of the operator. What a 

 relief it is to come across an apiary 

 owned by a bee-keeper of the old 

 school, with its plain hanging frames 

 that have always been kept properly 

 spaced! 



HOFFMAN FRAME CAME INTO USE BE- 

 CAUSE IT WAS PUSHED. 



Since these frames are in such gen- 

 eral use, it is a serious question, and 

 it behooves the bee-keepers of this land 

 to see if some improvement cannot be 

 made. I agree with you that this 

 frame came into such extended use be- 

 cause it has been pushed by the A. I. 

 Root Co. It has been ordered largely 

 because it has been sold largely. The 

 average bee-keeper does not know 

 what he wants and takes what is rec- 

 ommended to him. If the manufac- 

 turers could be persuaded to have anoth- 

 er revelation, or if they would make 

 some improvement that would do away 

 with its most objectionable features, it 

 would be a blessing to the bee-keeping 

 public. Its faults are not inherent or 

 unavoidable. I am not like some that 

 have condemned the hive. I use self- 

 spacing frames and like them. If I 

 were to start over again, I would not 

 use anything else, but my frames are 

 almost as easilj' handled as the loose 

 hanging frame, and far easier than 

 the Hoffman. 



The Hoffman frames have one thing 

 in their favor. They are generally in 

 not much, if any, worse condition in the 

 apiary of the man who hives a swarm 

 in the back corner of the orchard, and , 

 does not go near it more than two or 

 three times a year, than in the apiary 

 that numbers its hundreds of colonies. 

 The loose-frame hive in which a swarm 

 hived by the man who drops the hive 

 and runs a foot race as soon as the 

 bees are shaken down, not to look into 

 the hive again for weeks or months, is 



sometimes not exactly an easj' thing to 

 manipulate. 



THE "follower" sent OUT WITH 



HOFFMAN FRAMES IS TOO 



FLIMSY. 



The principle of the Hoffman frame 

 requires that the frames should be 

 crowded close together at the close of 

 each manipulation, and that space 

 should be available to pry the frames 

 apart to get out the first one easily. 

 An attempt is made to provide for this 

 by a follower-board at the side of the 

 hive, but the space between the follow- 

 er and the side of the hive is not suf- 

 ficient, so that it is almost invariably 

 stuck fast, while it is made in such a 

 flimsy way that it will come to pieces 

 before it can be removed. If this fol- 

 lower were made more substantially, 

 and a little more space allowed back 

 of it, a careful operator could get along 

 with it very well. But, since experi- 

 ence has shown that very few people 

 will take sufficient pains with such a 

 frame, something that is nearer "fool 

 proof" is needed. Perhaps for the great 

 majority' of bee-keepers, a plain, sim- 

 ple, hanging frame, with some plain, 

 cheap spacing device that would hold 

 the proper number of frames the prop- 

 er distance apart until the combs were 

 built, and then could be throivn away, 

 would be the best thing. 



Grand Junc, Colo., Nov. 14, 1903. 



[Last fall, after publishing- an arti- 

 cle setting forth my troubles as In- 

 spector when I had Hoffman frames to 

 handle, I received a perfect deluge of 

 letters and articles somewhat similar 

 to the above. I did not publish them, 

 as I felt that, perhaps, enough had 

 been said on the subject at that time. 

 As one of the manufacturers, Mr. 

 Root, has just published an article in 

 which the Hofl'man frames are more 

 severely condemned than I have con- 

 demned them, I feel that no exceptions 

 can be taken if I publish one of the 



