248 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



the dimensions of the brood-chamber 

 were the same, had nothing whatever 

 to do with the safety of wintering. 

 Doubtless there are those who will 

 disagree with me on this point, but I 

 think that when they have carefully 

 tested the matter as I have done they 

 will give it up. After coming to the 

 above conclusion it was decided to 

 make a frame for my own conven- 

 ience adapted especially to my new 

 system of comb-honey production. 

 I had abandoned side storing and 

 with that went the Gallup frame, as 

 it did not present enough surplus 

 room on the top of ten frames to cor- 

 respond with the large amount of 

 brood comb below. There were 

 two other, but minor, objections to 

 it that in themselves would not have 

 warranted the change, but still they 

 are worth noting. The first was the 

 disposition of the bees to attack brace 

 combs between the ends of th^ frames 

 and hive that is seldom noticed with 

 long frames. This could be over- 

 come by making the space only five- 

 sixteenths of an inch between the end 

 bars and hive, but then there was 

 trouble in getting out the frames, for, 

 in spite of the closest workmanship, 

 it was found impossible to make the 

 frames so true that some of them 

 would not hang too close to the hive 

 at one end or the other, or soon after, 

 from changes in the wood of the 

 frame or hive. The lower end of the 

 frame would then be stuck to the hive 

 with propolis so as to make it very 

 difiicult to get out except in the 

 warmest weather. With shallow frames 

 we have never had any trouble of 

 this nature. The other objection was 

 in the distance that the frame had to 



be lifted to get it out of the hive. 

 The greater facility in lifting out a 

 shallow frame will not be fully realized 

 by any one till they try one by the 

 side of a deep frame. 



My objection to a very long frame 

 like the standard Langstroth is the 

 sagging of the top bars. If a bee 

 space is provided (which I no longer 

 use) between the top bars and supers, 

 it should never be more than five-six- 

 teenths nor less than one-fourth of 

 an inch. It is a very common thing 

 to find the top bars of the Langstroth 

 frame sagged one-fourth of an inch ; 

 this would give a space of one-half 

 inch in the centre to be filled up, 

 as it never fails to be, with brace 

 combs. We have in use some Sim- 

 plicity frames made with heavy V- 

 shaped top bars that work very well, 

 but even these will sag a little in time. 

 Now the liability to sag of a top bar 

 sixteen inches long, made V-shaped 

 and solid, as in the Victor frame, is 

 almost nothing as compared with one 

 nineteen and one-fourth inches long 

 as in the Simplicity. But since, with 

 our surplus arrangement, we could 

 apply as many one-pound sections 

 on the shorter frame as on the long 

 one, we could see no advantage in 

 the latter that would warrant us in 

 adopting it. Hence our preference 

 for the size named. 



As to the proper depth for pro- 

 ducing comb honey, I stated long 

 since, that I believed Father Lang- 

 stroth had struck the happy medium 

 in the proper depth of his standard 

 frame. In a top-storing hive, if the 

 frames are too deep the bees will 

 not enter the supers readily ; if too 

 shallow, the bees will carry a large 



