18 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



February 



than the frame was long, outside 

 measure, this form being perfectly 

 true aud square, whieh gave advan- 

 tage over the vise method, for with 

 that the frame was sometimes drawn 

 out of true. Next I made a block 

 the size of the inside of the frame, 

 except a little shorter, and of the 

 same thickness, which was tacked to 

 the form. To use it I sprung or bent 

 the top and bottom barts of the frame 

 just enough to shorten it until it went 

 into the form, when 1 laid on the 

 tin separator, placing a straight edge 

 on top of the tin and a weight on this. 

 I now had the tin just where I wished 

 it, with all bulging taken out of it, 

 when it was nailed fast to the wide 

 frame. Upon removing it from the 

 form the top and bottom bars sprung 

 back into place again, thus drawing 

 the separator as tight as a drum-head. 

 After the wide frames are all made 

 and the separators put on they are to 

 to be fiUad with sections, w^hen they 

 are ready to be keyed together so as 

 to form our section holder or surplus 

 arrangement. I have tried all ways 

 of keying these wide frames together, 

 using a clamp or super, etc., all of 

 which I did not like, for I wished a 

 plan that would allow of my using as 

 many wide frames on a hive as I 

 pleased, as the correspondent sug- 

 gests; from two up to twelve, accord- 

 ing to the strength of the colony; for 

 often with the old plans we are 

 obliged to give too much surplus 

 room to start with. Finally I ac- 

 complished what I was after by pro- 

 curing some rubber bauds about 

 three-fourths of an inch wide which 

 were cut into pieces about two and 

 one-half inches long. To one end I 

 attached a, fine stout string, by means 



of a slip knot, about three inches 

 long, and to the other end, about 

 twenty inches long. The short string 

 was firmly tied to a nail driven into 

 the end of one of the two boards 

 which go at the sides of the outside 

 wide frame, used to shut the bees in 

 the surplus arrangement, another be- 

 ing attached to the opposite end of 

 this board in the same way. In each 

 end of the other board which is to go 

 opposite to the first, so that both sides 

 may be closed, is driven a steel wire 

 nail having a big flat head, the same 

 being driven home to within about 

 one thirty- second of an inch of its 

 head, so that when a string is wound 

 around it a little more than once, it 

 is clamped as securely as if tied. The 

 wide frames of sections are now 

 placed on the hive, two, three, five, 

 eight or twelve, as the colony or our 

 wishes require, putting on the little 

 outside boards to close all, draw the 

 rubber till a strong tension is made, 

 and wind the string around the tack. 

 In this way the wide frames are held 

 as in a vise, yet they give all the lat- 

 eral movement required so as to use 

 the right number which the apiarist 

 may desire, and can be taken off as 

 one super or each wide frame separ- 

 ately, tiered up, reversed, inter- 

 changed, etc., according to the views 

 of the most exacting, by using 

 enameled cloth or thin boards to 

 cover that part of the top of the hive 

 not covered by the wide frames, when 

 less than the full number are used. 

 Lately I have been using coil wire 

 springs in place of the rubber bands 

 on a part of my hives and find that 

 these give a much stronger tension 

 than the rubber bands, aud are more 

 durable. Still the rubber bands 



