22 



THE AMERICAN APIGULTURIST. 



suspended fnunes if not fastened in 

 some way are very ftal)le to give con- 

 siderable trouble by slipping and 

 swinging when the hives are hauled 

 over roads that are not quite the best. 

 This defect has recently given rise to 

 quite an extended investigation into 

 the merits of the various frames now 

 in use among beekeepers. The chief 

 features desired are that the frames 

 remain in their proper places, no dif- 

 ference what the position of the hive 

 may be, and that the}' be easily manip- 

 ulated without killing bees. A third 

 requisite demanded by a large num- 

 ber of beekeepers, myself included, is 

 that the frame be reversible. For 

 several years the closed-end Quinby 

 and its modifications seemed to be the 

 only frames that would answer all 

 these conditions ; but quite recently 

 the Van Deusen metal-cornered re- 

 versible frame has taken place as a 

 prominent candidate for favor among 

 those apiarists who desire a fixed 

 frame. It is described in my article 

 in the January Apicultukist, 1889, 

 and another season of use in ni}' yanl 

 only serves to strengtlien my good 

 opinion of it. Heretofore I have had 

 one very serious objection to it and 

 that was that it spaced the combs H 

 inches from centre to centre ; but Mr. 

 O. J. Hetherington of East Saginaw, 

 Mich., has lately removed that ol)jec- 

 tion by having the castings ma(le so 

 as to space the frames a scant If 

 inches from centre to centre. With 

 frames the size of the L., or larger, 

 the wides[)acing may be all right but 

 with such small frames as I use (7 X 

 16| inches) is not to be tolerated. 



How wide shall combs be spaced? 

 This is an old question and I pre- 

 sume the veterans who see the caption 

 of this paragraph will elevate their 

 noses. That is all right and they may 

 skip what 1 have to say about it if the}' 

 like ; but they must remember that 

 not all the readers of the Apicultu- 

 kist are veterans and that many of 

 the veterans themselves are modify- 



ing their opinions on this matter since 

 the introduction of the shallow and 

 the contracted brood-chambers. A 

 comb having cells of the proper depth 

 for brood-rearing may also serve as a 

 receptacle for honey ; but a comb hav- 

 ing deeper cells is fit to be used for 

 storage only. A brood-comb is just 

 about I of an inch thick, and it is ev- 

 ident that when combs are spaced 1^ 

 inches from centre to centre there is 

 a space of | of an inch between the 

 combs when they contain brood. I 

 believe it was our level-headed friend, 

 Mr. J. E. Pond, who several years 

 ago called this space a loafing place 

 for bees that would better be in the 

 supers or the field. He advanced the 

 idea that crowding the combs close 

 together forced the bees into the sec- 

 tions and gave a greater area of brood 

 to the frame. Some experiments that 

 I made at that time led me to doubt 

 the correctness of his conclusion but I 

 am now very certain that he is right. 

 The character of the season undoubt- 

 edly makes a great difference in the 

 area of comb surface that, by the bees 

 elongating the cells, is rendered un- 

 fit for brood-rearing. When honey 

 comes in rapidly and the bees go to 

 work in the sections with a rush very 

 little comb in the brood-nest will be 

 drawn out for storage ; but if the flow 

 is only a little greater than is required 

 for the daily needs of the colony the 

 cells in the upper part of every comb 

 will be deepened by the bees as fast 

 as the brood hatches. As the season 

 uears its close the entire area of the 

 outside combs is drawn out for the 

 reception of honey and the brood-area 

 of the hive is materially reduced. In 

 the season of '89 I was unfortunate 

 enough to still further reduce the 

 brood space in a number of my hives 

 by inverting the frames and neglect- 

 ing to turn them back at the proper 

 time. The bees promptly deepened 

 cells for a space of two or three inches 

 from the top-bar and filled them with 

 honey. As the result these combs 

 are thick all around the edges, and 



