THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



137 



with melted wax. This method, especially 

 wlifii whole siiei'ts were used, in the 

 haiiils of pi'ople who only hud two or throe 

 hives, as humlieds oC beekeepers luive 

 in Knitland, ol'teii led to failure; as, for 

 lack of care, the foundation was not se- 

 curely lixed and when tin- hees clustered 

 on it, down canie the whole lot, to the 

 <twner's disnust and the bee's discomfort. 



This led to hiveniakers runninii' a saw- 

 cnt down the centre of the top bar, and 

 cultinu' one-half of the bar asunder at oue 

 i'lid, wliicli allowed the sheet of founda- 

 tion to be placed in position in the saw- 

 cut and the half of the bar was fastened 

 <lown oil it securely by two screws or wire 

 nails. 



tjon is not in f;ceiieral use here and also 

 that uiost of us use full sheets of foun<la- 

 tion both ill the brood-cliainiier and also 

 in sections. Fonndation is cheap with us; 

 stout, for brood-chamber, bein^ as low as 

 Is. 4d. per 11)., con.se(|uently it pays to use 

 it. \W'. also try to yet the combs attached 

 to the sides of the frames; they stand ex- 

 tractini^ better as well as economizing 

 space, on the principle of the less bee-pas- 

 saj^es at the ends of the coinbs, the great- 

 er the number of the cells to fill with 

 brood or honey. 



If you refer to fig. 2, you will observe 

 the top-bar is s|tlit the whole lentith, only 

 one-half is nailed down to the sides of the 

 frame, the movable half being held on by 



Fig. 1. 



This style is shown at fig. 1 which is a 

 cut of Messrs. Al)bott's top-bar ; the pro- 

 jections on tiie ends are to keep the frames 

 1^ inches bare, from centre to centre, as 

 they hang in the hive, and I need scarce 

 point out tliat the two sides and the bot- 

 tom-bar are not shown iu tlie cut, for the 

 sake of simplicity. 



the distance spacers, very common here, 

 known as "metal ends." The hand in the 

 cut has just withdrawn tlie second end, 

 allowing the movable half of the top-bar 

 to fall ott". The other metal end is shown 

 lying on the betich. liefer again to the 

 cut and you will see agroovein the inside 

 of the end of the frame. The sheet of fouu- 



FiCx. 2. 



Fig, 3 is an end section of a top-bar show- 

 ing a new process that Messrs Abbott 

 have patented. Two grooves are made in 

 the underside of the bar, one in the centre 

 for the foundation and a second and larger 

 groove by the side of it to take a strip of 

 wood of wedge section. When the foun- 

 dation "is placed in position, the wedge- 

 shaped piece is forced in its groove, and 

 this holds tlie foundation so tightly that 

 you cannot pull it out; the wax-slieet will 

 tear first, rather than the wedge let go its 

 hold. 



Fig. 2 is Mr. Blow's patent frame. I 

 should have explained that wired fouada- 



dationis cut the exact length to fit in these 

 grooves 5 the half of the top-bar is then laid 



jKSSsffif 



on in its place. 



Fig. 3. 

 The two metal ends are 



