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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



be as regular in the unspaced as in the 

 spaced frames. But, as a rule, they are 

 not. Some one or more of the above 

 conditions is usually violated. The 

 Hoffman and the v/ire-end frames will 

 always remain true in spacing, even if 

 twisted in nailing ; but they must be 

 nailed square, or bracer-comb results. 

 The closed-end frame may be both 

 twisted and out of square when out of 

 the hive, and will be all right in it when 

 keyed up. All four require the hive to 

 be level, and irregular old combs to be 

 culled out, so as not to stand next to 

 new ones in the process of building. 



4. The closed-end frame can be re- 

 versed ; the . others cannot. Opinions 

 differ about reversing. See Queries 840 

 and 886, pages 494, Vol. XXIX, and 

 272, Vol. XXXII. If desired to have 

 comb built clear to the bottom of the 

 hanging frames, without reversing, the 

 scheme of J. M. Pratt, mentioned on 

 page 638, Vol. XXIX, may be tried. He 

 says : " t use the Langstroth frame 

 without flat wooden bottom, using a No. 

 9 wire instead. The combs are built 

 and joined to the wire below. The 

 combs are never joined or glued to the 

 bottom of the hive, as is the case with 

 wooden bottoms." 



5. The closed-end frame, extending 

 clear to the ends of the hive, is slightly 

 more economical of space than the 

 others ; and, when reversed, still more so. 



6. The projections of hanging frames 

 are said to be inconvenient in some ex- 

 tractors. 



7. The top-bars do not sag. The 

 closed-end frames, being made reversi- 

 ble, are not provided with thick bars ; 

 the others usually are. But when frames 

 are wired as they should be, and of % 

 inch stuff all around, the sagging is not 

 noticeable unless one sights along the 

 top — if then. 



8. Thick top-bars are one preventive 

 of brace-comb. Hero the closed-end, as 

 usually made, must yield to the others ; 

 though it is not debarred the use of the 

 other preventives, viz.: wide top-bars, 

 break-joint honey-boards, and correct 

 spacing of the upper story. 



9. The ordinary frame, if hung on a 

 flat rabbet in the wood, becomes propo- 

 lized at the points of junction, and re- 

 quires the chisel to pry it up; if hung 

 on a tin edge, this is obviated. 



The wire-end frame apparently leaves 

 nothing to be desired in this respect. 



I know nothing of the Hoffman from 

 experience; Mr. Ileddon points out that 

 the narrow part of the end-bars invite 

 propolis and burr-comb, which interferes 



with withdrawal. Read his whole arti- 

 cle in favor of closed-end frames on page 

 637, Volume XXIX. 



Mrs. Atchley says somewhere in 

 Oleanings that considerable prying and 

 digging is required to get the first Hoff- 

 man frame out, or the dummy. I do not 

 see how this fault can lie in the frame ; 

 there must be some undesirable feature 

 in the hive. Either there is no pro- 

 vision made for lateral movement (see 

 paragraph 10 below) ; or the dummy 

 uses up more space than it should ; or 

 the projections rest on a flat wooden 

 rabbet, though this would make it no 

 more than the ordinary kind. 



Closed-end frames, fitting one another 

 tightly, do not allow the bees behind or 

 between them ; consequently the only 

 propolis to interfere (if hive and frames 

 are factory made and true) is a slender 

 line along the juncture. Any one who 

 has had pried-up sections glued together 

 in this manner, and takes them apart on 

 a cool day, may imagine this to be a 

 serious objection when applied to 

 frames. But a little thought will show 

 the difference. The section is small, 

 and affords little leverage, besides being 

 fragile ; the frame gives abundant pur- 

 chase. As a matter of fact, I have 

 never had any difficulty in getting 

 frames apart. During the summer, if 

 the fingers of both hands are pressed 

 against the top-bar of the frame to be 

 removed, while the thumbs press against 

 the top-bar of the adjacent frame, they 

 come apart without jar or effort. In 

 the cool days of spring or fall, a small 

 lever applied in the same way, first at 

 one end of the frame, then at the other, 

 brings them apart with a slight snap, 

 but not enough to irritate the bees, un- 

 less smoke is not used. 



I cannot, therefore, from anything in 

 my experience, see what that "strongest 

 argument" is to which Mr. Demaree re- 

 fers on page 367. Doubtless three 

 frames can be taken out together and 

 set against the hive as a unit, though I 

 would not like to try it on a hot day; 

 but they can bo taken out singly, too. 

 And why those other two frames should 

 be stuck together as tight as wax, is 

 more than I can see, unless the combs 

 themselves are actually united ; but in 

 that case the close-fitting frames are not 

 responsible. That half-bushel of bees, 

 I think, are peaceably crawling over the 

 combs, if they have been properly 

 smoked. 



10. The common and the wire-end 

 hanging frames have what Mr. Taylor 

 calls " lateral movement" (page 337) 



