148 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1.5. 



Gleanings, May 1, 1890, page 334. This is 

 practically the same hive he made as far back 

 as 1863. These were shallow, and had original- 

 ly, if we are correct, closed-end frames. In 18(36 

 he had the sides beveled as at F, not to keep 

 out wind and rain, but to give the proper bee- 

 space, whether tiered up or sitting between the 

 bottom-board and cover. The dimensions are 

 l^a inches deep, 16 inches square. The frames 

 are Hoffman in style, 6I4 inches deep and 13}^ 

 inches long, and have a bee-space back of the 

 end-bars. These supers, with the exception of 

 the bevels, the thumb-screws, and the square 

 shape, are quite like our dovetailed supers with 

 Hoffman frames for extracting. — Ed.] 



FIXED DISTANCES. 



SOME TELLING ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF THEM. 



Bij Dr. C. C. Miller. 



On page 5.5, Mr. Editor, you have allowed 

 Jno. G. Corey to make a personal attack on me, 

 and I hereby challenge the said Jno. G. Corey 

 to mortal combat. Distance, three paces; wea- 

 pons, smokers. Tobacco as fuel barred out. I 

 to stand back to the wind. Now, Bro. Corey, 

 I'd do a good deal to accommodate you, but I 

 must draw the line at continuing to use loose 

 hanging frames indefinitely. You seem to 

 think that, if I had frames made by a good car- 

 penter or mill man, and put together like yours, 

 I'd be all right. 



Well, I'll tell you about my frames. The first 

 lot of those now in use were made by Vander- 

 vort, the foundation-mill man, and the rest by 

 the G. B. Lewis Co.; and if you think either of 

 them can't "hold down a job," I'd like to see 

 you trot out the " wild and woolly West" man 

 that can beat them. As to putting them to- 

 gether, I may quote your own words, and say, 

 " With the clamps we use to hold our frame 

 material while being nailed, and with 8 nails in 

 each frame, they pile up as true as dressed lum- 

 ber, and are a correct mechanical job in every 

 sense." Yes, sir, the stuff was cut out by the 

 most expert workmen, then nailed while held 

 with an unyielding grip in a clamp, every frame 

 a model. But the trouble is, they don't stay so. 

 Do yours? Or have you tight bottoms, and 

 never had a chance to look at a lot of bottom- 

 bars after being in the hive ten or twenty years ? 

 . As to the why of frames hanging out of true. 

 I must confess that, according to any reasoning 

 in advance, I should not expect as much varia- 

 tion as the facts show. The editor suggests 

 little lumps of propolis under the bearing sur- 

 face of the top-bars. There may be something 

 in that; but it can be replied that, through the 

 summer, at the time the frames are handled, 

 propolis is soft enough for any little lumps to be 

 squeezed out from under the bearing surface of 

 top-bars. I am inclined to credit most of the 



being out of true to the warping and twisting 

 of top-bars or end-bars. There is very little 

 wood that will remain permanently true when 

 left without constraint, especially when, as the 

 editor hints, it is subjected to the moisture of 

 the hive, that moisture not acting uniformly 

 upon all parts. The twisting of stuff shows 

 very plainly in flat hive-covers. Made of clear 

 pine 14 inches wide, it is a rare thing to find one 

 attain any degree of age without being twisted 

 to some extent. If a top-bar 1 inch wide in a 

 Langstroth frame twists ^^V of an inch out of 

 true, unless I mistake in figuring, the bottom- 

 bar will be thrown more than a quarter of an 

 inch out of true, and ^ variation in top-bar 

 will make X inch in bottom-bar. If an end-bar 

 be cut so that the wood of one side be nearer 

 the heart than the other, the two sides will not 

 act alike in aging, thus thi-owing the bottom- 

 bar to one side. Occasionally it may happen 

 that top-bar and end-bar will combine to oper- 

 ate in the same direction, and then the difficul- 

 ty is aggravated. If one bottom-bar is thrown 

 to one side, and its next neighbor to the other, 

 then the trouble will be multiplied, resulting in 

 a distance between the bottom-bars all the way 

 from an inch down to their touching together, 

 and being glued by the bees through a fourth 

 of their length. 



But now let us admit that frames are all 

 made true, and that in your delightful climate 

 they remain true for a lifetime. Have the top 

 of the hive stenciled, as you say, showing a 

 black mark for each space. That black mark 

 will help at least this much, that, when you 

 have put in all your frames, you will not find 

 the last one a quarter of an inch out of the 

 way. Indeed, by being careful there need be 

 no great variation anywhere. But right there's 

 the rub. That being careful takes too much 

 time. Admit that you can put a top-bar right 

 at your stenciled mark in as short a time as I 

 can push a shouldered frame to its place, and it 

 will then take you twice as long, for you must 

 look at the stencil to use it, and you can't look 

 at both ends of your hive at the same time, un- 

 less you have a terrific squint in your eyes. 

 But having two hands, I can push at both ends 

 at the same time. 



But it can not be truthfully admitted that you 

 can put one end in the right place as rapidly as 

 I can. I mean you with the loose frame and I 

 with the other. It takes time to place the frame 

 within a thirty-second of an inch of the right 

 place, and still more time to put it just exactly 

 with the stencil-mark. And remember that a 

 very little variation counts when we are trying 

 to space against brace-combs. If }4 inch is the 

 right space between top-bars, push the first 

 frame ^V of an inch toward the second, and the 

 second ^ toward the first, and you may rely on 

 the bees to fill the space with bee-glue. 



Let us, however, look at what will actually 

 occur sometimes. All the frames have been 



