1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



275 



cut his notches much deeper than I, and thereby lost the 

 lateral movement. B'rames contracted as above can be put in 

 and taken out as easily as those hung on A. I. Root's old tin 

 corners and tin rabbets, and at the same time have all the 

 advantages of the self-spacing frames without their incon- 

 veniences. 



Hoffman frames, and even all-wood frames, are a nui- 

 sance. Where the apiarist is a queen-breeder, or for some 

 reason or other handles his frames frequently, the propolis 

 never accumulates enough to interfere; but when the frames 

 are moved but once or perhaps twice a year, at swarming 

 time, or even not at all, the wooden ends of the tops or the 

 sides of the Hoffman get " fist" and fastened, sure enough. 



The depth of frame adopted by the Dadants is, I think, 

 near the best, as far as my experience goes. 



The frames do not always hang vertically in the hive. 

 Even those as shallow as the Langstroth frame need some 

 kind of spacing arrangement at the bottom. The best is a 

 strip of tin with teeth cut in and turned up so that the frames 

 come in between, thus : 



What little propolis is aflixt there does not interfere with 

 the taking out of the frames. With loose bottoms, I had good 

 results with nails driven at the back wall of the hive, about 

 lJ-2 inches above the bottom, and letting the ends of the 

 frames drop between them, thus : 



^v^^^,^^,^/. <;yx^^ 



THE 8UPEBS. 



Much has been said and written upon the importance of 

 protecting the brood against the variations of temperature 

 during the early spring, but very little about the necessity of 

 protecting the supers given in the early part of the season. In 

 my locality the second consideration is fully as important as 

 the first. Owing to the altitude of the country (that means 

 the height above the sea-level), the nights are cool during most 

 of the honey season, and this condition exists also in some of 

 the extreme Western States. 



Most of the comb-building, and of the inside work of the 

 bees, is done during the night, as a portion of the bees that 

 gathered the nectar during the day go to work inside after 

 the day-work is over. If the nights are cold, and the bees un- 

 able to work freely in the supers, the result will be a clogging 

 of the brood-nest, a failure to build and fill the sections, a con- 

 siderable loss in the quantity of honey gathered, a loss of 

 brood, and fiually a "swarming crop " instead of a honey 

 crop. 



After using several kinds of outer cases, I came to the 

 conclusion that chaff supers are the best contrivance that can 

 be adopted. They are made like the brood-chambers described 

 before. To support the sections, I use almost altogether iron 

 bars about 'i,-inch thick, or somewhat less, and about ?^-inch 

 wide. That is the best I know now, but yet not altogether 

 satisfactory. I use sections open on all sides, without separa- 

 tors, and with such sections T tins cannot be used. 



THE HIA'E-COVER. 



A chaff brood-chamber with chaff supers needs necessarily 

 a chaff cover to complete the outfit. The chaff part is of the 

 same size as the supers or the hive, but the top is considerably 

 larger, so as to help in shading the hive and protect it against 

 the rain. 



A large cover has to be made of several pieces, and then 

 be covered so as to prevent the rain from running in at the 

 Joints. I use oil-cloth. The wood has to be painted on both 

 sides before putting on the cloth, otherwise the dampness 

 would accumulate between, and rot both in less than two 

 years. The cloth will last almost any length of time if re- 

 painted as soon as it begins to crack, and again every three or 

 four years. I think ordinary, cheap tar-buildlng-paper would 



do just as well as the cloth, but I have not tried it. I think, 

 also, that narrow-heart Southern pine celling, tongued and 

 grooved, with white lead in the joints, and painted both sides, 

 would do without any other covering, but I have not tried it. 



GENERAL CONSinEKA.TI0N8. 



Well, the whole hive would be sometblnR like this : 



w/<'///< y/,<:<'<:<:/,::////('<'6 



COUER 







SUPER 



(^^K\x\x\\\x\V\\\\\\\\\\Vx V\\\\\\\V\\\'^ 



As to practical details of construction, the best is to get 

 the necessary pieces cut in a wood-working shop, and the api- 

 arist to put them together himself. Pieces like that can be 

 had at about the same price as the lumber simply drest. The 

 reason is that all wood-working establishments have quite a 

 large amount of scraps out of which small pieces can be cut. 



As to putting together, it would cost too much to have it 

 done at the shop. If the apiarist cannot do the work himself, 

 the best is to hire a common carpenter and have him do the 

 work under the apiarist's supervision. 



I spoke of chaff in the above description, but I have used 

 any non-conducting material that happened to be handy — 

 planer shavings, leaves, rags, old papers, etc. My preference 

 is for straw. Nail the bottom strips, and cut off "stray 

 straws " sticking out, with a pair of scissors, and then nail 

 the top strips. 



In using outer-cases and temporary packing, I prefer old 

 rags. They can be put in and taken out without making a 

 muss as with shavings or leaves. Kuox Co., Tenn. 



Working the Same Colooies for Both Extracted 

 and Comb Houey. 



BT WM. m'EVOY. 



In producing comb honey I gave the crate system a thor- 

 ough trial, and also the wide-frame method as followed by 

 others, and never was fully satisfied with the results of either. 

 As I was running my apiary more for extracted than comb 

 honey, I concluded after some testing that I could make a big 

 success of getting nice section honey stored very fast in top 

 stories among extracing-combs, and also get a fine quantity 

 of choice extracted honey from the same colonies, aud greatly 

 lessen the number of swarms. \Vhen the honey season begins 

 I place on my stroneest colonies hives filled with the very 

 w)iitest o{ combs, and when the bees are storing honey fast I 

 remove half of the combs, then spread the remaining half 

 apart and hang between them wide-frames with sections in. 

 The bees will then rush up the extracting-combs, and with no 

 separators in their way will fill the sections very fast. 



When the sections are about three-quarters full of comb I 

 shift the extracting-combs to one side of the hive, hang tin 

 separators between the wide-frames, and then crowd them up 

 by themselves. The top-bars and ends of the tin frames are 

 made out of double tin, the ends of the tin frames are made 

 out of double tin, and the ends of the separators are soldered 

 to the uprights or end of the frames, leaving the usual space 

 between the separators for the bees to get in at the bottom 

 and top edges of the sections. The last half of the season I 

 crowd the wide-frames with sections Into the center, and place 

 the extracting-combs at each side of them, so as to have little 

 or no unfinisht sections when the honey harvest ends. 



I always fill my sections with foundation because It pays 

 me far better to do so. When I followed the crate system, 



