194 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 



Perfect Wiring of Combs 



By W. L. Gray 



I take the smallest shoe-lace eyelets 

 that can be obtained and place one in 

 each hole of the end bars, driving it 

 down with a hammer. First it is 

 necessary to enlarge the holes some, 

 which I do with brace and gimlet, 

 holding five or six of the bars to- 

 gether and boring through them all at 

 one operation, which lessens the work. 

 If tight wires — wires that will stay 

 tight indefinitely — will prevent sag- 

 ging combs, then this way is all that 

 is necessary; besides, it makes a very 

 neat job. You' will readily see that 

 the wiring machine will do better 

 work, also the wire will not bind 

 nearly so much where it passes 

 through the holes. The end bars can 

 be sprung in and 'they stay in that po- 

 sition. 



Might this not be the solution of 

 this problem, if the manufacturers 

 would devise a machine to insert the 

 eyelets at the factory when the 

 frames are made? I believe that ex- 

 tensive beekeepers would be willing 

 to pay a little more for a frame like 

 this. 



I also think that a larger size wire 

 than a No. 30 should be used, say one 

 with twice the cross-sectional area. 

 No. 27. This way, when using the wir- 

 ing machine, faster work could be 

 done, as it would not be necessary to 

 be so careful about breaking wire. 



Wisconsin. 



(This method is similar to that de- 

 scribed earlier by Deroy Taylor, of 

 New York. There is no doubt that loose 

 wires would be largely prevented by 

 such eyelets and that, therefore, the 

 sagging of foundation would be min- 

 imized. So far no manufacturer has 

 seen fit to place such frames with eye- 

 lets in the side bars on the market. — 

 Edi'tor.) 



Wiring Foundation 



By J. LI. Douglas 



I have tried all kinds of wiring and 

 find only one way suitable to the bees, 

 just four straight wires, and they 

 must be tight and stay tight. As soon 

 as I found they would not stay tight I 

 began to look into the cause and 

 found that the wires cut into the 

 wood. 



I bought 12,000 shoe eyelets of the 

 smallest size; they cost 4c per 10- 

 franie hive. I drove these eyelets in 



the holes already in the end bars; 

 that is all there is to it. Wires never 

 cut into the wood and never get loose 

 any more, and the wires just run 

 through the little eyelets like they 

 were greased. What do you say, Dr. 

 Miller? 



Now there is another little kink. I 

 use a wiring machine (of my own de.- 

 sign) to crank the wire up tight. I 

 pull the top wire down in the center. It 

 is necessary to do this for two rea- 

 sons; it forms a truss, and by pulling 

 it down it takes all the slack out of 

 the second wiris. I next roll in the 

 bottom wire; this time I draw it up 

 in the center. That takes up the slack 

 in wire No. 3. Also it takes all the 

 buckling out of the foundation. Then 

 I roll in wires 2 and 3, leaving them 

 straight. When wiring frames use 

 shoe eyelets. That is all there is to 

 it. There has been many a page writ- 

 ten about wiring and all that has been 

 written did not tell as much as these 

 si.x words. 



Arizona. 



Wiring 



By A. F. Bonney 



Having read about all that has been 

 written on wiring which has appeared 

 in the journals, I have yet another 

 idea to offer which, while only a modi- 

 fication of other methods, has, I think, 

 some redeeming features. 



Is there anything in the many meth- 

 ods of wiring offered which will insure 

 stability of the combs? If we use ver- 

 tical wires, will not the combs, in a 

 hot hive, be apt to slip on them, not 

 much, to be sure, but one-si.xteenth of 

 an inch is enough to des'troy a cell, or 

 a row of them. 



Where the wires are not vertical, 

 but run obliquely across the frame 

 there would be less danger of dis- 

 placement, because such a wire will 

 not sag as much as a wire running 

 parallel, and this parallel wire is the 

 one to be supported, and we give it 

 but little help by putting in another 

 (oblique) wire unattached to it. 



I had in mind to solder the wires 

 where they cross, which could be 

 made a simple matter, by using a soft 

 solder, something like the Wolf metal, 

 a mixture of tin, lead and bismuth, 

 which may be so combined as to melt 

 at less than the boiling point of wa- 

 ter — 212 degrees. The soldering could 

 be done by the aid of electricity, and 



the job finished very quickly. 



I think the plan I offer will insure 

 the best of results, with the wires 

 either soldered or left free. The 

 wires (aaa) pass under the wires 

 (bbb). In case of the first and, 

 maybe the second wires, two such 

 supports might be used, if necessary. 

 I think it unlikely that the fourth 

 wire from the top will need support. 

 It will be easy to add one for experi- 

 mental purposes. 



Iowa. 



Another suggestion for wiring frames 



Arrangement of Colonies in the 

 Apiary 



By the Editor 



"Just how close to each other may 

 one safely place a number of colo- 

 nies? I have a number, and as my 

 space is limited I want to place them 

 close together. Is it also necessary 

 that they all face the same direction? 

 I believe that I have read that they 

 should not be placed too close, but I 

 have seen pictures of large apiaries 

 where the ground seemed to be lit- 

 erally covered with hives." 



Missouri. 



There are few points in beekeeping 

 upon which leading and practical 

 men agree so well and yet fail to fol- 

 low the advice which they give. The 

 placing of colonies in long, uniform 

 rows is generally deprecated, because 

 of the danger of losing the queens on 

 their return from their wedding 

 flight. Yet we followr this method 

 more or less ourselves. 



Mr. Langstroth wrote: 



"If a traveler should be carried in 

 a dark night, to a hotel in a strange 

 city, and, on rising in the morning, 

 should find the streets filled with 

 buildings precisely like it, he would 

 be able to return to his proper place 

 only by previously ascertaining the 

 number, or by counting the houses 

 between it and the corner. Such a 

 numbering faculty, however, was not 

 given to the queen-bee; for who, in a 

 state of nature, ever saw a dozen or 

 more hollow trees or other places 

 frequented by bees, standing close to- 

 gether, precisely alike in shape, size 

 and color, with their entrances all 

 facing the same way, and at exactly 

 the same height from the ground?" 



This criticism is correct, and more 

 queens are lost, in a large apiary, 

 from 'the young queen returning to 

 the wrong hive, than in any other 

 way. We often hear people who buy 

 Italian queens saying that their bees 

 are often seen in the wrong hive,, and 

 they imagine that the Italians make 

 more mistakes of this kind than the 

 common bee. This is not so. But we 

 notice it more when Italian bees 

 make their home in a hive of blacks. 

 The young bees and the young queen, 

 at their first flight, aim to recognize 

 their home. But, as Mr. Langstroth 

 suggests, they have not the faculty 

 of counting the number of hives from 

 a certain point, and so are in danger 

 of entering the wrong hive. It mat- 

 ters little to the worker bees who, 

 when they make a mistake, are likely 

 to be welcome anyhow, if they come 

 as friends with a loaded honey sac. 

 But in the case of the young queen, 



