1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



315 



nails are also much in the way abo\it using tlie 

 uncapping-ivnife. This last point would con- 

 demn them for all extracted-honey men. 



The Hottman frame, which has closed ends 

 only part way down, as I understand it. is per- 

 haps open to less objections: but there are the 

 same ones in regard to being stuck with propo- 

 lis. What a tine place the V point between two 

 frames is for it ! Still, if the frames are wedg- 

 ed close.and tit snug, the part in contact is so 

 short that not much effort will be needed to sep- 

 arate them. It also has the end projection to 

 lift and handle it by. which with me is quite im- 

 portant. If we are to have frames fixing the dis- 

 tances automatically, li't us try to get a good 

 ■one, adopting the Jacksonian motto. "Be sure 

 y^ou are right, then go ahead." 



Remember what a boom was made only two 

 •or three yeai's ago on reversing frames, and 

 then see hf)w many ai'e in use to-day. Are we 

 not too much like a flock of sheep — when one 

 leader goes, all make a ru.sh, regardless of what 

 we require. C. A. Hatch. 



Ithaca. Wis.. Mar. 2<;. 



f I am glad of your article, friend H.: and be- 

 lieve me when I say I am just as much pleased 

 to have the other side discussed as to have the 

 one toward which I am leaning: the more so. be- 

 cause 1 know you are a successful bee-keeper, 

 and caudid and fair in your judgments. 



I do not know that it is so in every one's 

 hands, that the closed-end or Hoffman frame 

 ■can be bandied faster than loose frames. I 

 know I saw Hoffman and El wood handle their 

 respective fixed frames faster than the average 

 man will the loose frame. But as Mr. H(jffman 

 In the next issue will touch upon this point and 

 Ml'. Elwood in the present isstie, 1 will let 

 them speak for themselves. 



Hanging frames with nails for spacers, and 

 such like contrivances, would be an intolerable 

 nuisance, and I do not wonder that you discard- 

 ed them. 



To handle the closed-end or Hoffman rapidly, 

 they should be picked up in pairs, and some- 

 times in trios. If they are full of honey, two 

 will be enough to lift. If empty or nearly so, in 

 the spring, then you can handle as many as you 

 ■can span with your fingers. I know you can 

 handle loose frames after a fashion in pairs, but 

 not with the same facility that the Hoffman 

 frames can be thus handled. I liave ti'ied both 

 ways. 



Those of tis who have defended fixed dis- 

 tances did not intend to convey the impression 

 that fixed frames could be handled in speed in 

 proportion to the number of frames handled at 

 once, as you seem to take it. We meant that 

 the handling in pairs and in trios assisted. 



For rapid manipulation there is another very 

 Important consideration. For closed-end or 

 Hoffman frames a hive with a movable side, or, 

 better, one with a loose follower, should be used 

 and then you get lateral movement in its perfec- 

 tion. 



Your experience with the Heddon closed-end 

 frame is different from ours, so that we shall 

 have to account for that on the score of local- 

 ity. 



W'hat you say regarding closed-end frames in 

 close-fitting cases may be a serious objection in 

 many localities; and if so. we should be warned 

 of it in advance; but this does not apply at all to 

 the Hoffman frames or closed-end frames, used 

 as Quinby advised. 



And now about tln' propolis between the 

 ci'acks. We have had no very great trouble on 

 that score. So far. compression has obviated the 

 trouble. But perhaps I should remark right 

 here, that the Italians do not deposit propolis 

 like hybrids or blacks. But in .spite of all you 



say, everywhere in New York I saw every 

 thing smeared with propolis; and if there is any 

 place in the United States where propolis is de- 

 posited freely, it is in York State; Elwood says 

 he never saw any more propolis than in his lo- 

 cality, and yet neither he nor HofTman experi- 

 ences any trouble fi-om it with their frames. 

 You say. with fixed distances you must always 

 put the frame in the hive in the same way "it 

 came out. On this point I just won't agree. 

 This may be true, however, if you take old 

 hanging frames and make them into fixed dis- 

 tances with nails. But take frames that have 

 always been fixed (tbat is, those that have nev- 

 er been subiected to the hit-and-miss spacing), 

 and have always been handled properly. I am 

 pretty sure there will be no trouble. "Notice 

 what Mr. Hoffman says in the following article. 

 Mr. Elwood has told me the same thing. 



Tliere was a boom made in revei'sing, and it 

 rather died out; but lam pretty sure that it is 

 going to come up when the proper appliances 

 permit of its more easy operation. Reversing 

 with ordinary loose frames is impracticable; 

 but with fixed frames inversion is not only more 

 feasible but practicable; and, as friend Dayton 

 said in the last issue, and as Mr. Chalon Fowls 

 and others have insisted. I believe that more 

 brood can be secured in a certain number of 

 frames by reversing than by not reversing. If 

 this is true — and our experience in the apiary 

 inclines me to this opinion — then here is a point 

 that we can not very well overlocjk. Fixed dis- 

 tances are going to make reversing possible 

 where before it was impracticable (because the 

 whole hive can easily be turned upside down 

 and the combs won't topple over either), and 

 there is nothing that makes such beautiful 

 combs as reversing. I am very glad to refer you 

 to an article from Mr. Hoffman, which appears 

 next: and I would also advise you to read an- 

 other from the pen of >[r. Elwood.] E. R. R. 



THE HOFFMAN FRAME DEFENDED. 



HINTS ON ITS MAXIPULATIOX BY THE IXVEN- 

 TOK HIMSELF — MR. .JULIUS HOFFMAN. 



In Gleanings of Mar. 15th, Mr. W. W. Som- 

 erford is condemning closed-end frames in 

 quite a severe and jjositive way. I have but 

 very little time to write, and perhaps still less 

 inclination and ability to do so: but Mr. Som- 

 erford"s sweeping assertion, and the apparent 

 tendency in his article to warn beginners 

 against the Hoffman frame, induces me to 

 make a few remarks in your valuable paper — 

 unless Gleanings has closed its pages to any 

 further testimony on the Hoffman side, as that 

 gentleman calls it, 



I will begin by saying that I never made the 

 slightest attempt, in word or writing, to per- 

 suade or induce anybody to adopt or use my 

 style of frame until quite recently. When the 

 now so-called Hoffman frame was brought to 

 notice in (tLeanings I thought it best to state 

 how I make and use tbe suspended, partly 

 closed-end frame, and tried to explain what I 

 thought their advantages. 



What induced the editors of Gleanings to 

 bring tliis fi-ame before the public, I do not 

 know: but I was much surprised, like Mr. 

 Soraerford, that my style of frame had worked 

 its way into so many apiaries, even to most of 

 the distant States. 



I can assure Mr. Somerford. too, that I know 

 of a good many beginners who started with the 

 Hoffman frame, and are quite successful with 

 it. I also know of many good practical honey- 

 raisers who have worked with the common 



