1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



737 



stroth movable frame? Nay. verily. Father 

 Qulnby, yourself, and the rest promptly fell in 

 with the new idea, because the new system of- 

 fered advantages. 



I will say right here, by way of parenthesis, 

 for the benefit of our readers' private ear (not 

 for Doolittle's), that our Borodino bee-keeper is 

 systematic and careful, and, withal, a good 

 financier; and I am quite sure he would have 

 made almost any system — yes, almost any busi- 

 ness — pay. Well, now. we are tending toward 

 fixed frames as against the excellent loose frame 

 given us by Langstroth. We, who are advo- 

 cates of the former, hold that they save labor, 

 and, to a greater or lesser extent, permit of 

 handling hives more and frames less. In order 

 to secure this latter feature, we who are of this 

 school do not all advocate a radical change of 

 hives. The Hotfman frames do not require the 

 change of a single hive of the Langstroth type; 

 and the change of frames should be made grad- 

 ually. In most apiaries, new frames are by 

 degrees added, and old ones are being replaced 

 and the combs melted up. Why not, then, work 

 in gradually the new frames — that is. if a test 

 of a few justifies their further introduction? 

 To get the principle of handling hives instead 

 of frames, or, as I prefer it, "handling hives 

 more and frames less.'' it is not necessary to 

 work a revolution in hives. Even with the old 

 loose frames it is possible to handle hives more 

 and frames less than is usually practiced. I 

 venture to say. you do not handle your frames 

 now to the extent you did in 1869. But with 

 the Hoffman frames the possibilities in this 

 line are much greater. Try it and see. The 

 very quotation you make from Gravenhorst 

 was by him intended to prove the advantage of 

 handling /(ires and not /rtojics, as you seem to 

 take it — at least. I so understand it. In another 

 column I tell what I mean by handling frames 

 less. I am now glad to give something that up- 

 holds points made by both of us.] E. R. 



FIXED DISTANCES AND FIXED FRAMES. 



HANDLING HIVES INSTEAD OF FRAMES. 



I commenced |bee-keeping in 1848, and fol- 

 lowed it in just about the average way until 

 1861. when I was " born again " into apiarial 

 life. I bought " Langstroth on the Honey-bee." 

 and commenced work in real earnest; but I 

 found that there was no way of spacing frames 

 the proper distance apart except by the mere 

 chance of guessing; and not being cast in the 

 ■'good luck guess it good chance" mold, I be- 

 gan to experiment to find a better way; and, 

 as a result. I invented the frame that I exhibit- 

 ed at the Keokuk convention, in the hive I 

 gave Mrs. L. Harrison, and. so far as I know, I 

 was the first person that eviM' made and used 

 such frames. They had all the advantage of 

 lateral movement, but can be quickly adjusted 

 in fixed places, and are as easily moved and 

 handled as your metal-cornered frames. They 

 are cheap; take of necessity a thick top-bar; 

 and hives made upo,n this plan, when properly 

 constructed, have given universal satisfaction 

 to all who have tried them for the last 30 years, 

 and I have made, sold, and used thousands of 

 them in this section of country. I tried to in- 

 terest others in them, the senior editor among 

 the number; but he said. '• The bee-keeping 

 brethren have decided that any kind of fixed 

 distances is no good, and they are laid away to 

 stay." 



But eight or ten years ago the bee-keeping 

 air grew hot with reversible frames, fixed 

 frames, fixed distances, reversible hives, inter- 



changeable hives, storifying hives, double- 

 brood-chamber hives (the last of which, by the 

 way. I had been using for 35 years or more), 

 continuous - passageway hives, non - swarming 

 hives; and soon without end, the bee-journals 

 giving them all prominent notice; and I con- 

 cluded that I knew nothing about good fixtures; 

 that I was badly behind the times, and, to liave 

 any chance of winning the apiarian race, I 

 must throw aside my old-fashioned scrub fix- 

 tures and cultivate the new traps. Now, I well 

 knew that the use of a hive or two of any sys- 

 tem gave the experimenter no chance of arriv- 

 ing at just conclusions; and having all the fa- 

 cilities for experimenting cheaply, first-class 

 machinery, coupled with proper" mechanical 

 skill. I resolved to try things on a scale that 

 would enable me to know what was what. 

 Well, the first thing I did was to make .")0 hives 

 on the Heddon or closed-end-frame principle. 

 When I had them completed I would handle 

 the^ frames by the hour, and would think. 

 " Well, this is just splendid;" and when swarm- 

 ing time came I filled the .50 hives with good 

 early swarms, and obtained as good a vield of 

 honey from them as from my old stvle of 

 frames: and as I handled the frames but little 

 that summer, all went well, and I made ,50 more 

 hives the following winter on the same plan. 

 The next spi-ing. on setting my bees out I found 

 it necessary to examine the combs, as some 

 swarms were dead, some queenless. some weak 

 in bees: and I went to work joyfully to handle 

 the frames that were " easier "to rnanipulate, 

 and would kill far less bees, than the hanging 

 frame." But the winter dampness had swelled 

 the dry wood in frame and hive, and they came 

 like i)ulling teeth: but, however. I got them out, 

 and things arranged, but not without some cu- 

 rious thoughts creeping through my mind. 

 After a time the bees increased in numbers, and 

 the hives became overflowing with bees, just as 

 they had to. to become profitable in gathering a 

 large yield of white honey; and here again I 

 found it necessary, in carrying out mv plans, to 

 open the hives and handle the franies. They 

 had become dry by this time; and, while com- 

 ing out easier than at the first trial, thev stuck 

 fai' tighter than I expected. But every Inch of 

 space was now crowded with bees; and when I 

 tried to return a frame among that mass of 

 bees, with all I could do with smoke and skill, 

 what a crushing of bones: I filled the 50 new 

 hives with bees that summer, with fair success 

 as to honey; used them all the following sea- 

 son, and then the combs were all transferred to 

 hanging frames, and I am entirelv satisfied 

 with the change. 



I will say, before leaving this style of frame, 

 that the hives in all their parts were construct- 

 ed in the very best mechanical fashion. I had 

 been using a half-closed-end frame. like the 

 Hoffman, in my little shallow double-brood- 

 chamber hives for years before I ever heard of 

 Mr. Hoffman or his hive. They were only 4i^ 

 inches deep, and I seldom needed to handle 

 single frames. They worked without just 

 cause for complaint. But I was establishing 

 out-apiaries, and what a splendid thing full- 

 brood-chamber hives with the now famous 

 Hoffman frame would be for hauling around! 

 The engine was started, and some 50(J hives, 

 with the aforesaid frame, was immediately con- 

 structed in first-class fashion: and after they 

 were all done I spent hours in handling the 

 empty hives on my work-bench, and I said, 

 "Well, this is just splendid." Each station 

 was supplied with these new hives, and all 

 swarms hived in them; but pretty soon Mr. 

 D. W. Whitmore, who was very successfullv 

 managing one of the out-statioiis. said. " I do 

 not like to handle the new frame as well as the 



