154 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



March, 1922 



THrPiE ED 'OF EXP^^ 



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ANOTHER FOUNDATION FASTENER 



Revolving Box Passes Work from Person Who 

 Folds to One Who Fastens Foundation 



Verily there is nothing new under the sun, 

 especially in apiculture. About eight years 

 ago I built a foundation-fastener similar to 

 the one described in the December issue. It 

 was surely rapid compared with the old way 

 of fastening foundation, but I thought it 

 somewhat cumbersome; so I built another 

 along similar lines and thought I had im- 

 proved on the old one. 



This consists of a box 6 x 20 inches, with 

 the top narrower than the bottom, thus 

 making the sides sloping. Two sets of blocks 

 are fastened on these sloping slides. It is 

 not necessary to have these blocks slide up 

 and down, since the foundation sits nearly 

 perpendicular. This box has a 1-inch hole 

 bored in the center of the bottom and pivots 

 on a peg fastened in the center of a board 

 12 by 24 inches. 



The illustration printed below does not 

 show the pivoting device. 



Mr. Williams' revolving foundation-fastener. 



To operate, place the apparatus in the 

 center of a small table. Pile the sheets of 

 foundation on top of the box. Take a chair 

 at one side of table, with a stove for your 

 hot-plate paddles at your right. 



Give your assistant a seat on the oppo- 

 site side of the table with a box of sections, 

 empty section-holders and supers handy. 

 Your assistant folds four sections, places 

 them over the blocks and then slips a holder 

 over them. Now swing the box around so 

 these sections are on your side, drop in the 

 sheets of foundation and fasten them with 

 the hot metal paddles. By this time your 

 helper has the opposite side of the box ready 

 with holder and sections. Reverse the box 

 again, and while your helper folds four sec- 

 tions, the foundation cools enough for the 

 holder of sections to be lifted off and placed 

 in the super. Now keep busy. Don't visit and 

 don 't quarrel, and it will be necessary to 

 call in m'ore help to carry away the filled 

 supers and bring you supplies. 



Attica, Ohio. B. J. Williams. 



SPACES IN THE HIVE 



Allen Latham Prefers the Bee Space Below the 

 Frames Instead of Above Them 



On page 76 of February (1921) Gleanings 

 ;ip]iears one of the best articles that we read- 

 ers have been favored with for some time. 

 Every honey producer had best read it, 

 and can make no mistake to read it the 

 second time. Some of us may differ from 

 Mr. Pettit as to how we shall carry out the 

 principles involved, but we must agree with 

 him in his statements of those principles. 



I shall choose for my text a sentence 

 found on page 77 in the first column, near 

 the bottom. "This leaves a full bee-spaee 

 under the frames." 



One of the amazing things in scientific 

 apiculture which a student of this science 

 runs up against is the frequency with which 

 the manufacturer or fate has fastened stand- 

 ard misfits upon us. I will not enumerate 

 here the numerous weaknesses of the fac- 

 tory hive, or so-called standard hive, but 

 will select onlj"- one weakness and that one 

 the position of the bee-space between bodies 

 and supers. 



In my effort to find out why this space 

 was placed above the frames and above 

 the sections I have come to the conclusion 

 that it must have got there thru the notion 

 that the cover should come down flat against 

 the hive walls. Instead of looking ahead and 

 considering the inconveniences which would 

 result if the space were put above rather 

 than below, the early hive-makers saw only 

 the disadvantage of setting on that cover. 

 How simple it would have been if they had 

 seen the advantages of the lower position 

 of the space and had contrived some way 

 of offsetting the diflBculty if it were placed 

 above! A little thought would have arrived 

 at a simple solution. 



I will now enumerate the disadvantages 

 of having the space above the frames rather 

 than below. First, in manipulating the hives 

 one must always have some empty body or 

 open-topped box upon which to place each 

 super he lifts from a hive. If he does not 

 he will crush many bees. He cannot set it 

 down upon the neighboring hive. (Right 

 here it will occur to many of my readers that 

 a particular form of cover was the outcome 

 of this difiiculty. This cover met the needs, 

 but the cover itself has so many disadvan- 

 tages that the remedy was costly.) Second, 

 when the supers are placed in the wagon or 

 auto disaster is frequent. A burr-comb on 

 the bottom of a frame causes the bottom- 

 bar to be pushed up so that the comb above 

 is slightly crushed, and leakage occurs. 

 Often, too, a bottom-bar is bowed down- 



