1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



809 



area. Look at that last statemert of mine 

 again, and remember that in it is expressed 

 the whole story of most profitable use of 

 foundation. 



I have been "through the mill," in using 

 such light foundation, with two, three, or 

 four wires, with one, two. three, or four 

 wires imbedded or not imbedded; and I say, 

 avoid such light foundation, an 1 imbed the 

 wires; then wax the wires in place so that 

 this line along the wire, usually the weakest 

 place in a sheet of foundation, will then be 

 the strongest. When Mr. Scholl confesses 

 that he does not imbed the wires he gives 

 away the whole plan, for he must leave the 

 foundation not imbedded, so the sheet can 

 sag; and a brood comb built on such a sagged 

 sheet of foundation is a more nr less sorrow- 

 ful affair, and always unprofitable, no matter 

 how much you "save" on first cost of foun- 

 dation. 



The theory of loose wires to allow sag is 

 another idea that I want to discuss. The 

 result may be a straight comb, all right; but 

 if light brood foundation is used with those 

 loose wires you lose enough brood area ev- 

 ery year to offset, many times over, the in- 

 creased cost of medium brood foundation, 

 which is the lightest that can be used with 

 the best results. What folly to pay out so 

 much good money on hives and foundation, 

 and then not have the maximum of brood- 

 space in those hives, through a lot of sagged 

 combs! Not only this, but the queen does 

 not like to lay in these stretched cells, so 

 you will not get brood so near the top-bars, 

 and some of them will be changed into drone- 

 cells. 



As we have had foundation from several 

 of thQ leading makers. Weed process, and 

 of our own make also, you can't very well 

 say that my experience with the light foun- 

 dation was because of an unsatisfactory ar- 

 ticle, though 1 have bought some very poor 

 fou :dation from one maker. 



SHORTENED TOP BAK FRAMES. 



Now a word on your footnote to Dr. Mil- 

 ler's Straw on page 2(i0, about shortened 

 top bar frames. You say ihat lack of fin- 

 ger room is the only objection to such frames. 

 Let me give you a few more. Old hives, if 

 slightly warped, allow frame ends to drop 

 down. When buying bees s >metimes the 

 hives are a little too long (as you made them 

 years ago), and we meet the same trouble. 

 I asked you once if you co .1 ( shake a big 

 bulging frame of honey f^y grasping the 

 top bar just inside the end.s but you did not 

 answer, /guess you could not do it unless 

 you thrust your fingers thr • gn the comb, 

 under the top bar. The feature of a bee- 

 space around the end of the •>(, bar is very 

 desirable; but I will not sac ifi -e any of that 

 now too short projection h\ vf.,ch we han- 

 dle our combs. The only fe ihle way, I 

 think, is to cut the rabbet | or \l wide, in- 

 stead of only I'g. then na'i << a cleat i to i 

 thick, IJ to 2 inches wide Hcross each end 

 of the hive, a la Dr. Miler. or ,ut out the 

 rabbet entirely, using a cleat o i the princi- 

 ple which I illustrated on p>i^e 789, 1901. 



Then we can use the full-length 19 inch top- 

 bar, with staple for end spacing under the 

 projection, and secure all the advantages for 

 rapid handling without any sacrifice, and 

 such a cleat on any hive strengthens the 

 only weak place in the Dovetailed hive. 



The only change with our old frames will 

 then be to drive a staple under each end of 

 the top-bar projection. I will be one to use 

 such hives and extracting- supers if others 

 will also adopt them, and I believe this to 

 be the best solution, by far, of this problem. 



Meridian, Idaho. 



[When wired frames are mentioned, 

 either by Mr. Atwater or by Mr. Scholl, I 

 as-iume that both refer to the horizontal 

 plan— that is to say, the end-bars are pierc- 

 ed, and the wires run parallel with the top- 

 bar, and about two inches from each other. 



What Mr. Atwater says in regard to the 

 light weights sagging, making drone foun- 

 dation when secured on horizontal wires, is 

 true to a great extent; but light-weight 

 foundation can be used providing perpendic- 

 ular wires are secured in the frames; and 

 we have been thinking for some time that 

 we ought to devise some simple and cheap 

 plan for securing wires to the top and bot- 

 tom bar. If placed two inches apart on a 

 perpendicular line there will be very little 

 trouble from drone comb. Years ago we 

 used such apian of wiring. and now recall that 

 we had great solid cards of worker brood clear 

 up to the top-bar. I am not so sure but the 

 Dr. Miller splints may be a partial solu- 

 tion of the problem. This is a good field 

 for discussion, and we should be pleased to 

 hear from our subscribers. 



I will admit that there is one other objec- 

 tion to the use of a short top-bar, and there- 

 fore accept your correction; but in "this 

 neck of the woods'' at least, nothing but 

 regular standard hives are used. But this 

 difficulty of short t^p-bars can be entirely 

 overcome, even when the hives are too long. 

 Nail a thin strip of wood flush with the top 

 of the rabbet, in each end of the hive, of 

 sufficient thickness so that the top-bar will 

 reach comfortably across without letting the 

 frame drop down We used to do this with 

 old hives that we bought years ago of the 

 farmers. The increase in the bee-space 

 back of the end-bars will cause no appre- 

 ciable trouble from burr or brace combs. 



But I admit that the nicest solution of 

 the whole matter is to cut out the rabbet 

 entirely, nailing a cleat clear across the top 

 of the hive to close up the space cut out. I 

 have always conceded this; but, as you re- 

 member, I contended that, in view of the 

 miry thousands of hives put out, and I 

 m ght say millions, having covers with 

 downwardly projecting cleats, it would be 

 impracticable for a manufacturer, at least, 

 to start this innovation, because his custom- 

 ers would complain that the old stuff would 

 not fit the new. But any bee-keeper can 

 have his hives made to order, with rabbets 

 cutout, with long top- bars and long covers 

 to reach over the cleats. 



