1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



299 



suit. Indeed, it is sometimes difficult even 

 to remove them from the hive. I admit that 

 fairly even spacing can be done with the 

 loose frame; but this takes time, and is im- 

 perfect at best. With the Hoffman, every 

 frame is spaced with mathematical correct- 

 ness, and the apiarist can at any time turn 

 them around or interchange with other hives 

 without having the sides of one comb collid- 

 ing with that of another. 

 "^i.The argument is commonly made that, in 

 handling the Hoffman frame, one is more 

 apt to kill bees. I don't think so, for the 

 reason just mentioned. Bees are more like- 

 ly to be killed by the rubbing-together of 

 comb surfaces than at the thin points of 

 contact of the frames. In self-spaced 

 frames, as we have shown, the combs are 

 evenly built, and danger on the former score 

 is removed, while with an unspaced frame 

 some combs are bound to be unevenly built, 

 and there is no knowing when one is going 

 to "butt" into the other. There is no ne- 

 cessity of killing bees at the point of contact 

 with spaced frames. A whiff of smoke on 

 the right spot is all that is necessary. 

 Further, our Hoffman frames need not be 

 handled one at a time. Sometimes the 

 greater number need not be pulled apart at 

 all, and frequently one has only to push six 

 or eight at a time into position with his 

 hive-tool. There is no more danger of kill- 

 ing bees in handling those six or eight 

 frames than in handling one, for in either 

 case the same points are brought together. 

 On the other hand, when loose frames are 

 used they must be manipulated one by one, 

 and the danger of crushing bees is thus in- 

 creased. 



Furthermore, this handling of frames two 

 or more at a time is a great labor-saving 

 plan; and yet a plan, I must confess, not 

 adopted by some of the users of the Hoffman 

 frame. I want to break up a few strong 

 colonies into nuclei, and, having my new 

 hives in position, I pick up two frames in 

 each hand, three if necessary, and distribute 

 them around to my heart's content. Try 

 this with the loose frame and see the result. 

 No, sir; one at a time is the law of the loose 

 or the staple-spaced frame. A swarm of 

 bees clusters some distance from the apiary, 

 and, owing to its bad location, I find it nec- 

 essary to hive it on the spot and bring it 

 home at nightfall. With Hoffman frames, 

 o.k.; but with loose frames, unless I do 

 some carpenter work first, the combs are 

 likely to be in one corner of the hive when 

 I reach home, and a large number of bees 

 pressed nearly as flat as ferns. I want to 

 move 50 colonies to a location ten miles dis- 

 tant to take advantage of a honey-flow 

 there. With loose frames, hammer, saw, 

 and rule and nails, to say nothing of smoke 

 and muscle and stings, are brought actively 

 into play ere the frames can be made to re- 

 main spaced. With fixed frames I am al- 

 ways ready to start. These are but a few 

 of the many instances that are frequently 

 occurring, in which time, patience, and labor 

 are saved by using the Hoffman frame. 



Now, there are objections to the thick top- 

 bars, on the ground that bees build brace- 

 combs between them. In my experience 

 this has been just as true of the thin top- 

 bars. Do you recall, Mr. Root, those colo- 

 nies we bought from farmer Witter last 

 summer ? Well, most of them were on the 

 old-style Langstroth frames ; and I tell you 

 I should like every advocate of the thin top- 

 bar to have seen them. There were burr- 

 combs below and at the sides, and on top of 

 them. I tell you I had to do some lively 

 carving before I could sever the connec- 

 tions. And this has been more or less my 

 experience with thin top-bars. The bees 

 were not satisfied simply with building 

 brace-combs, but they would often extend 

 the comb proper upward until the sides of 

 the bar were covered, and then sometimes 

 they would climax their work by building on 

 top as well. 



I run all my colonies in Jamaica for ex- 

 tracted honey, and use only eight Hoffman 

 frames in a full-depth ten-frame super (the 

 frames then hang loosely, but there is no 

 necessity for absolutely correct spacing in 

 supers). The plan is an ideal one, and there 

 is some weight to the combs when complet- 

 ed. Try this plan with the thin top-bars, 

 and see the resuU. Indeed, they soon get 

 bent entirely out of thape. 



An objection is made to the Hoffman 

 frame on the ground that the spacers are in 

 the way of the knife when uncapping. 

 Strange that, in all the years I was engaged 

 in producing extracted honey, I never was 

 troubled along this line. Although I have 

 uncapped many thousands of combs, I can't 

 remember having cut off a spacer ; nor can 

 I recall an instance in which it was done by 

 any of my assistants. In fact, we never 

 thought of them. Perhaps, however, the 

 wide spacing of our super frames, and con- 

 sequent thickness of the combs was account- 

 able for this. 



But the most serious objection to the 

 Hoffman frame arises from the propolis 

 difficulty. I am, perhaps, in as good a posi- 

 tion to appreciate the validity of this objec- 

 tion as any one else. There are times in 

 Jamaica when a man has actually to use his 

 hive-tool crowbar fashion in order to remove 

 a hive-cover. This is especially the case 

 when bread-fruit gum is being gathered. 

 Under such conditions one might be inclined 

 to think it impossible to use the self-spacing 

 frame ; but it is not so. The secret of the 

 whole matter is in keeping the frames 

 tightly crowded together. Then the combs 

 may be separated with a hive-tool, and col- 

 ony after colony examined with little diffi- 

 culty. If the frames are left hanging loose- 

 ly, however, then there is trouble, and the 

 spacers will often split off completely in the 

 effort to separate them. Yet, obviously, 

 the bee-keeper and not the Hoffman frame 

 is responsible for this. 



I hold to the theory of the survival of the 

 fittest. Nearly all the large bee-men in my 

 country started with the loose frame and 

 thin top-bar, because they were standard 



