536 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



worked all right in connection with the wid- 

 ened ends in the Hoffman hive, which is a 

 hive without a bee-space on top, but having 

 the space under. On top of the frames is 

 placed a quilt or cloth, which covers up the 

 top-bars entirely. The frames rest in rab- 

 bets only f deep, or the thickness of the top- 

 bar. This brings the top-bar flush with the 

 top of the hive. When the quilt is laid on 

 top, and the cover put in place, the widened 

 ends of the top-bars are entirely covered so 

 that the bees can not chink any propolis at 

 the ends of the top-bars nor between them 

 where they come in contact. 



When we adopted the Hoffman frame 

 nearly all hives made had a bee-space on 

 top; and most modern hives sent out by the 



HOFFMAN FRAME AS NOW MADE. 



factories to-day are so constructed; nor are 

 they provided with a quilt or cloth. After 

 the hives had betn seat out with Hoffman 

 frames with widened top-b«rs it was soon 

 discovered that, owing to the accessibility 

 of bees to every part of them, the top-bars 

 were propolized together, and*against the 

 end of the rabbet. This would never do. 

 In order to secure the results obtained by 



HOFFMAN FRAME AS ORIGINALLY MADE. 



Mr. Hoffman it was necessary to make the 

 Hoffman end-bars the only points that would 

 come in contact, and to make the projection 

 on the frame so that there would be a bee- 



space all around it and the same resting on a 

 tin rabbet. This, in effect, secured exactly 

 the same thing Mr. Hoffman's original hive 

 and frame did, and at the same time made 

 no modification of the then existing hives 

 necessary. The Hoffman frame, as it is 

 adapted to the regular Langstroth or Dove- 

 tailed hive, can be handled in every way 

 that Mr. Hoffman handles his in his special- 

 ly constructed hive. If we had continued to 

 make the Hoffman frame as we originally 

 put it out, following the exact details of the 

 frame as first made by the inventor, it 

 would have been necessary to modify all 

 existing hives in use. It can be readily 

 seen that that would be impossible. It was, 

 therefore, necessary to make a change in 

 frame. 



In order that the reader may more fully 

 understand the comparative differences, we 

 show here first an illustration of the Hoff- 

 man frame as we are using it to-day, and, 

 second, the original Hoffman with widened 

 top- bars which we first adopted after the 

 Hoffman pattern, but which we were com- 

 pelled to abandon for reasons already given. 

 -Ed.] 



THE CONFUSION IN THE GRADING-RULES. 



Which are Correct— those in the Review or in 

 Gleanings ? 



BY WM. MUTH-RASMUSSEN. 



Mr. Root:— hast year I wrote you about 

 the difference in the Washington grading- 

 rules, as printed in Gleanings and in the 

 Bee-keepers' Review. The communication 

 was printed in the October 1st issue, pages 

 941, 942. In your footnote you called for an 

 explanation from those who had had any 

 thing to do with the revision of the rules, 

 but no explanation has been forthcoming. 

 At the same time, I sent an exact copy of 

 my article to the Review, but Mr. Hutchin- 

 son took no notice of it whatever. I am, 

 therefore, no wiser than I was before I 

 wrote you on that subject. 



The bees have begun swarming here, and 

 the honey season will soon be upon us. We 

 shall then need the grading-rules again. As 

 a general thing I have comparatively few 

 sections which fit the rule for " Fancy," as 

 given in Gleanings; but I have large num- 

 bers of just as perfect combs, lacking mere- 

 ly the sealing of the outside row of cells. 

 These latter I have hitherto graded as No. 

 1; but if the rules in the Review are cor- 

 rect (and they are still standing unchanged, 

 as last year) , I have lost many dollars when 

 selling by grades, as such sections might 

 just as well have gone into the "Fancy" 

 grade, and brought the corresponding price. 

 If the rules in the Review are not correct, 

 why are they hot made so? As I said in my 

 former article, when a bee-keeper takes 

 both papers and reads the two different sets 

 of rules, which paper shall he follow? Self- 

 interest would say, "The Review," as the 



