654 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



cleats on the fence from f^ to J inch. And 

 my 600 new supers will be single-tier wide- 

 frame supers with the bottom-bar, on which 

 the sections rest, § thick, and a top-bar, not 

 nailed tight, but only one small nail, not 

 cement-coated, in each end. The little \- 

 inch bottom-bars to section-holders should be 

 discontinued, as they are pitifully frail. 

 The largest producers around here are 

 using supers as described above. 

 Meridian, Idaho. 



[We should be glad to have you give your 

 later plans.— Ed.] 



ARE SOME OF THE NEW IDEAS IMPROVE- 

 MENTS ? 



Unspaced Frames Resting on Plain Rabbets 



Make the Most Convenient Hive ; Wide 



Frames Best for Holding Sections. 



BY F. GREINER. 



Since keeping bees for a livelihood, now 

 about thirty years, I have kept watch for 

 the most convenient form of hive, one that 

 would answer my purpose best, and I firmly 

 believe that the very simplest hive with a 

 common hanging frame, no spacers, is best 

 suited to my wants. Not using metal rab- 

 bets, the top-bars of my frames are suffi- 

 ciently "glued," in that the hives with bees 

 in them can usually be moved about on a 

 spring wagon without taking any precau- 

 tionary measure to keep frames from swing- 

 ing, and still they are not glued in so solidly 

 as to interfere materially with the handling 

 of Ihem when it becomes necessary. In the 

 years gone by I have spent a great deal of 

 time rigging up my bees for moving useless- 

 ly. The half- story hives led me on to try 

 moving full-story hives without securing the 

 eleven-inch-deep frames from swinging 

 against their neighbors. Now the getting 

 ready of a load of bees is a very short job. 



Daring these years I also had an eye out 

 for the most convenient super. All sorts 

 were tried. Our inventive spirit hit on 

 things long tried before by others, and also 

 on some that have never been tried since. 

 The best invention was original but not new. 

 I refer here to the wide-frame super, which 

 I regard as the very best and far ahead of 

 any of the new-pattern supers. Why the 

 Root Co. ever dropped this is not clear in 

 my mind. The few bee-keepers hereabout, 

 who are using the wide frame exclusively, 

 are well satisfied with it. Some other friends 

 near Syracuse are using it, and do not want 

 any thing else. The only objection that is 

 ever raised against the wide frame is that 

 the filled sections can not be taken out as 

 easily as from some other supers; but this 

 objection exists only in the imagination of 

 those who have never used it. Friends who 

 have visited me when I was emptying full 

 wide-frame supers were surprised at the 

 ease and the rapidity with which this work 

 was being done. But supposing sections 

 should come out a little harder, is it not 



worth something to have the tops of our 

 sections so protected that the bees can not 

 soil them while on the hive ? 



If it is desirable to have the sides of the 

 sections covered, is it not equally desirable 

 to have the bottoms covered ? and if it is 

 desirable to have the bottoms protected 

 against being soiled, as in certain styles of 

 supers, why not protect the tops, the parts 

 which meet the eye of the would-be pur- 

 chaser above the other parts ? It looks to 

 me like a huge mistake that other supers 

 were ever adopted. I have tried a dozen 

 different makes, have half that number in 

 use now, among them 50 T supers, but the 

 wide- frame super is by far the best in every 

 respect, the T super being open to the most 

 objections. 



The pleasures of bee-keeping are greatly 

 enhanced by using convenient hives and ap- 

 pliances. The wide-frame super is one of 

 the things which help to increase our plea- 

 sures. 



In using the wide frame as a section-hold- 

 er there are no objections against also using 

 no-beeway sections with it. I have fitted 

 up over 200 supers in this way, and have 

 had them in use ever since the no-beeway 

 sections were adopted by others. I also use 

 the beeways, having an equal number in 

 use. The advantages and disadvantages 

 are, as a matter of course, constantly and 

 vividly kept before my eyes. After giving 

 the matter due consideration I have arrived 

 at this conclusion. It is another great mis- 

 take that bee-keepers made when they drop- 

 ped the old-time honored 4iX4J beeway sec- 

 tion. They have gained nothing by doing 

 so, and produced a deal of confusion. It is 

 said that honey in no-beeway sections brings 

 more money in the market. I ask, "What 

 market?" Not the hundreth part of a 

 cent's difference is made in the markets I 

 am acquainted with. There is no demand 

 for no-beeway section honey above beeways. 



The expert can handle no-beeways just 

 as readily as beeways; but the retailer spoils 

 many a no-beeway box in handling it when 

 he would not the beeways. Veneering par- 

 titions in the shipping-cases are of some help, 

 but do not entirely overcome the difficulty, 

 besides making shipping-cases more expen- 

 sive. 



The cleaning of cleated separators and 

 fences is slower work than that of plain 

 separators; and, while this may not count 

 for much, still it is a point in favor of bee- 

 ways. 



Naples, N. Y. 



[When you speak of wide frames I am 

 not sure whether you mean those holding 

 two tiers of sections, that is, eight in all, or 

 one holding only one tier, or four. The lat- 

 ter was never made by us to any extent, and 

 consequently we never abandoned them as a 

 feature of hive construction. The double- 

 tier wide frame was supplanted by the T j 

 super ; and I know of scarcely a bee-keeper m 

 now who favors them, because, to give the ■ 

 bees a double tier of sections at once, is ac- 



