1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1127 



brood. This is a matter that can be tested 

 the coming season. In the mean time, our 

 bee-keeping friends in Cuba who are afflict- 

 ed with foul brood would do well to test this 

 plan immediately. We should like to get 

 reports this winter, so the bee-keepers of 

 this country may know what to depend on 

 next season.— Ed.] 



THE HOFFMAN FRAME. 



Is it True that its Popularity is Due to the 

 Recommendations of the Root Co.? 



BY ALPINE M'GREGOR. 



I notice that the long controversy on the 

 Hoffman frame is still on; and as it was 

 started, presumably, by my letter to Dr. 

 Miller on page 243, March 15, 1903, I wish 

 to say a few words. 



I adopted the Hoffman frame the first 

 year it was introduced by the Root Co., and 

 have been using them ever since by the 

 hundreds, until about two years ago, for 

 both comb and extracted honey. I ought, 

 therefore, to know something about this 

 frame, and I may say that my opinion of it 

 is settled and final. 



On page 954, Sept. 15, you say, "The 

 only question with me, or ever has been, is, 

 which frame (the Langstroth or Hoffman) 

 was better adapted to the use of farmers or 

 beginners." The impiession one receives 

 from this statement, taken by itself, is that 

 all these years during which you have been 

 advocating the Hoffman frame, proclaiming 

 its merits by voice and press, making it 

 your leader in every catalog right down to 

 the present time, you intended it for the 

 use of these two classes, and not for the ex- 

 pert. You are sure now, and always have 

 been, that the Hoffman is the frame for 

 " farmers or beginners." I take direct and 

 square issue with you on that point. 



i suppose that most bee-keepers of to-day 

 were at one time farmers, and it is certain 

 that all were beginners. At just what 

 point in a beginner's life he ceases to be 

 such is not clear. It is well known that a 

 beginner's bees increase very rapidly under 

 the stimulus of enthusiasm and natural 

 swarming, and he probably has 40 or 50 col- 

 onies before he is capable of judging as to 

 the merits of either hives or frames. He 

 has started out with the Hoffman frame be- 

 cause it was recommended by some firm or 

 some man in whom he had confidence. He 

 has, let us say, 50 colonies, and more than that 

 number of supers full of Hoffman frames, 

 and now the truth dawns on him (as it as- 

 suredly will in nine cases out of ten) that 

 the Hoffman frame is not all he had hoped 

 for and expected; that, in fact, it is far in- 

 ferior to the old hanging frame. What is 

 he to do? He may, perhaps, sell out to 

 some one who does not know any better 

 than to buy, or he may throw them on the 

 rubbish-heap for kindling-wood, or do as the 



writer did— transform them to the regular 

 hanging frame. 



As to buying bees from farmers or begin- 

 ners, I should very much prefer to buy them 

 on the Langstroth frame than on the Hoff- 

 man, and for the very simple and obvious 

 reason that, no matter how inaccurately 

 the former were spaced, a few skillful 

 strokes with the uncapping-knife will reduce 

 them so that they can be properly spaced, 

 and then the bees complete the job; where- 

 as with the Hoffman, even assuming that 

 they have been kept crowded together (and 

 they are not), they have to be made over 

 into the hanging frame by long, tedious, and 

 exasperating labor. 



I notice that Mr. W. L. Coggshall is one 

 of the victims of the Hoffman frame, as 

 stated on p. 485, June 1 , 1903, and he wishes 

 to be rid of them. He probably adopted 

 this frame while he was a farmer and a be- 

 ginner—or, perchance, like the writer, after 

 eight or ten years' experience as a bee- 

 keeper solely on the judgment, the wide ex- 

 perience, and the mental acumen of the ed- 

 itor of Gleanings, under the impression 

 that it was intended for the expert as well 

 as for " farmers or beginners." 



Right here let me digress for a moment 

 to say to Dr. Miller that he is right in think- 

 ing that I did not mean that "rapidity in 

 handling does not count with me. " I meant 

 the rapidity gained (?) in handling the Hoff- 

 man, for there is practically none. The 

 prying of these frames apart, replacing 

 them again ivithout killing bees, and repair- 

 ing those edges which are continually split- 

 ting off, takes more time than spacing the 

 hanging frame. 



You have been convinced, Mr. Editor, 

 that the Hoffman frame is inferior to the 

 Langstroth for the producer of extracted 

 honey, and have frankly told us so. If you 

 could go a step further, and decide that it is 

 also inferior for the comb-honey producer, 

 the farmer, and the beginner, the bee-keep- 

 ing world would soon 1 now it, and you would 

 find that the demand for the Hoffman frame 

 would rapidly decline, and soon, I hope, 

 ceasB altogether. 



Now just a word to those who find them- 

 selves loaded up with the Hoffman frame 

 and wish to be rid of them. 



I did not, as intimated to Dr. Miller, whit- 

 tle off those edges with my knife, as I had 

 not time for that. I hired a boy, put a small 

 plane in his hand, and he planed the edges 

 of both sides of the end-bars. The next 

 problem to solve was how to restore that 

 quarter- inch to each end of my mutilated 

 top-bars. I finally hit on the following plan: 

 I secured a small half-round gouge, about I 

 inch in diameter; screwed the top-bar se- 

 curely in a vise; pulled out the end staple; 

 cut a piece out of the under side of the top- 

 bar with one stroke of the gouge, and drove 

 in a 2i-inch wire finishing nail, using a gauge 

 to drive it the right distance. The only 

 thing lacking was to drive the staple at the 

 loiver end corner, which is the proper place 

 for it, and now I have the old hanging 



