J'\'l)niaiy, 1909. 



American Hee Journal 



heads tliat that is nature's width of 

 spacing, and that if^-inch spacing is 

 _5^-inch wider than nature's way. This 

 is a niistal<e. This if^-inch spacing 

 is made possible by the use of very 

 straight combs, the result of the use of 

 foundation, or the intervention of man. 

 Where combs are built almost as even 

 and true as a plained board it was found 

 possible with these true combs to 

 crowd nature's spacing 1-16 inch, thus 

 making the spacing only ij/g inches 

 from center to center of the brood- 

 combs. 



The upper stories in which we pro- 

 duce our extracted honey, are 14'^ 

 inches wide, inside, or what is known 

 as the lo-frame width. Eight frames 

 in these stories is a little less than 

 ifl-inch spacing from center to center, 

 9 frames in these stories a little less than 

 I 9-16-inches spacing, allowing for one 

 more bee-space than frames in each story. 



Mr. Lamb does not quite say tliat the 

 colony provided with 9 combs will store 

 a half more surplus extracted honey, 

 than one with 8 combs in their extract- 

 ing story, but he does say that the col- 

 ony with i;/2-inch spacing of combs in 

 their upper stories will store a half 

 more honey than one with i.}4-inch or 

 2-inch spacing. As I know of no one 

 using a 2-inch spacing, and likely there 

 are but few who space their combs 

 for extracting as close as i^ inches, 

 I will consider only the iH and i^ 

 spacing, in what I have to say on this 

 subject. 



We have (self and sons) at the dif- 

 ferent yards 1,000 upper stories. When 

 we commenced buying frames for tliese 

 stories, we bought what is known as 

 the staple-spaced frame, but used only 

 end staples. These frames were built 

 of %-inch wide material for the bot- 

 tom and ends; the top-bar was i 1-16- 

 inches wide. When one of the projec- 

 tions at the end of the top-bar would 

 split off, as they occasionally do, on 

 being removed to be replaced with a 

 new top-bar, we were surprised to find 

 how thick the comb was next to the 

 top-bar. 



In uncapping to ex'tract, the cappings 

 are cut down even with the top and 

 bottom bars of the frame, that is, the 

 knife is held up against the frame as 

 close as it is practical; the cutting over 

 the I i-16-inch wide top-bar, would 

 leave the comb more than ijs inches 

 thick at the top, and many of them 

 would be I 3-16 inches at the top, 

 gradually tapering down to about an 

 inch thick at the bottom of the comb. 



We had in previous seasons pro- 

 duced a large amount of comb honey, 

 and had used the part-full sections of 

 the previous season, a few in each su- 

 tler — -"bait-sections" as they are called. 

 Many of the combs in these sections 

 were built out to their full thickness, 

 only needing capping to be ready for 

 the market. As the season closed, and 

 left them part capped over, they were 

 extracted and used for bait-sections, as 

 I have explained before. These bait- 

 sections were drawn out into thick 

 combs when given to the bees, and 

 never produced honey equal to those 

 drawn out from foundation, and filled 

 with honey as they were drawn out. 



The upper half, at least, of the ex- 

 tracting combs heretofore mentioned, 

 where the uncapping knife was run 

 over the l i-16-inch wide top-bar of 

 the frame, were identical with the bait- 

 sections, mentioned above, i. e., too 

 thick to produce a good article of 

 honey, either comb or extracted. 



Can it be that Mr. Lamb made the 

 mistake of using wide spacing, and did 

 not lineal' deep? The quality of the 

 honey he reports, looks that way. 



The remedy is simple : it is not wide 

 or narrow spacing, that determines the 

 quality of the honey produced; it is the 

 thickness of the empty extracting combs, 

 ivhcn given to the bees, that has much 

 to do witli the quality of the honey 

 produced. Space your extracting combs 

 to suit your own fancy, then see to it 

 that they are not to exceed one inch 

 thick when given to the bees to be 

 filled; and other conditions being favor- 

 able, the quality of one's honey will be 

 all right. 



After knowing this, is it any wonder 

 that I now build all our extracting 

 frames only Jg of an inch thick: so by 

 holding the uncapping knife reasonably 

 close to the frame when uncapping, the 

 comb is cut down to about an inch thick. 

 At the time of adopting the i i-16-inch 

 wide top-bar for our extracting frames, 

 we spaced our combs the same as we 

 had been accustomed to do for the 

 previous 20 years, that is, a little more 

 than lJ/2 inches from center to center, 

 or 9 combs in the lo-frame body. With 

 this spacing we had trouble in uncap- 

 ping a thin comb, in a wide frame ; that 

 is, if we run the uncapping knife as 

 near the top and bottom bar of the 

 frame as we could conveniently in un- 

 capping, much of the surface would not 

 be uncapped, necessitating going over 

 the surface of the comb a second time 

 to pick I ]) that portion not uncapped 

 the first lime over. This second going 

 over the 11, mb to finish the job, would 

 take morr time than it would take to 

 have cut the whole side of the capping 

 oflf in one slice, providing the comb had 

 been bulged out thick, instead of the 

 lean comb it was. To remedy this de- 

 fect in the wide top frame, 8 combs 

 were used instead of 9 as before, in 

 the lo-frame body. This i54-inch spac- 

 ing gave the bees a chance to draw out 

 the combs so fat and thick that there 

 was no trouble in uncapping. About 

 one-half of our stories are worked this 

 way at the present time ; but a special 

 effort is made to uncap these combs 

 as near the incli mark in thickness as 

 is possible. 



In getting our foundation drawn out 

 for extracting combs, 9 frames are used 

 in our lo-frame upper stories. This is 

 nature's width of spacing, and we think 

 a little better work is done with this 

 spacing than with 154 inches; that is, 

 the surface of the combs when finished 

 is much more even with narrow, than 

 with wide spacing. It sometimes hap- 

 pens that combs are built up between 

 the sheets of foundation from the hive 

 below, when spaced i^ inches apart. 

 There is nothing gained by using 10 

 frames or iM-inch spacing in getting 

 foundation drawn out for extracting 

 combs, as the bees work the i^-inch 

 spacing just as well, and when done 



the combs are finished, or fat enough 

 so the uncappinp; knife will do the work, 

 provided the frame that contains the 

 comb is but %-inch wide, so the comb 

 can be cut down to an inch (^or therc-a- 

 bout) thick, as explained above. 



A year ago a few of these J^-inch 

 wide frames of comb were used p to 

 the 10- frame story: they uncap just 

 as well as when 8 of the i i-16-inch 

 wide top-bar frame is used, in the same 

 story ; or in other words one is about 

 as fat as the other, so in either case 

 the whole side of the comb can be un- 

 capped with one stroke of the knife. 

 Last summer about 100 stories were 

 used with 9 combs, as above, with per- 

 fect satisfaction, and the indications are 

 now that all of our %-inch wide frames 

 would be worked 9 to the story in the 

 future. It is just as likely that our 

 I i-16-inch wide top-bar frames would 

 be worked as usual, 8 to the story; for, 

 as I have said before, it is a tedious 

 job to uncap a lean comb, between tvide 

 frame bars. 



Those, like Mr. Lamb, who think it 

 wasteful to uncap deep, should by all 

 means space Ij4 inches from center to 

 center, for by so doing the combs will 

 be the desirable thickness when through 

 uncapping ; and not be so thick when 

 given back to the bees that nothing but 

 inferior extracted honey will be se- 

 cured. 



Before going further I want to em- 

 phasize the fact that if one adopts this 

 wide spacing of his extracting combs, 

 it is absolutely necessary that he fol- 

 low the system clear through, that is, 

 cut the combs down to about an inch 

 thick when uncapping ; by so doing just 

 as good honey will be produced as with 

 any width of spacing; but, on the other 

 hand, if the combs are left thick, only 

 just enough cappings cut off barely to 

 uncap the honey, the results will not 

 be satisfactory. Be sure to adopt the 

 whole system, or narrow spacing will 

 give better results. 



Mr. Lamb says it is wasteful to un- 

 cap deep. If this is the case, it seems 

 as though we should have be?n the first 

 to have found it out, working the ij^- 

 inch spacing of our extracting combs as 

 we have for more than a score of years, 

 then gradually changing to the i^-inch 

 spacing until hundreds of stories were 

 worked with this spacing for the last 

 10 years ; then 2 years with both ij4 

 and i^i spacing in the same yard: had 

 there been any difference in amount of 

 surplus honey secured, it seems to me 

 that we would have been in position 

 to have known of this difference, which 

 I assure you we have not seen. 



I have no "ax to grind" in this con- 

 troversy, only a desire to produce the 

 most extracted honey of a superior 

 quality at a minimum of cost. If one 

 feels that it is wasteful to uncap deep, 

 he will be quite likely to run his un- 

 capping knife shallow, and by so doing 

 leaving his combs too thick to be re- 

 turned to the bees for best results. To 

 those feeling that way, unless they see 

 the error of their way and uncap prop- 

 erly, I would recommend i^-inch spac- 

 ing, for quality's sake. 



I think all will agree that combs with 

 narrow spacing will be capped over just 

 a little more expeditiously than with 



