368 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



I shall have other opportunities, I 

 hope, of reporting upon it ; in the 

 meantime 1 shall plant it upon bottom 

 land, and though in such soil it grows 

 so rapidly as to justify a little appre- 

 hension that it may really merit tlie 

 appellation of " weed" bestowed upon 

 it by some bee men, yet 1 think it can 

 hardly become such a nuisance as are 

 the worthless weeds which annually 

 overrun these lands, and from which 

 it seems to me, tliere springs at inter- 

 vals of time, new varieties of vegeta- 

 ble pests never seen in previous years. 

 New S. Wales, Australia, June 8, '83. 



Kor the Amerlciin Bee JoumaL 



The Best Size of Frame- 



E. B. SOUTHWICK. 



Mk. Editor : As I miderstand tliat 

 my proposal concerning a " standard 

 frame " has been accepted, I will pro- 

 ceed to fulfill on my part. As a 

 preliminary, I will give the difference 

 in reliability between theory and ex- 

 perience. 



Theory founded by correct reason- 

 ing from scientiflc or known facts, 

 always works the same under the 

 same circumstances, while experience 

 only shows what has been done once, 

 not knowing what may be the real 

 cause, but is no sure guide to what 

 may be done again. For example : 

 One year I learned by experience 

 that I could break up a laying worker 

 by dividing the colony and giving 

 each part, a ripe queen-cell. The next 

 year I learned, by experience, that I 

 could not do it. We find, especially 

 in bee-keeping, that we learn many 

 things by long experience, that we 

 learn afterwards are incorrect. Ex- 

 perience shows us consequences with- 

 out causes, while properly formed 

 theories show us the bottom facts. In 

 forming my theory of frames, I in- 

 tended to use such facts as are well 

 known to every bee-keeper. 



Concerning frames and what they 

 are called, 1 will say I think that 

 Langstroth's inventions included all 

 frames that were made separate 

 from the hive and separate from each 

 other, and consequently movable. So 

 to Langstroth belongs tlie honor of 

 inventing the movable-frame, what- 

 ever size it may have, but when he 

 put out his book, he made a certain 

 size his frame, others made a certain 

 size their frame, so they came to be 

 called each size after the man who 

 first used or chose them, thus Langs- 

 troth's frame, Gallup's frame, etc., 

 while they are really all the Langs- 

 troth frame. In this article I shall 

 only consider the square frame in 

 comparison with the long and sliallow 

 one, without regard to size. 



The first object of bee-keepers and 

 bee-keeping is to rear bees fast, and 

 fill the hive with bees, at the proper 

 time, in the quickest time possible ; 

 the second, is to get the most honey, 

 and in the best marketable shape, and 

 third, to comfortably and successfully 

 winter them. 



It is a well-known fact that the 

 largest amount of matter can be pro- 



tected by the least amount exposed 

 on the surface, in a perfect sphere. 

 The bees are philosophers enough to 

 know this, for, when there is no ob- 

 struction in the way, and they desire 

 to protect themselves from outside 

 exposure, they assume that form, and 

 in the centre of that sphere they com- 

 mence to build their comb, and there 

 they commence rearing their brood, 

 and from this centre they extend 

 their comb-building and brood-rear- 

 ing in every direction, keeping up the 

 same spherical form, as nearly as 

 possible, depositing tlieir honey and 

 pollen close outside the brood nest, 

 where it will be convenient to feed ; 

 and when it is fed out and more eggs 

 are deposited, more honey and pollen 

 is deposited outside of them. And so 

 it goes on, until the capacity of the 

 queen is reached. 



Now, if we place obstructions any 

 where, so as to prevent their working 

 in this spherical form, we retard 

 their progress, by crowding them in 

 some othor direction, and thus expos- 

 ing a greater amount to the surface, 

 and obliging them to retain more bees 

 at home to keep up the extra heat and 

 do the extra work that they would 

 have to do, in cleaning and waxing up 

 the extra surface they would have. 

 All this extra retention and work is 

 brought in when their best effort 

 should be put forth to rear brood and 

 fill their hive with bees. Need I say 

 that a square frame, and just enough 

 to make a cubic space, is the best? 

 Cannot any person with half an eye 

 see that no frame with right angles 

 can be as good as the square frame. 



Now, for the second object : The 

 bees in the square frames have their 

 room filled with brood, but they have 

 some room in the corners of the 

 frames to put in honey and pollen for 

 the brood, and as that is over some 

 part of this sphere, it is always warm, 

 the wax is easily manipulated, the 

 comb is quickly made and filled, and 

 they are ready to go into the sections 

 with honev alone, for they have de- 

 posited pollen below for the brood. 



In the shallow frames the bees have 

 been crowded out of their natural 

 sphere at a loss, as I have shown, of 

 heat, labor and brood, and the honey 

 and pollen tliey now bring in has to 

 be stored at the ends of the frames, 

 for the brood goes to the top, and as 

 it is much cooler out there, it will 

 keep more bees from the field or other 

 work in this part, to keep up the heat 

 so as to enable them to work the wax 

 and make comb, and their work must 

 go on much slower than in the square 

 frame, and if kept witliout the sec- 

 tions until filled up, they will be found 

 to be much behind those in the square 

 frame. 



But we will put on the sections. 

 The bees from the long frames go in 

 with a rush, frequently deserting the 

 ends of their combs ; and as they find 

 a chance to restore the equilibrium of 

 their sphere, they go to work with a 

 will, making coinbs in the sections, 

 filling them with honey and pollen, 

 and tlie queen entering into the spirit 

 of the rest, walks up their and deposits 

 her eggs, thus spoiling many sections 

 of fine honey. I have heard shallow- 



frame men say that queens did not 

 bother them that way, but when I 

 hear one of them inquire of another 

 how he keeps the queen out of the 

 sections, and find thousands of those 

 zinc bee strainers — I do not know 

 what else to call them — advertised 

 and sold, I conclude the queen does 

 go up ; and if she is kept down by 

 that zinc honey-board, it does not 

 prevent the bees from depositing pol- 

 len in the sections which is nearly as 

 bad as brood. When the sections are 

 put on the square frames, the bees 

 go into them as they require the 

 room, and as they have room near the 

 brood for the pollen, they seldom de- 

 posit any in the sections. 



It is claimed for the shallow frame 

 hive that it is better for comb honey. 

 Let us see, I have shown that there is 

 not as much heat accumulated in the 

 shallow frame, and that they require 

 more. The square frame would have 

 much more heat to spare, and, conse- 

 quently, would warm more room than 

 the shallow frames ; and on our tier- 

 ing-up principle, I have never found 

 any trouble in getting bees to go up, 

 if it is only warm. Considering all 

 the facts in the matter, I can but con- 

 clude that a proper arrangement over 

 the square frame hive is better than 

 an equally good arrangement over a 

 shallow frame hive ; besides, the sec- 

 tions over the square frame, if the 

 arrangement below is right, are sel- 

 dom visited by the queen, or any 

 deposits of pollen are found in them. 



The last object is to winter the bees 

 successfully. The same reasons why 

 the square frame is best for brood- 

 rearing are equally good for winter- 

 ing. The power to economize heat, 

 and a chance to go into a natural 

 spherical position, is all a frame can 

 do toward wintering, and as the 

 square frame does that, and the shal- 

 low frame does not, the square one 

 must be the best for wintering. I 

 will notice a few of the reasons given 

 for using the long, shallow frame : 



" Bees occupy the sections sooner." 

 That is so ; but I think I have shown 

 that to be a fault, for the work done 

 early in the sections ought to be done 

 below, that the sections filled by pre- 

 maturely entering them, and many 

 more, are spoiled by brood and pollen. 



" Bees have less distance to go to 

 get to the sections." Let us see ; 

 take a frame 12 inches square, and 

 you have 24 inches by the frame to 

 the farther section on it, then cut the 

 frame horizontally in the middle, and 

 place the top half, back of the lower, 

 and you have 30 inches, by the frame, 

 to get to the back section. How is 

 that for distance 'i 



" The Langstroth frame is the most 

 economical." Every one knows that 

 it takes less material to go round a 

 square, with equal sides, than one 

 with unequal sides, both containing 

 the same number of square inches. 



'• A majority of men that keep bees 

 use it." This, in itself, would be no 

 reason, if it were true (we all know 

 that all our improvements have started 

 with a minority), but I am satisfied 

 that it is as false as I have shown the 

 other reasons to be, for I have taken 

 much pains to inform myself, when- 



