1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



IN ME3I0RY OF JULIUS HOFFMAN, IN- 

 VENTOR OF THE HOFFMAN FRAME. 



His Place in Apieultnral History, 



BY E. R. ROOT. 



As stated in our last issue, Mr. Julius Hoff- 

 man died on May 3d last, after a lingering 

 illness of nervous prostration. His daughter 

 wrote us that the last journal he ever read 

 was Gleanings, a fact which we appreciate 

 more than we can express. 



In order to give his place in apicultural 

 history it will he necessary to go back a lit- 

 tle. The present editor took charge of this 

 journal late in 1885. He was then fresh 

 from college, and all enthusiasm. The cor- 

 respondence that developed seemed to indi- 

 cate that we had fallen into a I'ut of using 

 beveled edges on hives and frames that were 

 too movable — so movable, in fact, that they 

 would not hold in position when the hives 

 wei'e even carried across the yard by hand. 

 Through this correspondence we learned 

 that there were bee-keepei's in Central New 

 York who wei'e working on radically differ- 

 ent lines — indeed, were making a success of 

 handling bees in large numbers on closed- 

 end and semi-closed-end frames — a feat that 

 seemed practically impossible to the western 

 bee-keepers. Up until that time only a com- 

 paratively small number in Central New 

 York were using these "awful bee-smash- 

 ers " as they were then termed. The advo- 

 cates and users of the swinging unspaced 

 Langstroth frame did not see how any intel- 

 ligent successful bee-keeper, at least, could 

 possibly handle bees on "fixed frames:" 

 indeed, the President of the North American 

 Bee-keepers' Association facetiously remark- 

 ed to us, "Fixed frames I well, I should say 

 they were fixed. Why, they are glued fast 

 in the hive where no sane man can get them 

 out. They are no good. Better let 'em 

 alone, Ernest." 



We did not share the opinion of the speak- 

 er; indeed, we believed there was a great 

 deal of merit in automatically spaced frames. 

 To discover, if possible, if they could be 

 handled rapidly and not kill bees was the 

 object of an extended bicycle-trip over the 

 hills of York State among the followers of 

 father Quinby who were still using the 

 closed-end frames. 



It will not be necessary, for the purpose of 

 this write-up, to give our complete itinerary, 

 any more than to state that we saw that 

 closed-end frames could be handled by Mr. 

 P. H. Elwood and others just as rapidly as 

 the open-end Langstroth, and that there 

 need be no bee-killing, or at least vei'y little 

 of it; but, unfortunately, this frame with en- 

 tire closed ends could not be made to fit the 

 hives already in use. 



In the mean time ]Mr. Elwood informed us 

 that Mr. Julius Hoffman, of Canajohax'ie, N. 

 Y., was using a hanging frame with semi- 

 closed ends that could be used satisfactorily 

 in any Langstroth hive having rabbets to 



support the top-bars projecting beyond the 

 end-bars of a frame. Naturally we called on 

 that gentleman. He very kindly showed us 

 the frame that he was using. He made no 

 claims to having made any particular inven- 

 tion — modestly acknowledged that he had 

 borrowed some ideas of Uzierzon, his old 

 teacher, and Berlepsch; in fact, he told us 

 how he began using the Berlepsch frame as 

 described and illustrated on page 534 of our 

 May 15th issue for 1905; but as it was adapt- 

 ed for use in the German side-opening hives 

 he was not long in discovering that he would 

 have to use a hive of the top-opening type. 

 In doing so he was compelled to modify ma- 

 terially the frame to such an extent that 

 there was very little left of the Berlepsch. 



JULIUS HOFFMAN. 



It was this frame as Mr. Hoffman used it 

 that the writer saw in use at his apiaries, and 

 he had at the time something like 700 colo- 

 nies on them. He was a very successful bee- 

 keeper, made money at keeping bees, and 

 on the occasion of our visit he showed how 

 he could save time by picking up the frames 

 in twos and threes; how. in fact, he could 

 handle a brood-nest split up in halves or 

 thirds. As to killing bees and the frames be- 

 ing glued fast, he px'oved that neither charge 

 was sustained when rightly handled. So im- 

 pressed were we with the "fact that more col- 

 onies could be handled on them in a given 

 time that we adopted them in our yards. 



