AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



49 



Another thing. Every all-metal honey- 

 board, or "queen-excluder," would have 

 to be stiffened with a rim (whether of 

 metal or wood), which did not at the 

 same time create a usable bee-space in 

 that honey-board. I was the first, so 

 far as I know, . to rim the all-metal 

 honey-board, and thus not only stiffen 

 them, but at the same time give them 

 the bee-space. 



While it is true that the >^-inch bee- 

 space the Doctor creates over so much 

 greater surface by the use of such wide 

 zinc strips (a horizontal surface), top- 

 bars spaced % or 14 inch apart, will not 

 have as many brace-combs between 

 them as those spaced closer together, 

 this space is vertical, not horizontal. 



Every old-time bee-keeper who began 

 using Father Langstroth's 13^ inch top- 

 bars, knows that the vertical space 

 between their edges (not between their 

 tops and his old honey-board, or any 

 cover or surplus receptacle) was forever 

 terribly plugged with brace or burr- 

 combs. 



Experienced honey producers have 

 demonstrated that two rows of holes, the 

 length of the standard honey-boards, 

 will give ample passageway for the 

 strongest colony of bees, and that the 

 difference between 8 rows and 16 rows 

 is radically against the 16 rows which 

 the Doctor pleads for. 



So far as business interests are con- 

 cerned, all are at liberty to make either 

 or both, but the facts as to value remain 

 the same. 



Dowagiac, Mich. 



Filed or Mm Frames, 



C. W. DAYTON. 



Since my article on this subject, pub- 

 lished on page 790, is not very complete, 

 I will explain a little further : 



If I wished to space my frames an 

 exact distance apart, it is not irecessary 

 to change the whole frame, and perhaps 

 the hive, but cut out and solder together 

 a piece of zinc about ^ of an inch wide, 

 so as to be worn on the fourth finger, 

 like a band finger-ring. Then solder 

 upon this crosswise of the finger, in the 

 direction of the ring, a projection of 

 zinc about ^ of an inch long, and as 

 wide as the distance required between 

 the frames. 



When the ring is worn, the projecting 

 piece of metal should be on the under 

 Side of the finger, where it will be ready 



to drop edgewise between the frames as 

 they are moved together. One of these 

 rings is necessary for each hand, and a 

 tinner will furnish them for ten cents. 

 The main points of advantage in this 

 spacer are, cheapness, it is out of the 

 way when extracting, and has short 

 lines of contact where bees may be 

 killed. 



To claim that closed-end frames, or 

 partly closed-end frames, can be spaced 

 or handled quickly, is simply bosh. Even 

 with the rabbets, bees are crushed on 

 the sharp edge under the projecting 

 arm, that is % of an inch wide, while 

 the closed-end frames are wide edged, 

 and several inches long, and the crush- 

 ing tendency identical. 



A row of open-topped sections, such as 

 are used in the T super, have the closed 

 ends, the same as closed-end brood- 

 frames, and they are always glued 

 together solid in the short space of time 

 the sections are on the hives. 



Again, the bees glue the frames to- 

 gether the whole length of the end- 

 bars, making it next to impossible to get 

 the frames apart (unless they are 

 " handled only in warm weather," when 

 the glue is soft) without putting the 

 bees in a rage by the snapping of the 

 cold glue, and the jarring of the combs. 



At first, I used the simple wood rabbet, 

 but the bees glued them so I put in tin 

 rabbets, and I have now got back to the 

 wood rabbets for hanging frames, which 

 renders the frames stationary enough to 

 be carried about the apiary, or hauled, 

 over ordinary country roads, from 5 to 

 10 miles, without any displacement of 

 combs. 



We want the frames for manipulation, 

 and not for hauling upon wagons, and 

 there may be two extremes in this par- 

 ticular as widely separated as the metal 

 rabbet and the 18 inches of cold glue on 

 the closed-end frame. 



From Mr. Freeborn's experience, given 

 in the Bee Journal, a short time ago, I 

 would judge that this extensive hauling 

 of bees to distant out-apiaries, will 

 gradually become less. 



One advocate of closed-end frames 

 gave as his objection to hanging frames, 

 that "bees were rolled and crushed 

 between the lower part of the end-bars 

 of the frames and the hive as the frames 

 were being lifted out." 



The first thing the beginner should 

 fix in his mind is, that a bee-space is 

 about % of an inch — more than 3€, and 

 less than X an inch. Three-eighths is 

 the space to allow between the end- 

 bars of the hanging frames, and the 

 inside wall of the hive. 



