Hills'^ 



VOL, III. 



FLINT, MICBieM, JANUARY 10, li 



NO. 1. 



Possibly, Accurate Spacing and Wide or Deep 



Top Bars May Prevent Brace Combs, But 



Honey Boards Seem Preferable. 



J. A. GKEEN. 



EE tendency of bees to fill up all 

 available space in their hives with 

 comb, is sometimes one of the greatest 

 annoyances with which the honey pro- 

 ducer has to contend. If they would only 

 put honey where we wish them to and leave 

 it out where we don't wish it, what a 

 world of trouble we would be saved. As they 

 have their own ideas on the subject, we must 

 try to circumvent their natural instincts and 

 bend them to suit our wishes. 



With the old bee hive, having an immov- 

 able top with only a few small holes for 

 passage, brace combs wore unknown. On 

 the introduction of the movable comb, a 

 removable top to the hive became a neces- 

 sity, and the honey board, almost literally a 

 board, with few passage-ways, and strong 

 enough to support the large boxes then in 

 use, was the result. When the small sec- 

 tions came into use other means of .support 

 were adopted, and better communication 

 between the brood chaDiber and surplus 

 department seeming desirable, the honey 

 board was discarded and became almost 

 obsolete, the annoyance of brace combs 

 being looked upon as a necessary evil. 



The introduction of the "skeleton honey 

 board" ("comb excluder'" would be a name 

 better describing its purpose) showed that it 

 was possible to keep the upper surface of the 

 brood-chamber practically free from comb, 

 while allowing the most ample communica- 

 tion with the supers above. This honey 

 board has come into very general use and 

 has proven itself a great boon to the practi- 

 cal honey producer. Yet it has many disad- 

 vantages, especially to him who wishes to 

 remove frames from the brood-chamber 

 often; and if we could attain the same re- 

 sults without their use, we might very thank- 

 ,i_, fully let them go. 



— Some have claimed that if top bars are 

 y^ made wide enough and deep enough that few 

 or no brace combs would be built above 

 T-i them. Others have denied this, and I, my- 

 self, stated, at the last meeting of the North 

 ""* western convention, that in a number of 

 >_ hives I had bought, in which the top bars 

 q" were both wide and thicker than usual, there 

 ^ were just as many brace combs built above 



them, and more between them, making them 

 much harder to handle than the ordinary 

 l's'^% top bar. This was true, yet reflection 

 and observation since have convinced me 

 that it was not al! of the truth, and half the 

 truth is often as misleading as complete 

 error. I did not take into account the cir- 

 cumstances that there was more than a bee- 

 space above the frames, and that they had 

 been so carelessly spaced and handled that 

 both sides and top had become covered with 

 bits of comb as a natural result. I can easily 

 believe that, if the spacing, lateral and verti- 

 cal, had been more accurate, there would not 

 have been nearly as much trouble from this 

 source. 



Frames which are held at fixed distances, 

 especially if they are seldom interchanged, 

 are not nearly so likely to have brace combs 

 built either between or above them as the 

 ordinary hanging frame. I have a number 

 , of shallow fixed-frame extracting supers in 

 which the top and bottom bars are 1 1-16 

 inches wide and }.2 inch apart. The top 

 bars are only 5-16 of an inch thick, yet there 

 are but very few — almost none — of them 

 that have any brace combs built above them, 

 though some of them have been in use three 

 years and were sometimes tiered up four or 

 five high. This makes me believe it may be 

 possible with wide and deep top bars, accu- 

 rately spaced laterally and vertically — that is, 

 always just a bee space from each other and 

 from the frame, super or cover above — to 

 dispense with the honey board and at the 

 , same time with brace combs. I say it may 

 be possible, because I have never tried it, 

 though I think it probable. 



I know that bees are more prone to build 

 brace combs in the brood-chamber than in 

 the suiters, so what might work in the supers 

 would not do in the brood-chamber. 



Neither would it be possible to use in the 

 brood-chamber as wide frames as I have in 

 my extracting supers. 



For my part, I do not wish to make the 

 top bars of my brood frames any deeper, as 

 I use a double brood- chamber, and a deep 

 top bar would divide the parts too much. I 

 may find it desirable to make them wider, 

 but I am afraid that alone will not prevent 

 brace combs. Moreover, I find the queen 

 excluding honey board very useful and do 

 not wish to dispense with its use. I know of 

 no substitute, so I shall probably continue 

 to use the honey board. 



Dayton, 111., Dec. 27, 1889. 



