172 



TBE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



Mine are roofed with tin and there are es- 

 capes and ventilators in the gable ends. 

 Instead of windows, as Mr. Langdou uses, I 

 have constructed the outside boarding in 

 sectional parts, and when light is wanted a 

 section 2x;} feet above the hives may be re- 

 moved in the opposite side of the building 

 from the hive 1 am manipulating. There is 

 need for all the light we can get when ex- 

 amining for eggs in a comb. 



I have adopted a new frame, also ; and 

 that after using, heretofore, about an equal 

 number of Liuigstroth and Gallup frame?, 

 lu localities where nights are cold and days 

 hot it causes the brood to be located toward 

 the front ends of a frame as long as the 

 Langstroth (if the hives face the north), so 

 that Mr. Aikin, of Colorado, said in his arti- 

 cle on dequeening a year ago, that lie spread 

 brood by changing ends with each alternate 

 frame. While I have for years practiced 

 spreading brood, I do not think I have ever 

 gained a bee thereby, and I am certain that 

 brood has been destroyed. According to this 

 conclusion and the conditions of the brood 

 nest in so long a frame as the Langstroth, it 

 almost compels this needless, and as I said 

 on page .5GG of i\\e A. B. J. "cruel," prac- 

 tice, so I have adopted a frame the same 

 depth of the Langstroth but 4^4 inches 

 shorter. In this frame the brood circles 

 touch the top, bottom, and side bars. By 

 using ten frames in a hive there is the same 

 capacity as the eight frame Langstrotli, if 

 not more, considering the more thorough 

 occupancy of the combs. My hives are 14I4 

 inches both ways, inside measure. I studied 

 long as to whether the frames should ap- 

 proach the entrance endwise orsidewise. In 

 lifting out the frames when tliey are side- 

 wise the brood face of the comb comes be- 

 fore our eyes at once but the other plan has 

 its advantages that caused me to adopt it. 

 Mr. Langdon uses them sidewise and he may 

 be right. A shallower frame than the Gal- 

 lup is better for comb honey and a smaller 

 frame than the Langstroth allows of more 

 manipulation and leading of the bees along 

 into the upper stories more gradually than 

 when too much space is given, and Mr. Hill 

 is right when he says that a super three 

 inches deep is more readily occupied than 

 one 4 '4 inches deep. Then my frame hangs 

 in the extractor the same as in the hive and 

 a shallow frame can be taken out to reverse 

 about as quickly as a long frame put in end- 

 wise can be manipulated and extracted in a 



reversible extractor. And again there is not 

 the danger of the comb breaking out and 

 piling up on the bottom (as Mr. Hughes 

 spoke about some time since) when they 

 hang in the extractor. A frame of this length 

 admits of a hive, twoof which may be placed 

 crosswise of a wagon bed, requiring no 

 si)ecial racks for moving. In moving bees 

 I much prefer piling them up several deep 

 tiian to spread them out over a large surface 

 and this one advantage in handling the hives 

 will outweigh all the special features of a 

 17- inch frame. 



On page !)!», Mr. Langdou says " the en- 

 trance in the boarding is nearly on a level 

 with the floor, then rises on a slant to the top 

 of the platform, and opens into the hive four 

 inches from its outer side." In mine the 

 entrances in the boarding are 'i^^ inches be- 

 low the floor of the hive and rise on a slant 

 the same to the hive, eight inches from its 

 outer side. The hive entrances are % inch 

 deep and have a strip of two-rowed perfor- 

 ated zinc nailed over them the whole width 

 of the hive. In this strip of zinc is arranged 

 a cone to allow drones and queens to pass 

 outward. Also in this slanting space is a 

 strip of perforated zinc 2x14 inches tacked to 

 the slanting floor and sloping outward and 

 upward and rests against the boarding alcove 

 the outside entrance. Tnis is to prevent the 

 escape of queens and drones and completes 

 a trap. My studding are the right distance 

 apart so that brood frames, including pro- 

 jecting arms, will go in between them paral- 

 lel with the front of the hive and are 1x8 

 inches. Over this sloping space in which the 

 zinc is arran ed and on a level with the rab- 

 bets in the hive are tacked cleats against the 

 studding for frames to hang upon. I always 

 leave a ■'g space at the rabbets behind the 

 projecting arms of the frames for bees to 

 pass around the ends — that is, my rabbets 

 are % inch deep and % inch wide. In fact, 

 my hives do not have a real rabbet but a 

 rest for the frame is formed on the whole 

 thickness of the boards by nailing a cleat on 

 the outside. To form this frame-rest, the 

 cleats are % inch in thickness. Above these 

 cleats, and even with the top of the hive, are 

 two more thin cleats to support a light cover. 

 This forms a box eight inches by the other 

 dimensions of my hive and holds six frames. 

 In tiie outer side of this box against the 

 boarding is hung an empty comb and be- 

 tween this and the hive are live frames with 

 3^2 inch foundation starters. When a swarm 



