THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



205 



material. From '82 to '8(5 my frames were 

 of % staff; '8G to '81). one inch ; 'DO and '1)1, 

 1 I-IG. As mentioned in tlie June Review, 

 my hives now are 14>4 inches inside, and 

 contain ten frames. There are many hives 

 of that width containing ten frames, but I 

 have never seen TjU frames outside my own 

 hives that were more than % wide. My 

 frame material is cut 1^8 wide and % thick. 

 If the width is right it does not matter 

 about the thickness. Ten frames take up 

 11)4 inches, leaving three inches for the 11 

 bee passages between the top bars — a trifle 

 more than ^^ for each passage. Ten frames 

 }i wide are 8%, leaving iV.j inches, or % 

 inch for each bee space. 



In the brood nest I use ten frames, but in 

 the extracting story the number is reduced 

 to eight. This is done to cause more honey 

 to be stored in a comb, which lessens the la- 

 bor of uncapping and of extracting, and the 

 depth of the cells prevents the queen from 

 laying in them. Eight, 1 \ -frames equal 9 

 inches, leaving .514 for the spaces between 

 the top bars, or 1-44 of a space less than the 

 space between % top bars with ten frames 

 in the hive. I have 50 or more colonies in 

 this way : ten frames in the lower story and 

 eight in the upper with a -^h space between 

 the upper and lower frames. There is also 

 a % space between the top bars of the ex- 

 tracting combs and the cover. 



Now for results : In raising the 50 upper 

 stories three times they have not disturbed 

 a frame in the lower story. In raising the 

 cover to the extracting story 200 times, I do 

 not think there was once but from one to six 

 combs were raised. Then I have ten colo- 

 nies where there are eight combs in each 

 story and the combs of the lower story often 

 raise and slide and drop with a thud. In 25 

 single story hives containing ten combs each 

 there are no brace combs whatever. In the 

 same number of similar hives with only 

 eight combs I am obliged to raise the cover 

 a little and insert a knife or chisel to separate 

 the frames from the cover every time they 

 are opened. 



This brace comb business is one of the 

 most fruitful sources of dauby work in ex- 

 tracting. In producing comb honey over 

 narrow top bars it will usually pull the bot- 

 toms off the sections, which makes a very 

 expensive experiment. 



Another cause of daubing honey all around 

 is putting the combs into the extractor end- 

 wise where the lower end comes up always 



dripping. This may be remedied by hang- 

 ing them in the extractor the same as in the 

 hive. Automatic reversion will not cure this. 

 If we can prevent brace combs also, nearly 

 everything we handle will be dry. 



Where we can keep up with the bees and 

 extract, as soon as the combs are two-thirds 

 capped I would use only eight combs, but if 

 they go long enough to cap the honey all the 

 way down, they will extend pieces of comb 

 out past the side bars against the hive. To 

 avoid this it will require nine combs, if not 

 ten, in the hive. 



In 1889 I ordered 1000 all-wood brood 

 frames of one of our most extensive manufac- 

 turers. In about a month he wrote me that the 

 size I ordered (1 inch) was difficult to fur- 

 nish and 7s was the customary width, so I 

 wrote that I would try the % width. One 

 hundred were tried during the season beside 

 the others (1 l-ltj) which I sawed out with a 

 Barnes saw. The next spring the remaining 

 iKX) were used to kindle the tire. 



One other point in favor of frame stuff l^i 

 inch wide in a 14^4 inch wide hive is the ease 

 with which the frames are spaced, as if one 

 space is left a little wider than the others 

 another bee space will be filled with propolis. 

 It is far easier to leave just room enough for 

 a bee pass between each two top bars than to 

 make the spaces alike when the spaces are 

 the width of three bees. Any type setter 

 will vouch for this truth as a bee space (the 

 width of a bee) is to bee keeping what the 

 3-em space is to type setting. 



Pasadena Calif. June 27, 1893, 



Bee-Keepers' Review. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSOfl, Ed. & PPop. 



Terms : — $1.00 a year in advance. Two copies, 

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 will be continued. 



FLINT, MICHIGAN, JULY 10. 1893. 



The Blast Tube in the Crane smoker is, 

 I believe, about twice as large as in the 

 Bingham. I did not mention this when 

 making the report in the last Review of my 

 experiments. It is perhaps but fair that this 

 point be mentioned. 



