The Townsend Bee Book 19 
to the other side, and finally to a point one-third of the distance 
from the top. To work to good advantage, two or three of these 
blocks are necessary, as the wax should cool before the sections 
are removed. 
PUTTING HIVE PARTS TOGETHER 
Some time previous to the surplus-honey flow, hives and 
supers should be nailed and painted, sections folded, filled with 
foundation, and arranged in the supers ready to be put on the 
hives when the time comes. Everything should be in readiness, 
as a little delay in giving room, when it is needed, may be the 
means of cutting the surplus-honey crop in two. 
NAILING HIVES 
Hives and supers, as they come from the factory, are pro- 
vided with nails, etc., and in putting them together the only tools 
required are a hammer and a square. A carpenter would prob- 
ably have a wooden mallet to use in driving the dovetailed corners 
together, but a hammer can be used for this purpose, although 
the planed surface of the wood should never be struck, as it would 
be marred. A piece of tough wood should be secured that will not 
split easily, and this placed on the corner to take the blow from 
the hammer. Before nailing the hives they should be squared; 
for if they are not made square before nailing, they will never 
keep so afterward. 
HOW TO ASSEMBLE HOFFMAN FRAMES 
While instructions usually go with each shipment of hives, 
many do not understand putting together Hoffman frames. The 
beginner should take particular notice of the directions that go 
with each crate of frames, and see that the V edge and the square 
edge of the end-bars are on opposite sides. As the frame is held 
up, as one would hold it when looking for a queen, the square edge 
should be at the right end of the frame and the V edge at the left. 
Frames so assembled will go into the hives either way; in fact, 
they can not be put in wrong. 
Two years ago I bought a lot of colonies in hives in which the 
frames were nailed wrong; that is, many of the frames had the 
V edges of the end-bars on the same side. This meant that the V 
edges would come together in the hives and the end-bars would 
often slip by each other, making the space too narrow between 
those two particular frames. 
