20 The Townsend Bee Book 
WIRING FRAMES 
After the brood or extracting frames are nailed, they are 
ready to wire. We always order our frames pierced and the wire 
included. We wind this wire on a board three inches longer than 
half the length of wire that we want to use. The wire is then tied 
in about four places with a good stout string and cut at one end 
of the board with a pair of tinner’s snips. Each piece of wire will 
then be about six inches longer than necessary for the frame, the 
extra length being for convenience in handling. The strings keep 
the wire from snarling, and yet allow one wire to be drawn out 
without disturbing the others. 
To wire the frame, we drive in the end-bar two of the little 
34-inch nails that come with the frames, one near the upper hole 
and the other nearer the lower one. These are driven only half 
way in. One end of the wire should now be run through the 
second hole from the top of the frame across the frame to the 
corresponding hole in the opposite end-bar, then up to the upper 
hole in that end-bar, and back to the upper hole in the first end- 
bar. This end of the wire is now wound around the nail, and 
the nail driven home. This completes the wiring of the upper half 
of the frame. The other end of the wire should now be threaded 
through the lower sets of holes in the same way; but before the 
end is finally fastened the slack should be taken out of the wire. 
For many years we threaded the wire into the frame right 
from the spool, carrying one end through all of the holes in the 
frame, but the method given above is much the better of the two 
ways. 
HORIZONTAL WIRING DOES NOT PREVENT FOUNDATION 
FROM SAGGING 
After wiring thousands of frames horizontally, some with the 
wires drawn tight and some loose, we have found that the founda- 
tion sags about so much any way; and if no provision is made for 
this sagging it ‘‘ buckles,’’ making the irregular combs that all 
are familiar with who use full sheets of foundation. The heavier 
the foundation, the less sagging; so that I now use the medium 
brood in brood-frames, although the light brood is all right in 
extracting-frames. As the weight of the foundation must be 
relied upon to prevent sagging, our frames are now wired loosely 
in order to hold the foundation in the center of the frame without 
the buckling that is more likely to be found in tightly wired 
frames. 
