FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 75 



lo make auy appreciable difference in results, but different 

 enough so that they were not standard, and after I had a few 

 thousand of them on hand and wanted to change to the regular 

 Langstroth size, the trouble I had would be hard to describe. 

 I still have some of them, but not in regular use. These hives 

 were 10-frame, and in course of time I cut them down and made 

 them 8-frame. Then I changed to the 8-frame dovetailed hive, 

 and I don't know what the next change will be. 



Another reason for not painting hives is that I am afraid 

 bees do not do quite so well in painted as in unpainetd hives, 

 especially in winter. 



Except the full-sized cleat already mentioned on each end, 

 my hives are the regular dovetailed. But the frames are Miller 

 frames. 



LOOSE-HANGING FRAMES. 



Tor a good many years handling frames was much slower 

 work than it is to-day, because for a good many years I had 

 loose-hanging frames. In moving the frames from one side of 

 the hive toward the other, each frame had to be moved separate- 

 ly. It would not do to shove two or more at a time, because in 

 so doing bees would be mashed between the frames. Then when 

 the frames were returned to place each one had to be carefully 

 adjusted, judging by the eye when it was at the right distance 

 from its neighbor. This was slow work, and when done with the 

 utmost care it was only approximately exact. There was no 

 dummy to lift out to make extra room ; and the frames had to be 

 crowded together so as to make room to get a first frame out. 

 That disarranged the spacing of several of the frames, even if 

 there were no other occasion for disarranging them. 



SELF-SPACING FRAMES. 



Then there came a time of struggling for some self -spacing 

 arrangement, closed-end, partly closed-end, and what not. I 

 tried a good many different kinds. Closed-ends were probably 

 warmer for v/intering, and were certainly self-spacing, but it 

 took time to avoid killing bees, and the troublei with propolis 

 was no small matter. Half-closed ends were the same in kind, 

 only different in degree. 



