62 
THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
wall cress, or “ Arabis Alpinus.’’ The value 
of these in this climate will be tested in 
spring. The best flowering shrubs for bees are 
the rock roses, veronicas, lilacs, eallistemons, 
polygalas, currant, gooseberry, and raspberry 
bushes, the black flowered pittosporum and 
the African box thorn. Among what we call 
weeds the bees find welcome and often liberal 
supplies, especially in the Cape weed, flat- 
weed, dandelion, nettles, and sorrel. ITore- 
hound and the clovers should be scattered 
about along fences and in any waste corners 
or places. 
The Langstroth Hive and Frames . — While 
there seems but little doubt that the Austra- 
lian hive will be the ten-framed Langstroth, 
there is fear lest some trivial variation in 
the dimensions of frames or boxes may be 
adopted, which will as completely defeat the 
great objects to be secured by uniformity as 
the introduction of hives of other forms and 
sizes. During the last season we had occasion 
to move frames of brood from a Langstroth 
hive (so called) to a Langstroth of the dimen- 
sions given in the books and exactly similar 
to the simplicity Langstroth — but nearly a 
quarter of an inch had to be cut off each 
shoulder of the frame. The New Zealand 
pattern Langstroth has the shoulders of the 
frames so short that they slip off the runners 
of a simplicity hive. 
Now, if the full benefit of uniformity is to 
be obtained, exact dimensions must be agreed 
upon and stuck to. The inside measure of a 
Langstroth hive is I8J inches long by 14± 
inches wide, and 10 inches high ; the rabbet 
for the frame ends is f of an inch deep 
(measuring from the top towards the bottom 
of the box) and f of an inch wide (taken out 
of the thickness of the wood.) The frames 
themselves should be of the following dimen- 
sions: 17f inches long by 9J inches deep, 
outside measurement, the top bar being 19) 
inches, which gives shoulders f of an inch 
long. The British Beekeepers’ Association 
has adopted a rigid standard measurement 
which all makers strictly adhere to, and if 
anyone ventured on a variation of an eighth 
of an inch in any of the parts, he would soon 
get into trouble, for nothing can be more 
annoying to the beekeeper than to find during 
his operations that frames from some hives are 
too small or too large for others. 
Frame Spacing. — English beekeepers 
strongly advocate appliances for spacing the 
frames, and while admitting that American 
apiarists do not use any, and even condemn 
them, use them very generally and largely, 
and speak highly of the advantages of doing 
so. Some of our Australian beekeepers con- 
sider them worse than useless, and speak 
against their use ; but it will be worth while 
to refer to the arguments both for and against. 
Experienced beekeepers, handling perhaps 
hundreds of frames daily, will replace them 
rapidly, spacing them correctly with their 
finger-tips, almost instinctively. If one frame 
is wrong, however, all the rest must be moved 
a little in order to set it right; although a 
slight variation of space is of not much conse- 
quence. It often happens also that in a full 
hive, a little extra space is required to lift out 
or replace a frame of comb and bees, and this 
can be readily done by moving all the frames 
a little closer together than the standard space 
for a time. If spacing contrivances are used, 
the frames cannot be got closer together than 
the standard distance, nor bees squeezed or 
crushed (which they certainly may be by 
crowding frames together without the spacers.) 
By pushing the outside frame home against 
all the others they are immediately spaced 
without setting each individual frame right. 
The objection that extra space to lift out or 
replace a “ spaced ” frame cannot be got with- 
out using a “ dummy,” or division board, is a 
real one ; but an equal, if not greater objection, 
lies against crushing combs full of bees against 
one another, at the risk at least of angering 
the bees, if not of killing some. We have 
been against “ spacers ” because of this objec- 
tion, and perhaps more because “experts” 
have spoken against them as unnecessary, and 
as mere aids to novices. After handling some 
full British standard frames with metal spacing 
ends on the frames the last season, we altered 
our opinion. The facility and rapidity with 
which one can replace and push the frames 
into their places without fear of crushing, the 
nice gliding smooth motion of the leaden metal 
ends on the runners, and the even and regular 
way the combs are built in consequence of the 
absolutely correct spacing of the frames, we 
consider are points greatly in their favour. 
They are, however, certainly extra pieces in 
the hive, and add slightly to the cost, and the 
beekeeper, who counts his stocks by hundreds, 
and works hard for honey-returns, is not likely 
at present to adopt them. To those, however, 
who keep a few stocks only, and like to have 
things nice, the advantages the use of them 
affords will amply repay the slight extra cost 
and trouble in putting them on the frames. 
Cure for Stings . — In the May number of 
the Garden and Field, it is stated that the 
juice from a young frond of the common 
bracken fern “ I’teris Aquilina ” if rubbed on 
to the skin where stung by a bulldog ant, at 
once allays the pain, and suggests it may be 
equally efficacious with bee stings. It is 
easily tried. 
