THOUSAND ANSWERS 
223 
be better to have them touch both top and bottom-bar, but it 
would be more difficult to put them in. They are put in something 
like two inches apart, the two outer ones within half an inch to 
an inch of the end-bars. The splints are put in a dish of hot wax 
and left there till all frothing and bubbling ceases, and then they 
are lifted, one by one, by a pair of pincers, laid upon the founda- 
tion, which must be properly supported upon a board, and an as- 
sistant presses each splint into the foundation by means of the 
edge of a little board kept constantly wet. If put in while too hot, 
there will not be a good coating of wax on the splints. The foun- 
dation enters the groove in the top-bar and goes down through 
the bottom-bar, which is in two parts, the lower edge of the foun- 
dation being squeezed between the two parts. The advantage is 
that the comb is built down to the bottom-bar. You may like 
better, however, a plain bottom-bar, all in one piece. If, however, 
such a frame of foundation be given at a time when they are 
gathering nothing, the bees will gnaw a passage over the bottom- 
bar. 
Q. Where you use foundation splints and split bottom-bars, 
what kind of foundation do you use — medium or light brood? 
A. Medium gives good results, but light brood might be just 
as good with two or three more splints to the sheet. 
Q. (a) On page 393, of “Langstroth on the Honeybee,” you ad- 
vocate the use of wooden splints to support wide strips of foun- 
dation. Do you use these splints in extracting frames as well as 
in frames for chunk honey? 
(b) Do you use splints opposite each other on the foundation, 
or do you use them on one side only? 
A. (a) I would use splints in extracting combs, but on no ac- 
count in chunk honey, unless the honey were afterward to be cut 
up on the lines of the splints and the splints taken out. 
(b) On one side only. 
Stimulation. — Q. What is the safest and best plan to pursue to 
stimulate brood-rearing in weak colonies in the spring, and how 
long before the honey-flow should one commence? (Wisconsin.) 
A. In your locality probably the safest and best thing is to see 
that the bees have abundance of provisions, and let them entirely 
alone, for more harm than good may be done by frequent feeding 
in catchy weather. But in localities where there is nice, warm 
weather for bees to fly, and nothing to get for a week or more, 
then it may be a good thing to feed a pound or so every other day. 
Q. Would uncapping a little honey every day be as good for 
