MillerThousand AnswersBeekeepingQuestions.pdf - BioBees

THOUSAND ANSWERS 101Q. Which frame do you think is the better, the Hoffman orloose-top, staple-spaced frame, and which is the easier tohandle? What frame do you use, also what size section or extracting-frame?sj3i{;o puB 'uBUjjjojj aq; aj^ij sraog "Jsgip saauajspjj -ywould not have it around, because the bees glue the frames together,making them harder to handle than the other kinds offrames. With the metal spacers latterly used on the Hoffman,it is not so objectionable.I use the Miller frame, which is a plain Langstroth frame withcommon galvanized shingle nails for side-spacers and small staplesfor end-spacers. I use the same for an extracting-frame,although if I were going extensively into extracting I wouldlikely have a shallower frame. I use the section most generallyinuse, 2-bee-way., 4J4x4j4x1^.Q. Using plain frames, how do you manage to keep themfrom swinging and killing the bees when hauling over roughroads?A. In the same sense you seem to mean, I don't use plainframes. Nothing can be plainer than the Miller frame, exceptthat there are common nails, as I have often explained, used asside-spacers, and staples as end-spacers. Nothing is needed atany time to prepare the bees for hauling, except to close the entrancewith wire-cloth.Q. Would there be trouble with frames made short enoughso that there would be a half-inch beespace between the endbarsand the inside of the hive? I have trouble with the standardframe on account of smashing bees. Would the bees fill thespace between the end-bars and hive-ends with comb? I use thestaple-spaced frame.A. You would be badly troubled with combs built in such alarge space; at least in some cases. Possibly you might like W.L. Coggshall's plan. Drive staples into end-bars at the lower end,so the end-bars cannot crowd against the end-wall of the hive.Q. In an answer to "Virginia," you tell him to use the wedgesthat come with the frames. I make my frames. Please explainhow to make or get them, and how to use them.A. A saw-kerf is made in the under side of the top-bar, intowhich the edge of the foundation goes. Then close beside this isanother saw-kerf made by a finer saw, and into this narrowerkerf the wedge is crowded. The wedge is a thin strip of woodas long as the under side of the top-bar, one side being cham-If you make yourfered down to an edge, so as to enter the kerf.