70 VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



ipulated by one who does not know the habits and requirements 

 of bees. Hives should be made with proper bee space around 

 the ends, top and bottoms of the frames ; the top and end space 

 should not be over 5-i6ths of an inch ; the bottom space, if the 

 hives are not to be tiered, can be one-half inch ; if hives are to 

 be tiered, some may prefer them flush with the bottom and 

 have a rim for the hive to rest on. When used single, hives 

 must be made so as to be easily manipulated, and the object 

 sought of producing comb or extra nice honey should be consid- 

 ered in purchasing or selecting hives or frames for the apiary. 

 Some beekeepers will provide a frame hive and then furnish no 

 comb guide nor properly space the frames, and the bees may 

 build the comb crosswise of the frames. Such hives are not 

 one whit better than box hives ; frame hives managed with 

 intelligence and skill are essential to the greatest success. The 

 frame and hive most in use in this country was the invention of 

 the Rev. L,. h. L,angstroth, The patent on this frame expired 

 years ago. The size of the hive to use for the best results will 

 depend largely upon the location. A Laugstroth frame will if 

 filled full of worker brood comb contain at least 6,000 worker 

 brood cells; allowing eight of these frames to each hive, we 

 have, if all the cells were filled with brood, what would produce 

 48,000 bees when hatched. Beekeepers in some locations pre- 

 fer nine and some ten frames in a hive. 



If bees are to be wintered out doors one will need a double 

 walled hive, the space between the brood box and outside to be 

 packed with wheat chaff, short cut hay or straw, at least three 

 inches thick. Too much drone comb should not be allowed in 

 the hive ; if too much of it is allowed we will raise a large 

 force of honey consumers instead of a force of honey gatherers. 

 The queen is the most important bee in the colony — she lays 

 all the eggs. The experienced beekeeper knows full well the 

 importance of having each colony supplied with a prolific queen, 

 and the progeny of the queen, the workers, should be hardy, 

 long lived bees, and possess good honey gathering qualities. 



Swarming is the natural instinct of bees. It is one thing 

 that the veteran bee-keeper would control if he could without 

 lessening the amount of honey produced by the bees. Some 

 remove the queens before the bees swarm and cut out all queen 

 cells built by the bees twice and after 16 days requeen the colo- 

 ny. Some consider this method better than hiring help to care 

 for out apiaries. Some have entrance guards made of perfora- 

 ted metal, also queen and drone traps to prevent the queen 

 leaving the hive with the swarms; in such case the workers find- 

 ing the queen is not with them will return to the hive to repeat 

 the operation the next day. The apiarist visits the outyard 

 once each week and upon examination if he finds the colony 



