266 ANNUAIj report OF THE Off. Doc. 



as mentioned before. However, the smoker will immediately quell 

 such insubordination, if taken in time, and as said before, this is 

 the most essential implement for the person who keeps bees and 

 produdes honey. 



It is also necessary to have modern hives with movable frames, 

 as it is impossible to have success with old-fashioned box hives or 

 gums. To use a hive that can be opened and examined in every 

 part at will is as necessary in modern bee culture as it is to plant 

 corn in rows for the modern cultivation of the corn, and we would 

 as soon try to cultivate a crop of miscellaneously scattered corn and 

 produce first class results as we would try to get the best results 

 in bee-keeping by using the old box hives. With the old style hives 

 it is impossible to know when the bees in the hive are diseased and 

 apply remedies, or learn when they have enemies (worms) and re- 

 move them, or to Italianize or introduce a new queen, or to find the 

 queen and clip her wings or remove her, or give them the care that 

 is necessary for intelligent bee culture, or to produce either comb 

 honey in sections or extracted honey. 



There are many styles of modern hives, but they all agree in hav- 

 ing movable frames, suspended at the top or ends, and which can 

 be taken out separately and at will. For general purposes in honey 

 production, we regard the 10-frame dove-tail hive, with style of 

 frame known as the Langstroth, as the best that can be used. With 

 such a hive one should have the super or top fitted with honey sec- 

 tions one inch thick, four inches wide and five inches high. These, 

 when fairly full, will hold just about a pound each. Each of these 

 supers will contain 28 such sections. These hives can be ordered in 

 the flat and nailed together by the receiver, or if he dosen't know 

 how to do this he can order one hive nailed together as a sample 

 and the rest in the flat, and he can then put them together. It is 

 necessary that all parts fit, to the fraction of an inch, and when all 

 the hives are the same size the frames can be changed from one hive 

 to another. We consider it so very important that all the hives in 

 one apiary be of the same size and make, that we have recently 

 thrown away 18 hives of the movable frame type because they were 

 not the exact size and shape as the rest in our regular apairy. Un- 

 less one has lumber, tools and time in abundance he can certainly 

 buy his hives ready-cut much cheaper than he can make them him- 

 self. I would not, under any circumstances, advise the use of differ- 

 ent size and shape hives in the same apiary. This is because of the 

 fact that the bee-keeper often desires to change the frames from 

 one hive to another, and he can not do this without uniformity. 

 When the hives with the movable frames are used, and the frames 

 are filled with straight comb or sheets of wax as a foundation, there 

 is no danger of the bees building crooked comb. However, it is 

 quite necessary that the hives be kept full of frames, and these 

 should be kept so close together that there is just the distance of 

 one bee's-space between (three-eighth inch) them. When the frames 

 stand further apart the combs are quite liable to be irregular in 

 thickness and they will no longer be interchangeable. 



In working with bees at any time it is best to wear a veil. The 

 one who works without a veil is fool hardy, but he does not need 

 to work with gloves or hand-protectors, as this is somewhat of an 

 impediment. With the smoker he should puff lightly into the 



