HIVES. 



240 



HIVES. 



jority of bee-keepeis, after having tried the 

 s(iuare and the oblong frame, finally decided 

 ill favor of tlie Langstroth for the following 

 reasons : 



THE LANGSTltOTII FKAMB AND IHVE, AND 

 WHY THEY nECAME THE STANDARDS. 



1. A shallow frame permits the use of a 

 low flat hive that can easily be tiered up one, 

 two, three, and four stories high. Tins is a 

 great advantage when one is running for ex- 

 tracted honey, as all he has to do when the 

 bees require more room is to add upper sto- 

 ries as fast as the l)ee.s require them, and 

 then at the end of the season extract at his 

 leisure. Square or deep hives can not be 

 tiered up very high without becoming top- 

 heavy and out of convenient reach of the 

 operator. 2. The long shallow frame is more 

 easily uncapped because the blade of the un- 

 capping-knife can reach clear across it. 3. 

 Tlie shape of the Langstroth frame favors 

 an extractor of good proportion. 4. A deep 

 frame is not as easily lifted out of a hive ; 

 is more liable to kill bees in the process of 

 removing and inserting frames. 5. The shal- 

 low frame is better adapted for box lioney. 

 It is well known that bees, after forming a 

 brood-circle, are inclined to put sealed hon- 

 ey just over the brood. In a frame as shal- 

 low as the Langstroth, there will be less hon- 

 ey in the brood-nest and more in the boxes ; 

 for bees, in order to complete their brood- 

 circle in the Langstroth, will, with a prolific 

 queen, push the brood-line almost up to the 

 top - bar, and, consequently, when honey 

 comes in, will put it into the supers or boxes 

 just where it is wanted. B. When bees form 

 their winter cluster they are pretty apt to 

 place it very near the top of the hive or 

 cover. This is on account of the greater 

 warmth at that point, for heated air has a 

 tendency to rise. It sometimes happens, in 

 case of the square frame, that the bees will 

 eat all of the honey or stores away from near 

 the top of the hive ; and as tlie cold weather 

 continues, the bees simply starve, not being 

 able to move the cluster down into the colder 

 part of the hive where the stores are. In the 

 case of the Langstroth, the cluster may be 

 either at the front or rear. As the stores 

 are consumed it will move toward the stores, 

 and still keep within the warmest part of 

 the hive. 



But in actual experience bees seem to win- 

 ter just as well on one frame as another; 

 and as the shallow frame is better adapted 

 to box honey, Ijee-keepers naturally turned 

 toward the shallower frame, with the i-esult 

 that now probably three-fourt lis of all the 



frames in the United States are of Lang- 

 stroth dimensions ; and whatever advan- 

 tage there may be in favor of the square 

 shape, the bee-keeper is able to buy stand- 

 ard goods so much cheaper that he adopts 

 the standard Langstroth frame. 



FRAMES SHALLOWER AND DEEPER THAN 

 THE LANGSTROTH. 



Of late there has been a tendency toward 

 a frame still shallower than the Langstroth, 

 and Avhat is called the Heddon ; but as 

 eight or ten of these frames, or one section, 

 make too small a l)rood-nest, two sets of such 

 frames are used to accommodate a whole 

 colony. Of the Heddon hive we shall have 

 more to say later on. 



There is another class of bee-keepers who 

 feel that the Langstroth is not quite deep 

 enough, and who, therefore, prefer the Quin- 

 by. They argue that ten such frames, or 

 frames Langstroth length, and two inches 

 deeper, are none too large for a prolific 

 queen, and that these big colonies swarm 

 less, get more honey, and winter better. Of 

 these latter, we shall have more to say under 

 the subject of "Large vs. Small Hives." 



THE ORIGINAL LANGSTROTH HIVE. 



The old original Langstroth hive tliat 

 father Langstroth put out contained ten 

 frames 17|x9i. Each hive had a portico, and 

 cleats nailed around the top edge to support 

 a telescoping cover, under which were placed 

 the comb-honey boxes, or big cushions, for 

 winter. There was a time when this style of 

 hive was the only one used; but owing to the 

 fact that it was not simple in construction, 

 that the portico was a splendiil harboring- 

 place for cobwebs, and gave the bees en- 

 couragement for clustering out on hot days 

 instead of attending to their knitting in- 



