HIVES 



247 



HIVES. 



may need. Your eight-frame hive gives hei' too 

 much I'oom at once when it is doubled in size. If 

 the season is a little oool, there is a chance of delay- 

 ing the bleeding- by chilling the combs. The bees 

 will then concentrate themselves upon the brood 

 and Iteep it within narrow limits, for the queen will 

 seldom go out of the cluster to laj\ 



As to the matter of wintering, these jum- 

 bo hives seem to offer exceptional advan- 

 tages. Mr. Dadant, in one of liis articles, 

 says : 



The facts upon which I base mj- conclusion are 

 those that we have seen under our own eyes, of bet- 

 ter success in wintering the large deep hive. . We 

 have thus stronger colonies for winter, which is In 



the preference. There can be no sort o^ 

 doubt that these large hives, for extracted 

 honey, have some advantages over the small- 

 er ones; but when it comes to the production 

 of comb honey, then there is a question, and 

 a big one too — Is such a large hive as good as 

 a smaller one V In some localities the bees 

 might till only a brood-nest in such a hive; 

 whereas if a shallower one were used, like 

 the Danzenbaker or Heddon, the available 

 comb space below would be tilled with 

 brood ; and the honey, when it did come in, 

 and what little there was of it, would be 

 forced into the supers. In tlie selection of a 



DADANT-QuiNBY HIVE. — Froni '■' Lcingstroth on the Honey-Bee, Revised,^'' by Badant. 



itself a great advantage, as the nurabei' of bees has 

 much to do with their ability to keep warm, and their 

 ability to retain the heat has also much to do with 

 their honey consumption. A weak colony suffei-s 

 much from the cold, and is compelled to eat more. • 

 But to me the greatest advantage of the deep large 

 frame is the greater ease bees have in reaching the 

 honey while preserving a more compact cluster. 



LARGE hives; WHERE AND UNDER WHAT 

 CIRCUBISTANCES USED. 



The Dadants have a considerable follow- 

 ing in their vicinity ; and in France the 

 Dadant - Quinby has become almost the 

 standard hive. But it should be remember- 

 ed that tlie Dadants are extracted - honey 

 men ; and in France liquid honey has rather 



large hive, then, a good deal depends on the 

 locality, and whether one proposes to run for 

 comb or extracted honey. 



THE LARGE HIVES NON-SWARMERS. 



There is one very important feature in \ 

 favor of the Dadant hive, and, in fact, any 

 large hive ; and that is, the reduction or nl- 

 most entire control of swarming. There has 

 been no satisfactory method proposed to ac- 

 complish this result with the single-story 

 eight-frame Langstroth when run for the 

 production of comb honey ; and a great 

 many give up the prol)lem. stating that it is 

 better to let the bees swarm once, and thau 



