9 
possible to free entirely a set of combs from bees with :ut any manipula- 
tion of the combs, and without smoking, shaking, or brushing the bees. 
Lastly, reasonable care in manipulation and a suitable system of 
management, which, of course, 
implies the doing of work in 
proper season, will, with the 
observance of the foregoing 
points, make the risk of stings 
exceedingly slight. Indeed, 
intelligent attention to the 
most important of the points 
mentioned above, with extra gentleness and moderation in manipula- 
tion, will enable anyone who so desires to avoid all stings. 




Fia.3.—The Porter spring bee escape. 
WHAT HIVE TO ADOPT. 
The suspended Langstroth frame is used more than any other frame 
among English speaking bee keepers. It is safe to say that in the 
United States 500 hives are made and used which are essentially Lang- 
stroth in principle to one frame 
hive of any other kind whatever. In 
the British Islands, Australia, and 
New Zealand, the proportion of 
frames on the Langstroth princi- 
ple in use is probably even greater, 
scarcely any other frame hives being 
employed. 




OMIM a 
~—— —= = 


The success of American bee culture in 
the last twenty years was first attributed 
by European bee keepers to the honey-pro- 
ducing power of the country ; but the most 
intelligent apiarists who have tried the 
Z//\ American methods with the Langstroth 
\\\Wii eg = E = hive now recognize that success is princi- 
22 ee AY == _sopally due to the manipulations that it per- 
mits. (‘‘The Hive and Honey Bee,” revised 





\\ ise = by Chas. Dadant & Son, 1888, page 145.) 
— le ees We can predict, and without any fear of 
ea Filo ——== mistake, that the principles on which the 
Se = SE EEE Langstroth hive is based will be admitted 
ee LF LLLZ_ZLZZ_ sooner or later by the most progressive bee 
Fig. 4.Langstroth hive with two half-depth Keepers of the world. (‘Revue Interna- 
supers for surplus honey. tionale d’Apiculture” (Switzerland), Sep- 
tember, 1885, edited by Edouard Bertrand. ) 
There being no patent on the Langstroth hive, and accurately made 
hives being obtainable at moderate prices from hive factories in various 
parts of the country, it is taken for granted that the enterprising begin- 
ner will adopt a simple form embodying this principle—the loose. 
fitting, suspended comb frame—as its main feature. The hive should 
not only be substantially built, but should have accurate bee spaces and 
