374 



THB BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



world seemed a great blank, compared 

 with today. But I was led to believe that 

 if I could not make a living at bee-keep- 

 ing, I could at least sell enough honey to 

 hire the necessary help to run a farm; so 

 I began in a small way, and did not get a 

 pound of surplus the first season; which 

 was a very poor one. The next year was 

 a good one and my colonies averaged loo 

 lbs. And then I increased gradually till 

 I had six or seven hundred that I could 

 call my own. 



Of course, I used a frame hive from the 

 first, and kept Italian bees. There seem- 

 ed to be more difference between Italian 

 and black bees in those days than in more 

 recent years. But I find, by getting new 

 strains of Italian blood, that their old- 

 time vigor seems to be restored. 



The pricQ of honey was high in those 

 days, averaging me 30 cents per pound 

 above cost of selling. 



But, if there is one thing above another 

 that I did, besides carefully stud3'ing the 

 bees and everything connected with them, 

 that led to my success, it was that I in- 

 creased my stock slowly; and, as I could 

 manage them If the season was poor, I 

 got what surplus honey I could, and let 

 the increase go till a more favorable year; 

 not attempting to increase by artificial 

 means. If the year was good, I would 

 get my crop of honey and what increase I 

 could. In this way I made them earn me 

 something almost every year. It seems 

 to me that I have known more failures in 

 bee-keeping to come from rapid increase 

 than from any other cause; and I don't 

 know but more than from all other causes 

 put together. 



Another thing I ought, perhaps, to 

 mention, is that I have stuck to my bees, 

 through winter and summer, j'ear after 

 year, and now, after many years, notwith- 

 standing the low price of honey, I have 

 reason to believe that they will pay as 

 well in any fairly good section as any 

 other branch of rural industry; and now, 

 after working with bees for 35 years, I 

 am more than ever interested in them. 

 t doesn't pay to go into bees, and when 



there comes a poor j'ear, sell out, or let 

 them die, and go crazy over something 

 tlse. Many sections of our country are 

 undoubtedly unfit for profitable bee-keep- 

 ing, as much so as are parts unfit for 

 wheat growing, or the raising of fruit, and 

 there is nothing to be gained by trying 

 to make ourselves believe we can succeed 

 with bees everywhere. Such sections 

 can be easily determined by the flora, 

 and the experience of those who have 

 kept bees for some years in such localities. 



MiDDLEBURY, Vt., Nov. 26, 1900. 



SING TEN-FRAME HIVES TO 

 ADVANTAGE IN COMB HON- 

 EY PRODUCTION. BY C. A. 

 HATCH. 



There are some bee-keepers who can 

 see no reason why a hive for comb honey 

 should be any 

 larger, smaller, 

 or different, 

 than for extract- 

 ed honey, aside 

 from fitting a 

 given kind of 

 supef or section. 

 We have heard 

 it so often quot- 

 ed that "eight 

 frames for comb, 

 and ten for ex- 

 tracted" are just right, that we have ac- 

 cepted it without question. 



I, for one, am inclined to be a doubter. 

 I never saw an argument for one that 

 would not apply with equal force for the 

 other; if the one that bees store surplus 

 over brood more readily than over either 

 combs of honey or dummies be excepted; 

 and this applies in favor of the larger 

 hive; for there you can get more brood 

 surface. 



Some experiments that I have been 

 making during the last two or three years 



