THE HEE-KKKPERS' REVIEW. 



39 



frame : aud, so far an I know, the bees woro 

 uqually good workers. 



1 believe we have uot far to look for au 

 answer, la my home yard the bees have au 

 alaioet continu?.us flow of honey from wil- 

 lows aud maples, from flower gardens, fruit 

 tree.s and dandelions, from early April until 

 •June, aud brood rearing progresses with 

 great rapidity. The brooil chamber being 

 small the brood can be kept warm with less 

 bees aud more workers are sent to the fields, 

 and, the faster the honey comes in, "the fas- 

 ter the brood is spread and strong colonies 

 early in the season is the result. 



How is it in the yard six miles away ? The 

 conditions are quite different. Very little 

 early honey is to be had ; and while the small 

 brood chamber always contains ample honey 

 for present needs, for we feed if they do not, 

 the bees will not spread their brood as fast 

 as where there are from 1;") to 20 lbs. or more 

 of old honey at the sides of their hives. 



Again, I have found hives with a large 

 brood chamber aud " lots " of honey, rear- 

 ing brood later in the season than hives with 

 less room, and less honey, and so go through 

 winter stronger. 



Again, it is necessary to feed colonies in a 

 small brood chamber much more in autumu 

 to winter them, than is necessary to feed to 

 those in a large brood chamber ; and it now 

 seems very doubtful if sugar syrup is as good 

 to stimulate brood rearing as is pure honey. 



So it comes to pass that where but little 

 honey is gathered in early spring the large 

 brood chamber has the advantage of a small 

 one. But suppose we feed the colony in the 

 small hive very heavily iu autumu will not 

 that help Hie matter? My experience has 

 been that where a small brood chamber is 

 crowded with bees and honey the bees will 

 rear a large amouut of brood in winter and 

 the vitality of the bees aud Itieir stores, both, 

 be exhausted. 



I formally reasoned iu this way : What is 

 the use of letting a colony of bees occupy 

 eleven frames when eight are all they really 

 need for brood and a moderate supply of 

 honey ? Why not have the eighteen lbs. of 

 honey that it would taki to fill those extra 

 combs, stored in boxes which would sell for 

 !^2.(H) above the cost of sections, etc., aud 

 then in the fall feed l."> lbs. sugar which 

 would cost less than a ilollar, and thus make 

 a dollar clear to each liive which on r>0() 

 hives would be no small sum. The logic 

 seems to be all right but iu practice I have 



only one yard whore it is an entire success 

 and that is where the bees get an abundance 

 of early honey, and here a small brood cham- 

 ber is much more profitable than a large 

 one. In our other yard it would seem to be 

 about an even thing and in all my other 

 yards the large brood chamber has decidedly 

 the advantage unless iu exceptional seasons 

 when there happens to be an unusual yield 

 of early honey. 



MiDDLEBUKY, Vt. Jan. 1!), ISO"). 



ftBkr^4^^^^<^- 



An Experience With Many Styles of Hives, 

 and the Conclusions Drawn Therefrom. 



B. TAYLOK. 



T T is said that truth 

 1 crushed to earth 

 will rise again. 

 Well, bee hives must 

 then represent truth 

 for it seems the 

 question of the best 

 hive is never to be 

 settled. There have 

 been more than five 

 hundred patents is- 

 sued on hives, and 

 hundreds of inven- 

 tors and manufacturers have been earnestly 

 engaged since my first remembrance in im- 

 proving, or, rather in trying to improve 

 hives, and the question to-day, as to what 

 constitutes the ideal, practical hive, seems 

 as far from settlement as it was thirty years 

 ago ; and, aside from the advantage derived 

 from the movable frame, and in some little 

 improvement in the manner of usimj this 

 great improvement, over previous methods, 

 I cannot see as there has been the least ad- 

 vance in making hives that would give lar- 

 ger honey crops. 



I know that I can now secure more surplus 

 under the same circumstances than former- 

 ly, but the improvement has been along the 

 line of management and not in the khid of 

 hives. I do not mean to say that hives and 

 the accompanying fixtures are not a little 

 more handy to manipulate now than for- 

 merly, but this is mainly true of the furni- 

 ture for getting surplus, and not of brood 

 chambers. 



I will now give some reasons for the above 

 not very flattering views of recent improve- 

 ments in hives for practical use. In the 



