THE BEE-KEKrEKH' REVIEW. 



131 



M' 



the Imrvest, regardle&s of what may be the 

 causes that operate for or against this coii- 

 suuiuiation. Id the case meutioued by Mr. 

 Thompsou it is evident that the earth sur- 

 rounding the brood nest enabled the bees to 

 keep the temperature even and at a high 

 point, thus favoring the production of a 

 large quantity of brood. For the same rea- 

 son it was probably an aid in successful win- 

 tering. — Ed.] 



When Bees Gather No Honey for Ten Months 

 Large Hives Are a Necessity. 



ENTHUSIASTIC. 



' Y first eight years as a bee-keeper were 

 passed in experimenting with hives ; 

 and, as this very important question as to 

 the proper size of the brood chamber is now 

 being one of the special discussions in the 

 leading bee journals it may not be out of 

 place for me to give some of my early ex- 

 perience along this line. 



How well do I remember the little hives I 

 first made and the caution and remon- 

 strances of an old bee-keeper, who once 

 made me a visit, at the folly of constructing 

 such small hives ; and it turned out as my 

 friend had predicted. 



These hives that I first made, and used for 

 four years, were 1('> inches long, 14 inches 

 ends and 11 inches deep and were of the 

 same capacity as seven standard Langstroth 

 frames. 



The greatest trouble with these small hives 

 was that they did not contain sufficient stores 

 to last the bees from the time that the honey 

 flow stops in the fall until it commences 

 again. Here in central New York no honey 

 is gathered from August 2.")th until the mid- 

 dle of the following June, or about ten 

 months, and, unless feeding was promptly 

 and regularly attended to the bees would die 

 of starvation. There may be a few locations 

 in our broad land where a hive of the capac- 

 ity of seven standard L. frames will meet all 

 the requirements and give as good results as 

 one of nine or ten frames, but I have failed 

 to find such, and my travels since my bee- 

 keeping experience began, have extended 

 through W, States from Maine to Mexico. 



After using these small hives for four 

 years I began to see the need of a larger 

 hive, so I made some of about the capacity 

 of eight standard L. frames. I found these 



an improvement, but still too small to meet 

 the reijuirements. 



My next step was to build KM) hives in 

 which the brood chamber contained twelve 

 frames 1(! inches long by (j)4 inches deep. 

 For producing comb honey and wintering 

 bees perfectly out of doors in this cold cli- 

 mate these hiven have never been equaled, 

 but they were too expensive and not as handy 

 in raising extracted honey. 



Previous to this I had made and used sev- 

 eral hives with frames 20 inches long and 

 only 3I4 inches deep ; and I had no trouble 

 in wintering and getting good yields of hon- 

 ey, but the hives were not practical and were 

 discarded. 



Seven years ago I constructed 100 stand- 

 ard L. hives to hold nine frames. Since 

 that time I have experimented with all sizes 

 of brood chambers from five-frames up to 

 the full capacity (nine frames) and am fully 

 convinced that for my location and method 

 of management that a brood chamber that 

 at all times contains nine standard L. frames 

 is the best, and I have discarded everything 

 else in the shape of hives. With this capac- 

 ity of brood chamber I am saved the trouble 

 of feeding in the fall or spring^no little 

 trouble when one has hundreds to go over — 

 and when 1 close up the season's work and 

 every colony at the last of August has sixty 

 pounds of sealed well ripened pure honey, 

 nd nine full combs to go in winter quarters, 

 just as sure do I know that they are all right 

 until the season opens again. If my hives 

 have too much honey left over at the com- 

 mencement of the honey harvest I can quick- 

 er remove it than be bothering with feeders. 



Bee-Keepers' Review.' 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY. 



w. z. HUTCHINSON, Editor and Promietor. 



Teiims : — $1.00 a year in advance. Two copies 

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FLINT, MICHIGAN. MAY 10. 1895. 



Mk. Chas. Dadant has just been called 

 upon to mourn the loss of his dear wife. 

 She died May J5rd, after an illness of several 

 months. She was 73 years old. 



