KEEPING TOO MANY BEES 77 



By using large hives. — ^Many bee-keepers of high 

 standing have practically solved the swarming 

 problem by using large hives. The Dadants, 

 well known on two continents as successful apiarists, 

 use" the large Quinby hives in their own apiaries, and 

 have introduced them into France and Switzerland. 

 The Dadant-Quinby hive has about the capacity 

 of a twelve-frame Langstroth. The frames are both 

 deep and large, measuring 18^ by 11 J inches, and so 

 give the queen plenty of room. The Dadants have 

 no trouble with swarming, as only enough swarms 

 come off to make good the winter losses in their 

 apiaries. 



There are three reasons why we have not used 

 these large hives: first, they are too heavy to handle 

 well, being altogether too productive of backaches. 

 Second, they are necessarily much more expensive, 

 as wider pieces of perfect lumber are used in the 

 making. Third, and most important to us of all, we 

 find it difiicult to produce comb-honey in a large 

 hive ; when the bees have so much room in the brood- 

 chamber, they discover no reason for carrying honey 

 up into the supers. If we made extracted honey, as 

 do the Dadants and the European apiarists, we would 

 certainly use the larger hives, simply to be rid of this 

 nuisance of constant swarming. The colonies grow 

 to be so much stronger in the larger hives that they 

 are much better able to withstand the vicissitudes of 

 winter than are smaller colonies, which is a great 

 advantage. 



By the brushing or shaking-out method. — ^When th? 



