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141 



HIVES. 



The Advantages itT Frame Hives 

 Over the ISox-llive$. 



Written for (lie American Bee Journal 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Foi' a longtime it lias been taken for 

 granted that the movable-frame hive 

 was vastly superior to the box-hive for 

 the pi'oductiou of comb honey, with 

 but little thought being given to the 

 subject. If I asked a prominent bee- 

 keeper the question. Which is the bet- 

 ter, the frame hive or the box-hive, for 

 the production of comb honey? the an- 

 swer I would receive, nine times out of 

 ten, would be, ' ' Wliy, the frame hive, 

 most certainly. If this were not so, 

 all the writers in the different bee- 

 papers would not be writing about 

 frame hives and praising them up." 



But the simple reason that writers 

 on bee-culture use frame hives, amounts 

 to but little. The thing we wish to 

 know is, why these writers use the 

 frame hive in preference to a well- 

 made and well-proportioned box-hive? 

 As I am asked nearly the same thing 

 by a correspondent, to give my "views 

 througli the columns of the Ajiekican 

 Bee JouRNiL," perhaps it may be in- 

 teresting to some to go over these 

 grounds with me. 



Paul, the great apostle to the Gen- 

 tiles, told the early Christians that they 

 should alwaj-s be ready "to give a rea- 

 son of their hope ;" so any bee-keeper 

 should always be ready to give a valid 

 reason for the way he manages his 

 bees, or good reasons to support what- 

 ever he writes for publication. If any 

 man or woman cannot do this, they can 

 rest assured that there is something 

 wrong somewhere. So, when asked 

 for my reason, I questioned myself, 

 "Why do I use movable-frame hives in 

 preference to box-hives ?" As I be- 

 lieve that I have good reasons for so 

 doing, I will give them to the readers 

 of the Bee Journal, and let them 

 draw their own conclusions as to the 

 correctness of the same. 



We are to suppose that each style of 

 hive is well-made, and of the same 

 dimensions; that the box-hive gives as 

 easy access to the surplus arrangement 

 as does the other, so that we may be 

 fair in our reasoning. Keeping all of 

 the above in our minds, we proceed. 

 As spring is the season when we first 

 begin to prepare to get the honej'crop, 

 I will commence with that time. 



Upon the first warm days, we wish 

 to know if each hive has honey enough 

 in it to last till the flowers bloom, so 



that the l)ees can secure a living. To 

 tliis end we wish to cxamin(i the inside 

 of the hive. We come to the box- 

 hive, take it from the bottom-ljoard, 

 and hold it up to the sun (driving the 

 bees down with smoke), to see if we 

 can see any sealed honey, and aftca- 

 inspecting all as best, we can, we have 

 to mostly guess at the matter, and 

 trust that our "guess" is right. If bars 

 are used at the top in connection witli 

 the honej'-lward, we can remove the 

 honey-board, and guess a little closer 

 than before. 



With the movable-frame hive, all we 

 have to do is to lift out the frames, and 

 we knovv to a certainty just how much 

 honey there is in the hive. As we 

 work on, we soon find a colony with 

 little or no honey, which would starve 

 if not fed in a week, so we get out the 

 feeder, and feed them. If it keeps 

 warm, so that the bees can get at the 

 feeder, or the combs of honey we place 

 in the chamber of the hive, all goes 

 well. If it turns cold, the bees starve. 

 In a case like this, with a frame hive, 

 all we have to do is to give the starving 

 colony a frame of sealed honey from 

 the honej'-room, or fill a comb with 

 syrup, anil iiang it near the center of 

 the cluster of bees, when we knoiu that 

 they are all right. 



Then upon an examination we find a 

 colony in the above condition, while 

 the next one has much more honey 

 than is needed. With the frame hive 

 we can exchange an empty comb for a 

 full one, and thus both colonies are 

 benefited, and we are saved all the 

 trouble of feeding. 



A little later in the season, we wish 

 to know that each hive has a good, 

 prolific queen, so that workers may be 

 produced in time for the honey harvest; 

 and if they have not such a queen, we 

 procure one for them by rearing one, 

 or otherwise. Here we are almost en- 

 tirelj' baltled with the box-hive, while 

 we can know to a certainty about the 

 queen being good or poor, if we use a 

 frame hive; and, if poor, the matter can 

 be easily remedied. 



At this time we also wish to get all 

 surplus drone-comb out of the hive, if 

 this has not already been done ; for if 

 the bees are allowed more or less 

 drone-comb, this will soon be filled 

 with drones, which, when hatched, will 

 consume large quantities of honey that 

 would otherwise be stored as surplus. 

 This keeping the drone-comb out of the 

 hive is no small item, for I have known 

 so much drone-comb to be built by a 

 colony having an old and failing 

 queen, that the next season the drones 

 produced from that comb consumed 

 nearly all the honey, and as fast as the 

 few \\-orkers reared could gather it. 

 With the box-hive we can do little or 

 nothing by way of getting rid of this 



drone-coml), while with the frame hive 

 it is easily taken out, and worker- 

 coml) fitted in its place, or weaker col- 

 onies allowed to "patch" these with 

 nice, all-worker comb. 



Then, I believe, that a colony of bees 

 can be increased much faster Ijy a 

 judicious spreading of the brood at the 

 right time, thus getting the bees ready 

 much quicker for an early harvest, 

 than they would be if left to them- 

 selves, or by any other means which I 

 know of, which thing (spreading 

 brood) is an utter impossibility with the 

 box-hive. 



Again, as it approaches the honey 

 harvest, we find that some of the colo- 

 nies are extra strong, while others are 

 weak. This we wish to remedy by 

 taking bees and brood from the 

 stronger, and giving them to the weak. 

 Of course, bees can be drummed out of 

 the bo.x-hives, and given to others, but 

 how much easier it is to take a frame 

 of brood and bees from a frame hive, 

 and place it in another hive, than by 

 any plan that we could use were we to 

 adopt box-hives. 



Many more reasons could be given, 

 but the foregoing are quite sufficient, 

 it seems to me, to convince any one 

 that the day of box-hives should have 

 passed away long ago ; yet we are as- 

 sured by those who profess to know, 

 that there are still more bees in box- 

 hives in the United States than there 

 are in frame hives. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



' FRAMES. 



Whieh are Better, the Wide or 

 the Narrow, Frames i 



Written tor the American Bee Journal 

 BY J. E. POND. 



In the discussion of this question, it 

 seems to me that no attention has, as 

 yet, been called to the natural law 

 governing the matter ; that brace- 

 combs will be built when, needed, all 

 must admit ; and that they are needed 

 when required to hold combs in posi- 

 tion, is an assumption that, I think, all 

 will agree is correct. With narrow 

 frames, and wide spacing, the upper 

 cells will be elongated when used for 

 storage, and, as a matter of course, 

 the brace-combs will be built, as they 

 always are. Whj', no one as yet can 

 saj' positively. 



But to come straight to the point, 

 what is the natural law ? That bees 

 seal up brood in cells ouly 7-16 of an 

 inch deep, and that thej' build comb 

 for brood-comb onl}* | of an inch thick, 

 has been proved time and time again. 

 The late, lamented Quinljy, when ex- 

 perimenting with tin for cells, made 

 them one inch thick, but found that 



