10 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



All colonies must have an abundance 

 of stores and a large force of bees, for 

 the frequent flights during the winter, 

 with large consumption of stores, will 

 usually result in the loss of all weak 

 colonies, such as may be wintered suc- 

 cessfully in the cellar farther east. 



LARGE BROOD-NESTS NEEDED 

 IN SPRING. 



The bees are mostly in ten-frame and 

 eight-frame L. hives, and, of the two, 

 there is no doubt that the ten-frame is 

 the better, for the production of extracted 

 honey in this locality. However, I se- 

 cure the same results with the small 

 hives, but at somewliat greater labor 

 and expense. Even the ten-frame hive 

 is too small for a spring brood-nest; 

 and I am not sure that the ten-frame 

 Draper Barn is large enough. AVe 

 usually have some honey coming in 

 during the spring breeding period, 

 and, when the colonies have been bred 

 up so as to need more room, I add a 

 shallow case of worl^er combs, putting 

 it 071 top. 



As both the eight-frame and ten- 

 frame hives are liable to be short of . 

 stores, I am wintering more and more 

 of them in one and one-half story hives 

 wliich saves considerable work in the 

 spring. I have been asked why I do 

 not winter in two-storj' hives, and so 

 avoid the use of the shallow frames. 

 I have done so, but, as the bees start 

 their spring brood-nest in the upper 

 story, the lower story too often be- 

 comes a grand storehouse for pollen, 

 and the bees do not seem to extend 

 their brood downward, as readily as 

 upward, into a shallow case receiving 

 the heat from below. 



When wintered in one and one-half 

 story hives they readily extend their 

 brood-nests down into the full depth 

 combs below, owing to the shallowness 

 of the upper case. I an not sure that 

 the full depth combs are as rapidly or 

 readily handled by the case as the 

 shallow combs. 



EXPERIENCE WITH MANY HIVES. 



After a thorough trial, either in my 

 own apiaries, or in yards which I have 

 handled on sliares, of the eight-, ten- and 

 eleven-frame L. hives, the eight-frame 

 Heddon, the ten-frame Draper Barn, a 

 nine-frame hive about seven inches 

 deep, and a hive containing fourteen 

 frames slightly larger than the old 

 American frame, I have found the 

 following principles to apply in my 

 practice for extracting. 



HIVES MUST TIER UP. 



No hive is worthy of consideration 

 wliich will not tier up to advantage 

 with either the eight-, or the ten-frame 

 L. hive, and of the two, the ten-frame 

 is the better. 



HANGING FRAMES BEST FOR PRO- 

 DUCING EXTRACTED HONEY 



No hive is suited to the economical 

 production of extracted honey which 

 contains closed-end frames of the 

 Quinby, Bingham, Heddon, or Danzy 

 t3'pes, as none of them can well be 

 used with the frames spaced wider in 

 the supers than in the brood chambers. 

 We cannot afford to use the same spac- 

 ing in the supers, owing- to the ridicu- 

 lously thin combs after uncapping, the 

 larger number of combs required to 

 hold a given amount of honey, and the 

 resultant increased cost of handling. 



While an entire case of Heddon or 

 Danzy combs can be inverted easily, 

 and the case lifted off, returning the 

 frames to the cases, after extracting, 

 is slow work. 



The proof of the folly of using closed- 

 end frames for extracting supers, is 

 found in the fact that no extensive pro- 

 ducer of extracted honey is using them. 



I have used many Hoffman frames 

 but do not yet know if I like them. 

 Loose, hanging frames suit me very 

 well. I have just ordered 200 ten- 

 frame, shallow, extracting supers with 

 loose hanging frames; hanging on cas- 

 ing nails, as mentioned in the Novem- 

 ber Review. All my hanging frames 



