1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



57 



the strong and weak colonies ; and 

 untill I have all of uniform strength 

 in the yard, and all built up to the 

 full capacity of the hive, I think I 

 have no need of more room ; and with 

 all in this condition I feel that I am 

 well prepared for the beginning of 

 the honey-harvest. I do, however, 

 build up extra strong colonies some- 

 times by tiering up, which I will de- 

 scribe hereafter. 



For winter stores I would consider 

 it poor economy to have a hive larger 

 than required, when well filled, to 

 carry the bees through, and to have 

 the honey all cleaned out at the be- 

 ginning of the honey-harvest. I 

 should rather feed a little to bridge 

 over than to furnish hive room, and 

 tug in and out of winter quarters a 

 lot of old stores that are worse than 

 useless in the hive. 



In the early days of my bee-keep- 

 ing experience I used to buy bees in 

 old box hives, and transfer them to 

 movable-frame hives. These hives 

 were of all shapes and sizes,, and my 

 work upon them gave me an excellent 

 opportunity of observation, and I 

 availed my self of this opportunity. 

 Proper size of hives was one of the 

 things I had in mind, and I satisfied 

 myself that a brood-chamber of about 

 2000 cubic inches was near right ; and 

 the experience of many years since 

 has confirmed that decision. In many 

 of the largest of the box hives that I 

 transferred, I found old stores that 

 had been carried over from year to 

 year untill it was thick and waxy. I 

 could not see how the colony could be 

 benefited by this surplus of stores ; 

 and unless a knowledge of the reserve 

 gave them a sense of security, I de- 

 cided that such hives were to large. 



When hives were so small that the 

 brood-rearing had to be economized, 

 I decided that these were too small. 



LARGE SWARMS FROM BIG HIVES. 



There has been a great deal said 

 from time to time about large hives 

 giving large swarms — big booming 

 swarms — and much heavy argument 

 is brought forward to show the profit 

 of these large swarms, and consequent- 

 ly the advantage of large hives. Now, 

 isn't it a fact that the size of the 

 swarm depends almost entirely upon 

 the queen. Would any queen pro- 

 duce any larger swarm in a large hive 

 than a small one, so long as she was 

 not restricted in laying and the bees 

 were furnished room ? I think it is 

 the laying capacity of the queen that 

 regulates the size of swarms almost 

 entirely. 



Now about the economy of large 

 swarms. How large would it be econ- 

 omy to have swarms? Of course, 

 there is a limit beyond which it would 

 not pay to go. A large swarm costs 

 just as much per pound to raise as a 

 small one ; and who can tell what is 

 a big booming swarm — how many 

 pounds of bees ? So far as I can re- 

 member, no one has thought to tell us 

 just how many pounds of bees there 

 are in a big booming swarm that issu- 

 es from a big hive. 



If we had a big pile of bees, as we 

 sometimes do in the swarming season, 

 when several swarms go together, how 

 many would it be profitable to put to- 

 gether in a hive in dividing them up ? 

 I sometimes have hived these big ab- 

 normal colonies all in one hive, and 

 given them room, and watched them 

 with expectation of wonderful results. 

 To be sure, they work very rapidly at 

 first, and do more than an ordinary col- 



