THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



331 



THE SIZE OF HIVES. 



Also Something About Sections, the Selling 

 of Honey and the Wintering of Bees. 



T. M. STEVENS. 



mHERE is no such thing as the making 

 T^^ of a standard size of hive or brood 

 nest for all parts of the country. The 

 conditions are too varied. Here in the 

 East we use an eight-frame Langstroth 

 hive. The season is so short that if we 

 used a larger hive the main part of the 

 surplus would be stored in the brood 

 chamber. Where the season is longer, or 

 the flow comes in the fall, a larger hive 

 may be all right. 



Just as we had all settled down to the 

 use of sections with bee-ways, out come 

 the plain sections with fence separators. 

 After a bee-keeper has got all of his fix- 

 tures, and become accustomed to their 

 use, he does not like to throw them away 

 and be to the expense of getting some- 

 thing new every few j^ears. I am well 

 enough satisfied with the sections as 

 I have them now. I fill them full of 

 thin foundation, and the combs are built 

 out full and smooth with very few holes 

 at the sides. 



I sell all of my honey direct to the gro- 

 cery stores, or to the White Mountain ho- 

 tels. I carry it to them in July and leave 

 it with the understanding that I will take 

 back what is not used. I very seldom 

 have to take any back — oftener they want 

 more. After a man gets a trade estab- 

 lished, and gives good honey, there is no 

 trouble. I have sold all of my No. i hon- 

 ey this year for 15 cents and my fancy 

 at 18 cents. There was a good crop this 

 year, and honey is lower than usual. 

 Other years I have gotten from 20 to 25 

 cents for a pound section, and that with- 

 out weighing. 



I winter my bees on the summer stands, 

 packed in buckwheat hulls. As I have 

 said, I use the eight-frame* Langstroth 

 hive, and I set the brood nests on end 

 for winter; and the arrangements are such 



that there is ventilation at both top and 

 bottom of the brood nest. The packing 

 is from two to four inches in thickness. 

 It is very cold here winters, the mercury 

 sometimes going down to 20 30 or degrees 

 below zero, yet my bees come out in good 

 condition. 



Littleton, N. H. Nov. 7, 1898. 



Bee-News From 

 ver the sea. 



Translated From Foreign Bee Journals, 



BY F. L. THOMPSON. 



.■\.s cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good 

 news from a far countrj-.— bible. 



MUERY 78.— What makes one colony, 

 ™ if left to itself, build more drone-comb 

 than another ? Or, what induces a colony 

 to build drone-comb, and what to build 

 worker-comb? 



2. Is a swarm of bees one organism, or 

 is it a crowd of organs — self - sufficient 

 beings ? 



3. What do you think of the organic 

 conception of the honey-bee? 



4. As the larvae need different food 

 during the time of their growth, how do 

 the nurse-bees make the change, and how 

 do they know how to make it at the proper 

 time? — German. (.\merican Bee Jour- 

 nal, page 476. ) 



For a taking medley of helplessness 

 and assurance, with a little pertness to 

 help out, see some of the answers to the 

 above. The question was a strange one 

 to ask, to be sure, in view of the very lit- 

 tle that has been said of the ' ' organic 

 conception" in America, so that it is 

 practically unknown here; but several of 

 those who replied seemed to think their 

 time had come to show an admiring pub- 

 lic that f/iev weren't any of j-our imprac- 

 tical theorists — o-ho no — and so proceed- 

 ed to show their paces, unconscious that 



