504 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15. 



queen in one large hive? Tiiis would do for 

 one who was compelled to keep only a limited 

 number of colonies; but what the bee-keeper 

 wants is to get the "honey from his field; and 

 for my part I would rather do it by working a 

 few more colonies in 8-frame hives, even if the 

 10-frame men are correct in their conclusions, 

 which I am inclined to doubt. I discarded the 

 10-frame hive some years ago. I should like to 

 ask Bro. Hatch what he thinks of this phase 

 of the question. Hakry Lathrop. 



Browntown, Wis., May ?i. 



[The average man can lift the eight-frame 

 hive, and perform the other needed operations, 

 with much greater comfort than with the ten- 

 frame. It is true, that the latter would weigh 

 only a fourth more; but you know it is some- 

 times the last straw that breaks the camel's 

 back. 



When we come to talk about large and small 

 hives, the eight-frame may be enlarged to 16 or 

 34 Langstroth frames, or cut down to only 8, 

 which is as small as it is practical to have a 

 single brood-nest. A ten frame costs propor- 

 tionately more than the eight, for the reason 

 that wide cover-boards are much more difficult 

 to get. Standard-width lumber makes covers 

 for the eight-frame, but not for the ten-frame. 

 After all, it is not the convenience of the man- 

 ufacturers that is to be consulted, but the 

 pocket-book of the purchaser who pays that 

 manufacturer the difference in expense. 



Mr. N. D. West, in the letter above, seems to 

 be in doubt which hive he would prefer; and 

 the principal reason for his giving a little bit the 

 preference to the ten-frame is on the principle 

 that a large harness will fit a small as well as a 

 large horse. That is true; but the case is hard- 

 ly parallel, inasmuch as the ten-frame hive 

 does not begin to come up to the requirements 

 of a large colony, and the ten-frame is too large 

 for the small colony. 



There is one point that should be considered, 

 and quite an important one, and we believe it 

 has not been fully touched upon by any of the 

 correspondents thus far: namely, that the bees 

 will fill out their sections better directly over 

 their brood than over a frame or frames of 

 honey. The average Italian colonies in ten- 

 frame hives are quite apt to put honey in the 

 two outside combs. When the supers are put 

 on. if the beps go into the sections they will 

 build out and fill those directly over the brood, 

 leaving the outside row or rows untouched, or 

 only partially filled out. On the other hand, a 

 good queen and good management will secure 

 the filling of all combs of an eight-frame hive, 

 more or less, with brood. Hence the eieht- 

 frame super, for this reason, will be better filled 

 ou t. 



Still another point is. that the eight-frame is 

 far nearer the standard width than the ten- 

 frame L. hive. The arguments that were ad- 

 vanced years ago in favor of the smaller hive 

 were so great, and the pressure upon manufac- 

 turers was so strong, that now the eight-frame 

 is the leader in the North. Whatever may be 

 said of the relative merits of the two widths of 

 hive, no bee-keeper can reasonably afford to 

 hav<; two sizes in his apiary. One can not be 

 set down on the other. In fact, it would be al- 

 most as bad as having two sizes of frames in the 

 yard. A ten-frame cover would fit an eight- 

 frame hive; but the reverse would not be true. 

 An eight-frame super could be put upon a 

 ten-frame hive-body: but a strip of wood would 

 have to cover the open space. 



Lastly, the 8-frame is a nice medium between 



the very large brood-nests and the very smalS 

 or shallow brood -nests. — Ed.] 



EIGHT VERSUS TEN FRAME HIVES. 



I am in favor of ten-frame hives, by a big^ 

 majority, for this locality, for extracted honey, 

 and I want them three stories high. When I 

 commenced here in 1S8G. eight-frame hives and 

 black bees were recommended as being best for 

 this country. I experimented with ten-frame 

 hives and Italians, and found the ten-frame- 

 hive and Italian bees gave much better results 

 in honey, in this locality, and I adopted them 

 before I dreamed of queen-rearing. I find that 

 a ten-frame hive gives room for an abundance- 

 of honey for winter. I have never seen a hive 

 have too much honey in the spring; but I have- 

 seen some, and heard of a good many that had 

 too little. I don't like a hive as narrow as an 

 eight-frame hive, three or more stories high; a 

 ten-frame hive three stories high is large- 

 enough for ordinary times, but we can add an- 

 other story without its getting top-heavy. 



Port Orange. Fla. J. B. Case. 



[In the South the 10-frame hives seem to be- 

 in the majority, and have the preference. In 

 the North the 8-frame enjoys this distinction. — 

 Ed.] 



^ I — ^ 



SIZE OF HIVES. 



HOW AND WHEN THE TEN-FRAME HIVE IS TOO- 

 LARGE AND TOO SMALL. 



By J. F. Mclntyre. 



All of my bees are in ten-frame Langstrotb 

 hives; and, seriously, I want to say that a ten- 

 frame L. hive is either too large or too small. 

 Let me explain. 



If a queen-excluder is put over the brood- 

 chamber, and the queen confined to one section, 

 the bees can not breed up to over two- thirds of 

 the capacity of a good queen, and about half of 

 the surplus bees that go to make a swarm or 

 surplus honey are cut off. If two sections are 

 used for a brood-chamber, the upper section is 

 only half filled with brood, and the other half 

 with honey; and as soon as the queen passes 

 the swarming climax she is crowded out of the 

 upper section, with honey; conseqiiently this 

 upper section must be extracted before all the 

 brood has hatched; and if a bee-escape is used, 

 the bees will not leave it. There are many 

 other things which make it inconvenient, to 

 say the least, to change this upper section from 

 a brood-chamber to a super, in the middle of a 

 honey- fiow. Two eight-frame sections are 

 about right for capacity; but if we use two sec- 

 tions for a brood-chamber and two supers, the 

 shape is not good. It is too high and narrow. 

 The brood will occupy 12 combs— 6 in each sec- 

 tion—and its shape will be about 17 inches 

 high, H)}^ long, and 9 inches wide. Rambler 

 uses two brood -chambers and one super; and 

 after the honey -flow commences he changes. 



