280 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



sider that all these points are of mi- 

 nor importance beside the one of 

 getting lots of bees in the right time 

 for the honey harvest. Of course no 

 one will think that I recommend only 

 1,500 cubic inches as the right size 

 of a hive for extracted honey. This 

 size is for the brood-chamber dur- 

 ing May and June, and whatever 

 else is needed by way of surplus for 

 honey is added to this. For ex- 

 tracted honey, I add from 2,000 to 

 3,000 cubic inches, while for winter- 

 ing I prefer using only from five to 

 seven combs well filled with honey. 

 Then again, I use only five frames 

 when hiving new swarms as I have 

 before stated in the American Apicul- 

 TURiST and with me no sei size of 

 brood-chamber could be adopted, 

 only I never wish it larger than 1,500 

 cubic inches. The contracting to a 

 smaller size is easily done for win- 

 tering or new swarms by means of 

 dummies or division-boards. 



ANSWER P.Y A. E. MANUIM. 



I don't know ; that depends up- 

 on circumstances and locality, not 

 knowing the locality of the questioner 

 it would be very difficult for me to 

 inteUigently answer his question. In 

 a warm climate a large frame like the 

 L. or Quinby might give better re- 

 sults than smaller ones, and by using 

 ten or twelve of these frames in each 

 story perhaps better results would be 

 obtained. Were I in a warm climate 

 I would try a brood-chamber con- 

 taining about 3,000 inches and use 

 as many stories as the flow of honey 

 would require. Of course one must 

 study his location and the season of 

 year when the honey flow is expected 

 and govern his methods accordingly. 



In the south I presume there is 

 ample time to rear a large brood of 

 bees early, long before any very abun- 

 dant flow of honey, hence a much 

 larger brood-chamber may be used 

 to advantage in order to rear a large 

 force to gather the honey in its sea- 

 son. While here at the north we 



have but little time to rear our bees 

 before the first honey flow which usu- 

 ally commences about June loth, 

 and as April is a very unfavorable 

 month in which to rear brood, we 

 have to depend upon May ; and 

 sometimes the first half of May is 

 cold and wet so that bees will not 

 breed very fast, hence leaving us but a 

 very short time in which to crowd 

 our brood-chambers with working 

 bees. It will therefore be seen that 

 we here at the north are obliged to 

 use a smaller brood-chamber than 

 what might be used in a warmer 

 climate. 



After much experimenting I hav^e 

 adopted a brood-chamber containing 

 about 2200 inches or 1,368 inches 

 of surface of comb, inside the frames. 

 My frames are 9^ X 1 2 inside meas- 

 ure and 12 in number. I find that 

 this size suits my locality and climate 

 better than any other I have ever 

 tried, both for summer and winter. 



The thorough-going apiarist will 

 contract the brood-chamber to suit 

 the season. With me, if April and 

 May are favorable for brood-rearing, 

 I have no trouble in getting my 

 twelve frames filled with brood from 

 top to bottom by the first of June. 

 In such a case I have plenty of work- 

 ers to gather the first flow of honey 

 as well as the last ; but last spring was 

 very unfavorable, especially the latter 

 part of May. I was unable to get over 

 eight to nine frames filled with brood 

 by June loth, at which time I ceased 

 giving more combs, but used divi- 

 sion-boards instead, as I always want 

 the brood-chamber crowded with 

 bees, let it be large or small. 



ANSWER BY G. W. DEMAREE. 



The frame hive is a compromise 

 with nature, as pertains to the hab- 

 its and instincts of the bees. The 

 best hive for wintering bees is not 

 necessarily the best hive for all pur- 

 poses. It would be expensive, and 

 for that reason impracticable, to fur- 

 nish hives for wintering bees alone, 



