THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



57 



Now, 31 r. lulitor, somebody asks ine 

 whether I think that the large' hives are 

 going to "take," and become prominent. 

 I will frankly tell you that I think not. 

 Say what we may, the Ji.oo hive will sell 

 because people go for cheapness. And 

 if it were not a question of cheapness, but 

 only of reason, does it follow that people 

 would take the more reasonable course ? 



Do men chew tobacco because it is the 

 best thing to do ? Do our women wear 

 tight corsets because they are more 

 healthful ? Do the Chinese bandage the 

 feet of their girls because they will be 

 benefited thereby ? Do our little girls 

 wear short skirts in the winter and long 

 hair in the summer for their comfort? 

 Why does a lady carry her pocket-book 

 in her hand instead of having a pocket to 

 her dress ? Is it more convenient ? Why 

 does America take the Philipinesand pay 

 out twenty millions of her money ? Is it 

 for her moral or her pecuniar)- advaiitage ? 

 Nay, we are all more or less like sheep, 

 and follow the bell-wether, whether he 

 leads us right or wrong. Just see us now, 

 throwing away our feelings, patting the 

 British Lion, with the confidence of a 

 child, forgetting that, less than forty 

 years ago, he did all he could to promote 

 secession and break up the Union. His 

 cat-like paw is velvety and soft just now; 

 but look out for the claws, if we happen 

 to reach out for a dish that he covets. 



[As I understand you, friend D., you 

 prefer the large hives, even for comb hon- 

 ey, because their brood-nests are capal^le 

 of equaling the capacity of the best queens; 

 and that whenever one is not able to fill 

 the whole brood-nest, you contract the 

 hive to her needs. 



Now, here is a question I want to ask 

 you: How many frames, of Quinby size, 

 will your average good queens fill with 

 brood, as frames are ordinarily filled ? 

 What I am getting at is this: Is the eight- 

 frame single Langstroth brood-nest, in 

 your opinion, large enough to accommo- 

 date the breeding capacity of the average 

 good queens? 



Our Mr. Calvert, who makes out our 

 estimates, has figured on the two styles 

 of hive you describe, and he estimates 

 that the larger one would cost only about 

 40 or 50 per cent more than the smaller 

 one. If that is the case, then you, in 

 your preceeding article, made a stronger 

 case against the large hives than was nec- 

 essary. It shows you meant to be entirely 

 fair. — r^D.] 



Before summing up my views and argu- 

 ments in this matter I think best to give 



another quotation from Gleanings. This 

 time it is from the pen of Bro. Doolittle, 

 and reads as follows: — 



I supposed I had annihilated that 

 "arena" fitted up for Dr. M. and myself 

 to fight in; but it seems that the good (?) 

 doctor is bound to fight with Doolittle 

 anyway, as a straw (p. 869) in December 

 ist Gleanings would denote. After tell- 

 ing what Dr. E. Gallup says about a queen 

 of his occupying 24 Gallup frames fully 

 with brood, Bro. Miller wants to know 

 how I reconcile that with a statment I 

 made, that 9 Gallup frames entertain the 

 best queens to their fullest capacity as to 

 egg-laying, and if Dr. Gallup's queen 

 did not need nearly three times as much 

 room. Well, my dear doctor, had you 

 read the bee-papers more carefully during 

 the past, and remembered what you read, 

 you would have known that Gallup's 24- 

 frame hive was worked iox extracted hon- 

 ey, while Doolittle was talking about 

 hives worked for comb honey. But I 

 think I hear the doctor saying, "has the 

 working of a hive for extracted honey 

 anything to do with the capacity of the 

 queen for egg - laying ? or does the 

 working for comb honey decrease her 

 capacity any? his eyes giving that 

 peculiar twinkle they have at times 

 when he is thinking to himself, "Guess I 

 have got you this time." Dr. M., let me 

 tell you something. I am not going back 

 through musty volumes of old bee-jour- 

 nals to hunt the matter up to get exact 

 figures, but shall tell it from memory. 

 Up to 1874 I had thought that 9 Gallup 

 frames would entertain the best queen to 

 her fullest capacity, no matter whether 

 the colony was worked for extracted or 

 comb honey; for up to that time that was 

 the greatest number allowed for either. 

 In the spring of 1874 I read upon the 

 (Adair) Long Idea hive, and became in- 

 fatuated with the same. I made two of 

 them, working one for extracted honey 

 and the other for comb, these hives being 

 made to hold 32 Gallup frames when the 

 whole number was in. I selected two 

 average colonies out of my nine-frame 

 hives; and when the nine frames were 

 pretty well coveretl with bees, and brood 

 in soine six or seven of the combs, I set 

 each over into these four-foot hives. At 

 the same time I .selected another colony 

 of about the same grade, to be worked 

 for extracted honey on the tiering-up 

 plan, and one to be worked for comb hon- 

 ey on the nine-frame "side and top box" 

 plan I had used before. In due time the 

 two long hives were filled out with the 

 full 32 combs, with sections on the one 



