THE BRE-KREPERS' REVIEW 



77 



quently. the two weaker colonies both to- 

 •^etlier do not store so much honey as the 

 stron<f one. If the honey-flow is a mod- 

 erate one, it may happen that this one 

 strong colony will give a reasonable 

 amount of surplus hone}', while the two 

 weaker ones will give none at all. This 

 is the reason ivhy strong rousing colonies 

 give the most profit. 



These strong colonies give a large 

 amount of surplus honey; even if formed 

 artificially. Some twenty years ago I h'^d 

 an apiary in Germany containing some 

 colonies of heath-bees in straw hives. 

 These colonies swarmed and swarmed 

 without end. This kind of bees beats any 

 Carniolans in this respect. As increase 

 of colonies was not desired, I had to invent 

 a proper management. I united so many 

 swarms that the bees would fill about two 

 Langstroth st ories. These swarms were 

 hived in frame-hives. Of course, in about 

 three weeks these colonies were not much 

 stronger than any other good sized 

 swarm; but they had stored the hive full 

 of fine comb-honey; while my other col- 

 onies, and those of my neighbors, had 

 not stored any surplus honey that year. 

 In this way, I had simply changed the 

 superfluous bees for honey; and. in this 

 exceptional case, it paid very well. The 

 reason is easy to see; these colonies had, 

 at the right time, a large force of field- 

 bees compared with the brood. 



This should be the aim of our manage- 

 ment; but it would be incorrect to limit 

 the brood too much during the honey- 

 flow; because we have to consider the 

 continuance of the colony. If the colony 

 is weak in the fall, and has few young 

 bees, it will winter badly; and can not de- 

 velop into a strong colony in spring. For 

 this reascjn it is a golden rule to keep 

 your colonies strong all the year round. 



It may be that by complicated manipula- 

 tions of the brood-frames, and other 

 knacks, in the spring, a colony can be 

 made as strong as the average colonies 

 get if left to themselves in large hives; 

 but, if the same thing can be attained 

 with large hives, then I look upon this 



repeated manipulation as just so much 

 time and labor lost. In this respect it is 

 noticeable that all advocates of manipula- 

 ting the brood-frames in spring use small 

 frames, or, at least, small hives. 



Converse, Texas. Feb. 4, 1899. 



[Some of the advocates of large hives 

 assume that a small hive must necessari- 

 ly contain a small colony at the opening 

 of spring; and that a large hive means a 

 large colon}- at the same season. To me 

 this is unwarranted assumption. If a 

 large hive always meant a populous col- 

 ony at the end of the season, and a strong 

 colony in the fall was always strong in the 

 sprmg, and one strong in the spring re- 

 mamed so during the season, the prob- 

 lem of how to secure populous colonies 

 would be solved. For several years I kept 

 bees in three sizes of hives — eight-frame, 

 ten-frame, and eleven-frame, and my 

 apiary is still in two sizes of hives, eight- 

 frame and ten-frame, Langstroth size, 

 capacity; and I well know that the most 

 populous colonies in the apiary, are not 

 always found in the larger hives. There 

 is one other point I have noticed, and 

 that is, that the strongest colony in early 

 spring does not always store the most 

 surplus — but that is another story. A 

 populous colony can develop more brood 

 than can be developed in a weak one. I 

 think no one disputes this. The trouble 

 in this hive-argument is that the advoca- 

 tes of large hives assume that the men 

 with small hives begin the season with 

 j-f6'«/& colonies. . This is not true. Eight 

 Langstroth combs well covered with bees 

 at the opening of spring is not a weak 

 colony. The advocates of small hives do 

 not wish for a little toy hive, so small 

 that it would be impossible for it to con- 

 tain a colony of normal strength; but, as 

 I have so often explained, of such a size 

 that an ordinarily prolific queen can sure- 

 ly fill it with brood at the proper season. 

 The men who favor large hives wish for 

 a hive so large that even the most prolific 

 queen will surely find abundant room. 

 With hives of this size there certainly 

 will be many queens that fail to fill them; 



