THE BEE-KEF.PERS' REVIEW, 



the egf? to mature a tieUl worker, that all 

 egga laid iu any colony in excess of the num- 

 ber required to keep comb to the extent of 

 five L. frames supplied with brood can pro- 

 duce no bees that will prove of any practi- 

 cal utility. During these thirty-five days— 

 the height of the season — average queens if 

 allowed room, will keep eight frames tilled 

 with brood, and as it is for nearly one and 

 three-fourths generations, the total excess 

 over the requireil live frames would amount 

 to about five frames during the thirty-live 

 days at an expense of twenty pounds of hon- 

 ey or in an apinry of one hundred colonies a 

 matter of ?5. '(H) to $250. If space permitted 

 it would bo r Hsy to mention one or two other 

 items that would make the amount consid- 

 erably niuic It would be comparatively 

 easy to sele<-C a hive that would secure the 

 repression, if it were permissible at no 

 time of th3 year to allow more than live L. 

 frames of brood, but it is just as imperative 

 that every cell possible be used previous to 

 June 10th as that unnecessary brood should 

 be prevented after that date. The selection 

 of a hive must be made, therefore, first, with 

 reference to the earlier period. 



In the production of extracted honey the 

 size of the hive during this period would not 

 be very material, as honey in combs at the 

 side of the brood nest would be about as 

 valuable as that in combs above it, but for 

 the production of comb honey it should be 

 of such size as to give as nearly as possible 

 merely room for the brood and thus secure 

 the storing of the honey in the sections 

 where it will be of double value. In this 

 locality only a small proportion of colonies 

 would occupy more than eight L. frames 

 with brood prior to June 10th, so I deem a 

 hive of greater capacity than that objection- 

 able for the production of comb honey, if 

 the field were lightly ,-tocked with bees so 

 that as large an increase as possible were 

 desirable for the gathering of the crop, each 

 queen could be given abundant room for the 

 display of her powers by exchanging combs 

 between the stronger and weaker colonies. 



This line of thought would seem to fix 

 our choice of hives on the eight frame 

 Langstroth, but it has points which fail to 

 give satisfaction when it is proposed to put 

 contraction in force, about June 10th. Still 

 this contraction, which, in practice, is large- 

 ly confined to swarms, can be accomplished 

 with this hive by removing three of 



the frames and filling the vacant space with 

 dummies. This accomplishes the desired 

 contraction but it also contracts the upper 

 surface of the brood nest. This is not de- 

 sirable, since, for the best work in the sec- 

 tions, it is necessary that the heat and the 

 aroma of the brood nest should ascend free- 

 ly to all parts of tlie section case. 



At this point I am sometimes moved to 

 pray those who are so sure they can breed 

 the swarming instinct out of the bees, to 

 breed out also the disposition to build combs 

 perpendicularly and bring them to build 

 their combs horizontally. With this accom- 

 plished we would have the perfection hive 

 indeed — simply frames piled horizontally on 

 the top of one another with the ability to 

 make its capacity suit the colony or the 

 apiarist by simply removing or adding 

 frames without in any way affecting the de- 

 sirable (lualities of the hive. If this should 

 fail will some one give us a hive composed of 

 sections about three inches in depth which 

 may readily be placed one above another 

 without bee-spaces between them and yet 

 without crushing bees. I want them so they 

 could be easily furnished with foundation 

 for the combs but I would not care to have 

 the combs movable. In the absence of this 

 we have as the nearest approach to it the 

 Heddon hive with sections approaching six 

 inches in depth. The sections have bee 

 spaces but the spaces are not undesirable 

 when the sections are of that depth. As each 

 section of this hive has the capacity of five 

 L. frames it answers excellently for the 

 purposes of contraction but for most colo- 

 nies previous to the period of contraction, 

 one section is too small, and two are too 

 large to satisfy me fully. I am sometimes 

 inclined to think that if a portion of the 

 sections were of the depth of about three 

 inches they could be conbined with the others 

 in a more satisfactory way. 



Without entering into further details I 

 have sufficiently indicated the characteristics 

 which I think the hive to be adopted should 

 possess so let it suffice to say that either of 

 the hives indicated will answer equally well, 

 with any other, all the other legitimate ends 

 of the apiarist. 



Lapeek, Mich. 



Dec. 11, 189G. 



