rWsi 



144 



SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



out, would you take them out then 

 when it was cold? 



Mr. Taylor — I do not think they 

 would be uneasy, so uneasy as to force 

 them out, if you took them out when 

 cold. 



Mr. Hutchinson — I agree with you, if 

 the bees are healthy. 



Size of Hives. 



"Which is better, an 8 or a lo framt 

 hive?" 



Mr. Wilcox — I would say an 8-frame 

 for comb honey, and a lo for extracting. 



Mr. Hutchinson — I second that. 



Mr. Clarke — I prefer the 8-frame to 

 the lo-frame, for the simple reason, if 

 you know how to manipulate the 8- 

 frame properly you can produce one* 

 half more honey than you can with the 

 same process and use the lo-frame hive. 

 I do not claim to know as much as 

 many of the older bee-keepers that are 

 here, but I use both kinds together, and 

 I have tried them on an equal footing, 

 with the colonies of equal strength, and 

 the queens in the colonies bred from 

 the same queen-mother and equally pro- 

 lific, sitting in the same yard, and I have 

 set them on scales alongside one an- 

 other. That is my result in 15 years. 



Dr. Bohrer — Did you succeed in wir.- 

 terin? them as well in the 8-frames? 



Mr. Clarke — Yes, sir. I have nevei 

 lost a colony in 15 years, wintered in 

 the cellar. 



Mr. Abbott — I suppose I ought to say 

 that when I wrote those heretical arti- 

 cles some years ago, I said I would not 

 have anything but an 8-frame hive for 

 comb honey. I am just of the samt, 

 opinion now. If I were starting in busi- 

 ness again, I would not have anything 

 but a ID-frame hive. I am sure I am 

 right now. I was just as sure I was 

 right the other time. That it the result 

 of getting older, and getting your hair 

 a little grayer. 



Mr. Horstmann — I would like to have 

 Mr. Abbott tell us why he knows he is 

 right. We want some reason for it. 



Mr. Abbott — There is not room 

 enough in an 8-frame hive for an ordi- 

 nary man to keep bees successfully. 

 You won't give the bees the room they 

 need as rapidly as they need it. In 

 a lo-frame hive they have the room 

 to start on, and you give them more 

 surplus room when you put on one super, 

 and when you put on two of course 

 you give them still more in proportion; 



and you are more likely to give them 

 room when they ought to have it. The 

 reason why so many people fail in bee- 

 keeping is because they do not give the 

 bees room at the right time, and plenty of 

 it. There is more honey wasted in the 

 State of Missouri from ignorance as 

 to when bees need the room than there 

 is gathered in all the hives of Missouri 

 every year. I am confident of that ; and 

 I am confident that if we could take 

 out the 8-frame hives that are now in 

 the State of Missouri, and replace them 

 with lo-frame hives, we would not only 

 increase the hive four sections more, 

 but we would increase the crop nearly 

 double. I feel confident of it. I have 

 watched the matter very closely, and I 

 do not think, for the farmers especial- 

 ly, that anything smaller than the ca- 

 pacity of a lo-frame hive ought ever 

 to be used. I did not believe that when 

 I was writing those articles, but if I 

 were starting tomorrow, and for those 

 reasons, I would start with a lo-frame 

 hive, and give every colony from 3 to 

 4 supers every season. Taken one sea- 

 son with another, in the state of Mis- 

 souri — Missouri is not a good State for 

 honey, because the clover crop is not 

 sure — I can get more honey out of 

 the lo-frame hive. 



Pres. York — You mean the lo-frame 

 Langstroth ? 



Mr. Abbott— Yes. 



Mr. Horstmanu' — Ihere is no reason 

 why the bees should not have all the 

 room they want in an 8-frame hive. I 

 did not write this question, but I am 

 glad it has come up. I use a good many 

 8-frame hives. I can bring them out 

 of the repository in the spring and jusi 

 as soon as the colonies get. strong 

 enough I can raise the frame up and 

 give them 16 frames to work in, and 

 I am sure that is all they need; and 

 when the time of flow begins I can take 

 the hive-body off and put on supers just 

 as they need them. When one is pretty 

 nearly full I raise that up and put an- 

 other one under it; and when the top 

 one is full I put another one on the 

 top, and I keep the colonies working 

 with 3 supers. I do not see where you 

 can get anything that will beat the 8- 

 frame hive for comb honey. I am so 

 well pleased with the 8-frame that I am 

 going to use it altogether for both comb 

 and extracted honey. I can use 8- 

 frame bodies, put up 3 or 4 of them, 

 build them up as high as I see fit, and 



