MOVABLE-FEAME HIVES. 149 



favorably situated for its pursuit. Notwithstanding the numer- 

 ous hives which have been introduced, the ravages of the bee- 

 moth have increased, and success is becoming more and more 

 precarious. While multitudes have abandoned the pursuit in 

 disgust, many even of the most experienced are beginning to 

 suspect that all the so-called 'Improved Hives' are delusions 

 or impostures; and that they must return to the simple box 

 or hollow log, and 'take up' their bees with sulphur in the 

 old-fashioned way." 



297. Mr. Gravenhorst, also a German, invented a mov- 

 able-frame hive made of straw. We give a cut of his hive, not 

 that it has any practitcal importance for us, but because 

 his system is peculiar. The frames are removed from the 

 bottom so that in order to examine the hive, one must invert 

 it. There is no separate apartment for surplus honey. 



298. Although the movable frame, hanging in the hive, 

 by projections of the top bar (figs. 59, 63), as invented by 

 Mr. Langstroth, is the style now almost universally adopted, 

 there is a great diversity of opinions as to the proper size 

 and shape of the frames, and the number, which a hive 

 should contain. Hundreds of different sizes are used with 

 success, from Maine to California, and from Canada to 

 Texas. 



Frames as short as 11% inches are used, but the standard 

 size is still the Langstroth, the standard frame of America. 



A frame which is now very highly recommended by a num- 

 ber of bee-keepers and sold by most manufacturers in Ameri- 

 ca is the "Hoffman frame" (fig. 65). The frames touch one 

 another in the upper third of their side bars and are thus 

 spaced. The advantage claimed for these is that any be- 

 ginner can use them without running the risk of putting too 

 many or too few in a hive, a mistake sometimes made by 

 novices, and also that they can be handled in twos or threes 

 without difficulty. These advantages seem to us much over- 

 balanced by the fact that it is difficult to put the frames 

 together in a populous hive without crushing some bees. When 

 a hive is opened to ascertain its condition, it is usually neces- 



