10 The Townsend Bee Book 
are in eight-frame hives, and the rest in twelve-frame, these 
twelve-frame hives being the only ones I know of in the locality. 
Mr. Harris is an old veteran at the business, and he is very thor- 
ough in his work with his bees. For instance, every comb that he 
has is built from wired foundation; and if it happens there are too 
many drone-cells in any one comb, that comb is replaced with a 
full sheet of worker foundation. Now, if he goes to this trouble 
to keep his combs in good condition, it is evident that all the other 
work around the bees must be done in the same thorough manner. 
Since he winters the eight and twelve-frame colonies in the same 
cellar, and manages them through the season as nearly alike as 
possible, Mr. Harris is in position to tell which hive is the best to 
adopt with his system of management in his locality, especially as 
he has only one object in view—the securing of the most extract- 
ed honey with the least expenditure of labor and expense. 
Mr. Harris says that colonies in the twelve-frame hives go 
into winter quarters with more bees than those in the eight-frame 
hives, and also that they come out much stronger in the spring. 
He has found that he ean count on having about eight combs of 
brood in the twelve-frame hives, and only six in the eight-frame ; 
so that the twelve-frame colonies have about 25 per cent more 
brood than the eight-frame. I wish Mr. Harris could have tested 
the ten-frame hive in connection with the eight and twelve frame, 
for it would seem to me that if he got 25 per cent more brood in 
the twelve-frame colonies than in the eight-frame, then the ten- 
frame hive with the same management should give him only one 
comb of brood less than the twelve-frame, and one more than the 
eight-frame. The best point in favor of the twelve-frame hive is 
that it is so large that he does not need to do so much “‘ fussing ”’ 
with them as with those in the smaller hive, and he is able to 
attend to more colonies, getting more honey per colony. He keeps 
all the colonies he can attend to himself, instead of depending on 
any help to care for a larger number. Mr. Harris has used fifteen 
and sixteen frame hives; but he could not see that they offered 
any advantage over the twelve-frame size, while they had many 
disadvantages. 
Twenty-four combs filled with honey and brood will cost the 
same, whether coming from two twelve-frame hives or from three 
eight-frame hives; and there is not very much difference between 
the cost of the two twelve-frame hives and the three eight-frame 
hives. Mr. Harris says that he secures the same amount of surplus 
honey from three eight-frame colonies, which, at a given time 
previous to the honey-flow, have five combs of brood each, that he 
