DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 21 



the harvest — it is found also in better wintering conditions. 

 The winter cluster of bees occupies a sphere-shaped space, 

 in from four to eight frames, in the center of the brood-chamber. 

 This cluster of bees is perhaps on an average 7 inches in diameter. 

 This means that, in a frame measuring eight inches in depth, 

 the cluster will probably be within an inch of the top. In a 

 frame measuring lOj^ inches in depth, the cluster will be 2)}4 

 inches from the top. In the deeper frame, there may be 4 or 5 

 inches of honey, placed by the bees at the top of the combs. 

 In the shallower frame, under similar conditions, there will 

 not be much more than three inches of honey in the same posi cion. 

 The deeper hive is therefore safer for wintering, if our bees are 

 compelled to remain clustered in the same spot for a number 

 of weeks, in very cold weather. As heat ascends, they will be 

 able to eat the honey above them when they would not be able 

 to eat honey at the end of the combs, away from the cluster. 

 This theory, again, is an explanation of the better wintering of 

 bees in the larger and deeper hive, which we found invariable 

 whenever a hard winter made a test of comparative conditions. 



Frame Spacing 



Another advantage of the large brood-chambers, which we 

 adopted after the example of Quinby, is to be found in the 

 greater spacing of the frames. Quinby spaced his frames — and 

 therefore the combs of the colony — 1^ inches from center to 

 center. He followed former apiarists, such as Dzierzon, in this, 

 and thought it the correct distance. Langstroth spaced his 

 combs a fraction over 1^ inches apart and thought it correct. 

 The manufacturers of hives of the United States, without 

 investigating the matter very deeply, made the spacing of frames 

 exactly 1^. They had good authorities behind them, for 

 Berlepsch, one of the leaders of the middle of the 19th Century, 

 asserted that this spacing was the one followed by bees. Adopt- 

 ing the Quinby hive, we adopted his spacing. When the matter 

 was discussed and we referred to the bees, in natural condition, 

 for their testimonial, we found that they make all sorts of spacing 



