64 BEGINNER'S BEE BOOK 



disease be present, whether the queen is prolific, 

 or failing, or whether the bees are building 

 queen cells in preparation for swarming. 



Kinds of Hives. — There are still several 

 kinds of hives in the market, although not 

 nearly as many as there were a few years ago. 

 The supply dealers are finding it greatly to 

 their advantage to standardize their goods and 

 are making a conscientious effort to offer their 

 customers only such as will give satisfactory 

 results. There are still a few small hives of- 

 fered for comb honey which should not be 

 manufactured, and which in the writer's opin- 

 ion will not find a market much longer. In 

 order to give the best results the brood cham- 

 ber of any hive must be large enough to give a 

 prolific queen plenty of room to lay, for it is 

 only the strong colonies that pile up big crops 

 of honey. Unless there is plenty of room for 

 the queen to lay to the limit of her capacity, 

 the colony can never store as much honey as it 

 would under more favorable conditions. 



