THE MODERN BEE-FARM 265 
On the question of the best hive to use in com- 
mercial bee-keeping, on either a large or small 
scale, it is hard to particularise. Generalisation, 
however, is not difficult here. Every bee-master 
has his own ideas as to details, but all are happily 
agreed on the main constructive principles. Ex- 
perience has fairly well decided that a good queen, 
under the modern system of intensive culture, will 
require for her brood a comb-surface of about 
1,800 square inches. A brood-nest of smaller 
capacity than this is liable to cramp her operations 
at their highest, and anything in excess of it will 
simply mean so much new honey lost to the super- 
chambers, where alone the bee-master requires it. 
Honey stored in the brood-nest, except during the 
off-season, is loss instead of gain. The best hive, 
therefore, will contain just as many brood-combs in 
movable frames as will ensure the right capacity ; 
and all comb-frames throughout the bee-farm must 
be of the same size, so that they will be strictly 
interchangeable among the various hives. This is 
a vital point in successful bee-culture, because it 
enables the master not only to equalise the strength 
of his stocks by transferring combs of hatching 
brood from one to the other ; but he can also give 
to penurious stocks frames of sealed honey from 
the abundance of their neighbours, and he can 
unite the weak colonies, thus rendering all strong. 
For the rest, the hives must be so made that 
heat will be perfectly retained in the cold season, 
