156 THE BEE-HIVES. 



honey crops make it impossible for the queen to lay to the 

 utmost of her capacity, before the time when her bees would 

 be useful. 



It is perhaps necessary to say here, that we have found more 

 opposition on this subject than on any other, especially in 

 the bee-papers. But we take this opportunity of again ener- 

 getically asserting that our preference for large hives is based 

 on a successful practice of more than forty years, with sev- 

 eral hundred colonies in different sized hives. 



Men of great experience and success, like Doctor C. C. 

 Miller, who use eight-frame Langstroth hives, manage to 

 secure the fullest breeding of proiiflc queens, before the open- 

 ing of the honey harvest, by adding another brood chamber 

 when the queen has filled the first. This additional brood 

 chamber is removed at the time of putting on the supers and 

 the combs of brood are divided among weaker colonies, if 

 there are too many of them to fill one brood chamber. 



This is the only way in which full results may be achieved 

 with small hives. 



313. It is only by testing different sizes of hives and 

 frames side by side, for years, on a large scale, and with 

 the same management, as we have done, that the compari- 

 son can be made serviceable. Our experiments prove also 

 that small frames unpede the laying of the queen. The 

 brood-chamber of a large hive can easily he reduced in size, 

 if need he; hut a small hive cannot he enlarged at will, except 

 hy the addition of upper stories, which should properly he 

 devoted to the storing of honey. 



314. In addition to the disadvantages of small frames 

 and small hives already enumerated, another— and the great- 

 est of all— is the excess of natural swarming whicli they 

 cause. The leading advocates of small hives, some of whom 

 are large honey producers, invariably acknowledge that they 

 have too much natural swarming; nor is it to be wondered at, 

 since swarming is mainly caused by the lack of breeding 

 room for 'the queen. (406.) 



315. The main criterion of a good fai-mer is the care 



