80 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



HIVES AND FRAMES. 



Now that the apiary is all in running order, you may 

 want to take a look at it. You "don't think it looks re- 

 markably neat?" Neither do I. If I had only a dozen 

 colonies and were keeping them for the pleasure of it, I 

 should have their hives painted, perhaps ornamented with 

 scroll work, but please remember that I am keeping them 

 for profit, and I cannot afford anything for looks. I sup- 

 pose they would last longer if painted, but hardly enough 

 longer to pay for the paint. Besides, in the many changes 

 constantly taking place, how do I know that I may not 

 want to throw these aside and adopt a new hive? 



CHANGES IN HIVES. 



I have already changed five times, having begun in 

 1861 with a full-sized sugar-barrel, changing the next 

 year to Quinby box-hives, then to a movable-frame hive 

 made by J. F. Lester, and afterward when J. Vander- 

 vort, the foundation-mill man, came and lived perhaps a 

 year in Marengo, I bought out his stock of hives. I sup- 

 posed they were the exact Langstroth pattern, but they 

 had frames 18x9 inches, not different enough to make any 

 appreciable difference in results, but different enough so 

 that they were not standard, and after I had a few thou- 

 sands of them on hand and wanted to change to the 

 regular Langstroth size, the trouble I had would be hard 

 to describe. I still have some of them, but not in regular 

 use. These hives were lo-frame, and in course of time 

 I cut them down and made them 8-frame. Then I 

 changed to the 8-frame dovetailed hive, and I don't know 

 what the next change will be. 



Another reason for not painting hives is that I am 

 afraid bees do not do quite so well in painted as in un- 

 painted hives. 



Except the full-sized cleat already mentioned on each 



