FIFTY TEARS AMONG THE BEES 83 



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. Vandervort, the foundation-mill man, 

 came and lived perhaps a year in Marengo, I bought out his 

 stock of hives. I supposed they were the exact Langstroth 

 pattern, but they had frames 18 x 9 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 

 thousand 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 10-frame, and in course of time I cut them down and 

 made them 8-frame. Then I changed to the 8-frame dove- 

 tailed hive, and I don't know what the next change will be. 



Another reason for not painting the hives is that I am 

 afraid bees do not do quite so well in painted as in unpainted 

 hives, especially in winter. 



Except the full-sized cleat already mentioned on each end, 

 my hives are the regular dovetailed. But the frames are Miller 

 frames. 



LOOSE-HANGING FEAMES. 



For a good many years handling frames was much slower 

 work than it is today, because for a good many years I had 

 loose-hanging frames. In moving the frames from one side of 

 the hive toward the other, each frame had to be moved separate- 

 ly. It would not do to shove two or more at a time, because in 

 so doing bees would be mashed between the frames. Then when 

 the frames were returned to place each one had to be carefully 

 adjusted, judging by the eye when it was at the right distance 

 from its neighbor. This was slow work, and when done with 

 the utmost care it was only approximately exact. There was 

 no dummy to lift out to make extra room ; and the frames had 

 to be crowded together so as to make room to get a first frame 

 out. That disarranged the spacing of several of the frames, 

 even if there were no other occasion for disarranging them. 



