PRACTICAL BEEKEEPING 31 
’ 
to open by a door at the rear. The frames, made in varying dimen- 
sions, on the average perhaps twelve inches long by nine deep, are 
suspended from the top bars in tiers of a dozen or fifteen deep. 
These are sometimes three deep and the frames are removed by 
pliers. One advantage that this hive can have is that the brood 
combs below are at once available without removing the upper 
combs -filled with honey. The slowness of the operation, however, 
and the trouble in seeking out a queen, more than outweighs this 
slight advantage. 
In southern Austria where frame hives have not found a very 
ready acceptance, another hive is in vogue. This style has evolved 
from the custom of the beekeepers of migrating with their bees dur 
ing the buckwheat honey harvest, this grain being grown as a staple 
crop in the larger valleys. The hives are not fitted with movable 
frames and the bees are allowed to build as they please. They 
measure about six inches high, twelve inches wide and thirty inches 
deep. The front is usually removable and the bottom is loosely at- 
tached. These flat hives can be loaded in numbers on a wagon in 
a very satisfactory way and are also adapted to being shipped by 
rail. They are tiered up with a roof over them thus protecting each 
other from inclement weather. The peasants are fond of depicting 
various scenes upon the fronts.of their hives; Bible scenes having 
2 prominent preference., One can trace sometimes the course of 
Biblical history in one of these old apiaries by the portrayal of well 
selected events. 
In England, France and French Switzerland the movable frame 
hive, invented and perfected in America, is in common use. This 
invention, which revolutionized modern bee keeping, came out about 
the middle of the last century and was given to the beekeeping world 
by Rev. L. L. Langstroth. The distinctive feature of Mr. Lang- 
stroth’s hive is the movable frame. In brief, the hive consists of a 
box sorhewhat longer than broad and still shallower, arranged so 
that a series of frames can be suspended in it running lengthwise, 
ten or twelve in number, the projecting ends of the top bars, resting 
on a rabbet on each end piece of the hive body. The final dimension 
of these frames, as settled upon by Mr. Langstroth is 17 5-8 inches in 
length, by 9 1-8 inches in depth, outside measurements. This frame 
has been universally adopted as the standard size. There are manv 
honey producers who use a deeper frame with marked success, yet 
