CHAPTER XXXI 
EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN HIVE 
"THE bee-master, explaining to an _ interested 
novice the wonders of the modern bar-frame 
hive, often finds himself confronted by a very awk- 
ward question. He is at no loss for words, so long as 
he confines himself to an enumeration of the hive’s 
many advantages over the ancient straw skep—its 
elastic brood and honey chambers, its movable 
combs interchangeable with all other hives in the 
garden, its power of doubling and trebling both 
the number of worker-bees in a colony and the 
amount of harvested honey; above all, its control 
over sanitation and the breeding of unnecessary 
drones. But when he is asked the question: Who 
invented this hive which has brought about such a 
revolution in bee-craft? his eloquence generally 
comes to a dead stop. Perhaps one in a hundred of 
skilled modern bee-keepers is able to answer the 
query. But the ninety-nine will tell you the bar- 
frame hive had no single inventor; it came to its 
latter-day perfection by little and little—the con- 
glomerate result of years of experience and the 
working of many minds. 
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