The Choice of a Hive 35 



some advantages. For instance, at the beginning of the season it is 

 desirable to induce the bees to spread out and fill their combs as com- 

 pletely as possible with brood; and b)- dividing the brood-nest hori- 

 zontally, transposing the sections, placing the lower one above and 

 the upper one below, we bring together, in the center of the hive, the 

 outside or spherical portions of the brood-nest, while the broad center 

 surfaces are thrown to the outside. In their efforts to bring the brood- 

 nest back to a spherical shape, the bees remove the honey from the 

 center of the hive and replace it with brood, thereby increasing the 

 amount of the latter. The transposition of the two sections of the 

 brood-nest also throws a large surface of brood up close to the supers, 

 which greatly hastens the beginning of work in the sections. 



The use of this style of hive also allows of contraction of the 

 brood-nest without reducing the supering surface or the bringing in of 

 "dummies," as must be done with other styles of hive. Divisible-brood- 

 chamber hives cost considerably more than other styles of hives, and, 

 after using them for years by the side of the ordinary Langstroth hive, 

 seeing them used b}- other persons in different locations, and considering 

 the new features that have recently sprung up in bee-keeping, I have 

 gradually come to the decision that if I were now starting in the bee 

 business I would not use the horizontally divisible hive. In my opinion, 

 its greatest point of superiority is in practicing contraction of the 

 brood-nest ; but so far as handling frames is concerned, there is no 

 frame that approaches the plain all-wood hanging frame, and. in man- 

 aging out-apiaries, in which case there is not time for using the bee- 

 escape, this is a most decided advantage. 



In northern climates bees need more protection in winter than 

 is afforded by a single-wall hive. In Michigan this is best afforded by 

 a cellar ; further south, some kind of packing is probably preferable. 

 Whether this packing shall be in the shape of the so-called chaft' hive, 

 or in something of a temporary nature that can be removed in summer, 

 is a point upon which bee-keepers differ. It is true that temporary 

 packing calls for extra labor (but it does not come at a hurrying time 

 of the year), and there n'os a time when it also resulted in some untidi- 

 ness and unsightliness in the apiary during the winter ; but the neat 

 outer case and improved methods of packing that are now being adopted 

 have removed the latter objection and greatly reduced the former. 

 These methods of temporary packing are cheaper than the chaff hives, 

 while the advantage of having light single-walled hives during the 

 working season, hives that can be picked up, handled, manipulated, 

 tiered-up, carried, if advisable, to a distant or more desirable location — 

 hives, in short, that can be handled in a wa^- that means business — all 

 these advantages are so great that I should never think of adopting the 



