140 THE BEE-HIVES. 



is generally known as the closed-end standing-frame hive. 

 Mr. Armstrong of Illinois, seems to be successful with a 

 hive almost entirely similar to the Huber leaf-hive in its 

 principles. Mr. Heddon, of Michigan, has also patented a 

 closed-end frame hive, which is praised by some bee-keepers 

 of note. The reader will understand that, in these hives, 

 the combs hang separately in frames, which, when joined 

 together, make a body, enclosed in an outer covering. Their 

 being used by a number of Apiarists, shows that these 

 hives have some advantages, the greatest objection to them 

 being the difficulty of fitting the frames together, after in- 

 spection, without crushing some bees, unless they have been 

 previously shaken out. 



286. Several attempts were made, in the first half of 

 this century, to invent a practical hanging-frame hive ; that 

 is, a hive in which each comb, hanging in a separate frame, 

 could be readily taken out and replaced without jarring the 

 hive, or removing the other frames. Propokovitsch, in 

 Russia, Munn, in England, Debeauvoys, in France, tried 

 and failed. At. last, in October, 1851, Mr. Langstroth 

 invented the top-opening movable-frame hive, now used 

 the world over, in which the combs are attached to movable 

 frames so subpended in the hives as to touch neither the 

 top, bottom, nor sides ; leaving, between the frames and 

 the hive walls, a space of from one-fourth to three-eighths 

 of an inch, called bee-space. (Fig. 54.) 



287. By this device the combs can be removed at pleas- 

 ure, without any cutting, and speedily transferred to an- 

 other hive. Our congenial friend, Prof. A. J. Cook, of 

 the Michigan State Agricultural College, and author of 

 "The Bee-keeper's Guide," says of it: " It is this hive, 

 the greatest Apiarian invention ever made, that has placed 

 American Apiculture in advance of that of all other coun- 

 tries." And no one knows, better than the revisers of this 

 work, that such is the plain truth, as they have watched 



