THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
45 
experience with different sized frames, varying 
from about the size of the British Standard, 
to others both larger and deeper than the 
Langstroth, but I find the latter to be the 
most convenient and best I have yet tried. I 
have now been using the Langstroth (ten 
frame) hive for the past seven years, and at the 
present time have 250 in use, and I have not 
the slightest wish to change. There are, 
moreover, two or three other beekeepers in 
this colony, of some considerable experience, 
who have had both the British Standard and 
Langstroth hives in use side by side, who 
have finally adopted the latter. Hives may 
of course be made to take any number of 
frames desired, but a ten frame hive appears 
to me to be as near the requirements fur 
Australasia as possible, though if I were 
making any alteration I would have them to 
contain twelve frames instead of ten — -the 
space inside can always be contracted by 
division boards to accommodate a small colony, 
or for wintering purposes if necessary. With 
regard to a central vertical bar to strengthen 
the frames, I have never found the need of 
them, and have never had one in use. If tiie 
frames are made of f inch, well seasoned, 
straight grained, sound material, as they 
should be, there need not be any fear of 
sagging. 
“ Drone Comb ” gives the best of reasons in 
the fourth paragraph of his letter why the 
Langstroth frame should be adopted as a 
standard, although he seems not to advocate 
it himself; but what he means by admitting 
“ that the Langstroth hive is the best,” and 
then wanting it “ made to fit the British 
Standard frame,” I am at a loss to understand. 
The principal features of the Langstroth hive, 
for which it has always stood pre-eminent, and 
upon which the Rev. Mr. Langstroth spent so 
much time and study in perfecting, are its 
particular dimensions; now alter these, and you 
no longer have the Langstroth hive. Knowing 
what I do of the Langstroth frame, as com- 
pared with other sizes, I would certainly 
advise the Victorian Beekeepers’ Club to 
adopt it. 
There is just one more item in “ Drone 
Comb’s ” letter I wish to refer to, that is, 
the “ metal ends ” for spacing frames he 
mentions. My advice is, don’t use it unless 
you wish to be put to a lot of bother, and are 
prepared t® use “dummies” in your hives. 
Frames should have play to move laterally 
for convenience of removing them from the 
hive ; now, if they have spacing pieces 
attached to them, a dummy or false side must 
be used, which has first to be removed to give 
room for moving the first frame, whereas the 
ordinary" frames allow of being moved a little 
either way, so as to give room to remove any 
of the central frames without trouble. The 
writer has had experience with spacing pieces, 
and desires to have no more. 
If H. Naveau, when he is making nuclei, 
will place in the nucleus hives a good pro- 
portion of emerging brood and close the 
entrances to them to confine the bees for from 
forty-eight to seventy-two hours before he 
gives them their liberty, he will not have 
any trouble with chilled brood through the 
bees deserting the nuclei. The hives, of course, 
must be well ventilated, and be kept — while 
the bees are confined — in a cool, dark 
place 
Trusting that these hints will be taken in 
the same spirit in which they are given, 
I am, &c., 
APIS. 
27th January, 1886. 
P.S. — We are having a very fair season 
throughout New Zealand, although we could 
do very well with rain. There will be a good 
quantity of honey raised here this season. I 
shall have close on or quite 10 tons from 200 
hives — 100 lbs. per hive, a very fair average. 
I am not in one of the best districts for honey 
either — some have done much better than 
that. 
Foul Brood. 
(7o the Editor of the Australian Beekeepers' 
Journal.) 
Sir, — Having been troubled a good deal by 
that dreaded pest, foul brood, it may not be 
uninteresting to some of your readers to relate 
my limited experience of it. 
About fourteen months ago I bought several 
stocks of bees, in common boxes. These I 
transferred to bar-frame hives (British Stand- 
ard.) For some time they did well, filling 
sections rapidly ; one hive, No. 1, in particular 
doing remarkably well, it being much the 
strongest, until about the end of January, 
when the bees began to decrease in numbers, 
the sections filling much more slowly, although 
the hive next to it was doing as well as ever. 
I may here state that up to this time I had 
never seen a case of foul brood, although I had 
read a good deal about it. Matters went on 
this way until the end of the season, when the 
section trays were removed, disclosing a terri- 
ble state of things, the sheets of comb being 
literally rotten with foul brood, leaving 
scarcely any clean cells for breeding purposes. 
I removed and destroyed all the frames con- 
