8 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
which promises, or did promise in a recent past, to 
assist the intelligent apiarian, it remains but to give 
some directions of general application which may aid 
in the treatment of hives already in possession, or 
in the selection of those yet to be purchased. 
Most treatises say much with regard to hive-capacity, 
and, were we content to deal with those obsolete types 
that are quite inelastic, a determination of their correct 
size would be a most important matter. But, seeing 
that we simply replace the layer of warming bees {wb, 
Fig. 4), which is larger or smaller according to size 
of swarm, number of combs constructed, temperature 
of the external air, and a multitude of other contin- 
gencies, it is clear that our elastic hive, to do its 
best work, must not only be capable of adjustment, 
but must be actually adjusted, in so far as the 
economic use of the bee-keeper’s time permits, to 
every cause for variation. While this adjustment, and 
the principles determining it, must receive attention at 
various points in our future studies, it is for us now to 
fix the maximum, beyond which our hive never need 
be extended. A few years since, a bushel (2218 cubic 
inches) was constantly suggested as the correct thing; 
but since, on the average, bees in so much space 
would devote it partly to breeding and partly to 
store, it may be accepted that somewhat less than 
this is abundantly sufficient for any one hive section, 
and, indeed, far too large where the interchanging 
of a horizontally-divided brood-chamber is practised — 
storifying permitting, of course, of such additions as 
special circumstances or a particular plan of operations 
may demand. Most hive-makers give ten Standard 
