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DR. MtI.LER J S 
some of the hives are not more than 9 y & deep, although I think 
they were 9 l / 2 when new. 
Q. Do you think the bees will gather more honey in a 10-frame 
hive than they will in an 8-frame? 
A. Not necessarily. Of course, a stronger colony ought to get 
more honey, but just as strong a colony can be in an 8-frame 
hive as in a 10-frame, for two stories of the 8-frame can be used 
if need be. Of course this would be a 16-frame hive. 
Q. I would like to ask a few questions concerning that large 
hive. 
(a) When you take that second hive off, don’t you have trouble 
with brood, or do you use an excluder? 
(b) Do your bees go to work in the supers as readily as when 
only one hive-body was used? 
A. (a) I use 8-frame hives which can hardly be called “large 
hives, so I suppose you refer to my using two stories as brood- 
chambers, making practically a 16-frame hive. I put on a second 
brood-story whenever the first becomes crowded, unless I take 
away some of the brood to use elsewhere. I reduce to one story 
at the time of putting on supers for surplus. There is so little 
trouble with brood in sections that I don’t think it worth while 
to use excluders. But if I didn’t fill the sections full of founda- 
tion, I should have to use excluders. 
(b) Yes, perhaps more readily. 
Q. What kind of a beehive do you prefer, without porch or 
with porch, and why? 
A. The Langstroth hive was at first made with a portico. 
Latterly very few have the portico, perhaps chieflv because it fur- 
nishes such a nice refuge for spiders, causing the death of too 
many bees. 
Q. Is a hive supposed to sit level? 
A. It should slant a little to the front, the front end being an 
inch or two lower than the back end. It should be level from 
side to side. 
Q. I have seven colonies of bees, four in 8-frame hives and 
three in 10-frame hives. At 1 :30 today the bees of all the smaller 
hives were flying, while the others were not. I examined them, 
and found one of the colonies dead, though there was about 30 
pounds of nice honey left. In the dead colony there was a double 
handful of bees and lots of drones. 
I cannot account for this. It looks as if 8-frame hives were 
better for wintering in northern Iowa than the 10-frame. All the 
colonies had plenty of honey. (December 28, Iowa.) 
