72 
BEE-CULTURE. 
laying all the eggs she is capable of, and hold honey enough 
for winter. Whatever they may make more than this the 
keeper may have ; and whatever bees they can spare over 
what will make a good strong colony may be given off in 
swarms to increase the stock. Authors differ a little as to 
the size of a hive best calculated to produce the most honey 
and swarms consistently with the highest prosperity of the 
bees. Some recommend hives containing so few as fifteen 
hundred cubic inches, while others think twenty-eight hun- 
dred (about one bushel), is the best size. Bees have done 
well in both these sizes. The Eddie hive, and others, con- 
taining seventeen hundred cubic inches, of which there are 
many in this region, do very well. Small hives arc perhaps 
the most profitable in good seasons, yielding the most swarms 
and surplus honey, but are most precarious in bad seasons. 
The hive which I use mainly contains twenty-four hundred 
cubic inches; everything considered I think this size as 
good as any. Such a hive, if full, will contain fifty pounds 
of honey Of course it is never full when occupied with 
bees, as a portion of the combs that would likely contain ten 
or fifteen pounds of honey will be filled with brood at the 
time that bees are storing honey. But as not one colony in 
fifty will consume twenty-five pounds of honey [the average is 
perhaps under twenty pounds consumed from November to 
April] there will be considerable surplus in such a hive if it 
has been reasonably well filled. I have observed a colony 
that will not fill a small hive will not fill a large one. The 
only advantage in the large size is, that a surplus of honey 
may be kept over from year to year to be ready for a season 
in which they caunot fill their hives. Instead of keeping 
much more honey in the hive than is yearly needed, I prefer 
to have a few full frames or surplus boxes on hand; and in 
case a colony is likely to starvo give them a box or frame, or 
feed them otherwise. This size of hive is used with entire 
satisfaction by the most extensive bee-keepers two degrees 
north of here, where ibe wintefb are longer. In the sized 
hive I use the bees will generally keep it well filled, which is 
desirable. It gives room for brood equal to the laying capac- 
ity of most of queens, and gives off very respectable sized 
swarms, and will give them earlier than a larger hive will. 
