13 
here pointed out, with proper management, is simple 
and thoroughly reliable. 
Feeding is very essential to the best success in 
bee culture. Judicious feeding early in the spring 
causes the bees to increase more rapidly. Feed in 
the summer and fail for the purposes already men¬ 
tioned. Honey made from good sugar syrup, while 
it commands the highe&t price in the market, is also 
preferable for the bees during winter and spring, as 
honey made from natural sources, as before stated, 
often proves unhealthy for them. With proper 
attention to feeding, bees may be conveniently 
kept in the largest cities and other localities desti¬ 
tute of natural honey resources. By the means 
here pointed out both queens and colonies may be 
propagated during the winter in a room kept con¬ 
stantly warm. 
Having experimented with hives and bees for 
many years, and with comb frames of many forms 
and dimensions, large and small, long and short, 
deep and shallow, wide and narrow, and construct¬ 
ed of both thick and thin materials, the frame here 
reccommended for the Universal Hive in its cheap¬ 
est and most practical form for all purposes and all 
localities, is about ten and a half inches deep and 
twelve long inside, formed of bevelled bars three- 
quarters of an inch thick, one and a half wide and 
twelve long, with a small vertical bar in the center 
to support the combs when shippihg newly filled 
hives or frames of honey. This central bar, when 
used in the brood frames, should be removed with¬ 
in a year after the frames are filled, as the combs 
in this frame will by that time be self supporting. 
One and a half inches is a good width for both 
brood and honey frames, and uniformity of size in 
