440 
HIVES 
ninety-nine times out of one hundred—lie 
will discard the one of his invention, and 
adopt some standard made by manufac¬ 
turers generally. 
HIVE ON SCALES.— See Scale Hive. 
HIVES. —The word “hive,” broadly 
speaking, covers any sort of inclosure in 
which bees make'their home. In the prim¬ 
itive days these consisted of hollow logs 
two or three feet long with a board for the 
cover and another board for the bottom. 
Later, boxes were constructed. (See Box 
Hives.) In early times straw skeps were 
used, and are still used in parts of Europe 
and southeastern United States. See Skep. 
The modern hive consists, first, of a 
brood-body, a box without top or bottom, 
to hold a series of frames. (See Frames.) 
Each frame incloses a comb. But no hive 
is complete without a roof or cover, and a 
bottom, usually called a bottom-board. In 
addition to the roof and hive-body, with its 
frames and bottom, there are upper stories, 
or supers. A super, just as its name indi¬ 
cates, is an upper story—a box without 
cover or bottom to hold either a set of 
frames, the same as in the brood-nest or 
shallower, or a set of holders to support 
section honey-boxes in which bees store 
honey. For a further description of mod¬ 
ern hives, see A B C of Beekeeping. For 
particulars regarding comb-honey supers, 
see Comb Honey, Appliances for. For 
directions to make see Hive-making. For a 
description regarding the hives of early 
days, leading up to the present, see Hives, 
Evolution of. 
DIMENSIONS OF HIVES. 
Hives based on Langstroth dimensions 
are the standard. Some 30 years ago there 
were in use the American, Gallup, Lang¬ 
stroth, Adair, and Quinby frames. All of 
these required, of course, hives of different 
dimensions. Between the Adair, the Gal¬ 
lup, and the American there was but very 
little difference, comparatively, as they 
were cubical, and very nearly of a size. 
The Langstroth was long and shallow—the 
shallowest frame that had then been intro¬ 
duced; and the Quinby, having about the 
same proportions, was the largest frame in 
general use. By consulting the diagram 
containing the different sizes of frames it 
will be seen that there are practically two 
classes—the square and the oblong. As 
there would be but very little difference, 
theoretically and practically, between the 
results secured with a Gallup, American, 
and Adair, the arguments for the square 
frames will be considered. 
SQUARE FRAMES. 
In nature, bees have a tendency to make 
a brood-nest in the form of a sphere; 
patches of brood are more inclined to be 
circular than square or oblong. Theoreti¬ 
cally, then, a circular frame would be the 
11 X 
18Ji 
p 
Gallup. K 
Quinby. JK; 
17^8 
Jumbo. K 
best; but as that would not be practicable, 
owing to the difficulty in the construction 
of the frame and hive, obviously the square 
frame would come the nearest in conform¬ 
ing to nature and a perfect cube for the 
hive. The square frame, as a rule, calls 
for a hive in the exact shape of a cube. If, 
for instance, the frame was 12 inches 
square, outside dimensions, then the hive, 
if the combs were spaced 1% inches apart, 
and 12% inches wide inside, should take in 
just nine American frames. Such a hive, 
it was argued, would conserve the heat of 
