HIVES 
441 
the bees to the best advantage, would give 
the greatest cubical contents for a given 
amount of lumber—barring, of course, the 
perfect sphere. As it economized heat in 
winter, it would winter bees better than a 
hive having oblong frames. 
All of this seemed to be very pretty in 
theory; and there are some users of square 
frames who insist that the theory is borne 
out by actual experience. But the great 
majority of beekeepers, after having tried 
the square and the oblong frames, finally 
decided in favor of the Langstroth. 
At this point the reader should read the 
article on bee-spaces, found under Bee- 
Space, and also Frames.- Both of these 
articles discuss principles that are vital in 
the construction of a modern hive. 
THE LANGSTROTH FRAME AND HIVE AND 
WHY IT BECAME THE STANDARD. 
1. A shallow frame permits the use of 
a low flat hive that can easily be tiered up 
one, two, three, and four stories high. This 
is a great advantage when one is running 
for extracted honey, as all that is necessary 
when the bees require more room is to add 
upper stories as fast as the bees require 
them, and then at the end of the season ex¬ 
tract whenever it is convenient. Square or 
deep hives cannot be tiered up very high 
without becoming top-heavy and out of 
convenient reach of the operator. 
2. The long shallow frame is more easily 
uncapped because the blade of the uncap¬ 
ping-knife can reach clear across it. 
3. The shape of the Langstroth frame 
favors an extractor of good proportion. 
4. A deep frame is not as easily lifted 
out of a hive and is more liable to kill bees 
in the process of removing and inserting 
frames. 
5. The shallow frame is better adapted 
for section honey. It is well known that 
bees, after forming a brood-circle, are in¬ 
clined to put sealed honey just over the 
brood. In a frame as shallow as the Lang¬ 
stroth, there will be less honey in the 
brood-nest and more in the boxes; for bees, 
in order to complete their brood-circle in 
the Langstroth, will, with a prolific queen, 
of{en push the brood-line almost up to the 
top-bar, and, consequently, when honey 
comes in, will put it into the supers or 
boxes just where it is wanted. 
(i. When hees are left to themselves they 
will generally form a cluster late in the 
season, immediately over the entrance of 
the hive, and down two or three inches 
from the top of the frames. As the season 
progresses the cluster eats into the stores 
above it; and on reaching the top it works 
backward. It therefore happens that the 
cluster reaches the top of the hive where it 
is the warmest during the coldest part of 
the year. In the case of the ordinary 
square frame the bees will be found just 
over the entrance, four or five inches 
from the top; but in the midst of the cold¬ 
est weather the bees may not and probably 
will not be near the top of the hive, as 
The original Langstroth hive. 
on reaching the top they can progress 
backward only a comparatively short dis¬ 
tance because the top-bar of a square 
frame is relatively short. In the case of 
the Langstroth hive, the bees during the en¬ 
tire cold part of winter stay in the top of 
the hive, where it is the warmest. As the 
stores are consumed they move backward 
and gradually reach the back of the hive, 
and by that time warmer weather will 
probably prevail. 
In actual experience bees seem to winter 
just as well on a Langstroth as any other; 
and, as the shallow frame is better adapted 
to section honey, beekeepers naturally 
turned toward the shallower frame, with 
the result that now probably 99 per cent 
of all the frames in the United States are 
of Langstroth dimensions; and whatever 
advantage there may be in favor of the 
