BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
The Langstroth-Simplieity frame is long enough, but hardly deep enough. The Quinby frame is deep enough, but would be better if a little shorter.
**307**. We have used on a large scale Quinby, Ameriean and Standard Langstroth-sized frames for years, and have obtained better results from the Quinby, both for wintering out of doors, and for honey producing. Yet, the Langstroth-Simplieity being the standard frame of America, we would hesitate to advise any \(\Delta\)piarist to change from this size; knowing, by practical experience, how annoying it is, not to have all frames and all lives in one apiary uniform in size.
But we would counsel beginners to use the Quinby size\(-\) especially if they intend to winter out-of-doors--or at least \(t^{n}\) use a frame as long as the standard Langstroth and as deep as the Quinby.
The recommendation which we make of the Quinby size of frame is not a hasty one. This frame has been tested by us for years, side by side with numerous others, for Mr. ('harles Dadant was never content until he had made a trial of all things that were given as improvements. He tested triangular frames as well as frames that approached as near to the circular shape as was possible with pine number as a material of manufacture. He tried deep and shallow frames, small and large frames, ranging in size from 6xii inches to 1\(\times\)1\(\times\)1\(\times\) inches. So, the reader may rest assured that a very thorough practical experience caused our decision.
**308**. The number of frames to be used in a hive depends on their size; for we should manage our bees, as we do our other domestic animals, and give them as much space as is necessary to obtain the best results. What would we think of a farmer who would build a barn without first considering the number of animals and the amount of feed which he intended to shelter in it?
**309**. Many lives cannot hold one-quarter of the bees,comb, and honey which, in a good season, may be found in large ones; while their owners wonder that they obtain so little profit from their bees. A good swarm of bees, put, in a good season, into a dinintive live, may be compared to a powerful team of horses harnessed to a baby wagon, or a noble fall of water wasted in turning a petty water-wheel.
As the harvest of honey is always in proportion to the number of bees in the live, and as a large colony requires no more labor from the Apiarist than a small one, the hive should afford the queen sufficient space to deposit all the eggs, which she is able to lay during twenty-one days, the average time for an egg to be transformed into a worker. Besides, it should contain a certain amount of food, honey and pollen. It is unquestionable that the quality of a queen depends on the quantity of eggs that she is able to lay. Then why limit her, by using hives so narrow that she cannot develop her fertility? *
**310**. We have seen before (**97** ) that a good queen can lay 3,500 eggs per day in the good season, so that 73,500 cells may be occupied with brood at one time. If we add to this number about 20,000 cells for the provisions needed in the breeding season, we have about 04,000 cells as the number required for a strong colony. As every square inch of conb contains about 55 cells (**217** ), 27 to 28 on each side, the conbs of a live should measure over 1,700 square inches. This space must, of conrse, allow of contraaction, aeording to the needs of the colony by what is called movable division boards. (**349**.)
**311**. As a Quinby frame measures 189 square inhehes inside, a hive should contain at least 9 of these frames.
As the Standard Langstroth-Simplicity frame measures about 149 square inches, the hive must contain 12 frames. The American frames must number 12, and the Gallup 14.
**312**. We know that many Apiarists object to these figures, because they succeed, and harvest good crops, with smaller hives. But figures, based on facts, cannot lie. Smaller hives will do only in localities, where late Springs and short hives are not in the same place.
honey crups make it impossible for the queen to lay to the utmost of her capacity, before the time when her bees would be useful.
It is perhaps necessary to say here, that we have found more opposition on this subject than on any other, especially in the bee-papers. But we take this opportunity of again _negistically_ asserting that our preference for large hives is based on a successful practice of more than forty years, with several hundred colonies in different sized hives.
Men of great experience and success, like Doetor C. C. Miller, who use eight-frame Langstroth hives, manage to secure the fullest breeding of prolific queens, before the opening of the honey harvest, by adding another brood chamber when the queen has filled the first. This additional brood chamber is removed at the time of putting on the supers and the combs of brood are divided among weaker colonies, if there are too many of them to fill one brood chamber.
This is the only way in which full results may be achieved with small hives.
**313**. It is only by testing different sizes of hives and frames side by side, for years, on a large scale, and with the same management, as we have done, that the comparison can be made serviceable. Our experiments prove also that small frames impede the laying of the queen. _The brood-chamber of a large hive run easily be reduced in size, if need no; but a small hive cannot be enlarged at will, except by the addition of upper stories, which should properly be decuted to the string of honey._
**314**. In addition to the disadvantages of small frames and small hives already enumerated, another--and the greatest of all--is the excess of natural swarming which they cause. The leading advocates of small hives, some of whom are large honey producers, invariably acknowledge that they have _too much natural swarming_; nor is it to be wondered at, since swarming is mainly caused by the lack of breeding room for the queen. (**106**.)
**315**. The main criterion of a good farmer is the care
delighted to have their work thus accurately sketched out for them.* In practice it was found to be inferior to the triangular comb guides.
Footnote *: This invention should not be confused with that of comb-foundation, made a few years later by the same distinguished Apaiist. (677)
**321**. Pieees of worker-comb; glued to the under side of the top bar with melted wax, were used successfully. But the introduction of comb-foundation (674) has finally given us the means of securing straight combs at all times, and it may be used, for this purpose, in such narrow strips, that its cost cannot be an objection.
**Fig. 68.**
MOvable frame with foundation guide.
**322**. As stated before (**299**), the frame that we use is similar in size and shape to the (quinby hanging frame, a little longer and a little deeper than the regular Langstroth frame, fig. 68. The exact size of these frames is given in diagram, fig. 72.
**323**. All the parts of the movable frames should be cut out by circular saws, and the measurement should be exact, so that the frames when nailed together may be square. Ifthey are not _strong_ and _perfectly square_, the proper working of the hive will be greatly interfered with.
**321**. The underside of the top-bar may be cut to a triangular edge, which bees usually follow readily in building conbs. But comb foundation strips are now used almost altogether, and a groove, with wedge as in fig. 69, will be found very much more serviceable. Above all, the outside measurements of the frames must be carefully preserved, no matter what style of hive and frame we use.
**325**. The width of the _to\({}_{I}\) bar_ has something to do with the amount of _bridges and brace combs_ (**397**), built by the bees, between the brood-chamber and the upper stories. A wide top bar, leaving but a narrow space for passage above, will almost altogether prevent the building of bridges. For that reason, we make our top bars 1% inches in width. Yetin producing extracted honey (**7.19**) these bridges and brace combs do not annoy much.
**326.** It is necessary that the hive should always slant forward, toward the entrance, when oceupied by bees, to facilitate the carrying out of dead bees and other useless substances, to aid the colony in protecting itself against robbers, to carry off moisture, and prevent rain from beating into the hive.
**327.** For this, and other reasons, the combs should run from front to rear,\(-\)so as to hung perpendicularly,\(-\)and not from side to side as they do in the Berlepsch live.
**328.** The Langstroh live, from the simple form given in fig. 50, was improved upon in, many different ways. The Standard Langstroh live has been for a long time a hive with portico, honey-board, permanent bottom-board, and ten frames.
**323.** The _norable honey-board_, between the brood-chamber and the upper stories, has been discarded of late years, the great objection to honey-boards being that the bees glue them, and build small pieces of comb or _bridges_, in the space between them and the frames; the jar of their breaking, when the honey-board is removed, angering the bees.
**330.** The _permanent bottom-board_ has lost favour with the great majority of bee-keepers, and is now replaced by movable bottom-boards adjustable at will. The Yan Deusen hive-clamp (fig. 70), is used by many Apiarists for fastening movable bottons or additional stories. We have discarded the permanent bottom-board, owing to the difficulty of promptly cleaning it of dead bees and rubbish, when removing bees from the cellar in Spring, or after a land winter passed out of doors.
Fig. 71.
IIIVE, WITH EXTRACTING SUPERS SET BACK FOR VENTILATION IN VERT HOT WEATHUR.
The cap is thrown back to show the straw mat.
**33i.** In the ventilation of the live, we should endeavor, as far as possible, to meet the necessities of the bees, under all the varying circumstances to which they are exposed in our uncertain climate, whose severe extremes of temperature forcibly impress upon the bee-keeper, the maxim of Virgil,
"Utraque vis pariter apibus mctuenda."'
"Extremes of heat or cold alike are hurtful to the bees."
**332**. To be useful to the majority of bee-keepers, _artificial_ ventilation must be simple, and not as in Nutt's hive, and other labored contrivanes, so complicated as to require almost as close supervision as a hot-bed or green-house.
**333**. With an independent bottom-board, ventilation can be given to any amount by raising the hive, as in fig. 71, or even more. By furnishing ventilation independent of the entrance, above the brood-chamber, or between the different surplus apartments, if necessary, we improve upon the method which bees, in a state of nature, are compelled to adopt, when the openings in their hollow trees are so small, that they must employ, in hot weather, a larger force in ventilation, than would otherwise be necessary.
It has been held that an upper entrance to the brood-chamber (fig. 71), with a sufficient amount of super room, is an infallible preventive of swarming. It is, at least, a very great help towards this result.
**335**. The bees, finding their home more pleasant, will cease to cluster on the outside, as long as there will be honey to gather, and room to store it in.
**336**. On the other hand, by the use of movable blocks, the entrance may be kept so small, in cool weather, that only a single bee can go in at once, or it may be entirely closed.
While sufficient airing must be given, the supply should be controlled, so as not to injure the brood by admitting too strong a current of ehilly air. In the chapter on wintering bees, directions are given for placing absorbents in the upper story, in the winter, so as to carry off all superfluous moisture (**636**), without injurious ventilation.
**337**. For the benefit of beginners, it may be neecessary to add, that the bees will glue up with propoils (**236**), and sooner or later entirely close any ventilating holes through which they cannot pass. Hence air holes, covered with wire cloth, miss their purpose altogether. In the same manner, and with a great deal of labor, bees will try to close any upper entrances, such as that of fig. 71, if these remain open, whcn not needed for the welfare of the colony.
**338**. The _portico_ (fig. 64) of the Langstroth live has advantages, and disadvantages, which about balance one another. Its advantages are, that it shelters the bees from rain in Summer, and from cold and snow in Winter. Its disadvantages are, that it sometimes harbors enemies of bees, moths, spiders, etc., etc., and sonetimes helps to hide the queen from the Apiarist's diligent search. It hinders the bee-keeper when he wants to watch closely the sport of bees before the entrance.
**339**. An entrance block, c, fig. 73, is used to reduce the entrance of weak colonies in \(\operatorname{Spring}_{\pi}\) or at any time when robbing is feared (**66S**), or when warmth is desired.
The Hive We Prefer.
**340**. The diagram we give (fig. 72), of the hive we prefer to all others, can be taken as a pattern for any other size, by changing the size of the pieces and retaining only the exact distanees between the frames and the body, and the height of the entrance. Its details can be varied _ad infinitum_. It can hold eleven frames, but generally we use only nine frames and two contraeting, or division-boards, or ten frames and one division-board. (**349**.)
This hive, in the dimensions given, is _not_ a new, untried pattern. We have used several hundreds of them for years,
with the best of success. It is used extensively by many large producers.
**3.11.** As a result of the publication of this book in the Freneh and Russian languages, this hive has been adopted by
progressive bee-keepers in Europe, in Algeria, and even in Asiatic countries, under the name of Dadant hive.
**3.12.** The _movable bottom-bottom_ (fig. 72) is adjusted or eneased in the body of the main hive,front, to shed the rain and better protect the colony against ants and moths. It projects forward three inches, at least, to support an adjustable entrance-block. Some Apiarists use a tin slide, instead of an _entrance-block_. We object to it, because, if glued by bees it may be bent in handling, and if it is mislaid, it cannot always be promptly replaced; while any square wooden-block can take the place of the entrance-block, if necessary.
**3.43**. The _apron_, or slanting-board, helps overladen workers to reach the entrance, when they have fallen to the ground. The b?ceeks that support the bottom, may be made of unequal height, so as to give the hive the proper forward slant, on level ground. If the grain of the lumber in the bottom-board runs from front' to rear, it will shed water more readily, and rot less. If the bottom is nailed on the cross-blocks, it will not be in danger of warping.
Our Swiss friends make the bottom-board with the grain running from side to side. They say that in this way they can make it fit exactly in the lower rabbet of the live, without swelling or shrinking. They also make the apron, with hinges fastened on the bottom-board, and in snowy or cold weather, they raise it and lean it against the live, to protect the entrance.
**3.14**. The _adjustable bottom-board_ is convenient in many instances. If in taking the bees from a winter repository, it is found wet and mouldy, you can at once exchange it for a dry one, and wipe the wet board at leisure. Or, if a eomb breaks down in Summer, by weight and heat, the hive can be lifted off its bottom, and placed on a clean stand, so that the leaking honey and broken combs can be instantly removed, and robbing or daubing of bees avoided. Moreover, the bottom-board is the first part of the hive to decay, and a hive-body and cover will usually outlast two bottom-boards. As many bee-keepers use the hive-bodies of small Langstroth lives in two or more stories, they do not eat an entrance in the front board, but make the bottom-board with slats on three sides so as to leave an entrance in front, fig. 84. Dootor C. C. Miller makes his bottom-boards with a two-inch space under the frames.
**315.** The _body of the live_ is made double on the back, which should always be the North side of the live. (**567**.) This, with the division-board inside, on the West, shelters the colony more efficiently than a single board against the
**316**. The rabbet in which the frames hang is made with a sheet-iron shoulder (fig. 75); supporting the frame. This can be dispensed with altogether, but in such cases, the rabbet should be only deep enough for the frame to hang as represented in fig. 50. The plain wooden rabbet is objectionable, because the 'bees glue the frame shoulders with propolis.
Fig. 79.
\(\Lambda\) hive has been devised by E. T..Abbott of Missouri, which has a metal rabbet notehead for the frames to hang at proper distances, fig. 76. This rabbet which we now use in some of our lives is made by ns quite shallow, so the frames may be sipped along with but little difficulty in ease of need. \(\Lambda\) Langstroh live made with these improvements as also with a bottom guide as in fig. 78, is now sold extensively for comb honey production (fig. 77).
**3-17**. The \(Spacing\)-\(wire\), an improvement on Quinby's wire brace, to space the frames at the bottom, is found very convenient in hives as deep as this. It is also useful in indicating to novices the number of frames to be placed in the hive. Even a praetical bee-keeper will sometimes make the mistake of putting eleven or thirteen frames, in a hive that should hold twelve. With this wire, mistakes are impossible, as they will at once be deteeted. Besides, if the hive has to be transported some distance, it keeps the frames from jarring. Its cost is insignificant. Some Swiss Apiarists use two of these, one in each end.
**3.4S.** The _extrance_ should not be less than five-sixteenths, or more than three-eighths of an inch in depth, in order to give easy passage to the bees, and at the same time, keep out mice.
Round holes are objectionable. Each hive is furnished with an entrance-block, somewhat heavy, and cut as in fig. 73, to reduce, or close the entrance aeeding to the emergencies.
**3.49.** The _division board,_ also called contractor or dummy, is an _indispensable_ feature of all good lives. With its help, the hive may be adjusted to the size of the weakest swarm, and in Winter, the space behind it can be filled with warm and absorbing material (**636**). The constant use of a division board, even in the strongest colonies, renders the handling of combs much easier. All Apiarists know that the first comb is the hardest to remove. By removing the board first, the combs are at once free and can be easily taken out.
**350**. This board is made of the same depth as the frames, with a similar top-bar. Some Apiarists use a division-board the full depth of the hive, but in moving it, bees are crushed under it, and if any bees happen to be on the outside of it, they cannot escape, and die there. On the other hand, this bee-passage is not objectionable, since heat, having a tendency to rise, does not escape through it. The board is made one-fourth inch shorter than the inside of the hive, and a strip "if oil-cloth or enamel-cloth, one and a half inches wide, is tacked on, to fill the spaces at each end. In this way, the board fits well against the ends, and is never glued "is" as to make it difficult to remove. A small half-round pine-strip, laid against the end of the board, while tacking on the cloth, and pulled out afterwards, helps to tack the cloth properly. To prevent the bees from tearing or gawaing the edge of the cloth, some Apiarists nail a small strip of tin over it.
We make our division board "s of an inch in thickness and put it in the place of a frame. This gives 5% of room behind it, which allows more freedom to move it.
**351**. In the diagram (fig. 72) the reader will notice the strip H used to widen the nopper surface of the rubeted end of the hive. This wide surface is very convenient, to make the cloth and straw-nat fit closely, as they can thus be cut a little longer.
**352**. The _oil-cloth_ or enamel-cloth, first applied to hive purposes by R. Bickford, is used well the broad-frames in. Spring. It fits closely, concentrates the heat, and can be removed without jar or effort. When the surplus arrangement, or upper story, is put on, this cloth is removed and placed at the top. (**359**). All \(\lambda\)iparists, or nearly all, who have tried the oil-cloth and honey-board simultaneously, have discarded the latter forever, except in some cases of eomb- honey production, when a perforated zinc (**332**) honey-board is used between the stories. The oil-cloth is sometimes gnawed, or rather pulled to pieces by the bees in a few years,but its cost is so small, and its use so great, that it is worth while to replace it as often as necessary.
**353**. The _straw-mat_ is one of the most useful and necessary implements of the bee-hive. It is far superior to the wooden-mat described by one or two writers. It is flexible and porous, warm in Winter, cool in Summer. It may be made of rye straw, or of what is called slough-grass, a tough and coarse grass growing in marshy places, and bounding on the bottoms of the Mississippi'pi Valley. The nat shown in fig. 73 is only about one inch thick.
But it is quite sufficient. We are sure that there is nothing that will equal this implement, except a piece of heavy felt of proper size.
In fig. S2 we present to our readers an engraving of a frame, for making these mats. They are very simple in construction. It is well, in making them, to use strong twine, soaked in linseed-oil; for the moisture, which escapes from the bees in Winter, would soon rot the string.
The enamel-cloth is removed before Winter (**635**), and the mat placed immediately over the frames. A good mat will last as long as the hive.
We have used these mats for forty years and would not think of getting along without them.
**354**. The upper story or cover may be a half-story cap, in one piece (fig. 72), or in two pieces (fig. 74), or, if only full stories are used for surplus, it may be a shallow cover, which will fit over either the first or the second story. We prefer the half-story cap, which can be readily filled with absorbents for Winter, and is adapted to any style of supers." **355**. The caps must fit freely so as to be easily removed. They may be made of lighter lumber than the body of the hive, to save fatigue to the A\({}_{\mbox{\scriptsize{\it|}}}\)jarist in handling them. The top of the hive must be water-tight. Cracks, knots and seams should be avoided, or should be thoroughly painted with roof-cement. Before putting together the boards which form the top of the cap of our lives, we make, along both sides of the joints, a rounded groove, three-eighths of an ineh wide and one-fourth of an ineh deep, in which the rainwater runs, instead of leaking inside. Mr. McCord of Oxford, O., made the covers of his hives water-tight, by covering them with strong nuslin, tacked on with a strip nailed to the edges and thoroughly painted. Mr. G. M. Doolittle and Dr. C. C. Miller use tin, painted white, on the tops of their hives. The Swiss and French bee-keepers do the same.
A hive is made by some manufacturers which contains about as much brood-chamber space as our large hive, while more cheaply constructed. This is called the Jumbo hive (fig. 85), and is made with look corners similar to what is termed the "dovetailed live." It is an economical live, but we prefer our live with telescope cap as described.
**356.** The lives should always be painted, not only to make theni last, but to give then a neat appearance. No dark colors should be used, as they absorb the sun's heat, nor should all the lives be of the same tint (**303**). If the joints are painted when they are put together, they will last much longer. Every old Apiarist well knows that the joints are the first to decay.