Advantages of Bar and Frame Hives
It will be asked, Why all this trouble about bar and frames with straight combs built upon them? We have shown the full command which the bee-keeper has over a hive so constituted, and we now proceed to show how, in skilful hands, these advantages may be used successfully; though; in the hands of the unpractised and unskilful, the contrary may be the result.
All the bars and frames in an apiary ought to be of precisely the same dimensions, so as to fit every hive. This is essential for the strengthening of weak hives. A hive that is weakly may often be advantageously strengthened by having put into it a comb of brood from a populous stock, to which an empty frame from the weak one may be given; no bees must be on the brood-comb—these should be shaken off or gently dislodged with a feather into the hive from which the comb is taken. The frames of combs should then be, one by one, placed so as to fill’ in the vacancy, leaving the empty frame nearest the side. When a hive has been in use many years, the combs become very black, and every bee that is bred in a cell leaves a film behind. It may be understood how in this way the cells become contracted, and the bees that are bred in them correspondingly reduced in size. After the lapse of at least, say, five years, it may be necessary to begin removing the old combs. This may be done by cutting away the comb, or by substituting; an empty frame for one with old black comb, gradually moving the frames towards each other. By taking two away in this manner in the spring or summer of every season, the combs in course of five years may all be reconstructed, and fresh clean ones be secured for breeding in, instead of the old black ones that otherwise would remain as long as the stock could live in the hive.