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of view, were significantly competing with it. Another hive started to appear. It was the Congrès hive,
with 300 x 400 mm frames, in two forms, one shallow, the other deep. Not being able to draw a
reasoned conclusion from the reverberating polemic in those days, I decided to adopt all these systems
in order to study them.
In other respects, the studies of Abbé Voirnot on the volume of the hive seemed interesting to me,
all the more so for Dr. Duvauchelle, my first mentor in beekeeping, modified his hive and gave it eight
frames 300 x 400 mm (shallow), i.e. 96 square decimetres of comb. But the Voirnot hive has 100
square decimetres of comb. Dr. Duvauchelle thus appears to adopt Abbé Voirnot's conclusions on this
point.
Previously, his hive had only 8 frames 280 x 360 mm, thus 81 square decimetres of comb.
Wishing to understand the basis of this issue of the volume of the hive during winter, I
constructed hives with 9 Layens frames and hives with 8 frames 300 x 400, some deep and others
shallow. These hives had a volume approximately the same as the Voirnot hive.
Not wishing to base my experiment on one or two hives, but on at least a dozen of each system, I
had to make 350 hives.
To my great surprise, I noticed straight away that the bees consumed less of their stores in the
hives with single walls where they would feel the cold still more in winter. This is however normal. In
single-walled hives, the bees are torpid; they are as if in a continuous sleep. Now, who dines in that
condition? With hives with warm walls, the bees are active for longer, and thus have need of
sustenance. The single-walled hive thus economises on wood and stores, by as much as 2 kg from
November to February. I also quickly noticed that in the brood chambers covered with boards or
oilcloth, the end frames were quickly turning black and even rotting through the effect of the humidity.
The same did not hold true in the brood chambers covered with canvas. We have given the reasons for
this earlier.
After fifteen years of observations, I believed I could draw the following conclusions.
M. de Layens, the beekeepers' advocate, had reason to say that the Dadant hive demands too great
an outlay of money and time; he created a good frame; he suggested a hive design that is easy and
economical. On the other hand he took the wrong track in replacing the super with frames positioned
horizontally against the brood.
Abbé Voirnot, the bees' advocate, was right when he said Dadant's hive harmed bees because of
its volume and that of its super. Voirnot's hive was a great step forward.
I thus resolved to repeat the studies of these master beekeepers with the hope of reaching a better
result, since, following on from their work, I would have the benefit of it.
Finally we can draw the following major conclusion: the volume of the Voirnot hive is sufficient,
albeit smaller, therefore better, for the smaller the brood chamber the smaller is winter consumption of
stores. However, wintering was better on deep frames like the Layens frame and the frame of 300 x
400 mm, deep.
We preferred the 300 x 400 mm frame because it simplified our calculations.
Moreover, the shape of a hive of eight 300 x 400 mm frames approaches the shape of a swarm
and allows the bees to put more honey above their cluster, which favours good wintering, even in
cases of prolonged cold.
Furthermore, this shape facilitates the development of brood in spring. When the bees want to
extend the brood downwards a centimetre, they have to heat this centimetre over all the surface of the
hive. Now this surface varies from 900 cm
2
in our hive to 2,000 cm
2
in the Dadant hive. It is clear that
the work of the bees will be easier in our hive.