Here T. B. Miner answers a question about the size of his hives and how they compare to a hollow tree, the natural nest of bees. Miner was keeping bees in plain boxes, with no frames, but even so -- he knew of their potential, when skillfully managed.

> In answer to the query of “how it happens, if hives must be no longer than wide, that bees flourish so well in hollow trees?" I admit that bees will “flourish” to a certain extent in anything -- in a flour barrel, or stove pipe, if you please; but for the greatest increase, and the greatest product of honey, in a certain number of years, from a single swarm, we must not go to “hollow trees.” 

> In the case [referred to] perhaps the stock had remained in the tree ten years, without ever having issued a swarm ; now, what would have been the result if that swarm had been hived by an experienced apiarian? — not less than one thousand  swarms, and honey enough to load a ship, during the ten years.

T. B. MINER.
Ravenswood, Long Island, NY. 
November 1846. 

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