130 years
“The biggest mistake a beginner can commit, is to try perfectioning (customising) hives, before having studied seriously apiculture. It’s not the hive that produces the honey, it’s the logical application of good methods, the hive is only a tool.
Having not invented new hives, we (I) simply chose, amongst the best models, the one that seemed the easiest to operate and the most in harmony with the natural instincts of bees.
This hive (Layens) had proved itself capable of such at the hand of many apiarists.
In order to prove by the facts that our method was sound, it seemed useful to share the results during all those years. Beekeeping authors often forget to base their theories on facts (studies).”
George De Layens.
(From l’élevage des abeilles par les procédés modernes, edition1893)
