182 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



bees to work their combs straight and parallel within the frames, 

 a strip of guide comb is fastened along the under side of the top 

 bar of each frame, by means of a mixture of bees-wax and resin 

 melted in an iron spoon over a candle or lamp, as you see. Each 

 frame is made to hang at a defined distance from centre to centre, 

 so as to admit of a passage for the bees between every two con- 

 tiguous combs when arrived at their proper thickness, the width of 

 the widest part of the frame being li inches. This is important in 

 the under or brood box, but in the upper or honey box the interval 

 may be greater, as the bees will prolong the cells and make the 

 combs of greater thickness when intended only for storing honey 

 than they could if intended for rearing brood. 



There are twenty-four combs in the hive when expanded to 

 its greatest capacity, and as each frame contains a superficies of 

 9 in. x 8 = 72 square inches, the whole of the combs in the brood- 

 box occupy a superficial space on each side of 1728 square inches. 

 When this space, or nearly as much, has been well built up and filled 

 with combs and bees, the stopper at the top being taken out, an 

 entrance is opened through a wooden grating to the honey-box 

 placed above it, by which it is expected that the dame or mother-bee 

 will be prevented from entering this box, so that only virgin honey 

 will be stored in it.. 



Following the example of the German model, I at first made the 

 honey-box with outer wooden and internal glazed sashes, etc., just 

 like the stock or brood hive ; but, in considering the subject, I found 

 that I was going to a needless cost in this respect, and 1 now make 

 them much more simple and inexpensive, as in the one I now 

 exhibit. 



The false bottom of the lower box being formed of separate thin 

 boards, can be easily taken out, either for the purpose of cleaning- 

 out the dead bees and other refuse in spring, or for introducing a 

 shallow feeder at that season, whilst the stops at each end keep any 

 bees from escaping below the glazed sashes. 



The lighting-board is made to take off, in order not to be incon- 

 venient in travelling ; and if the hive be moved when peopled with 

 bees, by fixing a piece of pierced zinc in front of the entrance, as 

 well as over the opening on the opposite side, a thorough draught 

 can be established to keep the hive cool on a journey. 



I have thus explained the construction of the improved German 

 hive, and I have here some varieties of structure adapted for par- 

 ticular purposes and operations, which will be explained below. I 

 believe that the more practically acquainted any one is with bee 

 management, the more he will appreciate the complete control over 

 a stock of bees afforded by these hives. To pretend to describe all 

 the ways of using them in detail would evidently be impossible 

 within the compass of a lecture ; to do so would be to give a com- 

 plete treatise on practical bee-keeping. I can only assert that there 

 is no operation possible with bees which cannot be performed with 

 these hives, and I believe more easily than with any other yet 

 invented. 



