1 . 4 HIVES. 



which we must refer our readers to his treatise. It 

 appears to be a very complex structure, and therefore 

 so far ineligible ; for every bee-master., in operating 

 with his little irritable and impatient labourers, feels 

 as very serious obstacles to his success, the machinery 

 of drawers, dividers, sliders, grooves, &c. This form 

 of the storied hive, accordingly, has never been brought 

 into general use. A simpler construction has become 

 popular. Ten years after Wildman's work was pub- 

 lished, Mr. Keys published his Treatise, in which he 

 gives his plan of a storied hive, the chief improvement 

 of which consisted in the employment of the cross 

 bars of the Grecian hive, and arranged nearly in the 

 same manner, instead of the complex and cumbrous 

 sliding frames of Wildman's. Seven years ago, Mr. 

 Howatson, in a useful little manual on bees, advocated 

 a story-hive, in the construction of which he professes 

 having endeavoured to combine the advantages of 

 both Wildman's and that of Keys, while he aimed at 

 greater simplicity, and a diminution of expense. We 

 think he has succeeded in his views, and his success 

 would be still more complete were the troublesome, 

 and, in our opinion, unnecessary apparatus of " glass 

 slips" dispensed with. " The boxes (PI. XI. fig. 1.) 

 are made of fir-deal,* f of an inch thick ;" a full inch 

 in thickness, and even a little more, would be an im- 

 provement, there would be less chance of the internal 

 heat escaping, or of the external cold penetrating. 



* Poplar, in the opinion of T. A. Knight, Esq., would an- 

 swer better, from its looser g~iin, and consequent non-con- 

 ducting quality. 



