THE HONEY-BEE. 167 



matters of no little moment. It would far exceed 

 our prescribed limits to attempt a description of the 

 multitude of hives that the ingenuity of one class of 

 bee-masters has invented, and another has improved 

 upon. We shall, therefore, notice those only that 

 are in general use, and those which, from their great 

 utility, deserve to be better known. 



Straw Hives, of the common bell-shape, with all 

 their imperfections, will continue in use, because they 

 are easily made and cost little because the handling 

 of them requires little skill and because, as long as 

 the suffocating system is persisted in, they answer the 

 purpose well enough. It would be desirable, how- 

 ever, that more pains were bestowed on their form. 

 To concentrate the heat to retain it, and thus to 

 accelerate the hatching of the brood, on which so 

 much depends, no shape in our opinion is so well 

 adapted as the globular. We would therefore re- 

 commend straw-hives to be made in the form of a 

 globe, having the third of its diameter cut away. (See 

 PI. X. fig. 1.) Perhaps, the cycloidal shape would 

 answer nearly as well, and would be probably more 

 easily made. (Fig. 2.) In either of these forms, one 

 rod of three-fourths of an inch thickness, forced 

 through the hive at right angles to a line drawn from 

 the entrance, and about an inch higher up than the 

 centre, would be sufficient to support the combs, be- 

 cause the moutli ot the hive being of less diameter 

 than the centre, the combs, from their wedge-like 

 chape at the lower extremity, would not be so apt 

 to sink down by their own weight. We may mention 



