230 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



about to write a treatise upon bees, and bee-keeping. There 

 are quite enough of these already. I shall aim at being prac- 

 tical in what I have to say, and confine myself to a few simple, 

 pertinent suggestions, that I think may meet the wants of those 

 who wish to keep bees with economy and profit, without incur- 

 ring much expense for either imported bees or patent hives. 



The Bee-hive. — Do not enter largely into the trial and 

 experiment Avith patent hives. It will not pay. Sporting 

 gentlemen, and fancy farmers who have ample means and 

 plenty of cash to spare, can afford to try the experiment of 

 testing and becoming disappointed with patent hives. But 

 farmers of moderate means, I ask you to make your oivn. You 

 can make just as good a hive, and one that will answer every 

 purpose of the costly patent one. You can make a hive that 

 will save the bees, and give you the honey they do not need, 

 and this is all that a ten-dollar patent hive can do. I object to 

 most i)atent hives, on these grounds. There are too many 

 kinds, quite as numeroiis as patent churns and washing- 

 machines. They arc too costly for general use. They are too 

 complicated in their construction, having as many labyrinths 

 and angles as a diagram of a proposition in geometry. And 

 again, they are no better than a simple, unpatented article, that 

 every farmer can make with a plane, saw and hammer. I 

 advise you not to buy largely of patent hives, but to make your 

 own. And I will tell you how ; perhaps you know already as 

 well as I do. 



The hive that answers all purposes, and the one that I Avould 

 recommend, is the common oblong box-hive, with a chamber 

 and drawers in the top. It should be made large enougli in the 

 lower part to hold plenty of honey for the winter consumption 

 of the colony. The chamber above should be of sufficient size 

 to contain two drawers that will hold the surplus honey that 

 the bees do not need. All the joints of the hive should be 

 perfectly tight, so as to afford no lurking place for the bee-moth 

 or vermin. The drawers should be alike, and completely fill 

 the chamber. A movable pane of glass should constitute the 

 end of each drawer. The chamber should be closed by a 

 sliding-door, or a panel with liinges. Each drawer sliould 

 communicate with the lower apartment by a hole in the centre 

 of the bottom, an inch or more in diameter. This hole should 



