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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 own. 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 patent hives, on these grounds. 

 There arc too many kinds, quite as numerous as patent 

 churns and washing-machines. They are too costly for 

 general use. They are too complicated in their construc- 

 tion, having as many labyrinths and angles as a diagram 

 of a proposition in geometry. And again they are no bet- 

 ter 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 

 would recommend, is the common oblong box hive, with 

 a chamber and drawers in the top. It should be made 

 large enough in the lower part to hold plenty of honey for 

 the wi nter 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 ver- 

 min. 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 hinges. Each drawer 

 should communicate with the lower apartment by a hole 

 in the center of the bottom an inch or more in diameter. 

 This hole should be closed with a piece of tin, until the 

 bottom of the hive is tilled with honey. In no case should 

 the bees be permitted to make honey for the use of their 



