13 



warm air into it, while as the end of the hive warms up the heat will circulate between 

 the frames. When the doorway faces east or west the noonday sun heats up a side, 

 warming up a comb next to it, but not affecting in any way the middle frames, on which 

 the bees are apt to be clustered. 



The hive must not rest on the ground, as the moisture will rot the bottom board. 

 So far as utility is concerned, a couple of pieces of rough 2 by 4 lumber are as good as 

 anything. If the ground is uneven, it must be made perfectly level, for perfect combs 

 cannot be secured if the frames are off the plumb. During the rainy season the back 

 end of the hives should be raised an inch or two, so that water may run freely off the 

 alighting-board. 



CHAPTER ill. 

 Tools and Dress. 



The tools essential for the practice of bee-keeping in a small way are neither 

 numerous nor expensive, consisting practically of a smoker and a hive tool. The latter 

 may be disposed of in a few sentences, so will be dealt with at once. Its principal use 

 is to force apart the frames, which are generally glued together by an adhesive known 

 as propolis. As any piece of flat and light metal is fit for this simple work, we find the 

 majority of bee-keepers are content to use a screwdriver or a wood-chisel an inch wide 

 in their ordinary work. But once in a while one must scrape away the accumulations 

 of wax and propolis from the frames, or the deposit of dead bees and other waste matter 

 from the bottom boards, so that a tool with a scraping-edge is a great convenience. 

 Many hive-tools have been invented, but after trying about a dozen the writer pins his 

 faith to the Root tool, which is illustrated in Fig, 1. The bent end is used for scraping, 

 the straight one for separating frames and hive bodies. 



Fig. 1. Root Hive-tool. 



