330 THE 1IIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



carry their stores as far as possible from the entrance, 

 they will fill its upper part with honey, using the lower 

 part mainly for brood, thus escaping the danger of being 

 caught, in cold weather, among empty ranges of comb, 

 while they still have honey unconsumed. If the top of 

 this hive, like that of an old-fashioned churn, is made (on 

 the Polish plan) considerably smaller than the bottom, it 

 will be better adapted to a cold climate, besides being 

 more secure against high winds. Such a hive is deficient 

 in top-surface for the storing of honey in boxes, and it 

 would be impossible to use frames* in it to any advantage ; 

 but, to those who prefer to keep bees on the old plan,f 

 one of this shape, made to hold not less than a bushel and 

 a half, is decidedly the best. 



A hive long from front to rear, and moderately low 

 and narrow, seems, on the whole, to unite the most 

 advantages. Such a hive resembles a taU one, laid upon 

 its side, and, while affording ample top-surface for surplus 

 honey, it greatly facilitates the handling of the frames, 

 besides diminishing their number and cost.J 



* The deeper the frames, the more difficult it is to make them hang true on the 

 rabbets, and the greater the difficulty of handling them without crushing the bees 

 or breaking the combs. 



t It is instructive to see how the very first departure from the olden way proves 

 the truth, in bee-culture at least, of the hackneyed quotation : 

 " A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." 



Even so simple an improvement as that of top-boxes will, as used by many, 

 eventually destroy their bees ; for, while in favorable years such boxes may be 

 safely removed, in others the surplus honey which they contain, is the life of 



J Mr. M. Quinby, of St. Johnsville, New York, in calling my attention to some 

 stocks, which he had purchased in box hives of this shape, informed me that bees 

 wintered in them about as well as in tall hives, the bees drawing lack among their 

 stores in cold weather, just as in tall hives they draw -up among them. My hive, 

 as at first constructed, was fourteen and one-eighth inches from front to rear, 

 eighteen and one-eighth inches from side to side, and nine inches deep, holding 

 twelve frames. After Mr. Quinby called my attention to the wintering of bees in 

 his long box-hives, I constructed one that measured twenty-four inches from front 

 to rear, twelve inches from side to side, and ten inches deep, holding eight frames. 



