ana its Economte Management. 159 
It is sheer folly to suppose that a given swarm of bees 
will store just as much surplus honey in a common 
skep or any old box or tub, as they can do in a bar- 
frame hive ; or even that they may produce as much 
in a makeshift, incomplete frame hive, as they will in 
a properly constructed modern hive, built upon a com- 
prehensive scale for carrying out the most economic 
methods. 
Movable frames—large frames—and large hives 
admit of such manipulation that a given swarm may 
yield four to five times as much as it would do ina 
skep or makeshift hive. 
CHAPTER XII. 
MODERN HIVES. 
HOW CONSTRUCTED AND FURNISHED. 
P' EE-KEEPERS who have failed to obtain good 
G results from the use of modern hives are at times 
in the habit of comparing their poor results with 
better conditions they have seen, where the old straw 
skep was in use. 
Nevertheless, it is not the modern hive which is at 
fault, but the bee-keeper who fails to carry out modern 
methods. The straw skep has severe limitations, and is 
in no sense, either for large populations, for wintering, or 
good honey results, equal to the modern bar-frame hive. 
The Cowan Hive. 
The hive illustrated (Figs. 7 and 8) is that adopted by 
Mr. T. W. Cowan many years ago, as an improvement 
upon the Woodbury, one of the earliest types of bar-frame 
