160 A Modern Bee-Farm 
hives used in this country. The hive is self-protecting, 
and can be packed with chaff or cork dust between the 
inner and outer walls, and even between the double floor. 
This was one of the most substantial and workable of 
the early pioneer bar-frame hives, and its constructor had 
cansiderable success with it. The hive was in use and 
was described by Mr. Cowan in the English Mechanic long 
before there was any Bee Journal in this country, and at 
a period when most of the prominent bee-keepers found 
the columns of the Journal of Horticulture one of the best 
mediums for the interchange of opinions and experiences. 
Mr. Cowan, who was always a clever mechanic, was also 
the inventor of the Automatic Extractor, which bears his 
name, and is now almost universally adopted as the best 
machine. 
The Stewarton Hive 
4 
was one of the best known in Scotland in those days, but 
as it had only bars and slides, it had to disappear before 
the rapid advance of the more convenient hives, having 
every comb built within a separate, easily removable frame. 
. The Stewarton was apparently the first divisible brood- 
chamber hive, and was responsible for some large yields of 
honey, principally because of the method of management 
adopted. 
A swarm would be hived in a body box, with a super 
added ; then another, and often a third swarm would be 
added in another brood box below the first, or second, 
respectively ; while at the same time further supers would 
be placed above. The slides were at first drawn at the two 
sides ; with the added supers, more than two slides, and as 
the stock became established still more surplus room was 
given. 
- Pettigrew’s large flat skep also fell into disuse, although 
