REQUISITES OF AN IMPROVED HIVE. 107 



43. While a good hive is adapted to the wants of those 

 who desire to enter upon bee-keeping on a large scale, or at 

 least to manage their colonies on the most improved plans, 

 it ought to be suited to the wants of those who are too timid, 

 too ignorant, or for any reason indisposed, to manage them 

 in any other than the common way. 



44. It should enable a single individual to superintend the 

 colonies of many different persons. 



Many would like to keep bees, if tliey could have them 

 taken care of, by those who would undertake their manage- 

 ment, just as a gardener does the gardens and grounds of 

 his employers. No person can agree to do this with the 

 common hives. If the bees are allowed to swarm, he may 

 be called in a dozen different directions, and if any accident, 

 such as the loss of a queen, happens to the colonies of his 

 customers, he can apply no remedy. If the bees are in 

 non-swarming hives, he cannot multiply the stocks when 

 this is desired. 



On my plan, gentlemen who desire it, may have the 

 pleasure of witnessing the industry and sagacity of this 

 wonderful insect, and of gratifying their palates wilhr its 

 delicious stores, harvested on their own premises, without 

 incurring either trouble or risk of injury. 



45. All the joints of thfl hive should be water-tight, and 

 there should be no doors or slides which are liable to shrink, 

 swell, or get out of order. 



The importance of this will be sufficiently obvious to any 

 one who has had the ordinary share of vexatioiis experience 

 in the use of such fixtures. 



46. It should enable the bee-keeper entirely to dispense 

 with sheds, and costly Apiaries ; as each hive when proper- 

 ly placed, should alike defy, heat or cold, rain or snow« 

 (See Chapter on Protection.) 



