110 THE BBE keeper's MAITTTAI.. 



ordinary plan ; a much smaller number die in the hives ; 

 none are lost upon the snow, and they are more healthy, and 

 commence breeding much earlier than they do in the com- 

 mon hives. As some of the holes into the Protector are left 

 open in Winter, any bee that is diseased and wishes to leave 

 the hive can do so. Bees when diseased have a strange 

 propensity to leave their hives, just as animals when sick^ 

 seek to retreat from their companions ; and in Summer such 

 bees may often be seen forsaking their home to perish on 

 the ground. If all egress from the hive in Winter is pre- 

 vented, the diseased bees will not be able to comply with an 

 instinct which urges them " To leave their country for their 

 country's good." 



54. It should possess all these requisites without being too 

 costly for common bee-keepers, or too complicated to be 

 constructed by any one who can handle simple tools : 

 and they should be so combined that the result is a simple 

 hive, which any one can manage who has ordinary intelli- 

 gence on the subject of bees. 



I suppose that the very natural conclusion from reading 

 this long list of . desirables, would be that no single hive can 

 combine them all, without being exceedingly complicated 

 and expensive. On the contrary, the simplicity and cheap- 

 ness with which my hive secures all these results, is one of 

 its most striking peculiarities, the attainment of which 

 has cost me more study than all the other points besides. 

 As far as the bees are concerned, they can work in this hive 

 with even greater facility than in the simple old-fashioned 

 box, as the frames are left rough by the saw, and thus 

 give an admirable support to the bees when building their 

 combs ; and they can enter the spare honey boxes, with 

 even more ease than if they were merely continuations of 

 the main hive. 



