24 BEEKEEPING 



the bees and it was seldom that a colony 

 so housed died from cold or from lack of 

 stores. 



These primitive hives served their pur- 

 poses for the early settlers, but it was not 

 until the advent of the nail keg and the 

 soap-box that beekeeping really began 

 to look up. These two couriers of civil- 

 ization served as homes for innumerable 

 colonies of bees and it is no uncommon 

 thing to find them still on the job and get- 

 ting away with it in remarkably good 

 fashion. Some "progressive" soap-box 

 beekeepers even go so far as to provide 

 what amounts to movable frames in their 

 boxes and on these frames the combs are 

 built. Additional boxes placed on top of 

 the hive serve to hold any surplus the 

 bees may gather and the "soap-boxer" is 

 convinced that his system is about as per- 

 fect as it well can be. 



All these makeshifts, however, are 

 crude, clumsy and in the long run expen- 

 sive. While in any of them the bees may 



