WOODEN BOX HIVES. 81 
readily be made ornamentally, in part or wholly of 
iron, standing on feet, movable anywhere, and setting 
vermin at defiance. 
To the intelligent reader it is unnecessary again to 
repeat, that bee-stocks ought always to be raised suf- 
ficiently from the ground to protect them, not only 
from the baneful effects of damp, but from the incur- 
sions of vermin, &c. But inattention on this point is 
sometimes met with so gross, that we cannot forbear 
giving place to the preceding engraving, from a draw- 
ing made on the spot in Dorsetshire, illustrating the 
treatment to which the poor bees may be sometimes 
subjected by indifference or deplorable ignorance. 
WOODEN BOX HIVES 
WITHOUT FRAMES. 
As far as we have proceeded, our attention has been 
directed principally to straw hives. Those, however, 
of wood have in modern times come pretty generally 
into use, when cost is not an object, as being more 
durable and less liable to harbour vermin. It used, 
also, to be a great advantage on their side, that they 
could be made square, and admitted of glass windows ; 
but both these features are now readily secured in 
straw hives as well. 
As regards the plainer kind of boxes, either 
intended for use on the swarming system or on that 
where Ceprivation is practised, I adhere to the opinion 
expressed as to straw hives, and prefer those con- 
structed broad and shallow to such as are high and 
G 
