FRAME WIVES. 89 
that is really important is to prompt them to make a 
true beginning, and this will be satisfactorily accom- 
plished if we supply them with a Ime of wax which 
shall be quite straight, and not too broad. To 
effect this a brush and a ruler will suffice, and the line 
may be drawn about three-eighths of an inch in width.* 
For a time the desire to aid the bees in this matter 
took the form of inserting sheets of wax which 
filled the entire frames; but complaints arose that 
these sheets would twist and curl, and prove rather 
a hindrance than a help to the preservation of 
straight combs. Some, however, still use them. 
The square form is usually observed in the case of 
frame hives, for though, as stated above, a round hive 
is capable of being fitted with frames, yet there is a 
convenience in being able to shift these to any part of 
the hive desired—and still better, in being able to shift 
them from hive to hive, if all are made upon the same 
pattern. As to material, though, as already stated, 
the skilled workman can now produce square hives of 
straw, yet the bee-keeper who makes his own hives 
will doubtless resort to a wooden box of the description 
noticed in the section preceding the last. But, as 
there mentioned in a note, the dimensions are better 
considerably enlarged; and the inside measurements of 
such box may therefore be put down at about sixteen 
inches wide, fourteen from front to back, and ten and 
a half deep. The general directions under the section 
* Mr. Taylor advises taking a piece of sheet tin of the length of the 
bars, cutting along it an opening of the required width (to within half 
an inch or so of each end), then laying this pattern upon the bar and 
painting over the opening with the melted wax. 
