92 



A MANUAL OF BEE-KEEPING. 



pattern hives without great cost ; but I here endeavour, 

 as the next best plan, to give drawings and dimensions 

 of every-' piece of wood requisite for ' a good cottage 

 frame hive. My aim is to describe the simplest and 

 least expensive method of hive-making. Hammer, saw, 

 and plane are all the tools absolutely necessary, and 

 these most people can use with skill enough to make a 

 hive such as I describe, that with ordinary care will be 

 found serviceable twenty years hence. Let me say per- 

 fection is not aimed at, but simply such a hive as will 

 carry out the main principles of modern rational Bee- 

 keeping, and be infinitely better than the closed straw 

 skeps of our forefathers. I hope my instructions will be 

 found simple enough to enable every poor man to set up 

 a serviceable frame hive. The " Woodbury " size is very 

 convenient, and with many modifications, which have all 

 been before adopted, I shall follow its design. 



When we build a house we commence with the base- 

 ment, and so we will do 

 the same with our hive 

 and proceed to describe 

 the floor-board. Cut two 

 pieces of wood i inch 

 thick, the shape and di- 

 mensions of A and B. 

 Rule a pencil- line from 

 a to b, and bevel off the 

 part below it to half the 

 thickness of the wood to 

 form a slope for the rain to run off ; then bring the two 

 inner edges together, and prepare two battens, as C, of 

 unplaned wood, which nail or 

 screw crosswise underneath 

 about 3^ inches from each 



Fig. i8. 



f- 



-I6-- 



o 



Fig. 19. 



