178 THE BEK-HIVES. 



of our country, where both lumber and saw-mills are scarce, 

 and where people are accustomed to build adobe houses, 

 they might prove desirable. The material is plastic clay, 

 mixed with cut straw, waste tow, etc. 



360. To make the movable-frame hives to the best ad- 

 vantage, the lumber should be cut out by a circular saw, 

 driven by steam, water, or horse-power, or even by foot- 

 power. In buildings where such saws are used, the frames 

 may be made from the small pieces of lumber, seldom of any 

 use, except for fuel, and may be packed almost solid in a box, 

 or in a hive which will afterwards serve for a pattern. One 

 frame in such a box, properly nailed together, will serve as 

 a guide for the rest. The parts of the hive can easily and 

 cheaply be made by any one who can handle tools. ]Much has 

 been said of late, concerning the great cost of factory-made 

 hi\es. Lumber is constantly growing more scarce and higher in 

 price, and the only way to have cheap hives is to make them of 

 lumber selected out of odds and ends and short pieces. The 

 dovetailed or lock corner hive (figs. 83, 85), sold by most deal- 

 ers camiot be manufactured in a small shop or f actorj' ; but the 

 lock joints are not indispensable. When the lumber is halved 

 at the joints and nailed both ways the corners are just as likely 

 to hold and will rot less. 



361. Mr. A. I. Root, in a former edition of the A B C of 

 Bee-Culture gave very good instructions about hive making on 

 a small scale. AVe here cite, with illustrations, his exi^lanation 

 of "why boards warp" : 



"Before going further, you are to sort the boards so as to 

 have the heart side of the lumber come on the outside of the 

 hive. If you look at the end of each board, you can see by 

 the circles of growth, which is the heart side, as is shown in 

 the cuts. At B, you see a board cut off just at one side of the 

 heart of the tree; at C, near the bark; at A, the heart is in the 

 center of the board. You all know, almost without being told, 

 that boards always warp like C; that is, the heart side becomes 

 convex. The reason is connected with the shrinkage of boards 



