HOTF TO MANUFACTURE STRAW HIVES. i,i 



struction. To make them will both save trouble and 

 expense. In many villages at some distance from a market- 

 town it is often impossible to procure them just in a moment 

 at swarming time, when they are frequently required with- 

 out a moment's warning. 



Straw skeps are now much higher in price than they were. 

 A few years ago they might be purchased for a shilling, 

 now they are double that price, and gardeners and labourers 

 in gardens who love their bees, but have not much money 

 to throw away upon hives, would gladly in the long winter 

 evenings prepare skeps for the coming season if they knew 

 how to do so. The annexed illustration will, at a glance. 



SKEP MAKING. 



explain how to make them ; only two articles are necessary, 

 straw, and either a few long bramble stems, or, what is far 

 better, a few long canes, which may easily be procured in 

 town. 



The straw should be wheat straw, and as long as pos- 

 sible. We have always found hand-threshed straw superior 

 for this purpose to machine-threshed, because the latter is 

 bruised and broken, so as frequently to be worthless. The 

 cane should be spht up carefully into thin strips. 



Many makers use a cow's horn to work the straw 

 through in plaiting the hive, but a circular bit of tin soldered 



