THE MATERIALS OF HIVES. 57 



some skep or hive makers can build Mves each, after his 

 own pattern only. We have been accustomed to the use of 

 hives rather flat in their crowns, and we prefer them to 

 those with conical crowns. 



Here is a straw hive 18 inches by 12. Its sides are 

 nearly perpendicular ; its crown rather flat. It has an 

 opening 4 inches wide in the crown for a super, and a 

 lid to cover that opening when supers are not required. 

 The 16-inch hives are made after the same fashion — all 

 with holes in their crowns for supers of honeycomb. A 

 well-made 18-inch hive weighs about 6 lb., and a 16-inch 

 one about 5 lb. when empty. 



When an 18-inch hive receives an eke — say, 4 inches 

 deep — it wiU measure 18 x 16, and contain nearly 4000 

 cubic inches of space. Now, tell us if a hive of such 

 dimensions, well filled with combs, will overtask the 

 laying powers of the queen bee 1 No ; we have seen 

 larger hives as full of brood as the smallest hive in the 

 country. 



Before we leave the question of sizes, let us ask our 

 readers not to be too hasty in introducing the large si^es 

 into their apiaries. Begin with 16 -inch hives; and 

 swarms from these will fill the larger sizes. 



