MATERIALS OF HIVES. 831 



The common Dziorzon hive* is long and flat, but, as 

 the combs run fom side to side, instead of from front to 

 rear, the bees, unless the hive is uncommonly well pro- 

 tected, wUI sufl'er from cold in "Winter. As the German 

 Apiai-ian uses slats instead of frames, it would be incon- 

 venient for him to remove any very long combs from his 

 hive. ^ 



^e variety of opinions respecting the best materials 

 for hives, has been almost as great as on the subject of 

 their proper size and shape. Columella and Virgil recom- 

 mend the hollowed trunk of the corh tree, than which 

 no material would be more admirable if it could only be 

 cheaply procured. Straw hives have been used for ages, 

 and are waiin in Winter and cool in Summer. The diffi- 

 culty of making them take and retain the proper shape 

 for improved bee-keeping, is an insuperable objection to 

 their use. Hives made of wood are, at the present time, 

 fast superseding all others. The lighter and more spongy 

 the wood, the poorer wiU be its power of conducting 

 heat, and the warmer the hive in "Wjnter and the cooler 

 in Summer.f Cedar, bass-wood, poplar, tulip-tree, and 

 soft pine, aflford excellent materials for bee-hives. The 

 Apiarian must be governed, iu his choice of lumber, by 

 the cheapness with which any suitable kind can be ob- 

 tained in his own immediate vicinity. 



I have since preferred to make my hivea eigMeen and one-eighth inches from front 

 to rear, foorteen and one-eighth inches &om side to side, and ten inches deep. Mr. 

 Quinby prefers to make my moTable frames longer and deeper, 



* Dzierzon builds hives in structures for two, four, and even many more colonies. 



On Plate XXII., Fig. 71 (the Frontispiece to the first edition of my work), I have 



•given a representation of a trvple hive. The little that can ^e saved in the first 



cosfc of such hives, seems to me to be more than lost by the great inconveijience of 



handling them. 



+ Mr. Wagner informs me that Scholz, a German Apiai-ian, recommends hives 

 made of adobe — in which frames or slats may be used — as cheaply constructed, and 

 admirable for Summer and Winter, Such structures,*however, cannot be.^oved. 

 But in many parts of our country, where both lumber and saw-mills are scarce, 

 and where people are accustomed to build adobe houses, they might prove desir- 

 able. The material is plastic clay, mixed with cut straw, waste tow, <fco. 



