22 



Bee-keeping for Beginners. 



success lay in the fact that he used very large hives. 

 Bee-keepers formerly used small straw hives with 

 dome-shaped tops, with no opening at the top. 

 These hives could not therefore be enlarged except 

 by putting an eke under the hive. If straw hives are 

 made with flat tops (fig. 3) and a round hole for 

 feeding and supering, a great deal of honey can be 

 secured by intelligent treatment. Sections or shallow 



Fig. 3. 



frames can be placed over a skep of this sort 

 and some of the advantages of a bar-frame hive 

 secured. The principal disadvantages of the skep 

 consist in the fact that the doings of the bees cannot 

 be discovered because the combs are fixed. Even if 

 the skep is turned up, very little can be seen, and 

 the queen never. Nevertheless, bees always look 



