CHAPTER III. 



Bee-keeping Appliances.— Straw Skeps. — Modern Appliances : 

 Bar-frame Hive (different Forms of it), including 

 Description of the various Parts of a Hive : Outside 

 Case, Brood-chamber, Section-crates, etc. 



There is very little doubt that, inconvenient as the 

 straw skep is in a great many respects, no more 

 comfortable home has ever been found as far as the 

 bees are concerned. A very great authority on this 

 subject was the late Mr. Pettigrew. He was a 

 thoroughly successful bee-keeper, and made a great 

 deal of money by bees. He says: "Straw hives, 

 well sewed with split canes or bramble-briers, are 

 incomparably better for bees than any other kind of 

 hive yet introduced. Nothing better is needed, and 

 we believe nothing better will ever be found out. On 

 the score of cheapness and neatness, lightness and 

 convenience, suitability and surpassing worth, we 

 advise all bee-keepers seeking large returns in honey 

 to use nothing but straw hives as domiciles for bees. " 

 This is strong language, but there is a great deal of 

 truth in it. One of the chief causes of Mr. Pettigrew's 



