14 MOVABLE COMB HIVE. 



It is now more than seventeen years since I first turned 

 my attention to the cultivation of bees. The state of my 

 health having compelled me, of late years, to live more and 

 more in the open air, I have devoted a large portion of my 

 time to a careful investigation of their habits, and to a series 

 of minute and thorough experiments in the construction of 

 hives, and the best methods of managing them, so as to 

 secure the largest practical results. 



Very early in my Apiarian studies, I procured an imported 

 copy of the work of the celebrated Huber, and constructed 

 a hive on his plan, which furnished me with favorable oppor- 

 tunities of verifying some of his most valuable discoveries ; 

 and I soon found that the prejudices existing against hira, 

 were entirely unfounded. Believing that his discoveries laid 

 the foundation for a more extended and profitable system of 

 bee-keeping, I began to experiment with hives of various 

 construction. 



The result of these investigations fell very far short of my 

 expectations. I became, however, most thoroughly con- 

 vinced that no hives were fit to be used in exposed situations, 

 unless they furnished uncommon protection against extremes 

 of heat, and, in our Northern States, more especially of cold. 

 I accordingly discarded all thin hives made of inch stuff, and 

 constructed my hives of doubled materials, enclosing a 

 "dead air" space all around. 



These hives, although more expensive in the first cost, 

 proved to be much cheaper in the end, than those I had 

 previously used. The bees wintered remarkably v/eW in 

 them, and swarmed early and with unusual regularity. 

 Some of them now stand in my Apiary, in Greenfield, Mas- 

 sachusetts, containing vigorous stocks in their twelfth year, 

 which, without feeding, have endured all the vicissitudes of 

 some of the worst seasons ever known for bees. My next 



