bee-keeper's manual. 139 



attached, before they will follow the bars at all ; and 

 with this trouble on the part of the bee-keeper, not half 

 of the time, will the bees pay the least regard to the 

 bars, but will build combs directly across or transversely, 

 and every other way that can be imagined. 



This kind of hive is entirely too complicated for gene- 

 ral use in this country, as well as scores of pthei' kinds 

 that I shall not condescend to notice. It is entirely 

 useless to attempt to introduce into general use, 

 any kind of hive, but such as is easily and cheaply 

 made, and that does not require an engineer to put in 

 order and oversee, as many of the gim-cracks of the 

 present day do. But a wise Providence has so ordered, 

 that the bee requires merely the simplest tenement. 

 Screens, ventilators, valves, &c., are but hindrances to 

 their natural prosperity, and the thousand and one com- 

 plicated inventions of the day ares but so many decep- 

 tive tricks of the astute and keen, to filch our pockets of 

 a few spare dollars. 



I will let Dr. Bevan tell his own story relative to ad- 

 justing the bars, &c., of his hive. 



He says : " The sides of the boxes should be an inch 

 thick, and have the upper edges of the fronts and backs 

 rabbeted out half their thickness, and half an inch deep, 

 to receive a set of loose bars upon their tops, which 

 should be half- an inch thick, one and one-eighth of an 

 inch wide, and seven in number. If the distances of the 

 bars from each other be nicely adjusted, there will be 

 inter-spaces between them of about half an inch. The 

 precise width of the bars should be particularly attended 



