THE APIARY. 105 



melting the combs. It is better to dispense with 

 them entirely, simply constructing sheds to keep the 

 sun off the hives in very hot weather, and protect 

 them from rain. 



A SIMPLE SHED PREFERRED. 



Since the invention and introduction of our im- 

 proved movable comb hives, the door of which opens 

 in the rear, and the bed or top is hinged to open or 

 turn up from rear to front, requiring a space of about 

 sixteen inches in the clear above the lid of the hive 

 when shut down, we have constructed and used 

 sheds made in the following manner, which we find 

 to do well and give general satisfaction. Get posts 

 of some durable kind of wood, about eight feet long, 

 set them two and a half or three feet deep in the 

 ground, very solid, about seven feet apart, and in line 

 with the front of the row of hives ; tack a strip of 

 board, about four feet long, on the post at each end 

 of the row ; giving them the pitch you wish the roof 

 to have sloping toward the front of the hives. Ad- 

 just a third strip to range exactly with the other two ; 

 take still another strip and a scribe awl, and when 

 you get the proper range and slope of the others, 

 mark the tops of the posts, and saw them off. Cut 

 pieces of scantling, two by four (other sizes will do), 

 about four feet long, or the width you wish the roof 

 to be ; spike one of these pieces on the top of each 

 post, dividing it so as to project over the hives to 

 protect them from the sun and rain. Take pieces 

 two inches wide by one thick, nail them on the side 



