THE QUADRUPLE HIVE. 3T 
numerous to ensure safety from the depredations of rob- 
ber bees. The movable front is secured in place by but- 
tons on the side of the hive, and held up by the cieat on 
its front, resting on cleats 01 the permanent sides of the 
hive. When the hive is all together, this cleat, or stay, 
runs all the way around the hive, and also serves as a 
support to the top, or surplus honey chamber. The 
whole hive rests on a cross, made equal to the width 
of the hive. A centre point projects from this, fitted 
to a hole made half way through the bottom, on which 
the whole twrns. At the point d in the frames, cylinders 
of tin or other suitable material, five-eighths of an inch in 
diameter and of the same depth, are placed for the purpose 
of securing an opening through the combs at this point, 
when they shall have been constructed all through the hive. 
The manner of operating with this hive depends some- 
what on what we wish to do with it. 
If we desire only to double the number of our stocks in 
a single season, and hence secure the largest amount of 
surplus honey, as soon as bees have begun their labors in 
the spring we transfer bees and brood combs to other 
-hives, leaving but two stocks in the premises, and occu- 
pying opposite apartments, as follows :— 
Early in the morning we close in all four of the swarms, 
and gently remove the old hive a little off its stand, and 
put a clean one in its place in exactly the same position 
the old one occupied. We blow a whiff or two of smoke 
of burning cotton rags, wood, or tobacco, in among the 
bees to alarm them. They at once fill themselves with 
honey, so that when we open the hive, if we are deliberate 
and careful in our movements, they will not sting us. 
We now transfer the swarm in A, by means of the 
movable frames, into the department A of the new hive ; 
placing the frames always in the same relative position 
ra 
