THE HONEY-BEE. 
1GT 
matters of no little moment. It would far exceed 
our prescribed limits to attempt a description of the 
multitude of hives that the ingenuity of one class of 
Bee-masters has invented, and another has improved 
upon. We shall, therefore, notice those only that 
are in general use, and those which, from their great 
utility, deserve to be better known. 
Straw Hives, of the common bell-shape, with all 
their imperfections, will continue in use, because they 
are easily made and cost little — because the handling 
of them requires little skill — and because, as long as 
the suffocating system is persisted in, they answer the 
purpose well enough. It would be desirable, how- 
ever, that more pains were bestowed on their form. 
To concentrate the heat — to retain it, and thus to 
accelerate the hatching of the brood, on which so 
much depends, no shape in our opinion is so well 
adapted as the globular. We would therefore re- 
commend straw-hives to be made in the form of a 
globe, having the third of its diameter cut away. (See 
PI. X. fig. 1.) Perhaps, the cycloidal shape would 
answer nearly as well, and would be probably more 
easily made. (Fig. 2.) In either of these forms, one 
rod of tliree-fourtlis of an inch thickness, forced 
through the hive at right angles to a line drawn from 
the entrance, and about an inch higher up than the 
centre, would be sufficient to support the combs, be- 
cause the mouth of the hive being of less diameter 
than the centre, the combs, from their wedge-like 
shape at the lower extremity, would not be so apt 
to sink down by their own weight. We may mention 
