168 
HIVES. 
as our reason for the above recommendation, that we 
have uniformly found that such of our straw-hives as 
approached nearest the shape recommended, have 
been, ceteris paribus , the first to swarm, and have 
swarmed the oftenest. We had till lately in our 
possession, one of the form fig. 2, which had for three 
successive years thrown each year three swarms. 
Wildmaris Storied Straw Hive . — This is preferred 
by many to wooden hives on the same plan, from the 
persuasion that straw is a preferable material. It 
consists of two or more stories, each seven inches in 
height, and ten inches in diameter. In the upper 
row of straw, there is a hoop of about half an inch 
in breadth, to which are fastened six or seven wooden 
spars, each one-fourth of an inch thick, and one and 
a quarter of an inch broad, and half an inch apart 
from each other. To these bars the bees fix their 
combs. In order to give greater steadiness to the 
combs, and prevent their being broken or deranged 
when the hive is moved, a rod is run through the 
middle of it, in a direction across the bars, or at right 
angles with them. A flat cover of straw, worked of 
the same thickness as the hives, and twelve inches in 
diameter, is applied to the uppermost story, “ made 
fast to the hive with a packing-needle and thread," 
and carefully luted. Before it is put on, a piece of 
clean paper, of the size of the top of the hive, should 
be laid over the bars, the design of which is to pre- 
vent the bees from working in the intervening spaces. 
(PI. X. fig. 3.) 
Grecian Hive . — This has long been in use in the 
