174 
HIVES. 
which we must refer our readers to his treatise. It 
appears to be a very complex structure, and therefore 
so far ineligible ; for every bee-master, in operating 
with his little irritable and impatient labourers, feels 
as very serious obstacles to his success, the macliinery 
of drawers, dividers, sliders, grooves, &c. This form 
of the storied hive, accordingly, has never been brought 
into general use. A simpler construction has become 
popular. Ten years after Wildman’s work was pub- 
lished, Mr. Keys published his Treatise, in which he 
gives his plan of a storied hive, the chief improvement 
of which consisted in the employment of the cross 
bars of the Grecian hive, and arranged nearly in the 
same manner, instead of the complex and cumbrous 
sliding frames of Wildman’s. Seven years ago, Mr. 
Howatson, in a useful little manual on bees, advocated 
a story-hive, in the construction of which he professes 
having endeavoured to combine the advantages of 
both Wildman's and that of Keys, while he aimed at 
greater simplicity, and a diminution of expense. We 
think he has succeeded in his views, and his success 
would be still more complete were the troublesome, 
and, in our opinion, unnecessary apparatus of “ glass 
slips" dispensed with. “ The boxes (PI. XI. fig. 1.) 
are made of fir-deal,* | of an inch thick a full inch 
in thickness, and even a little more, would be an im- 
provement, — therewould be less chanceof the internal 
heat escaping, or of the external cold penetrating. 
* Poplar, in the opinion of T. A. Knight, Esq., would an- 
swer better, from its looser grain, and consequent non-con- 
ducting quality. 
