52 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
protect the bees from extremes of heat and cold. It 
is, therefore, usual to provide them with outer cases, 
as in Fig. 15. The lower one, carrying a porch, an 
entrance, and an alighting-board, is covered in winter 
by the roof (r) ; but, as the bees expand in spring, 
and the hives receive additions of bodv-boxes and 
supers, lifts (/) are added as may be required. A 
single body-box will winter well if chaff be packed 
within the outer case, over and around it. In my 
own apiary, chaff-boxes (see Figs. 17 and 19) are 
used with most satisfactory results. 
Having looked at main features, it is necessary 
to pass to details. During the last ten years, some 
thousands of hives have been exhibited, each sup- 
posed by its designer to have some special claim 
to distinction. In making a selection amongst so 
many, it is not pretended that the chosen are 
better than the omitted, but that they appeared to 
some extent typical, and to present points which 
were worthy of being brought before the attention 
of the student. Skeps will hereafter be dealt with, 
as their importance is quite secondary, and as a know- 
ledge of the frame hive will make them and their 
management the more easily intelligible. 
Makeshift hives, as they are termed, find a place 
in many apiaries, and these may be, in some cases, 
good enough to afford bees a sufficient home through- 
out the year. Upon the principle of passing from the 
simple to the complex, my own makeshift (Fig. 16) 
is introduced, which, although containing nothing 
beyond bare essentials, is yet extremely convenient — 
more so, in some respects, than any hive with which 
