56 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
rapidly. When the division-boards again require re- 
moval, or the floor-board is to be cleaned — an opera- 
tion performed with the greatest facility — slip down 
the coiled wire, and the string will fall completely 
out of the way. 
This hive will also always be of the accurate size 
for two colonies, a feature which no other possesses 
in an equal degree. One with four sides, and with 
room for twelve frames and a division-board, by 
example, would leave an awkward gap with colonies, 
say, of four and five frames respectively, the gap 
necessitating two division-boards and a separation of 
the stocks. Thus, their mutual assistance, in tending 
to keep each other warm, is almost entirely inopera- 
tive. But with the form under consideration, the first 
nucleus has the division-board (d) fitted up to it; the 
second nucleus is then added, and is, in like manner, 
closed in by the other division-board {d'), this having 
a portion of its corner, fin. by from qin. to bin., cut 
out, so as to form the hive mouth (e). As either of 
these lots increases or diminishes, the hive is expanded 
or contracted, and always gives the best possible kind 
of protection. If one colony only, and that requiring 
food, be placed within it, the division-boards change 
places, d' going next the bees, which are then fed by 
bottle or comb between d' and </, in the manner which 
is the very safest for weak lots, the removed corner 
giving access to the food, and the outside board (d) 
presenting an impassable front to all inquirers. The 
absence of the fourth side, then, is not merely an 
economy or a simplification, but actually augments 
facility of manipulation : for, with the usual form, as 
