18 
HIVES. 
tion necessary for glass boxes ; considered as a cover, 
it is never lost. Its demerits are inconvenience in 
handling ; it occupies more room if put in the house 
in the winter ; if glass boxes are used, only one end 
can be seen, and this may be full when the other may 
hold some pounds yet, and we cannot possibly know 
until it is taken out. I know we are told to return 
such boxes when not full “ and the bees will soon finish 
them,” but this will depend on the yield of honey at 
the time ; if abundant, it will be filled ; if not, they 
will be very likely to take a hint, and remove below 
what there is in the box ; whereas if the chamber was 
separate from the hive, and was not a chamber but a 
loose cap to cover the boxes, it could be raised at any 
time without disturbing a single bee, and the precise 
time of the boxes being filled ascertained, (that is, when 
they are of glass.) 
mrs. Griffith’s hive. 
Mrs. Griffith, of New Jersey, is said to have invented 
the suspended chamber hive with the inclined bottom- 
board. One would suppose this was sufficiently in- 
convenient to use, and difficult and expensive to con- 
struct. 
weeks’ improvement. 
Yet Mr. Weeks makes an alteration, calls it an 
improvement, the expense is but a trifle more; it 
is sufficient to be sanctioned by a patent. From front 
to rear, the bottom is about three inches narrower than 
the top, somewhat wedge-shape ; it has the merit to 
