MOVABLE COMB II1VE 
77 
sired to get the bees out of any other kind of hive, they admit 
of transferring both combs and bees to the new hive ; fhey ad- 
mit of conveniently uniting two very weak stocks ; they are 
very convenient for making artificial swarms. These advan- 
tages are not all peculiar to the Leaf hive. There is the 
King hive, the Flanders hive, the Book hive, the Lovett 
hive, the Harbison hive, the Langstroth hive, the Metcalf 
hive, besides a great many others. It would now be difficult 
to make any form of movable comb hive without running 
against some one’s patent. Most of these hives are good, but 
none of them perfect. Norte of them will be certain always 
to have their combs straight in the frames without having 
some empty combs put in for a guide ; without this there 
will likely be one hive in ten or twenty that will have its 
combs more or less irregular, and will have to be cut and 
straightened. In all of them the frames will be more or less 
attached to the sides of the hive by combs or propolis. The 
Leaf hive need not cost more than fifty cents above the price 
of the box hive ; they can be gotten up very cheap if de- 
sired. 
But bee hives should be made to correspond with the sur- 
rounding buildings. Any man who can afford to carry his 
family in a carriage instead of a spring wagon, or to live in a 
frame house instead of a log-cabin, can afford to have well 
gotten up bee hives. 
Paint would add to the appearance of the hive, and make 
it last longer, but it is no advantage to the bees ; white is the 
best color, as it will not permit the heat to pass through so 
readily, to melt the edges of the combs loose from the sides 
of the hive, as a dark color will. 
THE BAR-HIVE. 
The following is a description of what I call Wilkin’s Bar- 
hive. It is not important what kind of wood is used, inch 
boards is a good thickness. The body of the hive is twelve 
inches deep, twelve inches wide and sixteen inches long in- 
side, without either top or bottom. The ends are not as high 
as the sides by three-eighths of an inch ; on these ends lay 
eight pieces of lath, or strips, eighteen inches long, one inch 
wide and three-eighths thick, extending from front to rear, 
so that the bees will build eight combs to these strips that 
