330 
TI1E HIVE AND HONET-BFE, 
carry their stores as far as possible from the entrance, 
they will fill its upper part with honey, using the lower- 
part mainly for brood, thus escaping the danger of being 
caught, in cold weather, among empty ranges of comb, 
while they still have honey unconsumcd. If the top of 
this hive, like that of an old-fashioned churn, is made (on 
the Polish plan) considerably smaller than the bottom, it 
will be better adapted to a cold climate, besides being 
more secure against high winds. Such a hive is deficient 
in top-surface for the storing of honey in boxes, and it 
would be impossible to use frames* in it to any advantage ; 
but, to those who prefer to keep bees on the old plau,f 
one of this shape, made to hold not less than a bushel and 
a half, is decidedly the best. 
A. hive long from front to rear , and moderately low 
arid narrow, seems, on the whole, to unite the most 
advantages. Such a hive resembles a tall one, laid upon 
its side, and, while affording ample top-surface for surplus 
honey, it greatly facilitates the handling of the frames, 
besides diminishing their number and cost.J 
* Tlio deeper the frames, the mure difficult it is to make them hang true on the 
rabbets, and the greater tbo difficulty of handling them without crushing the bees 
or hi raking the combs. 
t It is instructive to see how the very flrst departure from the olden way proves 
tho truth, in bee-culture at least, of the hackneyed quotation : 
“ A little knowledge bra dangerous thing.” 
Even so simple an improvement as that of top-boxes will, as usod by many, 
eventually destroy their bees ; for, whilo in favorable years such boxes may bo 
safely removed, in others the surplus honey which they contain, is tho life of 
the bees. 
x Mr. M. Qulnby, of St. Johnsvlllo, Now York, In calling my attention to some 
stocks, which be had purchased in box hives of this shape, Informed me that bees 
wintered in them about as well ns in tall hives, the bees drawing back among their 
stores in cold weather, Just os in tall hives they draw up among them. My hive, 
ns at first constructed, was fourteen and one-eighth Inches from front to rear, 
eighteen and one-eighth inches from side to side, and nine Inches deep, holding 
twelvo frames. After Mr. Qulnby called my attention to tho wintering of bees In 
his long box-hives, I constructed one that measured twenty-four Inches from ftuut 
to rear, twelve inches from side to side, and ten inches doup, holding eight fruiucs. 
