MATERIALS OF IIIVES. 
331 
The common Dzierzon hive* is long and flat, but, as 
the combs run fom side to side, instead of from front to 
rear, the bees, unless the hive is uncommonly well pro- 
tected, will suffer from cold in Winter. As the German 
Apiarian uses slats instead of frames, it would be incon- 
venient for him to remove any very long combs from his 
hive. 
The variety of opinions respecting the best materials 
for hives, has been almost as great as on the subject of 
their proper size and shape. Columella and Virgil recom- 
mend the hollowed trunk of the cork tree, than which 
no material would be more admirable if it could only be 
cheaply procured. Straw hives have been used for ages, 
and are warm in Winter and cool in Summer. The diffi- 
culty of making them take and retain the proper shape 
for improved bee-keeping, is an insuperable objection to 
their use. Hives made of wood are, at the present time, 
fast superseding all others. The lighter and more spongy 
the wood, the poorer will be its power of conducting 
heat, and the warmer the hive in Winter and the cooler 
in Summer.f Cedar, bass-wood, poplar, tulip-tree, and 
soft pine, afford excellent materials tor bee-hives. The 
Apiarian must be governed, in his choice of lumber, by 
the cheapness with which any suitable kind can be ob- 
tained in his own immediate vicinity. 
I hiivc since preferred to make my lilves eighteen and onc-clghth inches from front 
to rear, fourteen and one-eighth inches from side to side, and ten inches doep. Mr. 
Quiuby prefers to make my movable frames longer and deeper. 
* Dzierzon builds hives in structures for two, four, and even many more colonies. 
On Plato XXII., Fig. 71 Itho Frontispiece to the first edition of my work), I havo 
given a representation of a triple hive. The littlo that can be saved in the first 
cost of such hives, seems to mo to bo more than lost by the great inconvcnienco of 
handling them. 
+ Mr. Wagner informs me that Seholz, a German Apiarian, recommends hives 
made of adobe — in which frames or slats may be used— as cheaply constructed, and 
admirable for Summer and Winter. Such structures, however, cannot be moved. 
But in many parts of our country, where both lumber and saw-mills are scarce, 
and where people are accustomed to build adobe houses, they might prove desir- 
able. The material is plastic clay, mixed with cut straw, waste tow, «&o. 
