EEQUISITES OF A COMPLETE HIVE. 
105 
6]. A complete hive, while possessing all these requi¬ 
sites, should, if possible, combine them in a cheap and 
simple form, adapted to the wants of :ill who are com¬ 
petent to cultivate bees. 
Few would imagine, in reading this long list of desira¬ 
bles, that any hive can combine them all, without being 
exceedingly complicated and expensive. On the contrary, 
the cheapness and simplicity with which the movable-comb 
hive effects this, is its most striking feature, and the one 
which has cost me more study than all the other points 
besides. Bees can work, in this hive, with even greater 
facility than in a simple box, as the frames being left 
rough by the saw, give them an admirable support while 
building their combs; and they can enter the spare 
honey-boxes with more ease than they could mount to an 
equal height in the upper part of a common box-hive. 
There are a few desirables to which my hive, even if it 
were perfect, could make no pretensions! 
It promises no splendid results to those who are too 
ignorant or too careless to be entrusted with the manage¬ 
ment of bees. In bee-keeping, as in all other pursuits, a 
man must first understand his business, and then proceed 
upon the good old maxim, that “ the hand of the diligent 
maketh rich.” 
It has no talismanic influence which can convert a bad 
situation for honey into a good one ; or give the Apiarian 
an abundant harvest, whether the season is productive or 
otherwise. As well might a farmer seek for some kind of 
wheat which will yield an enormous crop, in any soil, and 
in every season. 
It cannot enable the cultivator, while rapidly multiply¬ 
ing his stocks, to secure the largest yield of honey from his 
bees. As well might the breeder of poultry i)retend, that 
in the same year, and from the same stock, he can both 
