330 
THE niVTS AND HONEY-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 unconsumed. 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 plan,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 
and 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 
• The deeper the frames, the more difficult It is to make them hang true on the 
rabbfts, and the greater the difficulty of handling them without crushing the bees 
or br«aking the combs. 
t It is instructive to see how the very first departure from the olden way proves 
the truth, in bee-culture at least, of the hackneyed quotation: 
w A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” 
Even so simple an improvement as that of top-boxes will, as used by many t 
eventually destroy their bees; for, while in favorable years such boxes may be 
safely removed, in others the surplus honey which they contain, is the life of 
the bees. 
X Mr. M. Quinby, of St. Johnsville, New York, in calling my attention to some 
stocks, which he bad purchased in box hives of this shape, informed me that bees 
wintered in them about as well as in tall hives, the bees drawing back among thoir 
stores in cold weather, just as in tall hives they draw tip among them. My hive, 
as 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 
twelve frames. After Mr. Quinby called my attention to the wintering of bees in 
bis long box-hives, I constructed one that measured twenty-four inches from front 
to rear, twelve it ches from side to side, and ten inches deep holding eight frames- 
