abundance of the products which they yield, and the best way of extracting them from the hive, without showing any particular solicitude as to the preservation of the bees themselves ; still another class of apiarians have had more particularly in view the prosecution of researches in the natural history and economy of bees. The hive invented by Hubei was in his time a great advance for the purpose last named He gave it the name of " ruche en livre ou en feuillets " from its opening and shutting somewhat in the manner of the leaves of a book. It had, however, many inconveniences which are remedied in some hives of more modern construction, and Huber s leaf-hive is now rarely used, although it may claim the distinction of having been the first of the frame hives which are now, with many modifications, generally acknowledged to be the only ones capable of giving the maximum of prosperity to the bees and producing a large honey harvest, combined with affording facilities for observation and manipulation. The old cylindrical straw skep or hive is still generally used among the cottagers of England, although abandoned in many other countries. While very excellent for warmth and ventilation, it has the disadvantage that its interior is inaccessible for information ; and the fixity of its combs precludes many manipulations which the skilful apiarian is called upon to perform. This was well known to the ancients, who, to remedy it, fitted the crowns of their hives with movable wooden bars, from which the bees built their combs, but still they were attached by their sides to the hive and required to be cut away before they could be removed, these operations greatly disturbing the bees. In 1851, Dzierzon in Germany, and Langstroth in America, two of the most skilful apiarians of the present day, simul taneously designed or invented the bar-frame hive, the principle of which, with many varieties of detail, is found in all the best hives now in use. A well-known English example of this kind of hive is the " Woodbury " (fig. 4), named after its designer, Mr Woodbury of Exeter. This consists of a square wooden box, 14J inches in diameter (inside measure), and 9 inches deep, covered by a top or crown-board either loose or lightly screwed down. This board has a circular hole in the centre, 2| inches in dia meter, for feeding purposes, and when not in use is covered with perforated zinc or a block of wood. The floor-board is 18 inches square, vith an entrance cut in it forming a channel about 4 inches wide and fths of an inch deep. At the part where the front of the hive crosses it gradually slopes upwards inside the hive. An alighting- board for the bees is fixed to the front of the floor-board opposite the entrance, and projects 3 or 4 inches; a wooden ridge-roof covers all. The interior of the hive is fitted with ten frames ; they are made of light lath, about |ths of an inch wide, the top bars being fths and the sides and bottom rails j^-ths of an inch in thickness respectively. The top bars are 15^ inches in length, and project into notches cut into rabbets at the back and front of the hive to receive them. The rabbets are fths of an inch deep, and the notches in them are of the same depth, so that the projections in the bars rest flush in them, leaving a space of fths clear above the frames, over which the bees can travel. The ten frames occupy equal portions of the interior space ; if this be divided into ten equal divisions, the centre of each will be exactly the point at which the centre of each bar-frame should rest; these points will be 1^ inches apart. In these frames it is intended that the bees shall build their combs ; and when they have done so, any frame may be quietly lifted out of the hive with all the bees upon it, whether for examination or for division of the stock for an artificial swarm. To induce the bees to build straight in the frames a thin strip of comb is usually attached to the underside of the top bar, or a thin line of molten wax poured down the centre of the bar will ans >ver the purpose, as the bees will follow the guide thus laid. For the purpose of providing storage-room for honey an upper storey, called a " super," is added to the hive, of the same diameter but of less height, 3 to 5 inches usually sufficing, as when filled it may be taken off and an empty one substi tuted. Before a super be placed in position, the crown-board should be removed, and a thin board, called an " adapter," substituted ; this, in place of the round central hole, has near each side a long aperture, j^tlis of an inch wide, which gives passage to the workers, but not to the queen arid drones the latter being useless there, and it being desirable
the queen should not oviposit in the super. | An image should appear at this position in the text. A high-res raw scan of the page is available. To use it as-is, as a placeholder, edit this page and replace "{{missing image}}" with "{{raw image|Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/516}}". If it needs to be edited first (e.g. cropped or rotated), you can do so by clicking on the image and following the guidance provided. [Show image]  | |
Fig. 4.—The Woodbury Frame Hive.
Elegant supers are made of glass globes, or propagating glasses, which the bees will readily use if enticed into them by a few pieces of clean white comb.
Many improvements have been made on the Woodbury hive, tending still further to the comfort and well-being of the bees, as well as to the furtherance of scientific study; and, perhaps, the hive that may be said to combine most of these advantages is one designed by Mr Frank Cheshire, and known as the "Cheshire Hive" (figs. 5 and 6). To afford the bees the maximum of comfort and to economize their heat, the walls of this hive are made double, enclosing an air space. The Woodbury frames are used, but rest on the thin edge of a strip of zinc within the hive at the back and front, which prevents the bees fixing them with pro polis. The floor-board is constructed to slide in a groove beneath the hive, and the entrance can be enlarged or diminished at pleasure by a pair of sliding-shutters ; t lie- hive is complete with stand and roof, and altogether leaves little to be desired.
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Fig. 5.—The Cheshire Frame Hive.
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Fig. 6.—Section of Cheshire Hive.
scientific study of the insects habits, the artificial multiplication of colonies, and the appropriation of their surplus stores without injury to the bees. It is quite a secondary consideration what size or pattern of frame is used, or how the frames are suspended in the hive, provided the principle of movable frames be adopted ; and although much ingenuity has been exercised by scientific men to design a hive embracing every possible advantage regardless of cost, the roughest timber and coarsest workmanship will give as good results as the most elaborate. FraniB hives
are exceedingly well calculated for procuring artificial