as our reason for the above recommendation, that we have uniformly found that such of our straw-hives as approached nearest the shape recommended, have been, ceteris paribus, the first to swarm, and have swarmed the oftenest. We had till lately in our possession, one of the form fig. 2, which had for three successive years thrown each year three swarms.
Wildman's Storied Straw Hive.—This is preferred by many to wooden hives on the same plan, from the persuasion that straw is a preferable material. It consists of two or more stories, each seven inches in height, and ten inches in diameter. In the upper row of straw, there is a hoop of about half an inch in breadth, to which are fastened six or seven wooden spars, each one-fourth of an inch thick, and one and a quarter of an inch broad, and half an inch apart from each other. To these bars the bees fix their combs. In order to give greater steadiness to the combs, and prevent their being broken or deranged when the hive is moved, a rod is run through the middle of it, in a direction across the bars, or at right angles with them. A flat cover of straw, worked of the same thickness as the hives, and twelve inches in diameter, is applied to the uppermost story, "made fast to the hive with a packing-needle and thread," and carefully luted. Before it is put on, a piece of clean paper, of the size of the top of the hive, should be laid over the bars, the design of which is to prevent the bees from working in the intervening spaces. (Pl. XIII. fig. 3.)
Grecian Hive.—This has long been in use in the
