with honey, being long and heavy, may possibly, during great heat, break and fall with the bees a circumstance which insures much loss and a risk of being well stung. It is to guard against this inconvenience that the Baron de Berlepsch invented frames, instead of bars, to support the combs.

BERLEPSCH'S HIVE.

This hive differs from that of Dzierzon in having frames to support the comb, instead of bars only, and in its size. In German Switzerland, the depth is usually the same as its width, namely, about nine and a half inches, inside measurement. The hive opens from the back, and the frames are moveable.' Like that of Dzierzon, the floor-board is fixed to the hive.

BASTIAN'S HIVE.

M. Bastian, pasteur at Wissenbourg, published in 1870 a complete treatise, in French, on rational apiculture, with a great number of woodcuts. In our opinion it is the best and most complete work on the subject that we

have. He gives the preference to hives with moveable bars. After describing those of Dzierzon and Berlepsch, he describes his own, which differs from those of his predecessors in the supports for the comb only. Instead of the usual frames, it has an incomplete frame-work; that is to say, from each end of the strip of wood, or bar, which supports the comb, and at right angles to it, another strip is fixed, running parallel with the sides of the hive, and terminated by a hook, which keeps it at a proper distance from the hive.

These various systems are in use in German Switzerland; but, as a rule, the hives only open at the back, as those who attended the meeting at Weinfelden will remember; and they vary in their width and height. That of Blatt, a bee-keeper at Rheinfelden, has much larger frame-work than those of the bee-keepers we have just mentioned. But in our opinion these hives, in spite of all their drawbacks, are preferable to those on the old principle, since they afford a return as certain as with the old system, and one is in a position at any time to ascertain the condition of the colony, and to remove the combs, whether empty, or full of bees, without

any injury being done. In France there are various hives with which we are not acquainted -that of Sagot, for instance, and another by Cayatte, etc., recommended by the editor of the Apiculteur; but they are on the old system, and I question their superiority over our straw hives with supers, which are commonly used throughout French Switzerland.

RIBEAUCOURT HIVE.

Our hive with moveable bars or reglets as supports for the comb, has the same capacity as an ordinary straw hive, and contains about 30 lbs. of honey.

In autumn it will contain ample provision for the wants of the bees during the winter, 25 lbs. being sufficient for this purpose.

The hive should be made of poplar, which, being light and porous, is less affected by atmospheric influences, and is less liable to warp than deal. The planks from which it is made should be at least an inch thick.

Its inside measurement should be as follows: thirteen and a half inches square by six and a half in height. The front corners should be brought together with a rabbetted joint; four nails (two and a half inch) should be driven through these joints, crossing each other at right angles. We point out this way of bringing the corners together as the best means of preventing the wood from warping, and also of strengthening the hive. Along the top of this frame-work, and on the inner surface at the back and front, a rabbet should be cut three-eighths of an inch wide and one-quarter of an inch deep, on which the bars should rest. These bars, nine in number, should be made of laths seven-eighths of an inch wide. They should be one-quarter of an inch in thickness.* When

* Mr. Lee recommends that the laths should be three-eighths of an inch thick, as being less liable to sag. In this case the rabbet mentioned above must also be three-eighths of an inch deep.

placed in the hive, they should be of the same depth as the rabbet, and should not project above it; otherwise, when a second story is placed over the lower hive, the bees will bring their comb down to the top surface of the bars in the hive underneath them, and thus, when the two are separated, it would be impossible to place the upper one on a fresh floor-board without crushing the comb which projects beneath it.

The bars being placed at an equal distance from each other in the rabbet mentioned above, their position should be determined by small pins fixed into the ledge on which they rest,

a play of about one-eighth of an inch being allowed for each bar.

These bars, as well as the crown-board above them, should be planed on the upper surface, but care should be taken to leave them rough on the side to which the combs are to be attached.

To insure the bars being placed at a proper