mpty, and having the
piece of tin from its front taken out), the operator holding by the
handle, _z_, of the spindle, gradually draws out the bee-frame into the
observation frame, and after examining the bees and comb, gently returns
the bee-frame into its groove in the floor-board: the two slips of
tin are then replaced in the backs of the bee-frames: the spindle is
unscrewed and withdrawn, the bolts are unfastened, the observation frame
being kept firmly in its place, held by the left hand of the operator,
whilst with the right he runs in the long slip of tin, _d_, fig. 3, into
the front of the observation frame, to keep the bees (escaped from the
returned bee-frame), until the observation frame is again fixed opposite
to another bee-frame, when the tin is withdrawn and the bolts fastened
as before. It has been shown that by these means, each bee-frame, and
the bees and comb contained in it, can be easily drawn out and examined,
without interfering with any other part of the hive, or occasioning the
loss of a single bee.

The whole of the interior of the hive is thus open to inspection at any
moment, and a choice can be made of the combs containing the most honey,
or the bee owner enabled to trace the devastation of the honey moth,
and ascertain the presence of any other enemy, and this without the
assistance of smoke, which must be injurious both to the bees and their
brood.

When the bee-frame is returned and secured, the observation-frame is
removed; then the lid, I J, being shut up and bolted, and the upper lid,
G H, closed, the box may be locked up. When the bees have been shut in
with the slide in the front, the hive or box is ready to be transported
anywhere, to procure new pasturage for them, which, as every experienced
bee-keeper knows, is of the greatest benefit to prolong their
honey-harvest.

Perfect protection from wet and the vicissitudes of temperature, is
partly ensured by the external bee-box being made of well-seasoned wood;
poplar is recommended as of a looser grain than fir, deal, &c., and
consequently, not so great a conductor of heat; but the objection to
wooden bee-hives or boxes, for being more easily affected by the
variations of the temperature, is removed by the construction of the
"bar frame-hive;" for the bee-frames form, as it were, a smaller box
within the oblong box, and are not in immediate contact with the
external air, but have a half inch space nearly all round them, which
will