, my advice is to get that; it costs but
two dollars for the right of using, and is nearer what we want for
bees, than any I ever saw. I prefer rabbeting around the edge of the
top, instead of nailing on a thin board the size of the inside of the
cover, with room for a slide under it; it affords too nice a place for
worms to spin their cocoons. Also, without the rabbeting water may get
under the cap, and pass along the top till a hole lets it among the
bees. As for slides, I do not approve of them at all; in shutting off
communication, it is almost certain to crush a few bees. This makes
them irritable for a week; they are unnecessary for me, at least. We
will now finish the hive.

DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING HOLES.

After the top is got out as directed, strike a line through the centre,
three and a quarter inches from this, make another on each side, now
measure on one of the last lines, two and a half inches for the first
hole, two inches for the next, and so on till five are marked on this,
and the same number on the other side, ten in all; these holes should
be about an inch diameter, a pattern three and a quarter inches wide,
and thirteen in length, with places for holes marked on it, will save
time when many are made. When this top is nailed on, the hive is ready.
A less number of holes is often used, and one is thought by some to be
sufficient; experience has satisfied me that the more room bees have to
enter boxes, the less reluctance is manifested in commencing their work
in them; but here is another extreme to be avoided: when the holes are
much larger, or more of them, or even one very large one, the queen is
very apt to go into the boxes and deposit her eggs, which renders the
comb tough, dark, &c., also bee-bread is stored near the brood. Dr.
Bevan's and Miner's cross-bar hives are objectionable on this account,
they offer too free access to the boxes; we want all the room that will
answer, and no more.

A SUGGESTION.

Mr. Miner's cross-bar hive is intended to make the bees construct all
straight combs, and probably will do it. But the disadvantage of
bee-bread and brood in the boxes will not be made up by straight combs.

For the benefit of those who have been made to believe straight combs
_all important_, and perhaps have purchased the right to make the hive,
and had some constructed, and have found bee-bread in their surplus
honey, I would suggest an improvement, (that is, if it is thought the
strai