The stock-box contains the combs and bees. The combs vary in number from eight to twelve, or more; they are built in wooden frames which hang from the sides of the stock-box, and are kept a certain distance apart by means of metal ends, so that the bees may have free passage between them. The number of the frames of comb may be varied according to “the strength of the bees.”[1] When there are fewer frames than the stock-box is capable of containing, the empty space beyond them is shut off by means of a close-fitting board called a dummy. The entrance is a narrow slit on one side of the hive between the floor and the stock-box through which the bees pass in and out. The portion of the floor which projects beyond the entrance is called the alighting-board. Several thicknesses of cloths, or quilts as they are called, are placed on top of the frames to keep the bees warm.
Besides these simple essentials of every hive, there should be an upper story or lift to contain the super, which is a box placed over the frames in summer, in which the bees may store all honey beyond what is required for their own use. In many hives the lift is made so that by inversion it will drop down over the stock-box for the winter, and so help to keep the bees extra warm.
It will not be necessary to trouble the reader at present with any details of the structure of the bee-hive, these being of use chiefly only to those who intend to make their own hives; and this is not recommended, as good hives can now be obtained ready-made from the leading dealers, which are much more satisfactory.
A hive with the combs fixed in movable frames like the one described above has a great advantage over the old-fashioned round straw hives or skeps in which the combs are fixed immovably. In the former, any or all of the frames of comb may be lifted out and examined, and the exact state of the colony ascertained in a few minutes, while with the latter the bee-keeper could never tell what was going on inside the hive. Without knowledge there cannot be much progress, and we can understand how, by keeping bees in this latter style, our forefathers for so many centuries never dreamt of any improvement on their barbarous plan of destroying the bees by burning brimstone when they wanted to obtain the honey.