There has been much said on hives in the columns of the Bee Journal. Some are said to be too deep, and others too shallow. But after all, profit in dollars and cents is the great object; and to secure this in the shape of surplus honey, three things are requisite--_first_, strong colonies of bees; _second_, a good season with plenty of pasturage; and, _third_, the placing your surplus honey boxes or frames as near as possible to the brood in the main body of the hive. There are two ways to accomplish this: _first_, by using the shallow form of hive, with frames say seven or eight inches in depth; and, _second_, by using the side gathering or storing hive. I prefer the latter, with frames twelve inches deep; and this for three reasons. _First_, if the apiarian has no repository for winter quarters, his bees are right in these for wintering in the open air. _Second_, the brood and cards of honey can be so adjusted as to bring the former next to your honey boxes, if necessary; as we never want more than one full frame of honey between the brood and the surplus honey boxes or frames. _Third_, in the manipulation of colonies there is no comparison between the side storing hive, and the top storing. With the former, when the lid is removed, we have access to the frames, without the intervention of surplus honey or other boxes. Top-storing hives are now behind the age. Those using shallow frames must, in this latitude and climate, have a house for wintering their colonies, and when bees are removed to their summer stands in the spring, the lid that covers the second-story or surplus honey chamber, should fit on the brood chamber, that the honey chamber may be left off till the time comes for placing surplus honey boxes on your hives. By this means all the heat rising from the bees is secured and diffused through the main hive or brooding chamber for hatching the eggs; and the bees multiply as rapidly for aught I can see, and swarm as early as in the twelve inch frames. I have used one hundred shallow hives, with frames eight inches in depth, for three years; and when I suffer them to throw off natural swarms, they swarm as early, sending off as many and as large swarms as taller hives. In 1869, I had gathered six thousand pounds of fine surplus honey in frames in the top receptacles of my shallow hives. A large proportion of this I shipped, in the frames, to C. O. Perrine & Co., Chicago, Ills. They paid me twenty-five cents per pound for it, frames and all. Should any honey raisers in the West wish to sell to a good man, I should recommend them to Mr. Perrine. I have trusted him with quite large amounts at a time, and always found all right at settlement day. SHIPPING HONEY IN FRAMES.