The hive to hold the frames should be the plainest kind of a box, the frames resting on rabbets made in the upper edges. Constructing it with lock joints, as shown in fig. 26, or by halving together the ends of the boards, as in fig. 27, and, in either case, nailing in both directions makes a strong hive body. The latter may be single-walled for mild climates or where cellar wintering is practiced: but for severe regions it is advisable to have permanent double walls with the inter-spaces filled with chaff, ground cork, or similar material, or else outer cases should be provided giving space between the latter and the hive proper for dry packing. As the bees always try to glue the frames fast by means of propolis, it is better to make them rest on strips of tin, galvanized iron, or band iron. The rabbet should therefore be made eleven-sixteenths inch deep, and the strip of iron or other metal frame-rest nailed on so that its edge will project upward five-sixteenths inch from the bottom of the rabbet. Folded strips of tin as made by manufacturers of apiarian implements are preferable to single strips nailed on, since they facilitate the sliding of frames and do not cut the top bars where the latter rest upon them (fig. 28). The projecting ends of the top bars being one-fourth inch thick, the bars themselves come within one-eighth inch of the upper edge of the hive. It is essential that the distance between the ends of the frames and the hive should not exceed three-eighths inch, lest in time of plenty the bees should build comb there; nor can less than one-fourth inch space be allowed, for if the bees can not readily pass around the ends of frames of the Langstroth type they will glue the frames to the side walls of the hive, making it very difficult, if not impossible, to remove them without breakage. If, as suggested, the frames are made one-fourth inch shorter at the bottom than at the top, that is, 17⅜ inches at bottom and 17⅝ inches at top, the hive should then be 18⅛ inches inside from front to rear, the frames running in this direction. [Illustration: Fig. 28.--Section of improved tin frame-rest: _A_, folded edge on which frame rests; _B_ and _D_, nails. (From Gleanings.)]