CHAPTER VIII. HIVES. +Bee-hives+ have been formed with various materials, the selection of which has depended partly upon the country or district in which they have been used, and partly upon the fancy of the apiarian. _Osiers_, _rushes_, _segs_ and _straw_ have all been in requisition for forming hives, and Bonner, an eminent bee-master in Scotland, proposes to have them made of _earthenware_. In North America, according to Brookes, they are formed out of _the hollow trunks of the liquidambar tree_, cut to a proper length and covered with a board to keep out the rain: for the same purpose the people in Apulia use _the trunk of the giant fennel_, after clearing away its fungous pith. In Egypt, says Hasselquist, bee-keepers make their hives of _coal dust and clay_, which being well blended together, is formed into hollow cylinders, of a span diameter, and from six to twelve feet long; these being dried in the sun, become so hard as to be handled at will. "I saw some thousands of these hives," says our author, "at a village between Damietta and Mansora; they composed a wall round a house, after having become unserviceable in the use they were first made for."--Voyages and Travels in the Levant, &c. By Fred. Hasselquist, B.D. Under the head of Storifying, I have given a history of the discovery and progressive improvement of boxes and storifying hives, and shall chiefly confine myself, in this chapter, to the form and dimensions of hives. The common bell-shaped straw-hives used by the cottagers are too well known to need remark. Premising, therefore, that the _Chelmsford_ and _Hertford hives_ are considered as the handsomest shaped and best formed, I shall limit my observations to the _straw_ hives which may be employed for storifying, as some persons may prefer straw to wood. These have been called _Moreton-hives_, on account of their form _only_, the material of which they were made being reeds and not straw. The _best straw_ for constructing hives is that of _unblighted rye, and unthrashed_ is preferable to thrashed straw; for being smooth and entire, the bees will be spared a good deal of trouble, as they invariably nibble away the rough sharp spiculæ that they find on the inner surface of a new hive. The ears of corn may be dissevered from the straw by a chaff-cutter, and thrashed with other corn. The most approved size for a storifying straw-hive is nine inches high by twelve inches wide, _in the clear_, the diameter being the same from top to bottom. The importance of having all bee-boxes made of the same dimensions has been already dwelt upon, and it is of course of equal importance with respect to straw-hives. The upper and lower edges should be made as smooth as possible; which effect will be greatly promoted, by placing them, soon after making, between two flat boards with a 56lb. weight upon the uppermost, and leaving them in that position for a day or two. Within the upper row of straw, a