Out-door hives should have a protection not only of straw caps, but of a _shed_ also, which if made open in _front only_, would afford much shelter against driving rains and high winds; but the most complete shed is made with folding or sliding doors _at the back_, and is closed at the sides, and in front, with the exception of such openings as may be necessary for the entrance of the bees and for their accommodation in bad weather. This shed renders hackels unnecessary, and is adapted either to storifying or single-hiving. In the annexed plate is a back view of it, with hives arranged in different ways. [Illustration] CHAPTER IX. COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES OF WOODEN BOXES AND STRAW HIVES. Most of the writers who have instituted a comparison between hives and boxes, have decided in favour of the former. But it is to be recollected that when forming this decision, these writers have always had in their minds an out-door apiary, for which situation, on account of their exposure to the variations of temperature and the alternations of drought and moisture, straw-hives possess advantages over wooden boxes;--they are not so soon affected by a hot and dry or by a moist atmosphere; they do not part with so much heat in winter nor admit so much in summer, straw being, in the language of the chemists, a bad conductor of heat. Being much cheaper than any others, straw-hives are of course chosen by the cottager. Upon the storifying system, and with the advantage of a bee-house, I think wooden boxes have a great superiority over straw-hives; they are more firm and steady, better suited for observing the operations of the bees through the glass windows in the backs and sides, and less liable to harbour moths, spiders, and other insects; they permit the combs, at the period of deprivation, to be more easily separated from the sides and tops, and if well made, have a much neater appearance than straw-hives. CHAPTER X. LEAF HIVES. Narrow hives, with large glazed doors on each side, have been recommended by apiarian writers, for exposing the operations of bees. That of +Reaumur+ was too wide: it allowed the construction of two parallel combs, by which of course, the apiarian was precluded from making any useful observations, upon the proceedings of the bees, in their interspace. +Bonnet+ recommended the use of a hive, the doors of which should be only so far asunder as to allow the building of one comb between them. This suggestion was successfully adopted by +Huber+; and to prevent the bees from building short transverse combs, instead of a single one, parallel to the sides of the hive, he laid the foundation himself, by fastening a piece of empty comb to the ceiling of the box.