Taylor’s Amateur Shallow Box or Eight-Bar Hive
Taylor’s Amateur Hive, as seen by reference to the engraving, consists of three boxes—the lower one, A, is the stock-box, in which the swarm is first placed; B is the first super; and C, the centre box: all three boxes are of the same diameter, viz., thirteen and a half inches square inside, A, the stock-box, is seven and a half inches deep; B, six and a half inches: both are fitted with eight moveable bars, each bar being one inch and an eighth wide, with spaces of half an inch between, and all easily removed by unscrewing the crown-board, in which are two openings closed by zinc slides. The middle box, C, has no bars, and is still shallower than either of the other boxes, being five inches deep. In many localities and seasons, the third box may not be required. Each box has two windows, one at the back and another at the side, a zinc shutter, sliding in a groove, excluding light and retaining warmth. The box C differs from the others in another respect; instead of bars, it has a grating made by seven openings, each half an inch wide and nine inches long: these three boxes stand on a stout floor-board, in which is cut the entrance way, four inches wide and three-eighths of an inch high. The floor-board projects so as to support an outer cover of half-inch wood, surmounted by a sloping roof. This is an effectual protection from the weather, and is necessary when hives are exposed; of course, if placed in a bee-house, such protection may be dispensed with. The outer case is well painted, of a green colour, and when it is used the hive may be placed in any part of the garden. The dimensions of this hive, with outside cover, are eighteen inches square, and two feet six inches high.
Suitable stands are provided, consisting of a stout pedestal with four feet. Stakes should be driven into the ground to secure the whole against wind. Height from the ground, four feet three inches.
The bars before alluded to are for the purpose of inducing the bees to build parallel combs, for without such an arrangement extraction would be impossible. It is a great convenience, in many ways, to be able to take out a bar of comb; it gives such a complete control over the hive.
To ensure comb-building on the bars, pieces of clean worker-comb should always be carefully preserved; and before a swarm is put in, either every bar or, if guide comb is not plentiful, every other bar should have a piece fixed to it in the following manner:—Cut a piece of clean empty comb of the required size, say two inches square, not less; heat a common flat iron, with which slightly warm the bar; then melt a little bees’-wax upon it; draw the comb quickly over the heated iron, hold it down on the centre of the bar, giving a very slight movement backwards and forwards; then leave the wax to grow cold, and, if cleverly managed, the guide will be found firmly attached. Care must be taken that the pitch or inclination of the comb be the same as it is in the hives—upwards from the centre of each comb. A new plan has lately been introduced by Mr. Woodbury, of Exeter, to facilitate the correct construction of parallel combs.