Lastly, I have to notice the security which the under-box or frame gives to the stability of the three upper boxes,--the firmness with which it supports them,--and the dry and comfortable way in which the Bees by it are enabled to discharge their dead, and other superfluities of the colony, without their being exposed to the cold atmosphere of an autumn or a spring morning.
The octagon-box, marked H, is a covering for the bell-glass, marked B, which is placed on the middle-box, or seat of nature. It matters not of what shape this covering is, because any covering over the glass will answer the same purpose, provided the under-board of it is wide enough to cover the divisional openings, and to throw off the wet. I choose an octagon because of the neatness of its appearance.
In endeavouring to recommend these Bee-boxes as worthy of general adoption, in order to succeed in my object, it is undoubtedly necessary that the parts and construction of them, and of every thing pertaining to them, be fully explained and clearly understood: I therefore proceed to give another view of them.
In the former plate they are exhibited as open, or detached and apart from each other: in the following one they are represented as closed and standing together, as when stocked with Bees, and in full operation in an apiary: in both it is the back of the boxes that is presented. With the exception of the alighting-board, the front is quite plain, being without window-shutters in the boxes, and without drawer and block-fronts in the under-board.
In this plate the engraver has made the floor-box to extend beyond the ends of the C. C. boxes; but, as has already been observed, and for the reason before given, it is better that the floor-box be made so that those (C. C.) boxes project a little over the ends and also over the back of the floor.
EXPLANATION OF THE REFERENCES TO THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF A SET OF COLLATERAL-BOXES.
A. is the pavilion, or middle-box, which may be most easily stocked by a swarm of Bees, just as a cottage-hive is stocked.
B. is the bell-glass in the first plate,--in the second, it only points to the place where the glass stands.
C. C. are the collateral, or two end-boxes.
D. D. are neat mouldings, about three inches wide, made of three-fourths-inch deal, and are so fastened to the middle-box in front, (i. e. the side not here shown) as well as at the back, that an inch and a half of each may project beyond each corner of that box, and form a cover and protection for the edges of the dividing-tins, and also for the four seams, or joints, necessarily made by placing the end-boxes against the middle one.