THICKNESS OR SOLIDITY OF HIVES.
Whatever may be the form or material of which hives are made,
I strongly recommend not to be sparing of it, but to make them
substantial. I would recommend that the boards of the wooden ones be
an inch and a half thick; and that the straw-ropes of which the others
are composed, be well twisted, and more than an inch in diameter.
Such hives will be heavier and more unwieldy than thin hives, but
they afford a better protection from the sun in summer, and the frost
in winter. The heat of the sun is apt to melt the combs in summer:
in winter the cold sometimes candies, and renders them useless; and,
in the spring, the thin hives neither retain the heat necessary for
hatching the eggs, nor for preserving the honey in a liquid state. One
may easily be convinced of this, by laying some folds of linen on the
top of the hive, and then passing the hand between them, and there will
be a degree of warmth felt, which never happens where the hives are
thick enough. They may be a little more costly, but the expence is more
than compensated by the prosperity of the bees.