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Rh bee-escapes introduced between the super and the hives are used to-day by most enterprising bee-men.

OBSERVATION-HIVES (Frontispiece)

Anyone who has worked long with bees, cannot fail to become filled with curiosity concerning the way their work is carried on in the mysterious darkness of the hive; to such a person, the observation-hive is a source of perennial delight, as well as of interesting and useful knowledge.

Observation-hives have been used by bee-keepers from the time of Huber to the present, and naturally many forms of them have been devised. The type in most common use now is a small hive, containing one, two or three frames, and furnished with glass sides, through which the bees can be observed. The glass sides are covered with a door or curtain, except when observations are being made; for, if not, the bees will cover the glass with a coat of propolis, rendering it opaque.

It is somewhat difficult to keep a colony in good condition upon a single frame; and if two or more frames are used side by side the observer is unable to see what goes on between the frames. Professor Kellogg, of Stanford University, has devised a perfectly satisfactory two-frame observation-hive for his laboratory. It consists of a glass-sided box, large enough to hold two Langstroth frames, one above the other; as both sides of the comb are exposed, any individual bee may be kept constantly in