[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.