swarms. They allow us to judge by inspection whether the population be sufficient to admit of division, if the brood be of the proper age, if drones exist or are ready to be produced for impregnating the young queens, all of which circumstances are material to the success of the operation. Wooden hives are generally made square, but not invariably so. The " Stewarton hive" (fig. 7), largely and successfully used in Scotland, is octagonal, and the " Quinby hive " of America is much deeper from back to front than it is wide. The Stewarton is not properly a frame, but a bar-hive, although frames are sometimes fitted to it. It usually consists of three octagon breeding- boxes, 14 inches in diameter by 6 inches deep, each furnished with nine bars placed equidistant, the spaces between being occupied by movable slides of wood working in grooves in the bars. The hive has shuttered windows back and front, handles to lift, and hooks to weigh with, as well as little buttons to prevent displace ment ; each breeding-box has an en trance-way 4 inches wide and half an inch high, with a sliding-door to close it wholly or par tially. There are also two supers or honey boxes, the same diameter as the stock boxes, but only 4 inches deep ; these are furnished with wider bars, seven in number, and a floor board completes the whole, which, being made of but inch
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Fig. 7.—The Stewarton Hive.
For those persons who are unable to handle bees with impunity, but are yet desirous of studying their economy, a glass covered observatory hive has been deemed a necessity. Several have been designed for this purpose, but none of them have been found to be a healthy abode for the bees, glass being a cold and ungenial material, on which the moisture of the hive condenses during the winter to the detriment of health of the inhabitants. In the summer, however, bees may be kept in a glass hive without great loss, although with no gain ; such a hive may be constructed of a double sash, thickly glazed back and front, of just sufficient width for one comb only and space to allow the bees free passage over both sides of the comb. A very excellent hive in English use is that known as the " Woodbury unicomb," which is so constructed that six frames may be taken out of an ordinary hive, and hung up in a double perpendicular row between the two sashes, permitting their return in the autumn to their original hive, Egress and ingress is given to the bees by a tunnelled channel to the centre of the hive on the floor line; and by means of a turn-table the hive may be revolved to bring both sides under alternate observation, together with all its inhabitants and their works. The common straw hive, or skep, of the cottagers is too well known to require descrip tion, and although it is greatly inferior to frame hives, it will doubtless long retain a place from its easy make and little cost. A great improvement now generally in use is the adoption of a round hole in the centre of the crown, about 1 inches in diameter, which will permit the bees access to the super, and afford facilities to the bee-master for feeding his stock. The capacity of these hives should be about a bushel, when the apiary is situated in a good honey locality.
To a German apiarian we are indebted for the invention of a machine called the honey-extractor, which, with some subsequent improvements, forms a most important aid in large apiaries to increase the yield of honey. By this appliance the frames of full honeycomb are in a few seconds emptied of their contents without injury to the combs,
- ,vhich are ready at once to be returned to the hive to be
refilled, thus saving to the bees great labour in comb- building, and enabling them to take the utmost advantage of a favourable honey-time, which usually is but short. Honey is saved too, which the bees eat in comb-building ; for it has been calculated that bees consume 20 Ib of honey in producing 1 Ib of wax. There are various patterns of the machine, but the principle of all may be said to be the same, that of centrifugal force. The apparatus consists of a cylindrical metal reservoir, with a tap at the bottom ; and within is contained a perpendicular quadrangular frame, two sides of which are covered with wire-netting, and against these the full honeycombs, with their cella previously uncapped, are placed. This framework is then set revolving by means of a handle and cog-wheels, or other motive power, when the honey is flung out against the sides of the cylinder, and the combs completely emptied to be returned to the bees to clean and refill. The loss of this honey, and the excitement caused by the cleaning the wet combs, seem to induce the bees to work their hardest to replace their stores ; and with a strong colony an enormous amount of honey is obtainable in a good locality and season. It has been recorded that one stock in America gathered 600 ft> in a single season, and harvests of 200 tt> and 300 ft> are not uncommon there.
Bee-Keeping.
We shall now give a short exposition of the modern, humane, and scientific system of bee-keeping, which is probably destined at no distant day to supersede the ignorance and cruelty of past ages.
A description has already been given of examples of the best movable bar and frame hives, and the system they represent should alone be adopted, i.e., every comb in the hives should be movable and interchangeable. In stocking these it is usual, first, to hive the swarm in an old-fashioned straw skop ; and in the evening, after all the bees are quietly settled, suddenly to shake them down against the entrance of the hive or on the top of the frames, when the astonished insects will immediatly take refuge in their future home. Should continuous bad weather occur after hiving a swarm, the bees must be fed, for, as they have as yet no stores, they will otherwise starve.
For feeding bees a multitude of appliances have been invented, but they may all give place to a common wide mouth pickle bottle ; this is filled with syrup, the mouth tied over with a double fold of net, or placed inverted on a piece of perforated zinc or vulcanite over the feeding-hole of the crown-board of the hive. The supply can be regu lated to the bees by the number and size of the holes through which they are allowed to suck. In cold weather when much moisture woiild be hurtful in the hive, barley- sugar may be advantageously used as a substitute for syrup. The former is made by boiling, for ten minutes, 2 Ib of loaf-sugar in a pint of water, a little vinegar being added to prevent crystallization. The prosperity and profit of an apiary in a great measure depend on judicious feeding. It is bad economy to stint the bees in food. In the early spring slow and continuous feeding (a few ounces of syrup each day) will stimulate the queen to oviposit, by which means the stocks are rapidly strengthened and throw oft early swarms. Upon the emergence of these, if a young fertile queen be immediately supplied, the hive is ready again to swarm in a remarkably short time. It is a singular fact that if stimulating feeding has been for some time pursued, and the supply be intermitted and nothing coming in from the fields, the bees will destroy all the young larvae and eggs, instinct seeming to teach the wise insects that the calls on the resources of the colony in the way of food for the young will be more than it can bear.
