154 Tlie Honey Bee — Patent Hives, etc. [March, 



THE HOHEY-BEE — PATEE"T HIVES, ETC. 



This interesting little insect has engaged the attention of naturalists 

 as well as agriculturists and horticulturists, certainly as far back as 

 inQ time of Yirgil. 



Perhaps more has been written on the habits and economy of this tiny 

 creature than of any other animal employed in agriculture, and certainly, 

 for the most part, to as little purpose. 



Loudon, in his " Encyclopedia of Agriculture," says : "After all that 

 has been done in England, France^ and Italy, the bee is still more suc- 

 cessfully cultivated, and finer honey produced, in Poland, by persons who 

 never saw a book on the subject, or heard of the mode of depriving bees 

 of their honey without taking their lives." And certainly, notwith- 

 standing the numberless patent hives, and the boasting and parade about 

 them by sundry inventors, the enormous products from bee-feeding, and 

 bee-breeding, the same may be said to be, to a great extent, true In this 

 country of Yankee invention. 



In relation to many of these would-be improvements that have been 

 palmed off upon the public, for the better management of the houev-bee, 

 we feel ourselves pretty well posted. 



One sets forth that he has found a most successful preventive to the 

 moth — the bee's greatest enemy ; and he is ready with his hive to war- 

 rant complete success against its depredations. And, after all, instead 

 of a moth-trap, it proves the veriest moth-palace, to protect and preserve 

 its deposits, that could have been invented. 



Another has made the discovery that it is natural for bees to work 

 dowmcard. Another to work vjncard. Another to work sidewise. And 

 hives are presented in conformity to each of these methods, with a bundle 

 of certificates from A, B, and C, to show the respective claims of these 

 several modes, and exhibiting, uniformly, results more or less exagger- 

 ated. Another has found out a plan (and this is the greatest humbug 

 of all) for manufacturing honey rapidly, by working his bees in a grand 

 confederacy, and feeding them upon a cheap kind of food, made accord- 

 ing to the following recipe : Take Cuba honey, or common wild honey, 

 and an equal amount of brown sugar, and add as .much, by weight, of 

 water as you have honey and sugar; boil together, and feed. And the 

 statement is, that you will have seventy-five per cent, of honey, such as 

 will sell readily for twenty and twenty-five cents per pound. If you 

 want a superior article, use loaf instead of brown sugar ; and if you 



