180 



THE FLORAL WOULD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



the manager, without having to mount guard over the hives for 

 weeks, and to race across country in pursuit of natural swarms ; 

 easy extraction of the purest honey as often as it may be suitable, 

 without deranging the bees in their work, and without destroying a, 

 single particle of the brood, or of the provisions ^stored up for it ; 

 means of emptying the combs so as to replace them to be refilled by 

 the bees without their being called upon to waste the best honey 

 season in providing new ones ; lastly, instantaneous reunion of bees 

 in October without stupefying or drumming them out, and without 

 any fighting. Such are the advantages in general little known, 



very little practised, 

 and often impractic- 

 able in many sorts of 

 hives, yet most neces- 

 sary to make apicul- 

 ture an agreeable and 

 useful occupation." 



These requisites 

 werenever really com- 

 bined in any single 

 hive, though some of 

 them might be more 

 or les3 imperfectly 

 attained, till'Dzierzon 

 brought out his ex- 

 ceedingly clever idea 

 of making each comb 

 movable, so that every 

 comb could be taken 

 outandexamined sepa- 

 rately ; and not only 

 so, but all the hives 

 in the apiary being 

 exactly of one diame- 

 ter, no matter how 

 different in other re- 

 spects, any comb in 

 any one can be inter- 

 changed with any 

 Fig 1. Brood Hive. A, Lighting-board. B, False comb in any other, 

 bottom. C, Stopper inserted beneath false bottom. In this way through- 

 D, Double ties of sliding frames. E, Cover sur- cut Germany thehives 

 mounting the honey-box. mac I e on [Dzierzon's 



principle, whether of straw, wood, or other materials, and, however 

 different in internal capacity, are on a uniform gauge of 9f English 

 inches. In addition to securing all the requisites above stated, this 

 improved German Hive admits of contracting or expanding the 

 space occupied, by pushing forwards or drawing back a sliding glazed 

 sash at each end, as I will presently show you. 



Now, asking you to keep in mind the requirements enumerated 

 by the French apiculturist, I will give an explanation of the pecu- 



