1870.] ON THE MANAGEMENT OF BEES. 67 



sense, which is so prevalent among the prejudiced; but no system can 

 be perfect which does not give the bee-master entire control over 

 every comb in his hive, and every part of the hive itself. My ob- 

 servations will be confined to bees in straw skips, such as were used 

 by our grandmothers and great-grandmothers, whose principal know- 

 ledge of bee-management consisted in their ability to hive a swarm in 

 spring, and to take the honey in autumn, which latter operation 

 necessitated the previous destruction of all the bees in the respective 

 hives by a violent and cruel death. 



Bees are property of great value, and in ordinary seasons, with pro- 

 per management, require no feeding at all ; and by the exercise of care, 

 and the possession of a right understanding of their nature and habits, 

 will yield a profit of at least a hundred per cent per annum after they 

 become well established. As a rule, bees are very badly treated. If a 

 stock or a swarm be obtained, it is generally placed on a stand with 

 perhaps just sufficient shelter to keep off the rain if it would always fall 

 perpendicularly, and quite unprotected in any other way; and no 

 servant or visitor is allowed to interfere with it in any way, while the 

 owner is generally afraid to do so. 



Any idea of improving the breed of bees by crossing them with any 

 superior kind, or even of causing a change in that respect by obtain- 

 ing a stock from a long distance at swarming-time, does not seem to 

 have been thought of or recommended. They are left to themselves, 

 and to their own instincts, until they all become blood-relations ; and 

 their vitality and ability to propagate their own species thereby become 

 so materially interfered with and lowered, as to render them in many 

 instances physically unable to fulfil the natural conditions of existence ; 

 and such stocks are always weak, dwindling, and unprofitable. Such 

 treatment, at best, shows a great want of wisdom. All those who keep 

 bees on the old principle know that in early spring their best stocks 

 cluster by thousands on the outside of their hives ; and as the earth 

 puts on its summer verdure, and adorns itself with multitudes of 

 flowers, and the land literally " flows with milk and honey," the bees 

 are comparatively idle, while the honey is wasting its sweetness at a 

 time for which, according to the teachings of instinct and reason, they 

 were designed to put forth their working powers to the utmost. Why 

 is this 1 Honey and pollen are abundant, and it is perfectly natural 

 for bees — I had almost said the end for which they were created — to 

 collect and store them ; and yet for many days, and even weeks, they 

 remain idle, until the golden opportunity has passed. Why 1 Be- 

 cause the bees have no room in their hives to store honey or pollen if 

 they gathered it. The queen having occupied nearly all the cells with 

 living brood, the heat within the hive causes the mature bees to be 



