H 



UEKS. 



each bar. A small piece of comb will suffice, as all that is 

 required is to give the bees the direction in which to work. 

 The comb must be carefully cut, in order to preserve its 

 original inclination. The distance of the bars from each 

 other should be about half an inch, and their width one inch 

 and one-eig-hth. These proportions should be carefully 

 observed, and then ample room will be given for the varia- 

 tion in the thickness of the comb that bees constantly pro- 

 duce. The brood cells, as they are to hold young* bees, are 

 always the same depth, but the honey or store cells are often 

 leng'thened very considerably. 



The power of thus removing* a single comb will be found 

 most advantageous when the comb begins to blacken by 

 age. After a few years the successive generations of young- 

 bees leave so many of their exuviae and shrouds in the cells, 

 that they become too small to receive young any more, and 

 are often used for containing honey. The honey of these 

 cells is sure to be very poor, and they hardly contain any 

 wax at all. I have now in my possession several series of 

 silken cocoons which I have taken from old cells. They fitted 

 one inside another, like a series of thimbles, and were easily 

 withdrawn after a careful maceration. 



The hive should always be placed upon a stand of a single 

 log, the footboard projecting as far as possible, in order to keep 

 off mice, rats, and other vermin. Care must be taken that 

 when the wooden top to the hive is first fixed, all space be- 

 tween the straw and the wood should be carefully filled up 

 with putty, or better with Roman cement, or the bees will fill 

 up the spaces themselves with propolis, and waste much time 

 in so doing. The same remarks will apply to the wooden 

 hoop at the bottom of the hive, which should also be care- 

 fully smoothed so as to fit the footboard as closely as 

 possible- 



A Glass Window should be let into the back. This is not 

 merely an agreeable adjunct, as admitting you when you 

 please to a certain degree of familiarity with the bees, but 

 often proves of use in questions of pure business-management. 

 Bees, however, if they courteously answer your courteous 

 mode of approaching them (which is, by gently breathing 

 only through your nostrils, and with an easy nonchalant air, 

 that seems to saj, I don't care for the bees, and they have 



