On the Managemeiil of Bee$. 333 



age had fared on nothing but salt provisions. The blossom of 

 the turnip is also very useful at that season of the year, as it fur- 

 nishes both wax and honey in abundance. 



I do not pretend to enumerate all the flowers which afford food 

 to bees : the general descriptions I have already given : those from 

 which mine have principally drawn their support, are the white 

 clover and the blossoms of the lime tree ; and for wax, the blos- 

 soms of the furze and broom : it is the farina collected from these, 

 that repairs the cells that have been tapped for their food during 

 the winter: proximity therefore to these sources of support is a 

 very desirable circumstance in the formation of an apiary, the 

 benefit of which I fully experienced in the course of the summer 

 of 1816. The lime trees which usually blossomed about mid- 

 summer, did not fall into bloom in that year until late in July: 

 at midsummer the old hives are preparing, or have just cast 

 swarms, and the combs in the new are not in a fit state to receive 

 the honey; but in the late season of IS16, when those trees went 

 into blossom, in everv hive the combs were formed, and were in 

 a state to receive the honey fiom the flower. The beautiful and 

 rich grove of Mount Mascal, near Bexley, composed entirely of 

 lime trees, furnished pabulum for millions, and all the bees which 

 then left their hives, I observed in thousands to take that south- 

 erly direction which led to it : the consequence was, that all my 

 hives, which until that time were uncommonly light, from the ef- 

 fect of an unfavourable season, in a fortnight's time were amply 

 filled with honey. 



The next ol)ject, in order to increase and improve the apiary, 

 is, attention to the hives used, and the mode of hiving the swarms. 

 There is no prejudice which I have had more to combat with, 

 than the using of large hives, that is, the use of hives without 

 any attention to the proportion they bear to the swarms to be 

 put into them. In Kent they are partial to hives nearly two feet 

 high, and as large in diameter: they seem to consider that the 

 hives cannot be too large, and that it is of no importance ivhether 

 the loaded and wearied insect is to drag his burthen up two feet 

 of the side of the hive, or one ; or whether the hive is to be 

 wholly, or only partially, filled with comb. Both are of the utmost 

 importance. I have uniformly observed, that bees never work 

 well, unless the hive is full*; and when, after all their labour, 

 they find it empty, it is coid and uncheering, and they work with 



* In hiviiij^thc swarms, therefore, this must be atfi-ndcd to witli paiticu- 

 liu- care, that the hive be proportioned to the swarm: if it is too small, they 

 will lie out in dusters on the board, and not work, havini; no place in which 

 to deposit what they gi>iher ; if it is too larjje, and of course in great part 

 unfilled, wiien tlie bees come home they hnd the hive empty or cold, and 

 work no longer with iuduiitry and spirit. 



no 



