On the Management of Bees. 335 



dnstrjr of these valuable insects; and in fact on the master of the 

 bee-house being himself fond of the pursuit, great part of the 

 success of keeping them depends : they must be watched during 

 their time of swarming, and the attacks of their enemies must be 

 warded off, for of these they have not a few. There are but two 

 aspects in which the bee-house should be placed; the south, or 

 some point towards it ; and the east. I have in my principal apiary 

 two houses, each containing eight hives; the one fronting the 

 east, and the other the south ; I have endeavoured to ascertain 

 in which of them the bees throve best, but in that respect I could 

 find no difference. I however prefer the southern aspect, as it 

 enjoys the benefit of the winter sun, whose warmth and effect in 

 keeping the house dry, is of infinite consequence : this leads me 

 to the most decisive dictum on the subject, that it is essential to 

 the thriving of bees, that they should be kept sheltered from 

 damps and wet, in summer and in winter; as, unless they are 

 kept dry and warm, they will not work. Turn up an unsheltered 

 hive on a rainy day, in the midst of summer, a drowsy hum an- 

 nounces their torpor ; but if sheltered, so that the chilly effect of 

 the rain has not reached the interior of it, the moment the at- 

 mospliere is cleared, and a glimpse of sunshine is seen, they will 

 be observed to issue from their hives to work, as alert as if not 

 a single drop of rain had fallen. 



The absorute necessity oi warmth during the winter to the 

 preservation of bees is, independent of what has been already ob- 

 served, the best answer that can be given to the possibility of 

 taking the honey without destruction of the bees. If the honey 

 is taken, the combs must be taken too. What is the effect ? The 

 hive becomes empty; there is no exclusion of cold, from the cir- 

 cumstance of its being filled with combs: there is no resting- 

 place for the bees, who are sheltered in the intervals, and some 

 food is derived from the bee-bread and wax which is taken away. 

 They do not live in winter clustered as in a swarm, but are di- 

 spersed over the combs, and either feed on their appropriate cell, 

 or what the combs contain. How, therefore, a swarm deprived 

 of combs is to live in that cold, inactive, and unprotected state, I 

 cannot conceive. Without food they cannot exist; the quantum 

 to be administered is not easily ascertained, and it is attended 

 with much trouble; and though we well know that ingenious 

 glass appendages have been filled with combs, such as the shop 

 of Mr. Wildman exhibits, how is the cottager to procure this 

 costly apparatus, and how to attend to it ? for, except by such 

 means, ingenuity has never suggested any mode, nor speculation 

 glanced at its practicability. If you mean to carry your hives 

 through the winter, you must give them their natural comfort 

 and suj)port ; you nmst leave Ihcm their combs and their hive^, 



and 



