436 GARDEN MANAGEMENT. 



neighbourhood of the bees' hive. Lime-trees, furze, heath, and clover, are 

 also desirable. 



1304. Honey, however, occasionally has been found to have acted like 

 poison, a circumstance, probably, owing to the bees having extracted it from 

 poisonous plants. Dr. Hosack has recorded two cases in which this sub- 

 stance produced violent vomiting, a coldness at the extremities, and a livid 

 appearance of the countenance. The pulse was reduced to about twenty in a 

 minute ; the spontaneous vomiting, however, being followed by a dose of 

 castor-oil, together with the application of fomentations, relieved the suf- 

 ferers. In these cases the honey was of a dark reddish colour, and a thicker 

 consistence than usually sold in the market. 



1305. Various plans have been adopted to obtain the honey from bee- 

 hives without resorting to the cruel, unnecessary, and now nearly exploded, 

 practice of sacrificing the lives of the bees by placing the hive over a hole 

 in which lighted brimstone is placed, the fumes from which in a short time 

 kill the bees. 



1306. The plans chiefly adopted have had for their object the expulsion of 

 the bees from the old nest after the combs are well filled with honey, into adja- 

 cent boxes, in which they then commence their labour, or, after the removal or 

 the honey, they are again returned to their old habitation. The following is a 

 plan adopted by Mr. Xutt, by which means a secretion of a much larger 

 quantity of honey is caused than can be produced in the old plan. Three 

 collateral boxes are placed side by side, with a single entrance in the centre, one 

 which, however, communicates with the side-boxes by apertures which are 

 easily closed by a tin slide. The bees are first introduced into the centre box ; 

 when this is filled with honey, which is allowed to remain for the use of the 

 bees, in order to obviate the necessity of swarming, Mr. Nutt removes one of 

 the sHdes and establishes a communication with one of the side-boxes, the 

 temperature of the latter being regulated by a perforated tin tube, which acts 

 as a ventilator, and by which means these additioi. al store-boxes are kept at 

 a proper working temperature and heloto the genei-ative heat ; in consequence 

 of which the queen bee is always retained in the middle box. The heat 

 of the side-boxes is kept at 70° or 80°, whilst the natural temperature of the 

 working hive is 90° or 100°, increasing even to 120°. When the temperature 

 of the side-box rises towards the latter point, it is evident that they are full, 

 and the necessity which exists for establishing a connection with the centre 

 and the other side-box is thus shown. The bees are easily driven from the 

 full side of the box by the action of the ventilator, when the communicating 

 aperture is closed by means of the slide, and the first full side-box is then 

 removed, and the bees finding the middle box full, soon find their way into the 

 other side-box. The ingenious action of the ventilator is designed to retain 

 the queen in the middle box, since the reduced temperature of the side-boxes 

 prevents the queen from rendering them her domicile. By this means a great 

 superiority both in the quantity and quality of the honey is obtained, as 

 it contains none of the eggs, larvje, pupse, pollen, or bee-bread, which are 



