236 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



which the bees may go out. Finally, make a screen-wire 

 tunnel, an inch high and as wide as the hive, to fit perfectly 

 between the hive and the board under the window sash. 

 This is to prevent the bees from escaping into the room. 



The best time to fill the hive is in the spring, when 

 some local bee keeper is ''cutting out" his first queen 

 cells. Take the little hive to him and get him to insert 

 a capped queen cell with about a teacupful of bees from 

 the same hive, closing it up so that no bees can escape. 

 It may then be screwed to the window sill where it is to 

 stand. The bees should be confined for three or four 

 days, if possible, until the young queen emerges, and it 

 is well to feed them a little syrup or honey daily to 

 make them feel at home, otherwise they may all decamp 

 to their hive.^ Fig. 97 shows this hive in position. 



An observation hive that is more certain to give satis- 

 faction is shown in Fig. 98. The glass case for this may 

 be made like the other except that the front glass is 

 replaced by a strong wooden post, with entrance hole 

 below, very securely screwed to the bottom board. The 

 size must be governed by the size of the frames in the 

 hive from which the bees are to come. Take this to a 

 bee keeper and have him set in one of his frames, well 

 filled with brood and covered with bees. He will be sure 



1 I have had two of these little hives made from one-pound sections, and 

 nothing more interesting could be desired. In one of them that stood in 

 my windovv^ an entire season I was able to study every activity of bees, even 

 better than in a larger hive. The third one I tried in exactly the same way 

 worked well for a few weeks, when the queen concluded that it was too 

 small for her ambitions, and she forthwith decamped, taking all the bees 

 with her. They next went into one of my bird houses in a tree, but soon left 

 that. It would probably be difficult to keep so small a hive alive over winter. 



