THE HONEY-BEE. 



have been the plans invented to enlarge hives as 

 may be required, both to permit of the greater 

 accumulation of honey, and to render swarming 

 unnecessary. Caps are the simplest of these 

 inventions. In order to use caps, hives must 

 have a stoppered hole at the top. A small 

 additional hive, of light structure, is placed over 

 this at the proper time, the stopper being removed. 

 This serves as a second magazine for honey. 

 Storied hives are merely hives made originally 

 with one or two stories, for the same end. Wild- 

 man's hive, the Grecian hive, and Lombard's hive 

 are specimens of hives made on this principle. 

 Collateral hives, again, such as Null's, effecl Ihe 

 same ends by being placed side by side, and 

 giving increased accommodalion, when necessary, 

 either for swarms or stores. 



Use of Caps. Experienced apiarians, who work 

 on a large scale, now employ for the most part 

 hives so contrived as to remedy all the inconven- 

 iences resulting from the straggling of swarms and 

 the old custom of killing by brimstone. As Ihe 

 use of single straw hives, however, formed upon 

 Ihe simplesl plan, slill prevails among those who 

 have bul one or iwo hives in all, Ihe cap may be 

 regarded as Ihe easiest means of affording, enlarged 

 accommodation in such cases, and the mode of 

 taking away the honey from it is very plain and 

 easy. It is only necessary to remove the cap, 

 invert it, and cover it with a handkerchief, leaving 

 a little opening on one side. A few taps will 

 cause Ihe bees lo quil the cap and return to the 

 hive, after which the honey can of course be 

 readily removed. This may be done frequently in 

 the same season. De Gelieu mentions, that in 

 one season he drew from one of his straw hives 

 that did not swarm seventy-two pounds of fine 

 honey-comb, by merely emptying the caps as they 

 were filled. 



One of the cheapest and simplest forms of the 

 capped straw hive is the Improved Cottage-hive, 

 exhibited in the Crystal Palace, in 1851, by Mr 





Milton's Improved Cottage-hive. 



Milton, and which received a prize medaL It is 

 simply a straw hive of the usual dome-shape, with 

 a wooden hoop round the bottom. The projecting 

 landing-place is sloping and sunk, so as to form 



an entrance without cutting the edge of the hive. 

 An opening of two inches diameter is left in the 

 top of the hive, and over this is fastened a flat 

 board, not so large as the bottom diameter of the 

 hive, with a similar aperture. The empty space 

 between the top of the hive and the board is filled 

 up with cement or putty. The cap is a smaller 

 hive, adapted to stand on this board, and may be 

 used alone, or to cover a bell-glass. The hole in 

 the board is kept closed by a bung until the bees 

 give indications of swarming, or of having filled 

 the hive; the bung is then withdrawn, and the 

 bees ascend, and fill the glass or the small hive 

 with pure honey. When it is filled, a knife is 

 passed below, to detach any combs that may be 

 adhering to the board, and it is then removed, and 

 another cap put in its place. The bell-glass 

 is represented in the figure with an aperture at top, 

 through which a perforated zinc tube descends, for 

 the purpose of ventilation. 



Union of Swarms. 



It is strongly recommended by experienced men 

 that swarms should be more often united than 

 they are. Five thousand bees are estimated to 

 weigh a pound ; and, according to most bee- 

 keepers, a swarm ought to weigh nearly four 

 pounds. As a hive often casts off successive 

 colonies, each far below this weight, it then be- 

 comes proper to unite two or more of them ; seeing 

 that one strong population supports itself better, 

 and is incomparably more profitable, than several 

 feeble colonies, which must be frequently in want 

 of assistance. To those who keep bees on a small 

 and cheap scale, convenience also dictates the 

 junction of swarms in such cases. De Gelieu 

 thus describes his mode of practice : ' When two 

 small swarms come off the same day, I gather 

 them separately, and leave them at the foot of the 

 tree or bush on which they have alighted. To- 

 wards evening, I spread a table-cloth on the 

 ground, on which, by a smart and sudden move- 

 ment, I shake all the bees out of one of the hives, 

 and immediately take the other and place it gently 

 over the bees that are heaped together on the 

 cloth, and they instantly ascend into it, flapping 

 their wings, and join those which, not having been 

 disturbed, are quiet in their new abode. Early 

 next morning, I remove this newly united hive to 

 the place it is destined to occupy. This doubled 

 population works with double success, and in the 

 most perfect harmony ; and generally becomes a 

 powerful colony, from which a great profit is 

 derived. Two feeble swarms may be united after 

 the same manner, although one of them may have 

 come off some days later than the other, and the 

 first may have constructed combs ; taking care, 

 however, not to make the first one enter the second, 

 but the second the first, as the bees will ascend 

 more readily to join those that have already begun 

 to make honey and to hatch brood ; and next day 

 they will proceed together with increased ardour 

 with the work which the first had already begun, 

 and which will now advance more rapidly from the 

 increase of the labourers. It is to be understood 

 that, after this union, the hive should be placed 

 early next morning in the same place where the 

 oldest of the swarms has already passed some days. 

 On many occasions, the circumstance of two 

 queens passing out at once is the cause of a 

 colony going off in two halves, and the removal of 



