116 BEE& 



inch in thickness. One great advantage attending 

 the straw hive, is, that the bees, from their comfort- 

 able state during winter, swarm much earlier in the 

 spring. There have been many kinds of hives in- 

 vented, but it is needless to enumerate them. The 

 Egyptian bee hives are made of clay and coal dust, 

 blended together, and formed into a hollow cylinder, 

 from six to ten feet high. When dried in the sun, in 

 the manner of clay bricks, this hive becomes extreme- 

 ly hard, and may be carried from place to place with- 

 out danger of breaking. It is not uncommon in 

 Egypt, for the natives to carry their bees into differ- 

 ent parts of thfe country to procure honey, when from 

 the overflowing of the Nile, they can get none at 

 home. They start in October and return in Februa- 

 ry, after the bees have gathered the sweets of flowers 

 through an extent of hundreds of miles, on the banks 

 of the dark and turbid Nile. 



Floating bee hives are not uncommon in France. 

 They are carried in boats or barges, one of which 

 will carry from fifty to a hundred hives. The barge 

 is so constructed, that the bees are screened from 

 both sun and rain. They float along the river, while 

 from the flowers on the banks the bees gather their 

 delicious sweets. But bees are not only transported 

 from place to place by water, but by land also. 

 They are carried in a cart, which contains about fifty 

 hives. 



It has not yet, I believe* been ascertained how 



