132 HIVES. 



THE BEE-GUM 



Is made by cutting the trunk of a hollow tree in 

 lengths, usually two or three feet long, after removing 

 the rotten wood, either by burning or the use of a 

 gouge ; a piece o board is nailed on one end, holes 

 are bored through the middle, and sticks inserted to 

 sustain the combs while being built ; notches are cut 

 in the lower edge, and -an inch hole bored midway 

 to the top for egress and ingress. After a swarm is 

 hived, it is either set on a board or stand, and gen- 

 erally suffered to remain without further attention till 

 fall. A plan frequently adopted to obtain honey is 

 to remove the lid, smoke the bees downward, and cut 

 out a quantity of honey ; if too much is taken, the 

 bees die of starvation during the winter. The most 

 common plan, however, is to consign the whole swarm 

 to the sulphur pit, and take all their stores. The 

 latter method is also mostly used to obtain the honey 

 from straw hives. The use of the gum has generally 

 been attended with good success, which is attributa- 

 ble to its shape ; many eminent apiarists bear testi- 

 mony to the superiority of deep hives over those 

 that are low and of large diameter Mr. Langstroth 

 amongst the number but while he candidly admits 

 this superiority, as is shown by the following quota- 

 tion from his valuable work on the honey bee, yet he 

 willingly sacrifices it for what he seems to think of 

 more importance, viz : a wider top surface in which 

 to place store honey boxes. Whether this is an abso- 

 lute gain at any time, or will hold good in a majority 



