UNICOMB AND LEAF HIVES. 141 



" The hive in which Huber conducted his first 

 experiments, had only an interspace of an inch and 

 a half between the glass doors, so that the bees could 

 not cluster upon the surface of the comb, and yet 

 had room to pass freely over it. Mr. John Hunter 

 recommended the diameter of these narrow hives to 

 be three inches and the superficies of the sides of 

 sufficient size to afford stowage for a summer's werk. 

 Mr. Dunbar, with his mirror hive, constructed some- 

 what like Huber 's, has been able to make some inter- 

 esting observations on the economy of the bee. The 

 distance of his glass doors from each other is an inch 

 and two-thirds, the height of the hive about eight- 

 een inches, and the width about two feet. Across 

 the center of the mirror hive, he introduced a light 

 frame, which, though apparently dividing the hive 

 into four compartments, allowed the bees a free pas- 

 sage ; the light was excluded by a pair of folding 

 shutters on each side. 



" Mr. Dunbar hived a small swarm in one of these 

 narrow boxes in June, 1819 ; the bees began to build 

 immediately, and he witnessed the whole of their 

 proceedings, every bee being exposed to view. The 

 narrowness of their limits constrained them from the 

 very commencement to work in divisions, so that four 

 separate portions of the comb were begun and con- 

 tinued, nearly at the same time. 



" But this arrangement did not sufficiently employ 

 these industrious creatures ; for, contrary to their 

 usual mode of building, which is from above down- 



