222 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



from a hive from which we took honey in boxes. We have 

 sometimes inverted the boxes in the spring, with a determination 

 to get a swarm instead of honey — but the result is the same. 

 The bees, after filling the body of the hive, have clustered on 

 the outside, and neglected to swarm. And here we would 

 remark that, although most writers on bees say that clustering 

 or hanging out is a symptom of swarming, our experience is 

 that it is directly the opposite ; for if a hive contains bees enough 

 to throw out a swarm, if they get the habit of hanging out, it 

 indicates that, for some reason unknown to us, they choose to 

 live out of doors in warm weather, and thus reduce the tem- 

 perature of the hive, so as to enable them to stick to the old 

 home. But this non-swarming propensity now presents no 

 objection to bee-keeping, or its increase, as we shall liercaftcr 

 show. Another objection is, something, we know not what, is 

 the matter with the hive — our bees neither swarm or make 

 honey, and here is a case in point : We had during the past 

 season two hives exactly alike in size, shape and color, standing 

 side by side ; we judged one to be a little stronger than the other ; 

 during the month of June, any pleasant day, bees enough for a 

 swarm were hanging from the front of the strongest hive, and in 

 that hive no honey was put in the boxes ; in the other, the bees 

 " from rise of morn till set of sun," with their merry buzz were 

 filling the boxes with honey. 



We are satisfied from experiments that, in this case, all they 

 needed was to stir them up by artificial swarming. One 

 gentleman, who is troubled in this way, says he is determined 

 to go back to the " old box-hive," and apply sulphur to a part of 

 his bees every year, as his father did. But this is like burning 

 the barn to get rid of the rats. Intelligent bee-keepers have 

 argued for many years that bee-keeping could not be brought to 

 perfection till a hive was invented, which would enable the bee- 

 keeper to have control over the bees and combs, and take them 

 from and return them to the hive at his pleasure. Hubef (who 

 has thrown more light on the physiology and habits of the bee 

 than all other writers,) saw the necessity for such a hive, and 

 he made some advance towards it by constructing a hive with 

 frames fastened together at the back, so as to open and shut 

 like the leaves of a book. But this hive never came into general ' 

 use, because it was too complicated for the majority of bee- 



