BEE 



BEE 



29 



and autumn. The most effectual 

 way to guard against their incur- 

 sions, is to lessen the entrance into 

 the hive, so as to leave room for 

 only two or three bees to pass 

 abreastjOr to stop up the hives that 

 are attached, till the rovers disap- 

 pear." Rees'^ Cyclopvedia. 



The Massachusetts Agricultural 

 Repository for May, 1812, Vol. 

 HI. No. 2, contains a valuable 

 '■^Memoir on the Management of 

 Bees ^ by Rev. Thomas J^ot/es,''^ 

 from svhich the following is extract- 

 ed. 



" I have the satisfaction to state 

 from actual experiment, a simple 

 and safe process, which I have 

 adopted, of making my bees pay 

 an annual tribute, without waging 

 an exterminating war upon them. 

 In order to effect this, I tind it ne- 

 cessary to construct my hives very 

 differently from what has been the 

 general plan of their formation. I 

 have substituted boxes, and give 

 each swarm two, three, or four 

 boxes, as I find their situation re- 

 quires. Their introduction from 

 one box to another is easy, and the 

 removal of either of the boxes is 

 safe and practicable, at any season 

 of the year, or in the middle of the 

 day, when they are most active. 

 With very little injury to them, I 

 can take their hive into as many 

 parts as it consists of boxes, put it 

 together in the same, or different 

 order ; take which box I please ; 

 avail myself of its contents, without 

 injuring the bees ; give them an- 

 other box, or return the same 

 empty ; place it at the top, bot- 

 tom, or centre, at pleasure. And, 

 in this way make them more indus- 



trious, by affording them constant 

 employment,and com[)letely reme- 

 dy their necessity for idleness, 

 which is sometimes the case, when 

 they have filled their hives, and 

 have no where to bestow their 

 goods. 



'' The boxes, which I use, are 

 constructed in the following man- 

 ner. 1 take a clean inch board, 

 six inches wide, and saw it into 

 pieces fifteen inches long. Four 

 of these pieces, when put together 

 at right angles, will form a box, 

 whose dimensions within will be 

 fourteen inches square and six in- 

 ches deep. At the centre of the 

 bottom of that side which I design 

 for the front, I make, for a door or 

 passage for the bees, an opening, 

 one and an half inch long, and one 

 third of an inch deep. Then cov- 

 er the top and bottom with pieces 

 of boards, whose thickness does not 

 exceed one sixth or one eighth of 

 an inch. These covers ought to 

 project in the front about one inch 

 to accommodate the bees with a 

 place or stage, on which they may 

 alight and rest. They serve as 

 partitions between the boxes, and 

 the lower cover ought to be con- 

 fined with small screws, that it may 

 be easily removed, when the honey 

 is to be taken from the box. The 

 door or passage for the bees being 

 already made, I proceed to open 

 a large hole for the purpose of in- 

 troducing the bees into the box, 

 and as a communication from one 

 box to another. For this purpose 

 I cut two holes, between three aod 

 four inches square, through the 

 centre of the two thin covers. — 

 Having all my boxes made in the 



