DIVISION XI. 



THE BEE, AND TEE MANAGEMENT OF THE APIARY. 



introductory; interest attached to the bee; functions of bees; numbers in a hive; 



attachment' AND HOMAGE TO THE QUEEN BEE ; THE PASTURAGE OF THE BEE; PRODUCTS OF THE 

 BEE • CONSTRUCTION OF THE COMBS ; THE FORMATION OF SWARMS ; THE APIARY ; DIFFERENT 

 SORTS of' hives ; SITUATION OF THE APIARY ; THE DESTRUCTION OF BEES. 



Addison remarks, " shows, by his way of 

 writing, the simplicity, or rather coarseness, 

 of the age in which he lived." But, whatever 

 may be the simplicity or the coarseness of 

 his manner of writing, he has certainly been 

 highly complimentary to the virtues of the 

 bee, if we are to consider that such women as 

 his tenth species could be composed of the 

 forms, qualities, and instincts of that notable 

 insect. If so, we trust that every kind and 

 careful bee-master may have the happiness of 

 falling in with a hee-wife. 



INTEREST ATTACHED TO THE BEE. 



" The bee is little among such as fly ; but 

 her fruit is the chief of sweet things." This 

 is the language of the Scriptures ; and from 

 the ancients this insect has claimed a greater 

 interest than it has done among the moderns. 

 No nation upon earth has had so many 

 historians as this remarkable creature. De 

 Montfort, who drew " the portrait of the 

 honey-fly," in 1646, enumerates the authors 

 up to his time who had written upon the same 

 subject ; and they amount to between five and 

 six hundred. Varro, Columella, Celsus, and 

 Pliny have each given in their contributions 

 to the subject ; and some idea may be formed 

 of the minuteness with which they extended 

 their investigations from a passage in Co- 

 lumella, who, in speaking of the origin of 

 bees, says that Euhemerus maintained that 

 they were first produced in the island of Cos ; 

 Euthronius, in Mount Hymethus ; and Nican- 

 women, nor passes away her time with them I der, in Crete. The subject of the fourth book 

 in wanton di.-<courses. She is full of virtue | of the Georgics of Virgil, is the management 

 and prudence, and is the best wife tliat Jupiter j of bees. Their habits, economy, polity, and 

 can bestow on man." Simonides lived about } government are described with great fidelity, 

 400 years after the siege of Troy ; and, as [ and with all the charms of poetry. In David- 

 994 



INTRODUCTORY. 



Addison, in his 209th Spectator, translates 

 some of the iambics of Simonides, and tells us 

 that this poet was famous in his generation, 

 and that he is the author of the oldest satire 

 now extant. The subject of this satire is 

 woman ; and we find him stating that the souls 

 of one kind of women were formed out of 

 those ingredients which compose a swine ; a 

 second were formed out of the same materials 

 that enter into the composition of a fox ; a 

 third were made up of canine particles ; a 

 fourth were made out of the earth ; a fifth 

 were composed of the sea ; a sixth were manu- 

 factured of the ingredients which make an ass, 

 or a beast of burden ; the cat supplied the 

 materials for a seventh species of women ; the 

 mare with a flowing mane, which was never 

 broken to any servile toil and labour, composed 

 an eighth species of women; the ninth kind 

 were taken out of the ape ; and the tenth, and 

 last, sort were made out of the bee. In 

 reference to this species, Simonides says — 

 " Happy is the man who gets such an one for 

 his wife ! She is altogether faultless and un- 

 blamable. Her family flourishes and im- 

 proves by her good management. She loves 

 her husband, and is beloved by him. She 

 brings him a race of beautiful and virtuous 

 children. She distinguishes herself among 

 her sex. She is surrounded with graces. 

 She never sits among the loose tribe of 



