ASPECT SHELTER HIVES. 269 



sable. The apiary should not stand contiguous to 

 shrubs or plants of a height equal to the entrance 

 of the hives, which may impede the flight of the 

 bees heavily laden, on their return home : never- 

 theless, low trees, shrubs, bushes, and espaliers, 

 close at hand, are necessary, on which the swarms 

 may alight. The BEE-HOUSE or hives should be so 

 posited, that access may be had around them, for 

 the purpose of detecting or removing any nuisance ; 

 and the ground should be kept free from weeds, 

 or any harbour of vermin, and in a state of per- 

 fect neatness, in which the bees delight. Gravel 

 walks and flower borders, are the useful and the 

 ornamental features of the apiary. 



HIVES either stand in a bee-house, box, or shed, 

 or under a thatched or other kind of roof. The 

 STAND on which the hive is placed, should always 

 be kept clean, particularly so in the spring, at the 

 commencement of the working season. If it.be at 

 times sprinkled with a little salt, it will be very con- 

 ducive to the health of the bees. In short, all im- 

 purities should be removed from within and without 

 the hive, in order to save the cleanly insects the un- 

 profitable labour of the removal of nuisances. 



BEE-HIVES have ever varied much, both in their 

 form, and the materials of which they have been 

 constructed. In the natural state, these insects, of 

 course, take possession of any hollow vacant spot, 

 convenient for their domicile and laboratory a 

 hollow tree chasm in the rock or bank or the 

 wall or roof of a deserted building. In such places 

 they inclose themselves, always dwelling and labour- 



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