BEE-BOXES. 91 



require considerable nicety, and no small portion 

 of courage ; in some cases the difficulty would 

 be completely insurmountable. A hive very si- 

 milar to that of Huish is described in Wheeler's 

 Travels. He states it to be in use in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Mount Hymettus. " The hives," 

 says he, " in which they keep their bees, are 

 made of willow or osiers fashioned like our com- 

 mon dust-baskets, wide at top and narrow at bot- 

 tom." " These tops are covered with broad flat 

 sticks, along which the bees fasten their combs, 

 so that a comb may be taken out whole." We 

 are informed, by Reaumur and Du Hamel, that 

 this Greek method of keeping bees and taking 

 .honey was introduced into France in 1754. If 

 it had succeeded, either in France or in this coun- 

 try, I think we should have heard more of it. 



The only way in which I conceive that Huish's 

 idea can be followed up effectually, is, by employ- 

 ing the experimental hive of Huber ; but the ma- 

 jority of persons who undertake the management 

 of bees, will look to them as a source of profit ; 

 and to these the expense of such a hive would 

 render it completely unavailable. Huber 's first 

 experiments were made in single leaf-hives an 

 inch and a half wide ; his latter trials, on several 

 of these connected together, each an inch and a 

 quarter wide, which left the same room for the 

 passage of the bees as the single hive. See Chap- 



