HIVES. 95 



CHAPTER VIII. 

 HIVES. 



BEE-HIVES have been formed with various mate- 

 rials, the selection of which has depended partly 

 upon the country or district in which they have 

 been used, and partly upon the fancy of the api- 

 arian. Osiers, rushes, segs and straw have all 

 been in requisition for forming hives, and Bon- 

 ner, an eminent bee-master in Scotland, proposes 

 to have them made of earthenware. In North 

 America, according to Brookes, they are formed 

 out of the hollow trunks of the liquidambar tree, 

 cut to a proper length and covered with a board 

 to keep out the rain : for the same purpose the 

 people in Apulia use the trunk of the giant fennel, 

 after clearing away its fungous pith. In Egypt, 

 says Hasselquist, bee-keepers make their hives of 

 coal dust and clay, which being well blended to- 

 gether, is formed into hollow cylinders, of a span 

 diameter, and from six to twelve feet long ; these 

 being dried in the sun, become so hard as to be 

 handled at will. " I saw some thousands of these 

 hives," says our author, "at a village between 

 Damietta and Mansora ; they composed a wall 

 round a house, after having become unserviceable 

 in the use they were first made for." Voyages 



