88 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



secure the management we desire to see carried out. This 

 management is to have for its distinguishing feature, the pres- 

 ervation of the bees from the cruel, unnecessary, improvident 

 and heartless destruction by sulphureous fames, to which so 

 many farmers and apiarians doom them, for the sake of getting 

 their honey. Murder and arson, and robbery, all combined ! 

 How feelingly Thompson laments this barbarous usage in the 

 " Autumn" of his "Seasons!" (Line 1170etseq.): — 



" Ah, see, where robbed and murdered in that pit 

 Lies the still heaving hive ! at evening snatched, 

 Beneath the cloud of guilt-concealing night. 

 And fixed o'er sulphur ! while, not dreaming ill, 

 The happy people, in their waxen cells. 

 Sat tending public cares ; 

 Sudden, the dark oppressive steam ascends. 

 And, used to milder scents, the tender race. 

 By thousands, tumble from their honied domes ! — 

 — Into a gulf of blue sulphureous flame." 



This destruction, the committee say, is wholly unnecessary, 

 as well as cruel, and they intend to substantiate the assertion, 

 by showing the bee-keeper, that, if he considers it necessary 

 to dislodge the bees from a hive that he may take the honey, 

 there is provided by nature, a means of doing it, without 

 destroying the life of a single bee. The means referred to will 

 be discussed before closing the report. 



A properly designed and well made hive should have a 

 movable bottom-board, collateral boxes, and an upper chamber 

 in addition. With such a hive, bees may be successfully 

 kept, and made to yield a handsome profit to the keeper, from 

 the sale of their superfluous honey. Not a life need be sacri- 

 ficed, and the honey taken will be considered but a fair rent- 

 age paid by the bees for tlie use of a comfortable home and 

 hive; a home and hive, in which, from its proper construction, 

 they are equally protected from the excessive heat of summer, 

 (and therefore can work the better, and without idlers piled 

 upon the outside,) and from the severe cold and varying tem- 

 perature of winter. They will also, by means of the chamber, 

 be kept free from that dampness and mould, which, during the 



