IJ2 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



or may contain young bees in the various 

 stages of growth from the egg to the live bee. 

 In the spring there is usually very little honey 

 left in the hive, the bees having eaten it all dur- 

 ing the winter, and filled up the empty cells 

 with eggs, fast becoming bees. The frames of 

 the hives are not often disturbed by the begin- 

 ner in bee-hiving, since the bees are apt to 

 resent this investigation into their private apart- 

 ments. Above the box containing the frames 

 comes a cover, which is sufficiently high to 

 allow a number of honey-boxes to be placed 

 right on top of the frames. These honey-boxes 

 are easily contained in a large case, which 

 enables them all to be put on or lifted off 

 together. In this case there are from twenty 

 to thirty boxes to be filled by the bees. In 

 some hives boxes for honey are also placed in 

 the lower part of the hive along the outside 

 walls, when the bees will often fill them in 

 preference to going up into the cover of the 

 hives. 



In the old-fashioned hives it was necessary to 

 kill the bees by suffocating them with sulphur 

 smoke before the honey could be cut out of the 

 hive. In the new hives, if I may so call the 



