108 On Bees, 



placed in a hive of the same construction and on the 

 same bench, which we will designate as the second. We 

 examined the first hive by gently raising the lid, and 

 found it completely filled. We then proceeded, accord- 

 ing to the directions of the Encyclopaedia, to take off 

 the upper box, which was done with very little injury 

 to the bees. Had it been done at night, or early in the 

 morning, or had tobacco smoke been previously ap- 

 plied, scarcely a bee would have been killed. We car- 

 ried away the upper box, and in the mean time threw a 

 cloth over the hive, until having emptied the box, we 

 replaced it in its original situation on the top of the hive. 

 The bees immediately went to work to repair their 

 cells, and clear away the honey which ran down the hive, 

 and proved fatal to a great number of them. The box 

 taken out was three inches deep, was filled with white, 

 transparent, delicious honey, not a cell discoloured, and 

 entirely free from young bees, or bee-bread. In the 

 next box below, most of the cells were filled with 

 young bees in the chrysalis state ; while the third and 

 lowest box was principally filled with wax, containing 

 few bees and but little honey. When we left the country, 

 which was about the last of October, the bees had again 

 nearly filled the upper box, 



A month after the swarming of the first hive, the 15th 

 of July, we examined the second, and found it filled 

 from top to bottom, we took off the upper box in the 

 prescribed mode, which by being done at night, freed 

 us from all trouble, only six or seven of the bees beiiig 

 destroyed. We were satisfied with finding it filled with 

 honey of equal freshness, purity and whiteness. 



