BOOK III. 



APIARY. 



343 



17.37. The furniture of the apiary, or bee-house, consists of the hives or utensils in which 

 each hive or swarm is congregated, and lives, and works, and of these there is a great 

 variety of sorts. 



1738. The Polish hive, or log-hive, (Pasieka Pol.) (fig. 203.) may be considered as 293 



the primitive form of artificial dwellings for bees. It is simply the trunk of a 

 tree, of a foot or fourteen inches in diameter, and about nine feet long. It is 

 scooped out (boring in this country would be better) for about six feet from one 

 end, so to form a hollow cylinder of that length, and of six or eight inches dia- 

 meter within. Part of the circumference of this cylinder is cut out during the 

 greater part of its length, about four inches wide, and a slip of board is made to 

 fit the opening. On the sides of this slip (a), notches are made every two or three 

 inches, of sufficient size to allow a single bee to pass. This slip may be furnished 

 with hinges and with a lock and key ; but in Poland it is merely fastened in by a 

 wedge. All that is wanting to complete the hive is a cover at the top to throw 

 oft' the rain, and then it requires only to be placed upright like a strong post in 

 the garden so as the bottom of the hollow cylinder may be not nearer the ground 

 than two feet, and the opening slip look to the south. When a swarm is to be 



put in, the tree, with the door or slip opened, is placed obliquely over it ; when 

 the bees enter, the door is closed, and the holes stopped with clay till the hive is 

 planted or placed upright. When honey is wanted, the door is opened during 



294 



the finest part of a warm day, when most of the bees are out ; its entire state is 

 seen from top to bottom, and the operator, with a segar in his mouth, or with a 

 lighted rag, to keep oft' the bees from his hands, cuts out, with a hooked knife, 

 as much comb as he thinks fit. In this way fresh honey is obtained during the 

 whole summer, the bees are never cramped for room, nor does it become neces- 

 sary to kill them. The old comb, however, is annually cut put to prevent or 

 lessen the tendency to swarming, which, notwithstanding this and the size of 

 their dwelling, they generally do once a year ; for the laws of nature are not 

 to be changed. Though it is a fact that a small swarm of bees will not do well 

 in a large hive, yet if the hive extend in length and not in breadth, it is ad- 

 mitted both by Huber and Huish, that they will thrive in it. " If too great a diameter," says Huber 

 " be not given to the abode of the bee, it may without danger be increased in the elevation, their success 

 in the hollow trees, their natural domicile, incontestably proves the truth of this assertion." We wit- 

 nessed in 1813, near Grodno, the management by a woman, Panna Andriewschieskniowna, (N. M. Ma- 

 gazine, June 1818.) in whose house we lodged, of above a dozen of these hives, for nearly four months, 

 and are of opinion that they merit a trial in this country. It is singular, that this should be almost 

 the only continental hive that Huish, who seems to have paid more attention to the subject by foreign 

 travel, study, and practice, than almost any man, has not seen. In Poland, he says, the inhabitants 

 have no regular bee-hives. (Treatise on Sees, 3d edit. 1817, p. 52.) 



1739. The common hive, called by the French the Scotch hive, is a thimble-shaped basket of rushes, straw, 

 and sometimes of willows, about a foot in diameter within, and fourteen inches high. It is formed by 

 coiling ropes of straw of wheat on a mould, sewing the layers to each other in advancing by flattened 

 shoots of bramble, clematis, or willow. In Georgia, hives of this class are wrought with willows in the 

 form of a cone, and the bees enter by the apex. (Johnston's Journey overland from India, 1817.) 



1740. The glass hive is variously constructed, sometimes with two of the sides of glass in order to see the 

 bees at work ; at other times the hive is entirely of wood or straw, but with a flat surface at top, pierced 

 with holes about an inch diameter, on which to insert crystal bell-glasses or drinking.glasses, in which 

 the bees may be seen at work., and which glasses, when filled with comb, may be removed and replaced 

 by empty ones, and thus occasional supplies of fresh honey obtained during summer. In the glass hive of 

 White and Thorley, one large globe is used, which, as often as filled, is removed and replaced by an empty 

 one. Such hives must necessarily be placed in the bee-house, or under a proper cover to exclude the 

 weather. Huish says, " they are fit only for the amateur, or those persons who wish to have a little fine 

 honey during the season, but who have no inclination to preserve the bees for the benefit of the succeeding 

 year." 



1741. The storying or pyramidal hive admits of increase, by 

 the addition of horizontal sections of case, whether of straw 

 or timber. The object is to produce a very strong hive ; but 

 this, when carried beyond a certain point, is found injurious, 

 rather than otherwise. (Huish, p. 67.) 



1742. The hive of Palteau (fig. 294.) is composed of three or 

 four frames, each a foot square, by three inches in height. 

 These square frames are placed the one on the other, and 



the first and last can always be lifted without deranging the 

 work in the others. Each square is strengthened from 

 every side by a cross piece of eight or ten lines in width, 

 and two lines in thickness, which serves to sustain the combs 

 of the bees. All the frames are tied together by means 

 of these cross pieces ; a board is placed on the top ; and a 

 general cover is placed over the whole to guard it from the 

 effects of the seasons. In autumn, when the honey is to be 

 taken from this hive, the cross pieces are untied, and one or 

 two of the upper frames are removed, passing the long blade 

 of a knife or a wire between. This done, an empty frame is 

 placed above, and another under all the rest, which makeup 

 for the two removed. " In an hour after," says Bosc, who de- 

 scribes and recommends this hive, " the bees are at work as if nothing had happened; and the same 

 operation can be renewed to infinity." 



1743. Mulsh's hive (fig. 295.) is about the capacity of the common straw hive (1739.), in shape like a 

 flower-pot, placed on its narrow end, with a convex cover (a). It is so constructed interiorly that 

 each comb (c) may be extracted by itself without deranging the rest ; the combs being attached to 

 slips of board (b) placed across the mouth or top of the .hive. Any one of them may be lifted up, 

 and to this the tapering construction of the interior is favorable. To prevent the bees from working 

 between the slips, air is admitted by means of pierced plates of tinned iron (fig. 296. a), and to 

 prevent human thieves from parrying off the whole hive, it is chained and padlocked (fig. 296. b) 

 to a strong post, which serves also as a fulcrum. The inventor of this hive has tried it, he 

 says, for nearly twenty years, and the following he states as the mode of using it, and the ad- 

 vantages attending its construction. " At any time and season when I require some honeycomb, or at 

 the end of the season, when I deprive my bees of their superfluous store, I open the top, and take the side- 

 boards out, from which having cut the honeycomb, I replace them in the hive, and the operation is 



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