14:8 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



The ancient methods of artificial increase appear to have 

 met with little success ; but towards the close of the last 

 century, a new interest was awakened on the subject, by 

 the discovery of Schirach, a German clergyman, of the 

 fact, previously known to a few, that bees are able to rear 

 a queen from worker-brood. For want, however, of an 

 acquaintance with some important principles in the econ- 

 omy of bees, his efforts met with but slender encourage- 

 ment. 



Huber, after his splendid discoveries in the physiology 

 of the bee, felt the need of some way of multiplying col- 

 onies, more reliable than that of natural swarming. His 

 hive consisted of twelve frames, each an inch and a quar- 

 ter in width, which were connected together by hinges, 

 so that any one could be opened or shut at pleasure, like 

 the leaves of a book. He recommends forming artificial 

 swarms, by dividing one of these hives, and adding six 

 empty frames to each half. After using his hive for years, I 

 found that it could be made serviceable only by an adroit 

 and fearless Apiarian. The bees fasten the frames with 

 their propolis, so that they cannot easily be opened, with- 

 out jarring the combs, and exciting their anger ; or shut, 

 without constant danger of crushing them. Huber no- 

 where speaks of having multiplied colonies extensively by 

 such hives, and although they have been in use more than 

 sixty years, they have never been successfully employed 

 for such a purpose. If he had contrived a plan for giving 

 his frames the requisite play, by suspending them on 



giving directions for making artificial swarms. Although he taught how to furnish 

 a queen to a destitute colony, and how to transfer brood-comb, with maturing 

 bees, from a strong stock to a weak one, he does not appear to have formed entirely 

 new colonies by any artificial process. His treatise on bee-keeping shows not only 

 that he was well acquainted with previous writers on the subject, but that he was 

 also a successful practical Apiarian. Its precepts, with but few exceptions, are 

 truly admirable, and prove that in his time bee-keeping, with the masses, must 

 have been far in advance of what it now is. 



