OBSERVING HIVES. 333 



may be recruited, in a few minutes, by giving it maturing 

 brood from another hive.* 



These observing-hives may be constructed to accommo- 

 date a full swarm. I do not, however, recommend such 

 a hive for ordinary purposes, but one holding only a sin- 

 gle frame (PL IV., Figs. 14, 15), which, while it gratifies 

 curiosity, admits of easy control, and requires only a few 

 bees to be diverted from more profitable hives. 



A parlor observing-hive of this form may be conveni- 

 ently placed in any room in the house the alighting- 

 board being outside, and the whole arrangement such 

 that the bees may be inspected at all hours, day, or night, 

 without the slightest risk of their stinging. Two such 

 hives may be placed before one window, and put up or 

 taken down in a few minutes, without cutting or defacing 

 the wood-work 'of the house. In one, the queen may 

 always be shown, and in the other, the process of rearing 

 young queens from worker-eggs. These miniature hives 

 may be stocked in the same way that a nucleus is formed, 

 or a small after-swarm may be hived in them. 



An observing-hive will prove an unfailing source of 

 pleasure and instruction ; and those who live in crowded 

 cities, may enjoy it to the full, even if condemned to the 

 penance of what the poet has so feelingly described as an 

 " endless meal of brick." The nimble wings of these agile 

 gatherers will quickly waft them above and beyond " the 

 smoky chimney-pots ;" and they will bear back to their 

 city homes the balmy spoils of many a rustic flower, 

 "blushing unseen," in simple loveliness. Might not their 



* A writer, in a description of the differe'nt hives exhibited at the World's Fair, 

 In London, laments that no method has yet been devised, to enable bees to cluster, 

 in cold weather, in an observing-hive, so as to preserve them alive in Winter, even 

 in the moderate climate of Great Britain. By the use of movable frames, this 

 difficulty can be easily obviated, as, on the approach of cold weather, the frames, 

 with the bees, may be put into a suitable hive, and returned in the Spring to their 

 old abode. 



