fcEE 



If*, in this interval, upon examining 1 the 

 box or boxes beneath, all appears to be 

 quiet in them, it is a sign that the queen 

 is there, and in safety. Afterwards raise 

 the back part of the hive or box so far, 

 by a piece of wood slipped under it, as to 

 give the prisoners room to come out, and 

 they will return to their fellows : then 

 lifting the box from off' the colony, and 

 turning its bottom upmost, cover it with 

 a cloth all night ; and the next morning, 

 when this cloth is removed, the bees that 

 have remained in it will return to the co- 

 lony. Thus a box ot honey is procured, 

 and all the bees are preserved. 



Bees have various enemies ; mice 

 should be guarded against, by diminish- 

 ing the entrance into the hives when the 

 cold comes on, and the bees are less able 

 to defend themselves ; and the hives may 

 be placed in such a manner, that it will 

 be impossible for the mice to reach them. 

 Spiders and caterpillars are very destruc- 

 tive to bees; two species of the latter, 

 called the wax-worm, or wax-moth, and 

 bee-worm ; because they feed on wax, lay 

 their eggs in the hive, which turn to mag- 

 gots, that are very prejudicial to the bees. 

 In consequence of the increasing depre- 

 dations of these insects within a few 

 years, the quantity of honey brought to 

 oar markets has materially decreased. 

 Hives of bees that have swarmed more 

 than once, and such as contain little ho- 

 ney, are most exposed to these insects ; 

 for the empty combs serve them for shel- 

 ter, and the wax supplies them with food. 

 These hives should be cleaned at least 

 once a week; and the stools on which 

 they rest, where the moths are laid by 

 the bees, should be cleaned every morn- 

 ing. But they cannot be entirely destroy- 

 ed, without, taking away the infected hive, 

 removing the bees, andcleansing it of the 

 rnoths, before it is restored to its former 

 occupiers. Bees are often troubled with 

 lice, which may be destroyed by strewing 

 tobacco over them. The depredations of 

 birds, and particularly of the king-bird 

 (muscicapatyrannus,) should be carefully 

 prevented. Ants, wood-lice, andearwiga, 

 are also enumerated among the enemies 

 cfthe bees. Mr. Keys says, "the earwigs 

 steal into the hives at night, and drag out 

 bee after bee, sucking out their vitals, 

 and leaving nothing but their skins or 

 scalps, like so many trophies of their 

 butchery." Wasps and hornets are also 

 formidable enemies that bees have to en- 

 counter. See Doddrigeon the culure of iiees, 

 and also, APIARY, avsd Avis, of this work. 



BEECH. See FAG us. 



BEE 



BEER, a fermented liqour,'made gene- 

 rally from some farinaceous grain, par- 

 ticularly from prepared barley or malt. 

 The mode of making beer will be found 

 under the article BREWING. It may be 

 observed, that, during the scarcity of 

 grain in this country, sugar, treacle, and 

 molasses, were frequently used as a sub- 

 stijijte for malt. We shall in this place 

 describe a machine that has obtained 

 pretty general use in the public-houses in 

 and near the metropolis, viz. the 



BEER pwnp. The plate explains the 

 construction of a set of beer pumps, as 

 made by Mr. Thomas Ilowntree, engine- 

 maker, Blackfriars road: the pumps are not 

 of the common construction, but similar 

 to that made use of in his extinguishing en- 

 gine : they are double, and throw out the 

 liquor at either motion of the handle. Fi- 

 gures 4 and 5 are two sections of a pump at 

 right angles to each other : fig. 4> being a 

 section through the dotted line A B, tig. 

 5 : and fig. 5 a section through C D, tig. 

 4>: the same letters are used in both fi- 

 gures E E : F F is a brass cylinder with 

 a flanch, E E (dotted in fig. 5) in front : 

 G G, fig. 4, is a cover screwed to the cy- 

 linder with a stuffing box n, in the centre, 

 to receive the spindle H : I is a partition 

 in the cylinder, with a packing at a, to 

 embrace the spindle, and make a tight 

 joint, this has two valves, b, d, shutting 

 downwards upon holes made in the parti- 

 tion : K is the suction pipe, bringing li- 

 quor to the lower division of the cylinder, 

 but has no other communication with the 

 upper, but the two valves, b, d: L is the 

 piston fixed to the spindle, and fitting the 

 cylinder tight all round, so as to divide the 

 upper part into two other parts : e,f, are 

 copper pipes, to convey the liquor from 

 the upper half of the cylinder to a cham- 

 ber N, and its return is prevented by 

 valves , /*, on the ends of the pipes : O 

 is the forcing pipe sere wed to the chamber 

 N ; when the piston is moved by the han- 

 dles on the end of its spindle towards 6; for 

 instance, the valve b will be shut, and the 

 liquor on that side, finding no other pas- 

 sage, passes through the pipe e and valve 

 ff, and into the chamber N, and is con- 

 veyed by means of the force pipe O, 

 where required: the same motion of the 

 piston, enlarging the space on the side d t 

 shuts the valve h at the end of the pipe/i 

 and formed a vacuum : the pressure of 

 the atmosphere upon the surface of the 

 liquor, in which the end of K is immersed, 

 forces it through the pipes, opens the 

 valve d, and restores the equilibrium. The 

 operation is exactly the same when the 



