363 [Assembly 



several miles in search of materials, and be subject besides to the 

 casualties incident to the jouiney back and forth. The time 

 spent by tlie one on the road is etfectually employed by the 

 other in storing up honey manufactured from the raw material 

 supplied at tlie hive. You will ask how all this is done. The 

 first thing necessary will be to prepare a house or room, say 

 eight or ten feet wide and of any length required, in which the 

 hives are to be arranged by placing as many as you wish on two 

 shelves, one above the other, in such a manner as to unite them 

 all perpendicularly and horizontally, thus enabling the bees to 

 form one great and powerful community — to work together in 

 perfect harmony, and thus to secure themselves from the attacks 

 of robbing bees, and successfully to contend with their greatest 

 enemy, the miller, at the same time doing away with the well 

 known difficulties and objections to the principle of natural 

 swarming in the open air. 



In speaking of this subject, Dr. Scudmore, in his treatise upon 

 bees, sa>s: 



There is no certainty as to the time when the expected rising 

 of natural swarms will take place, by reason of several causes, 

 some of which may prevent it altogether, and the inconvenience 

 to which the proprietors are liable who do not form artificial 

 swarms are consequently many: 



1st. They are obliged to watch the departure of swarms very 

 assiduously for six v,ecks, and sometimes much longer. What- 

 ever attention may be given by persons entrusted with this care, 

 many swarms fly away which it is impossible to arrest. Proba- 

 bly one-fourth of the best swarms are lost in tliis manner. 



2d. He who has a small number of hives is obliged to watch 

 them with the same assiduity as if he had more, and he who has 

 a greater number is often much embarrassed, because it is no 

 unusual thing to see several swarms go off at the same time. 

 Some escape on the one side and some on the other, or unite 

 themselves together. 



3d. A cold and rainy time, which may happen at the moment 

 when swarms are disposed to come forth, often prevents the 



