BOOK IX. VII. 1-4 



VII. But since most people regard all this as involv- On the 

 ing too much trouble, whatever kind of receptacles beehives. 

 take their fancy will have to be arranged thus. A 

 bank made of stones built three feet high is stretched 

 across the apiary and carefully smoothed over with 

 plaster, so that no chance of climbing it may be 

 offered to lizards and snakes or other harmful 

 creatures ; then on the top of it are placed either 2 

 bee-houses made with bricks, which Celsus prefers, 

 or, as we prefer, hives walled round except at the 

 back ; or else — and this is the practice of almost all 

 those who are careful in these matters — receptacles 

 arranged in a row are fastened together either with 

 small bricks or with unhewn stones in such a way 

 that each is contained within two narrow walls and 

 the two sides, at the back and at the front, are 

 left free ; for the sides on which they issue forth 

 have sometimes to be opened and this is especi- 

 ally necessary at the back because the swarms 

 have to be attended to from time to time. If 

 there are no partitions between the hives, they 3 

 will, nevertheless, have to be so placed as to be at a 

 little distance from one another, so that, when they 

 are being inspected, one which is handled in the 

 course of being attended to may not shake another 

 which is closely joined to it, and alarm the neigh- 

 bouring bees, which are afraid of every movement 

 as threatening ruin to their structures which are 

 frail, being of wax. It is quite enough to have three 

 rows of hives one above the other, since even so the 

 man who looks after them cannot very conveniently 

 inspect the top row. The fronts of the hives, which 4 

 afford entries for the bees, should slope down more 

 than their backs, so that the rain may not flow in, 



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