540 Retrospective Criticism, 



queens takes place till after the third or fourth swarms : this is the case in 

 common hives, and equally in the new. This shows the instinct of bees to pro- 

 pagate their species by swarming, which never takes place after the expulsion. 



Mr. Nutt proclaims his humane system as differing from all others, in 

 enabling us to procure pure honey without destroying the bees : but this is 

 nothing new. Pure honey is obtained from common hives on the storifying 

 plan, without injury to the bees. When Mr. Nutt calls out against this prac- 

 tice, he forgets that his own system is the very same except as regards 

 his collateral boxes ; for the glasses on the top of his inverted hives are on the 

 same plan of storifying, and so is the glass on the collateral hives. A glass on 

 the top of a common straw hive differs in nothing from one on a wooden box, 

 except in not being dignified with the fine name of the Pavilion of Nature. 

 The collateral boxes were new, and would have deserved praise, if they could 

 have prevented swarming, and if the queens did not deposit their eggs in them. 

 The tin tubes are a mere fancy. They might be of use in hives crowded M'ith 

 bees and combs; but they are speedily rendered useless by the bees sealing 

 them up. 



The difference between the three collateral boxes, and three common hives, 

 is, that the three boxes ought to be full of bees all under one queen, while the 

 three hives would each be under a separate queen. But it will be urged in 

 favour of the collateral boxes, that the honey in the side boxes is pure, 

 because the queen does not deposit her eggs in them, and the cells are not 

 discoloured, as in brood combs. To this, I have to observe that, if the bees 

 enter the side boxes early in the season, the honey will be no purer than that 

 made by a second or third swarm in a straw hive of the same age. Last year, 

 I put a swarm into one of the side boxes of two collateral hives ; but the bees 

 did not enter the other end boxes, from the centre stocks. I destroyed the 

 bees in one of the side boxes, and united the other to the centre stock, after 

 destroying their queen. They fought, and there was great loss of life; yet not 

 enough, for I soon found that I had more bees than could be supported ; 

 for, though the centre was full of honey, I was obliged to feed them. They 

 were, after all, weak, and died in the following spring: the other centre stock 

 is doing well. 



Bees may be united, at swarming time, without much loss of life, as they 

 have not taken full possession of the hive ; but, when strange bees are added 

 to an established hive, fighting will always ensue, and often with great loss of 

 life. These observations prove that, if the end boxes were full of honey and 

 bees, the centre box would not contain enough to support the whole colony 

 during the winter ; and little woukl be gained by taking food from the bees at 

 first, if it became necessary afterwards to feed them. This season, I put a 

 swarm into one side box of each of two sets of collateral hives, where each 

 worked with its own queen. The bees from the centre stock entered the op- 

 posite ends at the same time. I took the boxes off, and examined them on the 

 2d of August. Those boxes with separate swarms had a little pure honey 

 in the outside combs, the inside ones containing brood ; and the same was 

 found in the other ends, entered from the centre stocks. 



After this, the question will occur, what advantage is gained by having a 

 large colony of bees under one queen, since weaker hives produce as pure 

 honey as the stronger. To procure the honey from the weaker hives, on the 

 old plan, the bees must be destroyed, so far the other mode has the advantage; 

 but, on the other hand, there is a danger of too much robbery in the stronger 

 hives ; and the bees must be fed; and, if this be not practised successful^', the 

 bees must perish from starvation. But, when the honey is collectecl, there is 

 little difference in the result of either system : if profit is wanted, the eld is 

 preferable. 



Mr. Clark pronounces me no apiarian ; to which, indeed, T lay no great pre- 

 tensions. But he hasdecided upon singular grounds, if, as it would appear, he 

 rests his verdict chiefly upon my acknowledgment that I doubted the u)aternity 

 of the queen-bee, till I had ocular demonstration. My confession is termed 



