16 THE BEE K.EEPEB*S MANUAL. 



could, in a sliort time, strengthen my feeble colonies, and 

 furnish those which had lost their Queen with the means of 

 ollaining another. If, I suspected that any thing was the 

 matter with a hive, I could ascertain its true condition, hy 

 making a thorough examination of every part, and if the 

 worms had gained a lodgment, I could quickly dispossess 

 them. In short, I could perform all the operations which 

 will be explained in this treatise, and I now believed that bee- 

 keeping could be made highly profitalle, and as much a 

 matter of certainty, as any other branch of rural economy. 



I perceived, however, that one thing was yet wanting. 

 The cutting of the combs from their attachments to the 

 sides of the hive, in order to remove them, was attended 

 with much loss of time to myself and to the bees, and in 

 order to facilitate this operation, the construction of my 

 hive was necessarily complicated. This led me to invent a 

 method by which the combs were attached to movable 

 FRAMES, and suspended in the hives, so as to touch neither 

 the lop, lollom, nor sides. By this device, I was able to 

 remove the combs at pleasure, and if drsired, I could speedi- 

 ly transfer them, bees and all, without any cutting, to another 

 hive. I have experimented largely with hives of this con- 

 struction, and find that they answer most admirably, all the 

 ends proposed in their invention. ' 



While experimenting in the summer of 1851, with some 

 observing hives of a peculiar construction, I discovered that 

 bees could be made to work in glass hives, exposed to the 

 full light of day. The notice, in a Philadelphia newspaper, 

 of this discovery, procured me the pleasure of an acquaint- 

 ance with Eev. Dr. Berg, pastor of a Dutch Reformed church 

 in that city. From him, I first learned that a Prussian cler- 

 gyman, of the name of Dzierzon, (pronounced Tseertsone,) 

 had attracted the attention of crowned heads, by his impor- 



