180 THH BEE keeper's MANUAL. 



swarming. His leaf or boot hive consisted of 12 frames, 

 eacli an inch and a half in width ; any one of which could 

 be opened at pleasure. He recommends forming artificial 

 swarms, by dividing one of these hives into two parts ; ad- 

 ding to each part six empty frames. After using a Huber 

 hive for a number of years, I became perfectly convinced 

 that it could only be made servicable, by an adroit, expe- 

 rienced and fearless Apiarian. The bees fasten the frames 

 in such a manner, with their propolis, that thny cannot, ex- 

 cept with extreme care, be opened without jarring the bees, 

 and exciting their unger ; nor can they be shut without con- 

 stant danger of crushing them. Huber nowhere speaks of 

 having multiplied colonies extensively by such hives, and 

 although they have been in use more than sixty years, they 

 have never been successfully employed for such a purpose. 

 If Huber had only contrived a plan for suspending his 

 frames, instead of folding them together like the leaves of 

 a book, I believe that the tause of Apiarian science would 

 have been fifty years in advance of what it now is. 



Dividing hives of various kinds have been used in this 

 country. After giving some of the best of them a thorough 

 trial, and inventing others which somewhat resembled the 

 Huber hive, I found that they could not possibly be made to 

 answer any valuable end in securing artificial swarms. For 

 a long time I felt that the plan ought to succeed, and it was 

 not until I had made numerous experiments with my hive 

 substantially as now constructed, that I ascertained the pre- 

 cise causes of failure. 



It may- be regarded as one of the laws of the bee-hive, 

 that bees, when not in possession of a mature queen, sel- 

 dom build any comb except such as being designed merely 

 for storing honey, is too coarse for the rearing of workers. 

 Until I became acquainted with the discoveries of Dzierzon, 



