HIVES. 59 



garden two miles away, another hive had been placed 

 ready for a swarm in case one issued. The lady, in 

 whose apiary the hive stood, sent for a shoemaker to 

 hive the swarm. Being one of the old school who 

 cannot bear the " new-fangled notions," he took the 

 foundation out of the bars, made a ball of it, and 

 threw it into a pan as useless. He then hived the 

 swarm, giving the bees access to super as well as 

 brood-chamber ; in fact the hive from floor-board to 

 roof was at their service. When examined a few days 

 later crooked combs were found in the brood- chamber 

 far too advanced in building to be disturbed. The bees 

 were, therefore, driven out of the super, so that they 

 might first complete the combs below. This they did, 

 and at the end of the season the honey -return from the 

 supers was as follows : from the stock hive 51 lbs. 14 

 oz., and from the swarm 27 lbs. 1 oz. 



Here is a most significant fact. While the stock 

 hive, after sending out a large swarm, stored in supers 

 nearly 52 lbs., the swarm gave about half the quantity, 

 though combs in the brood-chamber had to be produced 

 in the ordinary way from wax which the bees secreted. 

 Had the hiver of the swarm allowed the sheets of 

 foundation to remain in the bars of brood-chamber and 

 super, the bees would have had honey representing 

 more than a week's work to carry into the super, pro- 

 ducing a total surplus that must have equalled if it did 

 not considerably exceed that stored by the stock. 



The " Ivo," which has been designed by the writer, 

 is intended to take the place between the straw skep 

 and the bar-frame hive. It is an undoubted fact that 

 many bee-keepers who have been induced to adopt the 



