88 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. 



nature or adhesive power goes like mortar in walls, and 

 becomes as rotten as a piece of burnt paper. All such, 

 rotten combs are worse than useless in hives, for they 

 have to be taken down and fresh ones put in their places. 

 There is in this work of the bees a waste of both time 

 and honey. 



But how can we account for the use of boxes as bee- 

 hives in this country at all 1 The great bulk of straw 

 hives of English make are exceedingly small and ill made, 

 and are really not fit to be used as bee-hives ; compara- 

 tively, they are not worth one shilling a-dozen. Well, 

 many bee-keepers finding them very unsatisfactory, and 

 unsightly too, have invented hives of wood. Of course 

 everybody loves his own offspring, and likes to see it bear 

 a good name, and be recognised in society. Every inven- 

 tion is a grand afiair ! Both architect and builder join 

 hands in supplying the world with an article decidedly 

 superior to all that has gone before ! And what was 

 •begun in honest effort ends in full-fledged quackery. 

 And hundreds, ignorant of bee-science, are induced to 

 purchase these costly hives, which, in their own turn, are 

 found so unsatisfactory, tliat the purchasers think that 

 they will never be duped again. Another invention turns 

 up in the shape of a costly hive — to be managed on the 

 "depriving" or humane system! Many, again, are be- 

 witched by the very name of the last invention, and 

 ignorantly spend their money for hives which the writer 

 would not accept as a gift. 



It appears from Mr Quinby's book on bees, that in 

 America the new inventions in bee-hives are more 

 numerous than they are in England, and are well patented 

 and patronised. He says, after showing the worthless- 

 ness of many patent hives, "that in Europe the same 

 ingenuity is displayed in twisting and torturing the bee, 



