145 



SUPPLEMENT. 



In penning a Supplement for this — the fourth — 

 edition of the ' Handy Book of Bees,' it is but simple 

 justice to the reader and myself to state that after ten 

 years of extensive experience among hees, since the first 

 edition of this work was published, I find nothing in 

 the second and third editions which I wish to alter or 

 withdraw : in fact, our confidence in the system of 

 management unfolded and recommended in this work 

 grows stronger year by year. The same may be said 

 of the hives which are recommended. Mi OUerhead, 

 who is a practical and disinterested bee-keeper, delivered 

 a lecture on Bees last autumn at Wimbledon. " We 

 now come," said the lecturer, " to the question of hives. 

 Last autumn I prepared carefully twenty hives of bees 

 for the winter — viz., four Pettigrews, three Neighbours' 

 Cottage hives, two Stewartons, five Woodburys, two 

 Carr-Stewartons, and four double Neighbours. A great 

 diversity of opinion exists as to which is the best hive 

 to use. The old straw skep, the 20 -inch Pettigrew, 

 the Cottage Neighbour, the Woodbury, and the Carr- 

 Stewarton, are good in their way; but to my mind 

 the best hive for quantity of honey, either in the 

 comb or in supers, is the Pettigrew. The hive itself 

 has a capacity for a prodigious quantity of honey, 

 while sectional or other supers may be piled on its 

 crown to any extent desirable. I have visited every 

 show of the British Bee-Keepers' Association, and have 

 so far failed to find any hives better adapted for the 

 profitable management of bees than the Pettigrew, the 



