THE COTTAGE AND FARM BEE KEEPER. 9 



facing eastward or westward — the latter aspect, I think the best of the 

 two. So much alive are some apiarians to this evil, that they prefer 

 turning their hives. with a point to the north; nay, it has been pro- 

 posed, (and with a show of reason,) to keep them always facing the 

 direct north. In their natural state, we know bees seek a uniform 

 temperature, by burying themselves deep in the hearts of forests, 

 where the sun's rays seldom, if ever, penetrate. Their own restless 

 activity keeps them alive enough in summer, while they are so snugly 

 housed in winter as seldom to be induced to sally forth ; hence arises 

 this further advantage, that they prey but little on their stores. It 

 cannot be too urgently recommended to keep the hives as cool as pos- 

 sible in the late spring and summer, for it will be found as a general 

 rule, that, in proportion as this be carefully attended to, the swarms 

 will be stronger, the bees more vigorous and indefatigable in the col- 

 lection of honey, and the honey itself more wholesome and pure. It 

 may seem paradoxical to recommend coolness of situation, when it is 

 at the same time fully acknowledged that heat is the great promoter 

 of early and vigorous swarming ; yet the advice is not the less based 

 upon sound reason and experience. It is true, some bee keepers re- 

 move all cover from their hives in a hot May or June sun, with a view 

 expressly to compel early swarming ; I have clone so myself in the 

 days of my noviciate ; nothing, however, can be conceived more fatal 

 than such a proceeding. The queen will leave the hive very little 

 sooner for such treatment — certainly it cannot expedite the birth of 

 royal issue a single moment — but the harm done to the hive's pros- 

 perity is incalculable. Before swarming takes place under such cir- 

 cumstances, the queen bee and her subjects will long have been griev- 

 ously incommoded ; the process of -breeding will have been hindered ; 

 many of the grubs will have perished, or at least thousands of eggs 

 become abortive ; while certainly no addition will have been made to 

 the stores of honey, if the combs do not actually give way under the 

 " influence of the unusual heat. Thus the issuing swarm must needs 

 be weak, and the old hive from which it issued impoverished in every 

 way. This, therefore, I lay down as a rule of sound doctrine, that 

 internal heat, arising from an over-crowded population, is ahne pro- 

 ductive of prosperity in the economy of bee management.* 



* See Appendix, Note A. 



