MUTT'S COLLATERAL HIVE. 55 



■foot or two longer, so as to allow of a oottag-e hive on 

 either side, as the appearance of the whole is much im- 

 proved by such an arrangement. 



The following- directions, with some adaptation, are 

 from "Nutt on Honey-Bees ":— 



" In the middle box the bees are to be first placed : in 

 it they should first construct their beautiful combs, and 

 under the government of one sovereign, the mother of 

 the hive, carry on their curious work, and display their 

 ■astonishing architectural ingenuity. In this box, the 

 regina of the colony, surrounded by her industrious, 

 happy, humming subjects, carries on the propagation of 

 her species, deposits in the cells prepared for the pur- 

 pose by the other bees thousands of eggs, though she 

 seldom deposits more than one q%% in a cell at a time : 

 these eggs are nursed up into a numerous progeny by 

 the other inhabitants of the hive. It is at this time, when 

 hundreds of young bees are daily coming into existence, 

 that the collateral boxes are of the utmost importance, both 

 to the bees domiciled in them and to their proprietors ; 

 for when the brood become perfect bees in a common 

 cottager's hive, a swarm is the necessary consequence. 

 The queen, accompanied by a vast number of her sub- 

 jects, leaves the colony, and seeks some other place in 

 which to carry on the work Nature has assigned her. 

 But as swarming may, by proper precaution and atten- 

 tion to this mode of management, generally be pre- 

 vented, it is good practice to do so, because the time 



