CHAPTER: i, 
THE CONTROLLABLE HIVE AND NEW SYS- 
TEM OF BEE MANAGEMENT. 
T is now more than ten years since I invented the Con- 
| trollable Bee Hive, and New System of Bee Manage- 
ment. I commenced bee keeping with the common box 
hive, with no knowledge whatever of the habits of bees. 
I was not long in learning that I could not make bee 
keeping a success with the box hive, and I also found 
that the thousand and one patent hives were no better 
than, and the great majority of such hives inferior to, the 
simple box hive. I found there was no practical method 
of controlling the swarming propensities of bees. All 
such hives would swarm or not, as seemed to suit the 
caprice of the bees, which I found very perplexing. 
Stocks under the old plan of management sometimes 
show every indication of swarming, such as clustering 
out, etc., yet they adhere pertinaciously to the old stock 
through the entire summer, a peck or more of them cluster- 
ing idly on the outside of the hive. through the season ; 
and if one put on boxes, it is all the same, they will do 
nothing. And such swarms often starve early the next 
winter, after passing the summer in idleness. Other 
stocks with apparently not so many bees will swarm 
