BET5S, BEE-HIVES, AND BEE CULTURE. 45 



time (say half an hour or an hour) the bees will ascend into the 

 hive ; they will go up more quickly if occasionally stirred with the 

 feather of a goose quill. 



When the bees have ascended into the hive, take off the funnel, 

 replace the bar, screw on the top board, take it to the place intended 

 for it permanently to occupy, and which has been prepared for it. 

 It will be as well to screen the hive from view for a few days until the 

 bees become settled in their new domicile. Although this hive is con- 

 structed of double glass to keep up a more uniform degree of warmth, 

 still from the cold nature of glass and tho' close contact into which 

 the |)ees are brought with it, it is advisable to place flannel between 

 the outer shutters and the glass of the hive on both sides ; this is found 

 essential in winter, and very much adds to the comfort of the bees if 

 placed so every cold night during most of the year. In the day time 

 in summer months with the hive being of double glass the whole may be 

 fuUy exposed to view. If the temperature of the apartment in which 

 the hive stands be kept at 60 degrees, this extra attention will not 

 be so needful. Bees cease to appear disturbed when the exposure 

 to light is continuous. As soon as the bees are settled, comb 

 building will immediately commence, and in about two weeks' 

 time there will be one comb spreading over the whole hive. The 

 queen may be viewed depositing her eggs, and aU the usual 

 operations of the rearing of brood, storing of honey, and the 

 building of combs, will be open to full inspection, with perfect ease 

 to the spectator. As an object of lively and permanent interest for the 

 breakfast parlour or conservatory, the " Unicorab Observatory Hive " 

 may be regarded as infinitely superior to an Aquarium or Fernery. 



At the Exposition Universelle of 1855 in Paris, we exhibited a hive 

 of this description in full working order. The bees left London on the 

 5th of July of th^t year, and were placed in the Exposition on the 

 following morning. An entrance was made for them through the 

 side of the building, as before explained. Our bees had no national 

 antipathies, and they immediately sallied forth to their " fresh fields 

 and pastures new" in the Champs Elysees, the gardens of the 

 Tuileries, the Luxembourg, &c., whence they soon returned laden 

 with luscious store from French flowers. 



The vJurors of the Exposition awarded us a Prize Medal for 

 bee-hives. 



