BEES, BEE-HIVES, AND BEE CULTURE. 55 



BEE-HOUSE TO CONTAIN TWELVE HIVES. No. 40. 



Back View of the above, shewing the Interior. 



Where economy of room is a consideration, we fit up bee-houses 

 with a double row of hives, one above the other. Our engravings 

 show the back and front of a house of this kind, having an 

 ornamental zinc gutter to prevent the wet from dripping on to the 

 alighting board. 



When a number of hives are thus together, we colour the 

 alighting boards differently, so that bees may have a distinctive 

 mark by which each 'may know its own home, and not wander 

 into its neighbour's house. Bees readily enough receive a honey 

 laden labourer into a hive ; but if the wanderer be poor and empty, 

 he will be promptly repulsed, and may have to forfeit his life for 

 his mistake. Queens returning from their wedding trip, are liable 

 to mistake their hive if all the entrances are so much alike that a 



