CHAPTER IV. 



THE BEE-HIVES. — HIVES WITH IMMOVABLE COMBS. 



375. The first hives that were provided for bees were as 

 rude as their natural abodes. We do not need to look back 

 very far to remember the "bee-gum," so called, probably, be- 

 cause it had often been made out of the gum tree, with two 

 sticks' crossing in the middle, and a rough board nailed on 

 top, while a notch in the lower end formed the entrance. In 

 the Old World, they manufactured straw or willow "skeps" 

 and pottery hives, which are still used in Asia and Africa. 

 The earthen hive was simply a tube, laid on its side, and 

 closed at each end with a movable wooden disk. This disk 



Pig. 51. 



EARTHEN HIVE OF AFRICA AND CYPRUS. 



(From "L'Apicoltore," Milan.) 



was removed to take the honey, which is always located at the 

 back part of the hives. 



These earthen hives were, unquestionably, the most sensible 

 of those old kinds. In the Islands of Greece they were set 

 in thick stone walls, built on purpose with the entrance on one 

 side of the wall. Sometimes they were located in the walls 

 of the houses, and the honey was removed from the inside of 

 the house, or, if in walls, from behind, out of the flight of 

 bees. 



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