168 SPRING. 



The bee can fly up, you tliink; so it will, sometimes; 

 but will try a dozen times first to get up without, and 

 when it does, it is a very bad position to start from, 

 being a smooth board. In hot weather it does better. 

 Did you ever watch by a hive thus raised, in April or 

 May, towards night, when it was a little cool, and see 

 the industrious little insects arrive with a load as 

 heavy as they could possibly carry, all chilly, and 

 nearly out of breath, scarcely able to reach home, and 

 there witness their vain attempts to get among their 

 fellows above them ? If you never witnessed this, I 

 wish you would take some pains for it, and when you 

 find them giving up in despair, when too chilly to fly, 

 and perishing after many fruitless attempts for life, I 

 think, if you possess sympathy, benevolence, or even 

 selfishness, you will be induced to do as I did — dis- 

 card at once wire hooks and all else from uiider the 

 hive in the spring, and give the bees, when they do get 

 home with a load, under such circumstances, what 

 they richly deserve, and that is, protection. 



ADVANTAGK OF THE HIVE CLOSE TO THE BOARD. 



An inch hole in the side of the hive, a few inches 

 from the bottom, as a passage for the bees, is needed, 

 as I shall recommend letting the hive close to the 

 board ; it is essential on account of robbing ; also, it 

 is necessary to confine as much as possible the animal 

 heat, in most hives, during the season the bees are 

 engaged in rearing young brood; and warmth is ne- 

 cessary to hatch the eggs, and develop the larvae ; we 



