278 BEE MANIPULATION. [Ch. v. 



therefrom to the three legs of the stand. The height of 

 such a stand need not exceed four feet. 



This contrivance is both portable and simple, and can 

 be used from time to time ; or, if the apiarian desires to 

 have the hive constantly suspended, a water-proof cover- 

 ing might easily be made to drop over, and adapted so 

 as to admit of being raised occasionally for ascertaining 

 the weight shown on the dial. Much interest might be 

 derived by watching the daily or hourly increasing store 

 brought into a hive during the gathering season. Mr. 

 George Fox, of Kingsbridge, and Mr. S. 'Bevan Fox, of 

 Exeter, have for some years each kept one stock attached 

 to a " Salter's Circular Spring Balance," suspended from 

 a beam under a shed, and, from experience, found that 

 from a hive so balanced a criterion may be formed of 

 what other hives in the apiary are doing through the 

 day. 



Some interesting observations have been made upon 

 this point. Baron von Berlepsch has had stocks which 

 brought in twelve poynds of honey in a day ; Kader in 

 Mentz had days when one stock brought twenty-one 

 pounds ; Pastor Stein in Mentz had days when one stock 

 brought twenty-eight pounds. The sap which a bee's 

 honey-bag holds weighs but a grain, so that the bees, in 

 this last case, must have made in one day over 160,000 

 journeys. 



Many ingenious contrivances will, no doubt, suggest 

 themselves for the observation of hives in this manner. 



