8 



Beekeeping 



The primitive method of keeping bees consisted simply 

 of giving them some kind of cavity in which to live. Such 

 hives are exemphfied in the mud hives of the Palestine 

 beekeeper (Fig. 3), and the straw skeps of the old-time 

 European beekeeper. The interesting collection of hives 

 shown in Fig. 4 is drawn from a photograph sent the author 

 by J. de Dieterichs, Nucha, Caucasus, Russia, these hives 

 being types used in that country. To our discredit, it must 



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Fig. 8. — Bee-house in Carniola, Austria. 



be admitted that in parts of America the box-hive (Fig. 1) 

 or "gum" has not been eliminated. With such crude 

 equipment, beekeeping as a business is not possible. 



With the invention of the movable-frame hive by Langs- 

 troth, around which so much of this book centers, the de- 

 velopment of practical beekeeping began. This type of 

 hive was promptly adopted by German beekeepers, since 

 the previous rediscovery of the bar-hive by the great bee- 

 keeper Dzierzon had prepared them for it. The bar-hive 

 had, however, been used centuries before in Greece (Fig. 5). 



