THE HISTORICAL BEE-HIVE. 133 



For obtaining the honey from both the clay-pots and the 

 straw hives, "fire and brimstone" were the persuasive arguments 

 used to induce the little busy bee to yield up its laboriously- 

 gathered winter stores to satisfy the cravings of the sweet-tooth 

 of the bee-keepers of bygone days. How long the common straw 

 hives were annually operated upon with fire and brimstone before 

 some humane individual came to the conclusion that something 

 more than a drain-pipe was needed to save the valuaTfle lives of the 

 inmates I don't know. Notwithstanding that after the applica- 

 tions of the brimstone argument, when every onlooker smelt a 

 little of the torments of the valuable sufferers, all the sympathy of 

 the bee-keeper ended in, "What a pity; only this, and nothing 

 more!" until Nutt invented a straw super. This invention was 

 improved by Neighbour's, Pettitt's, and Taylor's bell-glass supers. 

 Nutt's super straw skip was superseded by Mr. Pettitt's "Temple 

 Bee-hive for the humane treatment of the honey-bee." It was 

 got up in a tasteful and substantial manner, and when placed in 

 a neat and ornamental flower-garden had a very picturesque ap- 

 pearance. "Each hive was furnished with four bell-glasses," he 

 tells us, "from which the drones are effectually excluded, and the 

 temperature of the interior can be so regulated by the use of the 

 ventilators and thermometers, as to prevent the necessity of swarm- 

 ing," only this "necessity for swarming" came off all the same. 



About 1864, The Times (London) Bee-master, strongly re- 

 commended "Pettitt's hexagonal," as improved by himself by the 

 introduction of six slides for the purpose of communication bet- 

 ween the brood chamber over the super. But, later on, he dis- 

 carded it for the Ayrshire box-hive. Pettitt's "Temple hive" 

 seems to nave been one of the first wooden structures for bee- 

 keeping having any pretensions to use and ornament used in 

 Great Britain. 



In 1846, The Leipzig Illustrated Almanac, in a report on agri- 

 culture, said, "Bee-culture is no longer regarded as of any 

 importance in rural economy." 



In 1848, the Eev. Mr. Dzierzon published his Theory and 

 Practice of Bee-culture, wherein he describes his method of remov- 

 ing the combs without the said combs being wholly destroyed. 

 His method was by a movable top-bar to which the bees attached 

 the comb, and also attached it to the sides of the hive from where 

 it had to be removed by the application of the knife. This was 

 the germ from which sprang the movable bar frames- 



