232 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



The next topic is the management of a hive of bees. 

 How many of the class know anything about it ? How 

 many have bees of their own ? Do any of their parents 

 keep bees ? If none of the children or their parents have 

 bees, the study may have to be concluded at this point. 

 If, however, the locality be favorable, there is one more 

 question to be asked. Who will volunteer to get some 

 bees and begin to study them .? 



A swarm of bees in a glass hive in an upper story or 

 attic window of the school building may prove a most 

 instructive part of the nature-study equipment, where con- 

 ditions in the school and district permit. Under these 

 conditions, I include a number of things. The spirit of 

 the school comes first. If bees are common and every- 

 body knows and sees enough of them, it may not be 

 valuable. If nobody knows anything about the manage- 

 ment of them, wait until somebody learns before attempt- 

 ing it. Bees are sometimes kept with profit on the roofs 

 of houses in large cities, but, in general, where there are 

 no flowers within two or three miles, a school hive is 

 out of the question. 



One thing is clear at the outset. If it is deemed advis- 

 able to have a school hive, none of the care of it should 

 be allowed to devolve upon the teacher. True, if one thor- 

 oughly understands the subject, there need be but little 

 work about managing a single swarm of bees ; still this 

 little must be done at the proper times, and a teacher 

 already has too many things to look after. If some one, 

 or better, if a group of the older children, wish to volunteer 

 to put the hive in the school or in one of their homes, 

 where it will be available for study, then the experiment 



