80 BEE-HIVES. 
that you have just such an amount of room, with no suitable means 
to increase or diminish it, to meet the wants of the bees. It is often 
the case that bees will not swarm at all, (notwithstanding many ap- 
pear to think that it is so natural for them to do so,) but will cluster 
in large quantities on the outside of the hive for weeks in succession, 
and idle away their time when they would be busily engaged in stor- 
ing honey, if in hives that would afford them suitable room to store 
it in. 
BEE-HIVES. 
It would not only be useless, but impossible for me, in this little 
treatise, to attempt to give a description of one half of the bee-hives 
that have been invented during the last twenty years, a number of 
which were never worth the powder it would take to blow them up; 
most of which have, however, exploded without the expense of 
powder. ‘ 
I have thought, however, that it might not be altogether out of 
place here to notice some of the many that have been brought into 
general use, and state my opinions briefly as to their good or bad 
qualities, according as I view them. It is evident, I think, that many 
of these hives were never tested by their inventors, or by others, be- 
fore they were brought before the public; had they been, I think 
their inventors would not have had the hardihood to humbug the 
community to the extent they have done. Many of the patented 
hives, however, have possessed some good qualities; but they 
generally have been encumbered or surrounded by some useless con- 
trivance, that overbalanced all the advantages they possessed. Others, 
in endeavoring to remedy one difficulty, have instituted others still: 
worse, if possible. - The object aimed at by most inventors, has been 
to devise some means for obtaining the honey without destroying the 
lives of the bees. This, all will admit, is a very desirable object; 
but I candidly believe that many of the hives that have been invented 
expressly for this object, have in the end destroyed more bees than 
they have been the means of saving. 
Other hives have been devised expressly to prevent the depre- 
dations of the moth, and have been styled by their inventors “ moth- 
