CHAPTER XVII. 



HIVES. 



Natural Abodes of Wild Bees — Taking Honey from Roof of House — 

 Straw Skeps — Cottager's Hive — Supering — Nutt's Collateral Hive 

 — Village Hive — Woodbury Hive — Abbott's Hives — Sectional 

 Supering — Stewarton Hive — Carr-Stewarton Hive — Observatory 

 Hives — Bee-houses. 



In a state of nature bees avail themselves of hollow 

 trees, crevices in rocks, or other cavities of various 

 kinds. Swarms escaped from apiaries will frequently 

 find an entrance to the space between the roof and 

 upper ceilings of houses, and extraordinary quanti- 

 ties of comb, brood, and bees have been taken from 

 such places. Two gentlemen, well known to the 

 writer, have given the following account in The Bee 

 Journal {or July i, 1882, of their successful taking of 

 bees, brood, comb, and honey, from the roof of a 

 house at Lockinge, near Wantage, Berks. 



"The house is very old, and built of lath and 

 plaster in the old style, with gables. There was a 

 bricklayer at our service to open walls where sug- 

 gested. We commenced at the back gable, and the 

 bees were situated, one lot in the roof, and two others 

 in the walls. 



