400 OVERSTOCKINS. 



general aspect of the alighting board of my hives, and show 

 how readily bees will enter such a hive, even in very windy 

 weather. By such arrangements, they will be able to 

 store more honey, even if they have to go a consider- 

 able distance for it, than they can in many other hives, 

 from pasturage nearer at hand. Such considerations are 

 entirely overlooked, by many bee-keepers, who seem to 

 imagine that they are matters of no importance. By 

 their utter neglect of any kind of precautions to facili- 

 tate the labors of their bees, you might suppose that they 

 imagined these delicate insects to be possessed of nerves of 

 steel, and sinews of iron or adamant ; or else that they took 

 them for miniature locomotives, always fired up, and capable 

 of an indefinite amount of exertion. A bee cannot put forth 

 more than a certain amount of physical exertion, and if a 

 large portion of this is spent in contending against difficulties, 

 from which it might easily be guarded, it is obvious that a 

 great loss must be sustained by its owner. 



If some of these thoughtless bee-keepers, returning home 

 with a heavy burden, were compelled to fall down stairs half 

 a dozen times, before they could get into the house, or to 

 squeeze through narrow and crowded passages, they might 

 perhaps think it best to protect their industrious workers 

 from such discouraging accidents. If bees are tossed vio- 

 lently about by the winds, as they attempt to enter their hives, 

 they are often fatally injured, and the whole colony so dis- 

 couraged, to say nothing more, that they do not gather near 

 so much as they otherwise would. 



Just as soon as our cultivators can be convinced, by prac- 

 tical results, that bee-keeping, for the capital invested, may 

 be made a most profitable branch of rural economy, they 

 ■will see the importance of putting their bees into suitable 

 hives, and doing all they can, to give them a fair chance ; 



