464 1NSECTA. 



As there is some evil to be expected in making too free with bees, 

 and as they are objects worth robbing, and that not without danger, a 

 great deal of contrivance has been devoted to effect this. 



Towards the autumn, when the busy time is over, it is right to lessen 

 the hole or door : this makes it more difficult for (thieves) to get in, for 

 the bees are at this time obliged to guard the pass, and the less it is 

 the easier it is guarded. The diminished size of the hole sbould remain 

 through the winter for another reason, viz. to keep them as much as 

 possible from the cold. 



The hives * best for examination are commonly the worst for preserva- 

 tion. The bees in them are disturbed in their progress, therefore they 

 are not capable of laying up so much store. Besides, thin hives do not 

 allow them to form a round body or cluster in the winter ; therefore 

 they are more liable to be benumbed by the cold. The management of 

 bees in one country will not do for them in another ; but when it is 

 described in one, the variations fitting the management for another will 

 be easily seen. 



An early spring, a good summer, and a dry autumn, form the best 

 season for bees ; but such is not to be expected : an early spring with a 

 cold wet summer, even with a dry autumn, is bad ; for the flowers are 

 all gone before the good weather comes on. A good summer with 

 a good autumn is very good for bees; the kind of spring is not so 

 essential. 



Of the Noise Bees make before they swarm. — That the peculiar sound 

 of the bees is only heard when they are about to swarm was very evident 

 in April 1792, in my bee-house. For where there were several hives, 

 we only could hear the sound in one, which was so full of bees that 

 many of them lay out all day. There were two sounds in this hive, one 

 stronger than the other ; but still the same kind of note, as if it were 

 two bees answering each other : it was probably the old and the young. 

 This sound was hardly ever heard before ten o'clock at night. 



In another hive which was not expected to swarm, as the bees had 

 not hung out in the day, a noise was heard about ten o'clock one night, 

 similar to the above, viz. the two sounds of different shrillness, as of 

 two bees answering each other. Besides these there was another noise 

 similar to the cluck of a clucking hen, but not so loud or strong ; and 

 that hive swarmed the next day. In visiting in the evening bees which 

 are threatening to swarm, we find sometimes a variety of sounds in 

 the same hive ; so that bees have a great variety of sounds. "When 

 bees hang out in a cluster, they commonly hang by one another by the 



1 [See Hunter's description of his hives, 'Animal Economy,' 8vo. 1837, p. 424.] 



