CONTENTS. XIX 



PAGE 



The spring and the beginning of winter the best seasons 

 for feeding — Food to be given in abundance — Not to be 

 given at intervals — The candying of food in the cells pre- 

 judicial to bees — A superabundance of food not to be 

 given — The preference to be given to periodical feeding 

 — Quantity of food to be given at one time — Bees not to be 

 kept too warm in the winter — The eagerness of the bees 

 for food, a criterion of their health — During the feeding in 

 the spring, the hives to be protected from robbers — Upper 

 and lower feeding — Honey the best food for the bees — 

 Directions for making a proper food — Method of feeding 

 in the common hive — Process of feeding in the Huish hive 

 — The food to be covered with straws or paper — Direc- 

 tions for top feeding in the cottage hive — Erroneous opi- 

 nion as to the effect of feeding on the bees — The adminis- 

 tration of food not to be delayed — Erroneous system of the 

 French in the feeding of their bees — Injurious effects of it 

 — Lombard recommends brandy — Du Hamel recommends 

 rum to be mixed with the food — The consumption of the 

 cpuantity of food depends on the strength of the hive — 

 Quantity to be given to a hive according to Huber — Honey 

 not candied in the cell by any cold in this country 231 



CHAPTER X. 



DESCRIPTION OF DIFFERENT HIVES, DOMESTIC AND 



FOREIGN, SPECIFYING THEIR ADVANTAGES 



AND DEFECTS. 



First mention of hives by Varro — The forests, the natural 

 domicile of the bees — Colonies of bees in Poland, Russia, 

 &c. — System of keeping bees in Poland — The Polish hive 

 — The common cottage hive — Objections to it — Number of 

 hives invented — Few hives invented in England — Hives 

 invented by foreigners — The hive of Gelieu — The storify- 

 ing hive of Ricour — The storifying hive of L'Abbe" Eloi — 

 Numerous modifications of the storifying hive — Hive of 

 Ducouedic — Advantages of the storifying system as laid 

 down by Ducouedic — Their examination and refutation — 

 The weight a good criterion of a swarm — The goodness of 

 a swarm not always to be estimated by its size — Reasons 

 thereof — The disjunction of the bees injurious — Investiga- 

 tion of the general merits of storified hives — Hive of Lom- 

 bard — Hive of Huber — Hive of Huber modified by Mr. 

 Feburier — The open hive of Messrs. Martin of Corbeil — 

 The hive in portions or fragments by Mr. Beville — The 

 hive of Madame Vicat — The mirror or experimental hive 

 — The hive of White — The hive of Sir Charles Whitworth 



