POSITION OF THE HIVES IN THE APIARY. 163 



on the credulity of the reader. " One day," he says, " I was 

 sitting on the top of a mountain, on which the wind raged 

 with the greatest violence. I saw a number of bees which 

 came to gather the honey ; the north wind blew with 

 violence, but as soon as the bees presented themselves, they 

 were repulsed, and their resistance was useless : fatigued 

 with this eternal combat, many of them fell upon an ex- 

 pedient, which I had never heard mentioned, but of which I 

 bad read in books ; they collected some little stones, and 

 taking them up with their feet, they took their flight afresh, 

 and succeeded in their design." 



The hives in an apiary should always be placed in a right 

 line, about four or five feet apart, but should the number of 

 the hives be great, and the situation not capacious enough 

 to admit of their being placed longitudinally; it is more 

 advisable to place them over one another, than in double 

 rows. A bee on leaving the hive, supposing his flight to 

 be unobstructed, generally forms an angle of about forty- 

 five with the horizon; particular care therefore should be 

 observed, in having the space clear before the hives, a point 

 of practice to which in general very little attention is paid. 

 The hive should be placed about two feet from the ground, 

 in order to protect it from humidity. The greater the height 

 of the domicile of the bees, the more distant is the flight of 

 the swarm, and when they are at a certain point- of eleva- 

 tion, the swarms are generally lost to the proprietor *. If 

 the hives are to be placed in a double row, the hinder ones 

 should be at that distance from the front ones, that when 

 the bees depart from the hive, no obstruction be offered to 

 their flight ; at all events, if the situation will not allow of 



* In a memoir addressed to the Society of Agriculture of Paris, an apiarian _ 

 speaking of a swarm that had lodged themselves in an elevated part of his 

 house for eighteen years, says, " this hive has uniformly sent forth a number 

 of swarms, which however have always escaped ; because the height of the 

 place from which they direct their flight, facilitates their removal to a great 

 distance." 



H 6 



