254 ADVANTAGES OF THE HIVE OF DUCOUEDIC. 



Mr. Ducouedic meets this objection by stating that the 

 honey will be of the collecting of the current year, as the 

 bees will have consumed that of the preceding year. We 

 will admit that the honey may be of the present year, 

 but the combs will be so black, as to be utterly un- 

 marketable. 



The first story of this colony is removed as soon as the 

 drones have been murdered, and it then ceases to be a py- 

 ramidal hive, and returns to its state of the Ruche Ecossaise, 

 in which state it remains during the autumn and winter, 

 and on the return of the spring, another story is added to it, 

 when it again takes the name of the pyramidal hive. 



When the hive is in its pyramidal state, the bees never 

 perish by hunger ; it is too well provided with provisions, 

 and its population is too numerous to be affected by the 

 most rigorous winter. When the bees are grouped together, 

 they maintain the necessary temperature of the hive by 

 their reciprocal heat, and the brood on the return of the 

 spring are always hatched one month earlier than in any 

 other hive *. 



Such are the advantages of the storifying system, as 

 given by Mr. Ducouedic, when practised in his own hives ; 

 we will however show that those presumed advantages are in 

 some respects, positive disadvantages, at the same time, that 

 the many inconveniences and drawbacks with which it is 

 accompanied are carefully concealed from the view. It 

 is an undisputed point in the management of bees, that the 

 hive should always be proportioned to the magnitude of the 



* Referring to the too great capacity of the pyramidal hive of Mr. Ducoue- 

 dic, Messrs. Bosc and Olivier, members of the Institute and the Commis- 

 sioners chosen to examine that kind of hive, expressed themselves as 

 follows in their report made to the Society of Agriculture of Paris, and to the 

 Institute : " It is a fact that the honey becomes coloured and deteriorated in 

 proportion as it remains in the hive, on account of the reaction of these prin- 

 ciples in themselves ; a reaction strengthened by the great heat which reigns 

 in the hive : the honey of the present year is always the best " 



