256 EQUALITY OF TEMPERATURE IN A HIVE. 



quality of the honey. In regard to the former, on account 

 of the capacity of the cells becoming diminished by the 

 little film in which every larva of the bee envelopes itself, 

 and which it leaves behind it in the cell ; and in regard to 

 the latter, on account of the quantity of pollen which the 

 bees have stored up in the combs, which imparts an un- 

 pleasant bitterness to the honey, and renders it almost unfit 

 for domestic purposes. 



The advocates for the storifying system boast, that it is 

 highly favourable to the formation of artificial swarms ; it 

 should, however, be previously demonstrated, that any 

 actual advantage is to be derived from an artificial swarm. 

 It may, indeed, be easy to take away a centre story, in 

 which it is most probable that some embryo queens may be 

 found ; but the question arises, whether by taking away 

 that centre story, a direct and irreparable injury has not 

 been committed to the hive, and whether, by disturbing the 

 internal economy of the hive, the foundation of its ruin has 

 not been laid. 



With the most decided disapprobation of any system of 

 management, which has for its basis the disjunction of the 

 bees, we cannot but characterize the storifying system as 

 one of the most injurious, especially if the stories be small; 

 for the bees are obliged to live, as it were, in different 

 families, whereas their natural instinct leads them to live in 

 the strictest union; and it is with bees, as with other animals, 

 that we never knew any that were diverted by artificial 

 means from the course prescribed to them by nature, which 

 did not ultimately degenerate and perish altogether. The 

 health and prosperity of a hive depend in a great degree 

 on the temperature that is maintained in it, and in pro- 

 portion to the number of the bees, so is the heat of a hive. 

 If then, by the storifying system they be divided into several 

 clusters, the temperature cannot be so high, as if they were 

 all collected in one body ; and this very circumstance 



