290 PROPER MATERIALS FOR A HIVE. 



disadvantage of having the side combs very small, and there- 

 fore after much trouble, we succeeded in bringing it nearly 

 to the square, by which the side combs are nearly as large as 

 those in the middle. The hive, as it now stands in our gar- 

 den, is represented by the accompanying figure. 



Tt has been asserted by a number of scientific men, that 

 the shape of the hive possesses considerable influence on the 

 prosperity and labour of the bee. On what that opinion is 

 grounded, we are at a loss to conjecture ; for if the bees be 

 protected from the influence of the weather, if their habita- 

 tion be dry and devoid of any noxious effluvia, the shape of 

 the hive appears to them to be a matter of indifference. The 

 choice of the materials wherewith a hive is constructed, is a 

 wholly different question, and therein we do consider that 

 a sound judgment ought to be exercised. Were we required 

 to form a scale of excellence relative to the materials used 

 for the construction of hives, we should place straw un- 

 doubtedly as the first, wood as the second, earthenware as 

 the third, and glass as the fourth and the worst. It has 

 indeed been urged by l'Abbe della Rocca, and he is sup- 

 ported in his opinion by several skilful naturalists in France, 

 that earthenware by its power of retaining the heat of the 

 sun, contributes to the fecundity of the queen, and to the 

 early departure of the swarms ; but it is to that very power 

 of imbibing and retaining the heat that we object : for Della 

 Rocca himself admits that he has lost many hives by the fusion 

 of the combs, occasioned by the extraordinary heat which pre- 

 vailed in the interior of the hive, occasioned by the porosity of 

 the material of which it was made. It is for this reason that 

 in Greece, where the hives are chiefly constructed of baked 

 earth, that they put the hives into walls, in order to protect 

 them from the fervent rays of the sun. We cannot here 

 refrain from mentioning a circumstance relative to hives in 

 walls, which we witnessed at the hospitable residence of 

 Monsieur Biege at Lileau, about a mile from St. Hermin. 



