432 FEBRUARY. 



in the situation of the dentist, who, through ignorance, has 

 extracted the sound tooth for the unsound one. Thus the 

 common straw hive presents those insuperable difficulties to 

 the proper management of bees — and indeed the same may- 

 be said of every hive that does not afford access to the 

 combs at the top — that we are not so much surprised at the 

 smallness of the success which the cottagers have in this, to 

 them, most interesting branch of profit, but our surprise 

 is great, that they have any success at all. They cannot be 

 supposed to possess an intuitive knowledge of all the mi- 

 nutiae of the science in its practical departments, and all the 

 skill which they do possess, and with which they appear 

 to be quite satisfied, has been inherited from their grand- 

 mothers and great grandmothers, who in their dotage con- 

 cluded, that if they placed their hives in a garden, they had 

 nothing more to do than to watch the swarms, and then to 

 suffocate them ; and should any natural defect or accident 

 befal their hives, their own want of skill and bad manage- 

 ment were the very last things that ever entered their 

 heads. 



FEBRUARY. 



This may be considered as the first month in the year in 

 which the regular labour of the bee is to be observed. The 

 crocus, the furze, and the sallow are now in bloom, and 

 tempt the bee on the first indication of genial weather to 

 resume its labours. It must, however, be taken into con- 

 sideration, that the flowers, which are now in bloom, yield 

 little or no honey ; the bees are to a certain degree roused 

 from the torpor of the winter, and the consumption of food 

 in the hive becomes considerable. In the common hive, 

 however, it is only a very skilful person who can ascertain 

 the actual existence, or the quantity of food in the hive, by 

 ocular examination. A vague idea may indeed be formed 

 by the weight, but in an old hive it is a very fallacious 



