POSITION OF THE APIARY. £5 



to rest on while drinking, and are the recommendation of Colu- 

 mella. I have seen tin plates perforated with holes, and placed 

 over the pans, just on the surface of the water, used for drinking- 

 vessels for bees ; I, however, prefer the pebbles. 



It is essential that you have your gardens abundantly planted 

 with such shrubs and flowers as afford honey, in order, as much 

 as possible, to prevent the necessity of your bees constantly 

 traveling to an inconvenient distance in search of food. It will 

 be as well also that you contrive to have a succession of such 

 food, adapted to the season, a matter comparatively easily man- 

 aged and of very great consequence to the well-being of your 

 stock. Among these plants I may enumerate broom ; furze or 

 gorse ; thyme, especially lemon thyme ; clover ; crocus ; heaths ; 

 fruit-trees; mustard; mignionette ; sage; single roses; radish- 

 es ; primroses ; privet ; parsley ; pease and parsnips ; marigolds ; 

 violets ; lily ; laurustinum ; daffodils ; celery ; cauliflower ; as- 

 paragus ; sunflowers, &c. Mr. Nutt has given a very copious list 

 of bee flowers in his work on bees, but I think many of them 

 might be omitted without any loss. Mr. Briggs, a most enthusi- 

 astic bee-fancier, mentions also as good bee-flowers — phacelia te- 

 nacitifolia ; salvia nemorosa ; lithrum salicaria ; winter aconite ; 

 hepatica and wall-flowers ; borage, winter vetches, ivy, a few 

 perches of turnips running to seed in spring, and a succession of 

 crops of buckwheat during summer and autumn. Mr. Briggs 

 also mentions a plant so very valuable to bees that it is only a 

 pity it is not more generally known, viz., melilotus leucantha, 

 which, with borage, he seems to think the most important of 

 bee-flowers. Mr. Briggs adds that the former, for bee purposes, 

 " should be sown in March or the beginning of April, on a deep, 

 rich, and dry loamy soil, in drills about eighteen inches apart, and 

 the plants thinned to nine or ten inches' distance from each other. 

 It will grow from six to eight feet in height during the first sum- 

 mer, and from ten to twelve during the second. If some plants 

 of it are cut down to the ground, when about two feet in height, 

 they will bloom later in the summer — a succession of them may 

 be had from June to November, and they will be frequented by 

 thousands of bees during every fine day throughout the season. 

 Mr. Briggs has, with unusual generosity, distributed quantities 

 of this valuable seed to bee fanciers, so that there can be no dif- 

 ficulty in obtaining it. 



While I recommend the sowing of such seeds as will produce 

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