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bees themselves, the bettor we can make our colonies pay. It 

 is to one in particuhir of the more outstanding of these 

 principles, rather than to the general, accepted, practical daily 

 routine of bee-craft, that we should now address ourselves. 



It would be al)surd, of course, to say that successful honey- 

 production depends upon the kind of hive in which the bees 

 are housed, although, hyperbolicaliy, the phrase may be 

 admitted. The dauntless nature of the honey-bee — her age-long 

 triumph over difficulties set in her path by the ignorance of 

 man^comes clearly to light under even tlie most cursory study 

 of ancient beemanship. Nor does a review of bee-keeping 

 methods in vogue in times comparatively modern, reveal any 

 better understanding of the bees' requirements in the matter 

 of hives as a result of nearer acquaintance with their true 

 habits. It is a literal fact that there was no such thing as 

 a bee-hive, in any sense worthy of the name, in existence in 

 any country, until about three hundred years ago, when 

 Sir Christopher AYren devised his octagon hive, inaugurating 

 what is known as the " storification " principle. In bee-craft 

 this was an epoch-making event, for AYren's hive afforded 

 the domesticated honey-bee a thing which her winged sister 

 of the wilds had easily secured for herself by building in a 

 hollow tree — a domicile capable of expansion to meet the 

 growing needs of the colony. But AYren's hive only provided for 

 expansion do2vmvards : that is to say, extension of the actual 

 hrood-nest, the nursery-quarters of the hive. It was left to a 

 Scotsman, of characteristic racial intelligence, to discover, some 

 century and a half later, that bees in a natural condition carry 

 their surplus honey-stores iipivards. And so the famous 

 Stewarton hive, with its easily added upper storeys, and its 

 resulting extraordinarily increased honey-yields, came into 

 being. 



The paramount stage, however, in the evolution of ti^e 

 modern bee-hive, was not reached until tlie year 1834, when 

 the principle of the movable-comb hive was discovered by Major 

 Augustus ]Munn, although the honour of priority for this 

 invention is, it is believed, claimed by several other countries. 

 The movable-comb hive at once transformed bee-keeping from 

 a black art into an authentic though very immature and youth- 

 ful science. The trouble in the ju'esent day is that the 

 science of bee-keeping thus initiated, has, fiom the very first, 

 been handicapped by an incorrigible, Peter Pan-like ]^ropensity 

 of not being able to grow up. The movable-couib frame idea 



