1G2 
apiaries. 
Protection from thieves has been sought for in va- 
rious contrivances, certainly not all of them effectual. 
Feburier cites Lombard’s method of security, which 
consists in fastening a chain to one of the four supports 
of the floor-board, bringing it over the top of the 
hive, turning it once round, then taking it down on 
the opposite side, and fixing it with a padlock to 
another of the supports. Huish has improved upon 
this, placing an iron hoop round the body of the hive, 
having another fastened to it at right angles, and 
brought over the top, and both attached to a chain, 
the two ends of which are secured by a padlock to 
the post which supports the hive. (See PI. XX. fig. 5.) 
The security afforded by either of these methods is 
about as effectual as that which is afforded by “ a 
lock upon leather” — to use an expression proverbial 
in Scotland ; for a thief would hardly be deterred by 
the complicated apparatus of chains and hoops, or 
take the trouble of unwinding them, when in a mi- 
nute’s space, he could either pick the lock, or with 
a saw cut through the three-inch post, and carry off 
the whole concern. Howatson’s mode is better. “The 
support of the hive is of malleable iron, haring a 
single stem below, but parted into three, or rather 
four, branches above, on the top of which branches 
the board of the hive rests. The lower part of the 
stem is fastened with lead into a large shapeless stone, 
sunk to a level with the surface of the ground.” To 
this stem is fastened an apparatus of chains and hoops, 
similar to that of Lombard and Huish. 
Of course it is highly in favour of the bees when the 
