THE HONEY-BEE. 
1S5 
ature is lowered, room is given to the fast-augmenting 
population, and the necessity of swarming avoided. 
And that the Queen maybe deterred from depositing 
her eggs in these end boxes, and thus deteriorating 
the quality of the honey, a degree of coolness, incom- 
patible, according to this writer’s theory, with the 
rearing of brood, is produced by ventilation ; and 
this is effected by two openings, one at the top and 
the other at the bottom of the boxes, covered with 
pieces of perforated tin, and fitted with moveable 
shutters. For the convenience of using a ther- 
mometer, a perforated tin tube, fixed at the top, 
reaches down into the centre of each box. Into 
this tube the instrument is inserted from time to 
time, in order to ascertain the temperature. The 
quantity of honey said to be taken from one set of 
these boxes in one season (1826) is enormous — not 
less, the author avers, than 296^ lbs., while 109 lbs. 
were left to the bees. Nay, it appears from a regis- 
ter given in the work, that in the season above men- 
tioned, one of the boxes, weighing 52 lbs., was filled 
in four days ! If there is no mistake here, we can 
only conclude that the author’s residence must in- 
deed bo in a land flowing with honey. 
On the management of Bees in Spring. — About 
the first or second week of February, unless when 
the season is stormy, the bees will be observed ven- 
turing cautiously to the mouth of the hive ; and if 
the sun shines out about mid-day, the little eager 
foragers will be seen spreading their wings joyfully, 
