HIVES FOR BEE-KEEPERS. 
II5 
is in itself one whit more natural than “inversion’'; for 
it is through the unnaturalness (see page 94) of both 
that they achieve results which are unnaturally favour- 
able to the bee-keepers. Many of the latter appear to 
me, in their objection to that which is artificial, to over- 
look the fact that nearly all management is necessarily 
of this nature. What, e.g.^ can be more unnatural than 
supering ? and yet upon that very fact its success de- 
pends. Bees build normally from the roof of their 
domicile, storing their honey above and breeding below. 
We practically uplift their roof, and present them with 
a hateful gap, which they — circumstances permitting — 
struggle to fill to our advantage. What more unnatural 
than a fowlhouse or a cow-shed? Yet the farmer knows 
that, without these “artificial” additions to his farm, his 
poultry would die, and his stock suffer. How ludicrously 
artificial is dredging up the immotile oyster, carrying it 
to another climate, and replacing it in a new pasture ! 
Yet the gourmand knows that the high condition of 
the mollusc he so much loves is due to its change 
of residence. Every method of management must 
stand or fall by results, and cannot be logically pre- 
judiced, much less dismissed as incorrect, simply upon 
the ground that it is unnatural. 
It is a great advantage to the bee-keeper to be able, 
at least for a season or two, to watch bees actually at 
work. Observatory or unicomb hives, as they are called, 
give this opportunity, and are a never-failing source of 
delight to visitors to the apiary. They consist most 
usually of a narrow (see page 43) box, capable of accom- 
modating, in a single layer, four or six frames. One 
side is made into doors (see Fig. 39), and the bees are 
