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■ BEES. 
their strength. There should be a glass 
window behind fixed in a frame, with a thin 
deal cover, two small brass hinges, and a 
button to fasten it. This window will be 
sufficient for inspecting the progress of the 
bees. Two brass handles, one on each 
side, are necessary to lift up the box ; these 
should be fixed in with two thin plates of 
iron, near three inches long, so as to turn 
np and down, and put three inches below 
the top board, which is nailed close down 
with sprigs to the other parts of the box. 
Those who choose a frame within, to which 
the bees may fasten their combs, need only 
use a couple of deal sticks of an inch square, 
placed across the box. One thing more, 
which perfects the work, is a passage four 
or five inches long, and less than half an 
inch deep, for the bees to go in and out at 
the bottom of the box. In keeping bees 
in colonies, a house is necessary, or at least 
a shade ; without which the weather, espe- 
cially the heat of the sun, would soon rend 
the boxes to, pieces. The house may be 
made of any boards, but deal is the best ; 
and it must be painted, to secure it from 
the weather. The length of it for six colo- 
nies, should be full twelve and a half feet, 
and each colony should stand a foot dis- 
tant from the other. It should be three and 
a half feet high, to admit four boxes one 
upon another ; but if only three boxes are 
employed, two feet eight inches will be suf- 
ficient. Its breadth in the inside should be 
two feet. The best time to plant the colo- 
nies is, either in spring with new stocks full 
of bees, or in summer with swarms.- If 
swarms are used, procure if possible two of 
the same day ; hive them either in two boxes, 
or in a hive and a box ; at night place them in 
the bee-honse, one over the other, and with 
a knife and a little lime and hair, stop close 
the mouth of the hive or upper box, so that 
not a bee may be able to go in or out but 
at the front door. Within a week or ten 
days the combs will appear in the boxes ; 
bdt if it be a hive, nothing can be seen till 
the bees have wrought down into the box. 
Never plant a colony with a single swarm. 
When the second box, or the box under the 
hive, appears full of bees and combs, it is 
time to raise the colony. This should be 
done in the dusk of the evening, and in the 
following manner. 
Place the empty box, with the sliding 
shutter drawn back, behind the house, near 
the colony that is to be raised, and at nearly 
the height of the floor ; then lifting up the 
colony as quickly as possible, let the empty 
box be put into the place where it is to 
stand, and the colony upon it ; and shut up 
the mouth of the then upper box with lime 
and hair, as directed before. When upon 
looking through the windows in the back of 
the boxes, the middle box appears full of 
combs, and a quantity of honey sealed up in 
it, the lowest box half full of combs, and 
few bees in the uppermost box, proceed 
thus : About five o’clock in the evening, 
drive close with a mallet the sliding shutter 
under the hive or box that is to be taken 
from the colony. If the combs are new, 
the shutter may be forced home without a 
mallet ; but be sure it is close, that no bees 
may ascend into the hive or box to be re- 
moved. After this, shut close the doors of 
the house, and leave the bees thus cut off 
from the rest of their companions, for half 
an hour or more. In this space, having- 
lost their queen, they will fill themselves 
with honey, and be impatient to be set at 
liberty. If, in this interval, upon examining 
the box or boxes beneath, hi! appears to be 
quiet in them, it is a sign that the queen is 
there, and in safety. Afterwards raise the 
back part of the hive or box so far, by a 
piece of wood slipped under it, as to give 
the prisoners room to come out, and they 
will return to their fellows : then lifting the 
box from off the colony, and turning its bot- 
tom npmost, cover it with a cloth ail night ; 
and the next morning, when this cloth is re- 
moved, the bees that have remained in it 
will return to the colony. Thus a box of 
honey is procured, aud ail the bees are pre- 
served. 
Bees have various enemies ; 
mice should 
be guarded against, by diminishing the en- 
trance into the hives when the cold comes 
on, and the bees are less able to defend 
themselves ; and the hives may be placed 
in such a manner, that it will be impossible 
for the mice to reacli them. Spiders and 
caterpillars are very destructive to bees ; a 
species of the latter, called the wax-worm, 
or wax-moth, because it feeds on wax, lays 
its eggs in the hive, which turn to maggots 
that are very noisome and prejudicial. 
Hives of bees that have swarmed more than 
once, and such as contain little honey, are 
most exposed to these insects; for the 
empty combs serve them for shelter, and 
the wax supplies them with food. These 
hives should be cleaned at. least once a 
week ; and the stools on which they rest, 
where the moths are laid by the bees, 
should be cleaned every morning. But 
they cannot be entirely destroyed, withont 
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