8 
Beekeeping 
The primitive method of keeping bees consisted simply 
of giving them some kind of cavity in which to live. Such 
hives are exemplified in the mud hives of the Palestine 
beekeeper (Fig. 3), and the straw skeps of the old-time 
European beekeeper. The interesting collection of hives 
shown in Fig. 4 is drawn from a photograph sent the author 
by J. de Dieterichs, Nucha, Caucasus, Russia, these hives 
being types used in that country. To our discredit, it must 
Fig. 8. — Bee-house in Carniola, Austria. 
be admitted that in parts of America the box-hive (Fig. 1) 
or “gum” has not been eliminated. With such crude 
equipment, beekeeping as a business is not possible. 
With the invention of the movable-frame hive by Langs- 
troth, around which so much of this book centers, the de¬ 
velopment of practical beekeeping began. This type of 
hive was promptly adopted by German beekeepers, since 
the previous rediscovery of the bar-hive by the great bee¬ 
keeper Dzierzon had prepared them for it. The bar-hive 
had, however, been used centuries before in Greece (Fig. 5). 
