148 
THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 
The ancient methods of artilieial increase appear to haye 
met n ith little success ; but towards the close of tlie last 
century, a new interest was awakened on the subject, by 
tlie discovery of Schirach, a German clergyman, ol the 
fact, previously known to a few, that bees are able to rear 
a cpieen from worker-brood. For want, however, oi an 
acquaintance with some important principles in the econ¬ 
omy of bees, his efforts met with but slender encourage¬ 
ment. 
Huber, after his splendid discoveries in the physiology 
of the bee, felt the need of some way of multiplying col¬ 
onies, more reliable than that of natural swarming. Ilis 
hive consisted of twelve frames, each an inch and a quar¬ 
ter in width, which were connected together by hinges, 
so that any one could be opened or shut at pleasure, like 
the leaves of a book. He recommends forming ai tificial 
swarms, by dividing one of these hives, and adding si.v 
emiJty frames to each half After using his hive for years, I 
found that it could be made serviceable only by an adroit 
and fearless Apiarian. The bees fasten the frames with 
their propolis, so that they cannot easily be opened, with¬ 
out jarring the combs, and e.vciting their anger ; or shut, 
without constant danger of crushing them. Huber no¬ 
where speaks of having multii)lied colonies c.vtensively by 
such hives, and although they have been in use more than 
sixty years, they have never been successfully employed 
for such a purpose. If he had contrived a plan for giving 
his frames the requisite play, by suspending them on 
giving directions for milking nrtlflclal swarms. Although he taught how to furnish 
a queen to a destitute colony, and how to transfer hrood-eomb, with maturing 
tees, from a strong stock to a weak one, he does not appear to have formed entirely 
oew colonics by any artificial process. Ills treatise on bee-keeping sliows net only 
that ho was well aequalntod with previous writers on the subject, but that ho was 
also a successful practical Apiarian. Us precepts, with but few e.vcvpllous, ore 
truly admiralile, ami prove tliat in his time bee-keeping, with tho masses. mnU 
Uavo been fur iu udvauco of wbat it now U. 
