April 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
43 
served that honeycomb thus formed was free from 
larvae, eggs, and bee bread. It then occurred to him 
that if part of the hive could he ventilated, so as to 
resemble the open air, honey so produced would he 
equally pure. The experiment was tried, and with 
full success, in side hives. 
Mr. Nutt was born in the Fens of Lincolnshire, 
and his education did not extend beyond writing and 
arithmetic. He was hound apprentice to a shop¬ 
keeper who carried on several branches of business; 
but in 1822 he was afflicted with illness so severe that 
he was obliged to walk upon crutches. The subject 
of bees became his amusement in bis hour of feeble¬ 
ness, and, at length, he made a discovery, which is 
certainly a very important one (as far as the use of 
honey is concerned) to all who regard the lives of the 
little busy insects who labour to afford us a grateful 
food and medicine, and the very useful substance of 
wax Mr. Nutt states when he made this discovery, he 
had not read a single book on bees, and that had he 
done so, there was nothing in any book he had since 
seen that could have given him any hint on the sub¬ 
ject, namely—ventilation to prevent the queen laying 
her eggs in a side hive. Side hives had been adopted 
long ago; but the great discovery of Nutt is not this, 
but ventilation regulated by the thermometer so as to 
prevent the air inside of the hives ever being more than 
75°. In order to carry this new system into effect, a 
board must be provided which will hold three hives. 
This must contain passages with slides, so that the 
three hives may be united or disunited at pleasure. 
The entrances should be six inches wide through the 
board, and the height of a single bee. This saves cut¬ 
ting the hive, and is easier made narrower in the au¬ 
tumn, when wasps make attempts to rob the bees. 
This kind of entrance keeps out many plunderers, 
and also acts as a drain for the moisture which con¬ 
denses in the hive. There should be a separate 
doorway rather higher for drones and the queen 
hee, to he kept open only in the drone season, or 
when the bees require more roqm than the entrance 
of six inches afford. On the middle of the board 
must be placed a hive of bees, which the writer 
prefers being of straw. The side hives he prefers 
being of wood, as much more convenient for ven- 
lilation and inspection, and also for affording the 
bees an opportunity of building the combs more 
regularly. In them there should be an opening at 
the top and bottom, covered with slides of perforated 
zinc. There should be glass windows and shutters 
to afford a sight into the hive as often as requisite. 
If the side hive has some old comb in it, the bees 
will take to it the readier, or in want of this the in¬ 
side may be smeared over with honey or sugared 
beer. If, after all, the bees should swarm, put them 
immediately into the side hive, and restore it to its 
place, leaving open the communication into the 
middle hive, and, as far as my experience goes, they 
will not swarm again. There ought to be thermo¬ 
meters in the side hives, so contrived that they may 
be seen when required. 
When the air in the side hive is above 75°, the 
ventilator must be opened until the temperature is 
reduced to (55°, but not below. When the side hive 
is full, slide a piece of sheet-iron under it, and remove 
it in the heat of the day to another shelf. Take away 
the slide, and in about two hours all the bees will 
have left the hive, which may be removed into the 
bouse, and, if the ventilators have been properly at¬ 
tended to, the honey will be found quite pure. 
When a side hive is taken away, the bees should 
be obliged to pass through the other side hive in their 
passage to and from the middle hive. 
Another way of taking the side hive when full is 
as follows:—Open the upper and lower ventilators 
so as to reduce the inside of the hive to the tempera¬ 
ture of the open air. When night approaches, the 
bees will leave the side hive for the warmth of the 
middle hive. The slide must then be closed which 
separates the hives. The side hive may then be 
taken away without disturbing a single bee. If the 
hive has not been kept properly ventilated there will 
be larvae in it, and the bees will not so readily quit 
their dwelling. If any bees remain, the hive should 
be turned up and covered with a coarse cloth, and 
taken to some outhouse at a distance from the old 
hive, and left until morning, when the bees will be 
found on the cloth, which may be spread upon the 
grass, and the bees will fly home; or they may be 
taken into a room in a house and driven away with 
smoke. They will fly away through the window, 
and return to their dwelling. 
Bees upon the plan of side hives, without allowing 
them to swarm, will make more honey, and carry less 
farina. 
Fewer eggs will of course be laid by one than by 
two queens, and the bees will consequently have 
more time to gather honey. Upon the system of 
swarming, the new colony is often lost, and particu¬ 
larly in windy weather, and late swarms are injurious 
rather than beneficial to the bee-keeper. 
Mr. James Roberts, of Crediton, in Devonshire, 
at the latter end of last century discovered a way of 
managing bees, so as to obtain honey purer than in 
the common way of keeping them. 
A large vessel was placed under the hive, with a 
hole in the hive board, and a corresponding hole at 
the top of the vessel, so that the bees could descend 
into the lower apartment. This being a large airy 
open space with no permanent opening but at the 
top leading into the hive, the warm air naturally 
ascends, and the lower vessel is thus kept cooler than 
the upper, and in a rough way gives the advantage of 
Nutt’s plan. In a fine day in the autumn, a hole is 
to be opened at the bottom of the lower vessel, and 
the hole at the top closed. The bees escape at the 
lower opening, and in the evening the owner may 
take as much honey as he thinks the bees'can spare; 
a small falling door of talc might be put at the hole 
at the bottom of the lower vessel to prevent the bees 
from returning. Mr. Roberts called the upper hive 
the “ Preserver,” and the lower the “ Remunerator.” 
A plan of nearly the same kind is described to have 
been practised by a clergyman near Pethiviers, in 
Mills on Bees, 17(5(5, p. 86. 
Mr. W. Savage, of Swaffham, Norfolk, lias carried 
on the plan of side hives for upwards of 40 years 
with ‘great success, and has taken from three sets of 
bees 8!)lbs, 64tbs, and 5libs, in the year 1842, without 
destroying a single bee, which information I have 
had from himself. 
Swarming. — A good swarm is said to contain 
23,000 bees, weighing five pounds. When bees are 
in want of room, the queen, with a great number of 
her subjects, leave the hive, and proceed to a new 
habitation, usually the hollow of a tree, the roof of a 
house, or a chimney, alighting first on a branch of a 
tree for the purpose of collecting together. Prior to 
this tire queen is much reduced in size by the num 
her of eggs she has laid, and is thus prepared for a 
long journey. There is great agitation in the hive, 
excited by the queen, and the temperature is raised 
very high. The bees perspire, and the air becomes 
