THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, June 5, 18G0. 
lfll 
one very likely to conduce to the comfort and prosperity of the 
bees. The double row of rails for the support of hives one above 
the other was very objectionable ; also the opening of two and a 
half inches the whole length of the house for the entrances of the 
hives was an error. Each hive should have its separate aperture 
for communication with the open air, and should be so blocked 
while standing an inch away from the front that not a bee should 
be able to find ingress to the interior of the bcc-housc. The 
plan I have adopted, and which is the best I have seen for this 
purpose, is to make the house with a recess eight inches in height 
and two and a half deep, the whole length of the front level with 
the close boarded floor. A section of the interior will be best 
understood. 
In the above rough sketch a is the block formed by the recess 
! in the front. This is about eight inches high, so that the pro- 
! jecting covers of the boxes will pass above it, allowing the hives 
to stand quite close up to the block so made. The floor-boards 
J on which the hives stand should be one inch and a half thick, 
| and the entrances cut in the substance of the wood ; consequently 
. the apertures cut in the block must not be quite level with the 
inside flooring of the house, but made so as to come exactly 
| opposite those in the loose floor-boards. The alighting-board 
- b is about eight inches wide, a little sloped to the front, and 
f ending flush with the lower part of the apertures. Between each 
i entrance there is an upright partition the entire width of the 
alighting-board, which tends more completely to isolate each 
j colony. A projecting shade, c, about fifteen inches above the 
alighting-board, and at least one foot wide, is very useful. The 
! roof should project beyond both shade and alighting-board ; and 
if made of wood ought to have a ledge, d, to act as a gutter, to 
prevent the bees from being annoyed by the droppings of rain. 
Several apertures should be made just under the roof, both at 
, the ends and sides, covered with perforated zinc for ventilation. 
I prefer thatch to wood for the voof; my own house was thickly 
thatched on the top, and a thinner covering of straw down the 
! front as far as the shades; and the ends were similarly protected. 
I With good ventilation such a house is admirably adapted for 
bees; and the owner may thus prevent his glass hives, or glass 
supers, from being disturbed by uninvited prying eyes, as he 
may secure them under a good lock and key, keeping the latter 
in his own pocket. From hives kept in a house like the above 
I obtained very good and early supplies of honey. 
But notwithstanding what I have said in favour of a closed 
bee-house, yet my greatest success with bees has been with hives 
standing on separate pedestals, and protected by their own cases. 
I must, however, state that it is of late years that I have chiefly 
adopted this plan, and I think the successful results may be 
attributed as much to good seasons and better knowledge of how 
to take advantage of such as to any particular superiority there 
may be in the “ separate system.” The greatest drawback to 
separate stands is, that however ornamentally got up, they require 
much shading in hot weather ; or if not thus protected the bees 
suffer considerably from the heat, and the proprietor wonders at 
the small amount of honey stored in his supers. Protection from 
the Bun’s intense heat must be afforded, however unsightly the 
means applied. I am far more careful in affording shade and 
covering, beyond the usual outer casings of my hives, against 
summer heat than against summer rains. 
The best and the most ornamental erection for obviating these 
inconveniences is an open bee-shed—that is, one made of such 
a length as to allow the number of hives kept to bo placed on 
separate pedestals with at least eighteen inches between each 
hive. The roof only is water-tight; the sides and front may be 
of trellis work, with a few choice climbers growing over the 
whole. It is the best plan possible for the inspection of their 
labours, as bees seldom come much behind to annoy the observer. 
! At the same time it makes a most pleasant arbour for passing a 
spare hour with a book. It may, according to the taste and 
means of the apiarian, be made an extremely ornamental adjunct 
to the garden. It is advisable not to have the trellis extending 
entirely in front of the bees. An arched opening, larger than 
the hive, should be left for the bees to fly through. An objection 
is raised by some against these open bee-houses on the ground of 
their being often infested with spiders ; but I have never been 
so much annoyed by these pests by this plan as I often am even 
where my hives have their separate stands and cases. 
The object of the foregoing remarks is to show that there is no 
decided objection to be made against either of these systems of 
J bee-management. I think “ A Young Apiabian ” should not 
have doomed his house to destruction chiefly, as it appears to me, 
from the prejudices of men who are of a class notoriously slow 
to adopt any change from the customs of their grandfathers.— 
—S. B. Fox, Exeter. 
STEWARTON OCTAGON AND BAR-HIVES. 
Hating recently purchased a copy of “Taylor’s Bee-keepers’ 
Manual,” fifth edition, on perusing which I was not a little sur¬ 
prised to find that in this, the most concise and thoroughly 
practical work we have on the bee, no not ice whatever of decidedly 
the most complete and useful hive yet introduced—viz., the 
Stewarton. That any particular system should be judged by its 
results is but fair; and any one visiting, during the season, some 
of the honey establishments of Glasgow, must be struck by the 
groaning shelves and counters of octagons, all of singular purity ; 
and being told that nearly if not the whole is the produce of one 
county—Ayrshire, is hurried to the conclusion that there bee¬ 
keeping has attained the acme of perfection—that this county, so 
justly celebrated for its dairy stock, must be quite a second 
Canaan, or land literally flowing with milk and honey. 
Some years ago, I was treading what Mr. Taylor styles in his 
preface “ the path (usually a rough and uncertain one) of the api¬ 
arian novice,” and I can look back with pleasure on the day I first 
saw these hives and heard their management explained, as one on 
which I made a stride along the road ; discarding for ever from 
my apiary the clumsy crown-boards and tops, with their central 
holes and pear-shaped openings, for the ingenious bar and slide 
of the Stewarton. It is to be regretted that this author should 
disfigure his handsome volume with sketches of hives at variance 
with one of the first principles of the depriving system, and one 
of the main elements in the success of the Stewarton—that bees 
must be admitted to the supers only from the sides, and never 
through the centre in any description of hive employed, for the 
following obvious reasons :—The seat of breeding is the centre, 
where the heat is chiefly concentrated; consequently, on removing 
the cover of the central hole the heat is weakened where most 
required, to be dissipated, where it is worse than useless, in the 
super above, discolouring the comb. Besides, the queen, usually 
perambulating the central combs, is much more likely to find her 
way into the super through a central opening to deposit her eggs. 
Also, by using side-openings the two classes of the hive are more 
naturally thrown together ; the honey-gatherers of the side-combs 
I have free access with their loads up into the super, without being 
obliged to push their way through the crowd of nurses and pollen- 
collectors of the centre. 
The Stewarton octagon-hive, being now so much in general 
use, does not require to be described to your readers ; but having 
I recently procured a set of the Stewarton bar-hives advertised in 
