22 
FOLLOWING THE BEE LINE 
live the Queen!” but “The Queen is gone; long 
live the Queen!” 
Probably the first beekeepers kept their bees in 
the hollow logs in which they found them; splitting 
them open and suffocating the bees inside with sul¬ 
phur fumes when they wanted some honey. Before 
long they learned that a swarm issued forth every 
summer from each normal bee establishment, if they 
were not disturbed. They learned also that this 
swarm, or cluster of bees, could be readily captured 
and put in a box or almost any empty receptacle. 
Especially were these facts taken advantage of in 
the wilds; there are still places where bees are kept 
in “box” hives—or even wash boilers! 
In the countryside, however, where peasants had 
lived for generations, things of this sort were done 
more neatly and thriftily, and straw “skeps”— 
usually dome-shaped—were woven of straw to house 
the bees. A small hole served as an entrance, and 
the bees built their combs inside in any way they 
wished. At a certain time each year the “skeps” 
were placed over a pit of smoking sulphur and 
“brimstoned;” the bees suffocated so that their 
keeper might cut out the honey in safety. 
There was nothing of its kind more picturesque 
or poetic, I am sure, than a cottage bee-yard with 
