20 
chapman’s handy-book. 
and facetious style, says :—As I told you to send your 
own hive to the friend who has promised you a swarm, 
I must now speak of the best shape and material. In 
this respect the bees are in no wise particular. I have 
known them do well in all sorts of places, from a hollow 
tree to an old watering pot, with the spout stopped up. 
A man’s hat is no had thing to hive a strange swarm in, 
if he sees one settled on a bush. He may carry his 
prize safely home in this strange hive, and when the 
even comes shake them into a more befitting home. One 
who has his wits about him, and his eyes too, and who 
is unable to beg or borrow a swarm, will, as soon as our 
woods are stocked with bees, be often able to make a 
beginning in this way. I have known still stranger 
hives (if I may call them so) even than a hat, made use 
of at a pinch. A maori having seen a stray swarm settled 
on a branch, and having no hat to his head, managed to 
hive them in a garment he did possess, his only one in 
addition to his blanket. He took off his shirt, and 
wrapping it carefully round the bees, cut the branch off, 
carried it home, and put them into a box. I have since 
heard of another maori at Coromandel Harbour, w r ho 
used his trousers for the same purpose, having first tied 
up the legs with a bit of korari. But you may say, wdiat 
is the use of all this ? I tell it you to prove that bees 
are not particular as to the hive they are put into, that 
they will build combs and make honey anywhere. At 
one time I was an advocate for the system of side boxes, 
and the application of ventilation to them; but I have 
had reason to think that boxes on the storyfying system 
are better adapted to this country, that the honey may 
be taken from them more easily than from almost any 
form of hive, and that they are both the cheapest and 
the best. Do not, however, go away with the idea that 
there is any magic in the form of box which I recommend, 
or that bees will make more honey in them, than in a 
hive of the rudest form—an old candle box or tea chest 
I have seen full of honey,—all I wish to do is to point 
out the form of box from which the honey may be 
obtained with the greatest ease. The box should be 
made of 1J inch stuff, which will plane down to inch 
