A Description of the Bar-and-Frame-Hive | Page 8

the bees into different groups. And, besides, all these
different hives or boxes should have some sort of protection from the
weather, either in the way of eaves or covers, or be placed in a shed or
bee-house.
They require also centre boards and division tins, &c. to separate one
hive or box from another, floor boards for them to stand upon, as well
as stands or stools to raise them from the ground, &c., for a description
of which, and a full history of all hives and boxes, I refer the reader to
Dr. Bevan's "Honey-bee."
In mentioning the defects of these different boxes and hives, I do not
mean to condemn them as useless, for they will all answer to a certain
extent the purposes for which they were intended, rewarding the
attentive bee-keeper, according to the seasons, and enabling the bees to
send forth many swarms, and collecting and storing up their treasures
of honey; but my object has been to point out briefly to those anxious
for the better, more extended, and economical mode of
bee-management, the difficulties to be provided against, and to
recommend to their consideration the advantages offered in the bar

frame-hive. But, however, I should not be doing justice to Mr. R.
Golding, if I did not particularly mention his "improved Grecian hive"
by the use of which combs may be removed from the interior of the
hive and inspected at pleasure: this improvement he has effected by
carefully investigating the laws of the insects for whose use the hives
were intended, and by a particular arrangement of the bars, (every
alternate one being furnished with guide combs,) the bees have been
induced, in a manner at once simple and beautiful, to construct a
uniform range of combs. When the hive is filled with honey, two or
three, or more of the bars may be, at any time, removed, or exchanged
for unoccupied bars, without much disturbing the brood combs, all
annoyance from the bees being prevented by a whiff or two of tobacco
smoke being blown into the hive at the time of the removal of the bars.
With the protection of a bee-house these hives can be applied to many
of the systems of bee-management, and prove equally profitable, and
more manageable than some of the newly-invented hives.

THE APIARY.
Next of importance to the kind of hive and the system to be followed, is
the proper situation of an apiary. This subject engaged the attention of
bee-keepers in ancient as much as in modern times; but the directions
given by Columella and Virgil are as good now as when they were
written; and as is observed by the writer in No. CXLI. of the Quarterly
Review, in the amusing article on "Bee-books,"--"It would amply repay
(and this is saying a great deal,) the most forgetful country gentleman
to rub up his schoolboy Latin, for the sole pleasure he would derive
from the perusal of the fourth Georgic." The aspect has been regarded
as of the first importance; but there are points of greater consequence,
namely the vicinity of good bee pasturage, the shelter of the hives from
the winds by trees or houses, and their distance from ponds or rivers, as
the high winds might dash the bees into the water.
Various aspects have been recommended, but the south, with a point to
the east or west, according to its situation as respects the shelter it may
receive from walls or trees, &c. is the best: care, however, must be

taken that neither walls, trees, nor anything else impede the going forth
of the bees to their pasturage.
"I have ever found it best," says Wildman, "to place the mouth of the
hives to the west in spring, care being taken that they have the
afternoon sun; the morning sun is extremely dangerous during the
colder months, when its glare often tempts these industrious insects out
to their ruin; whereas the mouth of the hive being then in the shade, the
bees remain at home; and as clouds generally obscure the afternoon's
sun at that season, the bees escape the temptation of going out. When
food is to be obtained, the warmth of the air continues round the hive in
the afternoon, which enables the bees to pursue their labours without
danger.
A valley is a better situation for an apiary than a hill, being more
convenient to the bees returning home with their loads; and, besides,
bees are not so apt to fly away when swarming as when on a hill: but
when swarms take a distant flight, they generally fly against the wind,
so that the stragglers of the swarms may better hear the direction of the
course taken by their fellow emigrants.
I recommend a hard gravel