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Natural History 3 Situation of the Apiary 5 Hives 6 Payne's Improved Cottage Hive 6 Neighbour's Improved Cottage Hive 8 Neighbour's Observatory Hive 9 Taylor's Amateurs' Hive 10 Fenn's Hive 11 The Stewarton Hive 13 Tegetmeier's Hive 14 The Woodbury Hive 15 Method of Securing Combs in Frames 19 Swarming 20 Uniting Swarms 23 Ventilation 24 Feeding 25 Manner of Taking Honey 28 Stupifying Bees 29 Method of Draining Honey from the Combs 29 Preparation of Wax 30 Mead 30 Honey Vinegar 31 Remedies For the Sting of a Bee 31 Bee Dress 32 Purchasing Stocks 32 The Ligurian Or Yellow Alp Bee 32 To Unite a Ligurian Queen to a Common Stock Or Swarm 34 Multiplying Swarms of Ligurians 35 Bee-keeper's Calendar 37 January 37 February 38 March 40 April 42 May 46 June 50 July 53 August 55 September 59 October 61 November 63 December 65

NATURAL HISTORY.

The following brief but comprehensive epitome of the principal facts in the natural history of the Honey Bee is from the pen of Mr. Woodbury, of Exeter, better known to the readers of The Journal of Horticulture as "A Devonshire Bee-keeper."

"The Queen.--There is in every prosperous colony of Bees a queen, or mother Bee, whose peculiar office is to lay the eggs from which the future Bees proceed. Her fecundity is amazing, it being computed that she is capable of laying from 1500 to 2000 eggs a-day. She receives the greatest attention and respect from the other Bees; none of them appear willing to turn their backs upon her, but all are watchful to offer food and anticipate her every want. The cells in which queens are reared differ very considerably from those of the workers or drones, being much larger, and hanging in nearly a perpendicular position, generally from the edges of the combs. Queen Bees occupy about sixteen days from the laying of the egg to the evolution of the perfect insect, and take wing when a few days old, in order to pair with a male Bee or drone. When once fecundated, a queen Bee continues fertile during the remainder of her life. According to Huber, fecundation is imperfect when delayed beyond twenty days, and drone eggs only are laid ever afterwards; but the observations and experiments of Dzierzon and Berlepsch, which have been confirmed by Yon Siebold, the distinguished German naturalist, prove that this phenomenon is rather to be ascribed to parthenogenesis, and that a drone-breeding queen is in reality a virgin queen. I have myself succeeded in repeating and verifying the microscopical investigations of Von Siebold, which establish this remarkable fact beyond the possibility of a doubt. Queen Bees are readily distinguished by their larger size, being fully one-third longer than the common Bees, and are armed with a sting, which, however, they rarely use, except in combat with one another.

"The Workers are imperfect females. There is no doubt that every worker egg or grub not more than a few days old is capable, by appropriate treatment, of becoming developed into a perfect female or mother Bee. If the queen is removed from a hive the Bees avail themselves of this power by enlarging certain worker cells, and raising therefrom queens which differ in no respect from those bred in the usual manner. When this interruption of the ordinary course of things has taken place, it is occasionally found that the ovaries of some of the workers have become sufficiently developed to admit of their depositing drone eggs, although Yon Siebold declares them to be perfectly incapable of pairing with the male. The workers constitute the great majority in every healthy colony, and upon them devolves the labour of collecting honey for the subsistence of all, pollen for feeding the young, and propolis for stopping any crevice which might harbour an enemy. They are also occupied in secreting wax, building combs, feeding the young and the queen, as well as guarding and ventilating the hive. Huber noticed two kinds of working Bees, which he denominated respectively nurses and wax-workers. This division of the workers into two classes has evoked ridicule from some, and has been regarded with incredulity by many. My own observations prove, however, that there really is a division of labour among Bees, and that whilst the younger portion of the community devote themselves to the home duties of the hive, their elders are employed in ranging the woods and fields to provide sustenance for the entire family. Workers arrive at maturity in about twenty-one days from the laying of the egg.

"The Drones are males which take no part in the duties of the hive, and whose use appears to be that of fecundation. They are allowed to exist only during summer, when they are very numerous, apparently out of all proportion to the perfect females. But this apparent disproportion is only a means to secure the important end, that when a queen takes her wedding flights she may have a good chance of attaining her object. Although the drones are much larger and stronger than the workers, they have no stings wherewith to defend themselves, and are thrust out of the hive to perish when their office is accomplished. They mature in about twenty-four days after the egg is laid and are bred in larger cells than the workers."

SITUATION OF THE APIARY.

Stand for Hive.--Having, therefore, for these reasons, recommended the abandonment of Bee-houses altogether, I would say, Place each hive upon r separate board supported by a single pedestal 4 or 5 inches in diameter--a piece of wood with the bark on does remarkably well; place it firmly in the ground, and about 15 inches from its surface. Upon the top of this post should be nailed firmly a piece of board 8 or 9 inches square, upon which should be placed the board the hive stands upon, but not united to it, so that the hive may be removed whenever required without disturbing the Bees.

Clay or mortar should never be used to fasten the hive to the board; the Bees will do that in a much more effectual manner themselves, with a substance they collect from resinous trees called propolis. Mortar or clay tends very much to decay the hives; and hives managed on this principle are expected to stand for fifteen or even twenty years. Let the hives be placed about 3 feet apart from each other, and in a right line. The best covering, as a protection from rain, is a large flat earthen pan sufficiently large to prevent the drip from falling upon the board. It would in all cases be well to give them the shelter of a wall or fence from the north, but on no account place them close to it, but leave a space of 4 or 5 feet at least for a path; for the operations of taking off small hives, glasses, or boxes of honey, are much more conveniently effected at the back than in the front of the hives. It would be well to clean the boards on which the hives stand four times in the year--namely, in January, March, April, and November. January and March are the most important.

The place where the hives are fixed should be kept clear of weeds; and plants which rise in height equal to or exceeding the entrance of the hives should not be suffered to grow near them.

HIVES.

I am more and more convinced, from experience, that Bees do much better in broad, shallow hives, than in any others. All the hives that I have used myself for the last three years, and those that I have had made for the last two, have been of this kind--namely, 7 inches deep, and 14 inches wide, measuring in the inside. The only inconvenience that can possibly arise from a hive of this shape is, that from the great weight of supers which year after year it will have to bear, the top will sink a little; therefore it should never be used without an adapting-board of 12 inches square; this will take the weight of the supers from the centre to the side of the hive; indeed, it would be better to let the adapting-board remain a fixture upon the hive when once fastened down by the Bees, and should the corners at all interfere with the cover, where the milk-pan is used, they may be rounded off a little to the size of the hive.

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