Particular attention should be paid to the circumstance, that the bees be hived in a neighbourhood productive of such plants as supply them with food; such as thyme, the oak, the pine, fruit-trees, furze, broom, mustard, clover, heath, &c. Pliny recommends broom, as a plant particularly grateful and profitable to bees.
BEE-HIVES made of straw, have been generally preferred, as they are not liable to be over-heated by the rays of the sun, keep out the cold better than wood, and are cheaper than those of any other material.
M. Chabouille, in France, has lately suggested improvements upon bee-hives, which appear to us deserving of notice. His principal object is to procure the greatest degree of cleanliness for these delicate and industrious insects, by covering the bottom of the hive with plaster of Paris, and constructing the cylindrical inclosure of rye-straw, and cross ligaments, or bands, made of the inner rind of the lime-tree. When the basket-work is completed, he coats it over with a cement made of two-thirds of cow-dung, and one-third of ashes. In the interior part of the hive, he places two thin pieces of oak, crowing each other at right angles, which greatly facilitate the deposition of the honey-combs. The cover of the hive consists of a firm board, seventeen inches in diameter, and the entrance is so constructed, that it may be closed by a small door, to exclude injurious animals during winter. The lower part of this door has small semi-lunar incisions, each of which admits two bees abreast: above these, are made two rows of holes, just large enough for one bee to pass. The floor should be so constructed, that it may encompass and secure the foundation of the hive, to prevent any disturbance from that quarter. Such a smooth and white floor of gypsum, greatly contributes to cleanliness, and the bees become so much attached to it, that they will not easily relinquish their habitation. The straw-wall ought to be one-inch, and the cement before described, half an inch in thickness: the latter is the best coating yet contrived, for excluding noxious insects which would perforate the straw, and for sheltering the bees from rain and wind, while it exhales an odour very grateful to them. M. Chabouille has also observed, that bees kept in a hive of this description, are sufficiently protected against the effect of cold during winter; and that they swarm much earlier than those reared in any other.
However ingenious this contrivance may appear, we regret that the inventor has not stated the particular dimensions of the bee-hive, nor attended to many other circumstances relative to the culture of the insect itself. Hence we are induced to communicate a later, more accurate, and circumstantial description of a bee-hive, invented in Italy by Professor Gaetano Harasti, which has proved of practical utility. This account is translated from the Transactions of the Patriotic Society of Milan, and as it contains much useful information on the subject, we have endeavoured to render it of practical service, by accompanying it with the appropriate cuts of the different figures described.
