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the swarm is. The upper box,with the cover fastened on (but so thatit may easily be removed,) must be taken from the others. Thecross-bars, before described, should be smeared with honey, di-luted with a little water; the small door must be shut; and thebox must be turned upside down, and brought under the swarm,which is then to be introduced, in the same way, and with similarprecaution, as into a common hive. When the whole swarm is inthe box, it is to be carried to the other boxes (previously placedin their destined situation,) and, turning it very carefully, is to beput upon them. The buttons are then to be turned, the inter-stices closed with the cement already described, and all the littledoors closed, except the lowest, through which the bees are to pass.Nothing is more disagreeable to a fresh swarm than a hot sun, "forwhich reason, that the bees may T not wish to leave their new habi-tation, it will be right to shade the hive for some days. But it ismore advantageous to form artificial swarms, than to collect thosewhich abandon their native hives, and the hive here described isvery- convenient for that purpose. The following method M.Harasti conceives to be more simple, and more secure thanany other hitherto proposed. Take a well-stocked hive, offour boxes, in some of these, particularly in the two lower-most, if they are well filled, there is certainly a young brood;for in these lower boxes the young bees are accustomed tochange from the chrysalis to the perfect state, about the endof April, or beginning of May, it the hive be very full ; but,if otherwise, this change does riot take place till towards theend of May, or even the middle of June. At that time, afine serene day, but not excessively hot, must be chosen, andabout eight or nine o’clock, the hive must be divided into two, inthe following manner : between the two upper boxes and the twolower ones, force in a few slips of wood, so a-: to separate the boxessufficiently for the comb to be cut through with a piece of iron orbrass wire. To prevent the bees from coming out through thisopening, and thereby annoying the person employed in the ope-ration, the smoke of tobacco may be blown (by introducing thesmall end of a pipe) into the opening; this will cause the beer toresort to the inner part of the hive, and will keep them quiet.Or, instead of the pipe, a small pair of bellows may be used, to thenozle of which is fitted a hollow cylinder of tin, or other metal, fur-nished, with a little door i, fig. 5 and terminating atone end in a tubet, (into which the nozle of the bellows is fitted) and at the otherend, in a smaller tube, k, through which the smoke is to pass.Into the body of the box, through the door i, is to be put a lightedrag, the smoke of which may be blown, by' means of the bellows,into the hive. But, if the hands and face are well covered, theseprecautions are unnecessary. An empty box must be in readiness,in the place where the hive is to stand ; a cover must also be pro-cured; and, as soon as the hive is divided in two parts, the twoupper boxes must be taken from the lower ones, and the covermust be immediately put upon the latter, closing all the intersticeswith the usual cement. The upper boxes are to be placed uponthe empty one just mentioned, so that a hive will there be formedof three boxes. The lower boxes, on which the fresh cover wasput, must be left at rest till the evening, at which time a third may-be placed under them ; and when occasion requires a fourth boxmay be added, under the others. In the above manner artificialswarms may be formed; and, by this method, we not only avoidthe inconveniences which attend the procuring of swarms in thecommon way, but we obtain the advantage of having the hives al-ways well stocked. This ought to be the first object of every onewho cultivates bees; for it is allowed to be of more advantage tokeep the hives well stocked, than to increase their number ;"and,in fact, it has been observed, that if a hive of 4000 bees gives sixpounds of honey, one of 8000 will give twenty-four pounds. Uponthis principle, it is proper to unite two or more hives, when theyhappen to be thinly stocked. This may easily be done, by takinga few handfuls of balm, and scattering it in those hives which-areintended to be united. By this means, the bees will all acquirethe same smell; and, it has been observed, that, by- the sense ofsmelling, bees distinguish those which belong to the same hive.After the above preparations, the hives are to be joined, by placingthem one upon the other, in the evening, when they are at rest,taking away those boxes which contain few or no bees. Care mustbe taken to shut all the little doors, except the lowest. It mayeven be proper sometimes to shut the lowest door also,when, for in-•tance, any tumult within the hiv.e causes the bees to endeavourvon. i.— n.o. 2S.

to quit it; which may happen from there being more queens thanone, or from the invasion of wasps, hornets, Ac. In such case,that the bees may not be deprived of air, a piece of tin, perforatedwith numerous holes, may be used to close the opening, instead ofthe usual door, and may be taken away when the bees becomequiet. The following is the method of taking the wax and honeywith little or no injury to the bees; but it should be previouslyremarked, that the honey is chiefly at the top of the hive, theyoung brood in the middle, and the greatest stock of wax is at thebottom. For this reason, when three of the four boxes are filledwith comb, &c. the upper one A is to be first taken off, in themanner here described. The buttons b, b, &c. which serve tounite the boxes, are to be turned, or the wooden pegs (if such areused) taken out; the cement employed for closing the intervals is tobe scraped off; and then a piece of iron wire is to be drawn throughthe comb, so as to divide it. WhentheboxA, is separated, itscover is to be taken off and put upon the box B, now become thehighest. After taking out the contents of the box A, it is to becleaned, and again placed upon the stand or table, under the boxD, taking care to open its little door, and to shut that of the boxD. To prevent any bees remaining in the upper box, when takenaway, a little smoke may be introduced by means of the bellowsalready described. The more empty spaee the bees find in thehive, the more eagerly they go to work. The brood of the boxB, which remained at top, do not long delay to swarm, or at leastthey pass from the state of chrysalis intoi that of the perfect andlaborious animal; therefore, when it is perceived that the lowerpart of the hive is occupied, the box B may be taken off, in themanner already described, and, after being emptied, may be placedunder A. In the same way, the third box C, in which there isgenerally a good stock of wax, may afterwards be taken off; butthis is a matter of greater consequence, because in general the eggsare deposited in it. We must also take care not to deprive thebees entirely of their winter store. A hive may be made, uponthe same principles, which will shew the work of the bees, throughits whole progress, and thereby enable any one to study the na-tural history of these wonderful insects. A hive of this kind iscomposed of three or four boxes, with a cover, like the hive al-ready described; it may also be of the same form and size. But,in every box, on that side which is opposite the little door, theremust be fixed a pane of glass, with a sliding shutter over it, sothat by drawing back these sliders, the inside of the hive will beexposed to view. To see the bees at work, however, it is neces-sary that the comb should be disposed in a regular manner, andperpendicular to the pane of glass. This may be obtained, byplacing in the boxes, instead of the two cross-sticks already descri-bed, five parallel sticks or bars, as represented in fig. 6. Plate XIX,The bees will attach their combs to these bars, and the intermedi-ate space will afford sufficient light for seeing them work. If morelight is desired, it may be obtained by opening the little doors op-posite the glass, which doors may be made considerably higherthan as above directed, and may have a slider over them-,by which their aperture may be diminished at pleasure. The sli-ders which cover the panes of glass, ought never to be opened,except for the purpose of observing the bees; because a strong,light lessens their disposition to work. If it should be perceivedthat the coldness of the glass is prejudicial to the bees in winter,it mav then be covered with a cotton cloth ; or it may be en-tirely taken away, and a piece of paste-board put hx its place;for at tnat time, the operations of the bees are suspended. In-stead of making a little door to each box, to be left open whenthe box is lowermost, for the passage of the bees, perhaps it mightbe better (because more simple) to cut a groove in the board ortable on which the hive is placed, as represented.at d, fig. 2. Thisgroove should be about two inches wide, and about thi-ee-fourthsof an inch high at the outer edge, and should be gradually, dimi-nished, both in width, and height, towards the part where it meetsthe hive. Another hive, of a very simple and ingenious construc-tion, has been invented by M. De Gelieu. It may be made eitherof straw or wood : but, as its internal dimensions must be the samethroughout its whole length, it is necessary that its form should bceither cylindrical or prismatic. Its principal advantage is, that itstwo bases are moveable, anti may be fixed by pins at any distancefrom each other; by which means its size may be increased ex-diminished, according to circumstances. It must lie on its side,and, in the foresnost base, there must be a passage left for the bees.

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