Here our engraving shows the back view of the bee-house, the interior being furnished with two of our improved cottage hives. Two suspended weights will be noticed; these are to balance the top hives which cover the glasses; the cord for each runs on pulleys, so that the covers can be easily raised and as easily shut down again when the inspection is finished. We may here remark, that it is not well to keep the glasses long exposed to full light and view.
The front of the bee-house being closely boarded, a passage-way is contrived for the bees, by which they have egress and ingress, without being able to gain access to the house. The hives must be kept close to the front boarding of the house, to prevent the opening of any crevices which the bees might mistake for the entrance to their hives, and so find their way into the house. The front view of this bee-house shows the ordinary contrivance for entrance; the sliding zinc entrances may also be advantageously fixed, as shown in the engraving of a bee-house to contain twelve hives. In many parts of the country, hives and honey are sometimes stolen from the garden; the bee-houses we furnish have a lock and key to prevent depredations of this kind.
Care must be taken to keep the bee-houses free from spiders and other insects. In some districts, ants are numerous and troublesome. The plan we recommend for excluding them is to put some pitch round the four supports of the bee-house, or, better still, strips of loose flannel, or other woollen material that is absorbent, which have previously been soaked in lamp oil. We use sperm oil, as being the slowest-drying oil we know of. A piece of string will keep the flannel close to the wood and then neither ant nor other insect will pass up; so that Dy this simple means the hives may, so to speak, be insulated, and placed beyond their reach. As the oil dries up, it can easily be renewed. We have found this an effectual remedy against these insidious enemies of bees.
BEE-HOUSE TO CONTAIN TWELVE HIVES
Back view of Bee-house, showing the Interior.
Where economy of room is a consideration, we fit up bee-houses with a double row of hives, one above the other. Our engravings show the back and front of a house of this kind, having an ornamental zinc gutter to prevent the wet from dripping on to the alighting-board.
When a number of hives are thus together, we colour the alighting-boards differently, so that the bees may have a distinctive mark by which each may know its own home, and not wander into its neighbour's house. Bees readily enough receive a honey-laden labourer into a hive; but if the wanderer be poor and empty, he will be promptly repulsed, and may have to forfeit his life for his mistake. Queens returning from their wedding trip are liable to mistake their hive if all the entrances are so much alike that a noticeable difference is not easily apparent. A queen entering a hive already supplied with a fruitful sovereign would be certain to be killed. The loss to the hive to which the queen belonged is a serious one. Hives are often made queenless from this cause, and thereby reduced to utter ruin, the bee-master perhaps attributing his failure to something altogether different.