all the rich produce of the banks of the Nile, are
re-conducted home about the beginning of February. In France also,
floating bee-hives are very common. One barge contains from sixty to a
hundred hives, which are well defended from the inclemency of the
weather. Thus the owners float them gently down the stream, while they
gather the honey from the flowers along its banks, and a little
bee-house yields the proprietors a considerable income. At other times
they convey bees by land, to places where honey and wax may be
collected. The hives are fastened to each other by laths placed on a
thin packcloth, which is drawn up on each side and tied with packthread
several times round their tops. Forty or fifty hives are then laid in a
cart, and the owner takes them to distant places where the bees may feed
and work. But without this labour the industrious bee might be
cultivated to great advantage, and thousands of pounds weight of wax and
honey collected, which now are suffered to be wasted on the desert air,
or perish unheeded amidst the flowers of the field.--Those whose
attention may be directed to the subject by these remarks, and who
intend to erect an apiary, should purchase the stocks towards the close
of the year, when bees are cheapest; and such only as are full of combs,
and well furnished with bees. To ascertain the age of the hives it
should be remarked, that the combs of the last year are white, while
those of the former year acquire a darkish yellow. Where the combs are
black, the hive should be rejected as too old, and liable to the inroads
of vermin. In order to obtain the greatest possible advantage from the
cultivation of bees, it is necessary to supply them with every
convenience for the support of themselves and their young. And though it
may be too much trouble to transport them to distant places, in order
to provide them with the richest food, and to increase their abundant
stores; yet in some instances this plan might in part be adopted with
considerable success. It has been seen in Germany, as well as in other
parts of the continent, that forty large bee hives have been filled with
honey, to the amount of seventy pounds each, in one fortnight, by their
being placed near a large field of buck wheat in flower; and as this and
various other plants adapted to enrich the hive are to be found in many
parts of England, there is no reason why a similar advantage might not
be derived from such an experiment.--Besi