The reverend author of this little treatise appears to be a man of ingenuity, candor, and, what is far more valuable, of piety; willing to communicate his knowledge for the advantage of others, and careful to learn before he presumes to teach, having, as he declares, tried every method before he found the right, and “been almost forty years in making a bee-box.”2

The boxes must be cubes of about eight inches and an half measured within, made of strong dry boards. In the fore part, at the bottom, must be an opening four inches long, and only half an inch high, that is, so low as to exclude a mouse. In the upper part behind must be fixed a piece of crown-glass five inches high and three broad, which must be covered with a shutter to be opened at pleasure. At the two ends of the box, a space is to be left near an inch wide at the bottom; the two ends are made by pieces of slit deal shooting into the edges of the front and back-boards. The boxes have no bottom board. A stick crosses the box from end to end about three inches from the bottom, to support the combs. There must be a board to cover the end, which, as it is to be moveable, must be tied on with tape, which the author fastens by pegs fixed in the box, and turned round at pleasure.

When bees are to be hived, two boxes must be tied together, the ends having the passages of communication left open where they join, and being covered with end-boards at the two outer ends. The rest of the process is as in the common way. When the bees are entered, the box must be covered with a linen cloth and green branches. Where the boxes are placed is of much less importance than is generally thought, the author having known them to thrive on the north side of a high tower. If the shutter of the window be kept close, and the sun fenced off, they will not suffer much inconvenience. They bear cold with little injury; but the hot sun in summer melts their wax, and in winter hinders them from sleep, and makes them consume their stores. He places his boxes on stages one above another, with a cover over head, and a board before them to shelter them from the sun.

When the bees are hived it is proper to look through the glass, to see in which of the boxes they have settled; the mouth is then to be stopped, that they may pass only through the empty box. When they have filled one, they will begin to work in the second, and then a third must be added, by taking off the end-board, which they will have fastened with wax, and putting the new box close with an open passage, the mouths of the two-end boxes must be stopped, that they may go in and out only at the midmost.

About the middle of August you must uncover the glasses, and peep into the hives. Those bees that have filled three boxes may, without danger, lose one. About three in the afternoon, therefore, observe the end-box, in which there are fewest bees; open the mouth, and divide it from the middle, by sliding a plate of tin between them; the communication being thus stopped, the bees in the single box will fly out in about two hours, leave the box empty, and join their fellows; the end-board must then be tied on the end of the two boxes, and they may be left till next spring.

By the use of these boxes the time of swarming may be adjusted. Bees do not leave their habitations but for want of room, of which they may have, by this method, more or less at pleasure. If they are confined to two boxes they will swarm early; if three be allowed them, the swarm will be late and larger. After the first swarm it will be proper to prevent a second, by adding box after box, as often as they are filled. Such colonies as require four boxes to keep them from swarming will admit the master to take two boxes in the autumn.

If moths spin their webs in the box it must be cleansed, or the box must be taken away.

It has been found by experience, that bees swarming late, and wanting provisions of their own, cannot be preserved by honey given them, however liberally, either because such honey corrupts, or because the crude wax, called bee-bread, is necessary to their support. When two colonies therefore are weak, there is no way but that of suffering them to perish, or supplying one by the destruction of the other.

The ingenious author having given these plain and benevolent directions, cautions his reader against a mistake which is very common, and which has hitherto deluded the author of this abstract. It has been imagined by many well-meaning men, that bees may be multiplied without end, and that consequently there are no limits to their products and the profits arising from them. But this author confesses, that his method will, in a few years, stock a country with as many bees as it will maintain, which, in some places, are very few. “There are now in my village,” says he, “only ten colonies of bees; and I am persuaded that no greater number can subsist here; whereas, in some countries that promise less, there is a profusion of honey. I therefore cannot promise great things; but hope that by my method the poor will be benefited, though not inriched.”3

No one, who intends the pleasure of a bee garden should be contented with this abstract, but consult the original treatise, which has a neat cut of the bee and boxes.