22

20 CHAPMAN'S HANDY-BOOK

and facetious style, says: - As I told you to send your
own hive to the friend who has promised you a swarm,
I must now speak of the best shape and material. In
this respect the bees are in no wise particular. I have
known them do well in all sorts of places, from a hollow
tree to an old watering pot, with the spout topped up.
A man's hat is no bad thing to hive a strange swarm in,
if he sees one settled on a bush. He may carry his
prize safely home in this strange hive, and when the
even comes shake them into a more befitting home. One
who has his wits about him, and his eyes to, and who
is unable to beg or borrow a swarm, will, as soon as our
woods are stocked with bees, be often able to make a
beginning in this way. I have known still stranger
hives (if I may call them so) even than a hat, made use
of at a pinch. A maori having seen a stray swarm settled
on a branch, and having no hat to his head, managed to
hive them in a garment he did possess, his only one in
addition to his blanket. He took off his shirt, and
wrapping it carefully round the bees, cut the branch off,
carried it home, and put them into a box. I have since
heard of another maori at Coromandel Harbour, who
used his trousers for the same purpose, having first tied
up the legs with a bit of korari. But you may say, what
is the use of all this? I tell it you to prove that bees
are not particular as to the hive they are put into, that
they will build combs and make honey anywhere. At
one time I was an advocate for the system of side boxes
and the application of ventilation to them; but I have
had reason to think that boxes on the storyfying system
are better adapted to this country, that the honey may
be taken from them more easily than from almost any
form of hive, and that they are both the cheapest and
the best. Do not however, go away with the idea that
there is any magic in the form of box which I recommend,
or that bees will make more honey in them, than in a
hive of the rudest form - an old candle box or tea chest
I have seen full of honey, - all I wish to do is to point
out the form of box from which the honey may be
obtained with the greatest ease. The box should be
made of 1 1/2 inch stuff, which will plane down to inch