CORNELL UNIVERSITY e C LIBRARY / NEW YORK STATE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE EVERETT FRANKLIN PHILLIPS BEEKEEPING LIBRARY Date Due Library Bureau Cat. No. 1137 THE HANDY BOOK OF BEES BEING A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THEIR PROFITABLE MANAGEMENT BY A. PETTIGREW WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND. LONDON A. E. BENT. PREFACE. Dr M‘KEnzIEg, in a small book on bees, says he was induced to study the subject from the fact that one of his two labouring men having found a swarm of bees in a hedge, and therewith commenced bee-keep- ing, was enabled afterwards to go without his wages till they were earned. Previously, both labourers got their wages in advance. The lift given to the one man by the possession of this fugitive swarm was so great and pleasing to the Doctor, that he com- menced to read works on bees, and study their management both in this country and on the Con- tinent. By-and-by a small fourpenny book on the subject fell from his pen, which received no patronage. This little incident is mentioned to show what a swarm or two of bees may do for a poor labourer. Indeed, if there is anything more profitable to cottagers living in the country or on the skirts of towns, than a few swarms of bees, and can be more easily managed by them, all we can say is, we have never seen that thing, or known what it is. “Bees,” says Cobbett, “are of great use in a house, on account iv PREFACE. of the honey, the wax, and the swarms they produce —they cost nothing to keep, and want nothing but a little care.” The author’s father, James Pettigrew, was a labour- ing man, and perhaps the greatest bee-keeper that Scotland has ever produced. He was so successful and enthusiastic in the management of his bees, that he earned and received the cognomen of “The Bee-man,” and by this name he was well known for thirty years in a wider circle than the parish of Car- luke, Lanarkshire, in which he resided. Even the district of the parish in which he lived when he kept most hives took then the name of “ Honey Bank,” which it still bears. And though the author left his native village thirty-five years ago, he is best known there on an occasional visit as “The Bee-man’s son.” While a common labouring man, he saved a great deal of money from his bees ; indeed it was reported in the Glasgow newspapers that he realised £100 profit from them one season. His example and suc- cess twenty-five years after his death have not yet lost their influence on the successful bee-keepers of his native village, who say, “The old bee-man taught us all we know; who taught him?” “The bee- man” saved money enough to purchase the Black Bull Inn of the village, and therein commenced busi- ness aS a publican and butcher. When his sons reached their teens, the management of his bees was left in great measure to them. It was then that the foundation of what we know of bees was laid. And as most readers of a book like to know a little of the PREFACE. Vv author, we may be pardoned the egotism of saying that we were at the age of eighteen apprenticed to the profession of gardening at Carstairs House. In about four. years afterwards we went to London to pursue our profession, which we have followed ever since. While an apprentice at Carstairs, and a journeyman in Middlesex, we kept bees in “hidden places” in the plantations and shrubberies; and while acting in the capacity of head-gardener, we managed the bees of our employers. Now we have a small garden of our own, in which we keep “lots of bees” for profit. Such is a brief outline of the author’s history from a bee-keeping point of view. The work before the reader, then, is a practical one, and written by a practical man. Three or four years ago, we were induced by our respected friend Mr Thomson, editor of ‘The Gar- dener, to contribute a series of articles on Bees for that periodical, then called ‘The Scottish Gardener,’ Mr T. heralded these articles with a few remarks rather too complimentary. He then said: “ We had practical proof of the extraordinary success resulting from Mr Pettigrew’s system of bee - management when he was our foreman in the Gardens at Wrotham Park, Middlesex, twenty-five years ago. We assure our readers who may peruse his letters, that though he may recommend what may clash violently with their present knowledge of the subject, he is, notwith- standing, a safe guide; and that, where profit is the object, no writer that we have ever read can be com- pared with him. We predicate that his letterg will vi PREFACE. be of far greater value to all interested than the cost of the journal for many years to come.” Bread is the first consideration of man. After food and clothing are obtained, he may seek recreation, music, society, knowledge, or anything else lawful. So in bee-keeping we reckon the question of profit is of first importance. Stings do not seem half so pain- ful to the man whose annual proceeds of bee-keeping amount to £10, or £20, or £50. But in addition to the profits of bees, there is a fund of interest and enjoyment derived from keeping them, uplifting in its nature and tendencies. One of the most pleasing sights on earth is that of a son of toil, after the labour of the day is done, taking a child in his hand, and going to see his pig, or cow, or bee- hive in his garden. Who has not seen hundreds of working men blessed and charmed beyond description in attending to their bees and cows? Such men are superior to the low vulgarities of the public-house, and superior in every sense to those who waste their time and strength in drinking. We hold that all em- ployers of labour would do well to encourage their servants to spend their leisure hours in a profitable way. In country places and villages the gift of a few swarms of bees to deserving servants, and a practical treatise on their management, might become a source of perennial income and pleasure to them, and be, in fact, a greater boon and: benefaction than a row of cottages d la Peabody. The author, who is a working man himself, humbly greets working men on the completion of this work, PREFACE, vil which has been written with an eye to their welfare, and with the hope that the “ finger-posts” herein set up will guide many of them along the highroad to great success in bee-keeping. There is no literary merit at all in these pages; in fact the author knows that the reader of taste and education will find much to “ wink at.” There is a great deal of repetition, and sometimes “nouns” keep out the “pronouns.” There has been the strongest desire possible on the part of the author to write in the plainest and simplest style and manner, so that the most untutored man in England that can read, would not fail to catch the meaning of every page presented to his eye. The grand old words of the grand old parable of “The Sower” are worth repeat- ing in every preface: “When any one’heareth the Word, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one and catcheth it away; but he that hear- eth the Word, and understandeth it, beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” ; RusHoLMs, MaNncHESTER, March 1, 1870. CONTENTS. PART FIRST. CHAPTER I. PAGE The queen bee@y.0.sccccsinsscoseesre 1 Her shape and appearance, ... 1 Mother and monarch,............ 2 The age of queen bees, ......... 2 How long in being hatched,... 3 The food of princesses, ......... 3 Impregnation of queens, ...... 4 Where impregnation takes PAC Ose vsvaneascan eaeesiseeaaiee ans 6 Sometimes lost on their mar- TIAGG-WOUR; wacescvtarertenvsascase 7 EROS SIDE, cnccacnheterminiserin 7 How many eggs laid daily bya GUI COI cp selects insist idbidoinaitecant nice 8 The sexes of eggs, Mr Woodbury’s letters, . Mr Quinby’s opinion, .. The author's, ‘ & Experiments suggested,......... 21 CHAPTER II. Drones or males, ......::00:0.0000 How long in their cells. Why so many drones,............ "Thelr idlenese, «.csiassessecrerceins Their sorrowful end, CHAPTER III Working bees, .......-...sccceeeers Their industry,.. i Their ingenuity, Theit @GUPA PC). coco viasveseiowes How to tame and domesticate Vicious bees, .......s.sceeeeceseee 34 Have bees a language? ......... 35 CHAPTER IV. Ligurian or Italian lees, ...... 37 CHAPTER V. The government of a hive,...... 39 CHAPTER VI. SwWaTM NG osivacnsssseeteenererenaenns 41 Preparations made tor it, ...... 41 The signal and the rush, « 42 Papin Gs. oar snseee.Levesmacies 44 Second and third swarms, ...... 44 CHAPTER VII. Fertile workers, CHAPTER VIII. CONTENTS. ix CHAPTER IX. CHAPTER XI. Honey-dew, c..ccscccsessee ene 50 | Boe-bread, .......eeeecceseeeeeene 55 CHAPTER XII. CHAPTER X. Propolis; . sainssaeoazsenioesnsevevers: DT Wass 5 scasumaaenheasanseaennasaciens 52 How much honey is consumed CHAPTER XIII. to make 1 lb. of wax, ......... D2. WiGtOE cccuwscvnnananniancinmoseavats 58 PART SECOND. PRACTICAL MANAGEMENT. CHAPTER XIV. WINS cosh caver tieieetende tants 76 The apiary or bee-garden,...... 62 | Facts and figures better than How far should hives be off the logic and argumentation, ... 77 STOUN? . siscsisneiw severed csaiesy 63 | Successful management at Car- How far asunder? ............... 64 luke, Lanarkshire, ............ 78 CHAPTER XV. Bee-houses, CHAPTER XVI. The pasturage of bees, Much honey lost, . at A supposition, ..........c 68 Can a district be overstocked ? 68 All localities not equally good, 69 Plants that yield the most honey, Rich soil better than poor, ... 73 Exposed situations better than sheltered ones in rainy sea- sons, How far will bees go for honey? 74 CHAPTER XVII. TOS jess casietaenevasicensssneseisadace’s 76 Agriculture and horticulture making progress, .............+5 76 Apiculture Joiters, ...........6 76 Mr Reid’s letters,................. 78 English bee-keepersfar behind, 80 Large hives, wt Sizes and shapes, ......... 000 The number of pounds of hon- ey gained per day by large hives, The materials of hives, & Straw hives best, .........ceeee ‘The quackery of new inven- PONS. anew osgaiensaccosimnacedeon 88 Bar-frame hives, Tools used for cutting combs out of hives, .......c ee eeeeeeeee 91 Cross-sticks in hives, » 22 Guide-combs,’ .......... -. 92 The leaf or unicomb hive, ...... 94 .CHAPTER XVIII. Boards), secavissesecieosvesesesevacacs 95 THO ROOE, secwnccizcsiemssacc tenes 96 CHAPTER XIX. Covers for hives, .........:6s.eeee 98 x CONTENTS. CHAPTER XX. CHAPTER XXI. Fumigation, The Irishman’s secret pur- CHAPTER XXII. Whether is the swarming or non-swarming system of management the most pro- PEABO Y= sriccstctatensassrepeh bic Can swarms and honey be ob- tained from hives the same SEABON:} pxchunnianbeanteanses Swarming system best, Reasons PIVEN, cas eineecensncee Which system yields most SUPERS Yrcsoscasacrurteerpe wares 110 Great success of Mr Fox,...... 112 His magnificent supers, ...... 112 His adjusting principle, ...... Both systems possible in one APIANYjuasyereslmawnosianian resin 114 CHAPTER XXIII. SUPOLS sania vdson tan cauewawaabanaist 115 CHAPTER XXIV. HGS; | soisesesouneadscuratotaiaverees 117 Better for getting a great weight of honey than su- POUB) cavainsains cn stssareiisatine a tatiogs 17 They prevent swarming, ...... 118 CHAPTER XXV. DONTE ies awiancavensvencxmanntaaescies 119 Sometimes. used as artificial BWALTELS, pcccsinosaijeranondonce 120 CHAPTER XXVI. Artificial swarming, ........--.. 122 An invaluable invention,...... 122 Easily performed, .......:...... 122 HOw ? satiesanaicsnssina score . 123 Prevents waste of time, ...... 124 Can be performed at any hour, 124 How to know when swarms are ready, Where to place them, . Bee barrOw;, scccuxereererennave Vacant thrones,...........e Successors provided,............ A little difficulty with second PWAPTHS, eeccivsemaumeninenes 130 Surplus qneens, ...........0 131 Very useful in many ways,... 132 CHAPTER XXVII. Natural swarming, Time of swarming, .... Small hives cluster before, ... 136 Large hives seldom cluster,... 136 Miscarriages, ...........0cceccee 136 TREIPCAUHE, scasisusweverececas 136 The hiving of swarms, ......... 138 Artificial thunder and rain,... 138 Foolish practice, .............6 138 Fugitive swarms cannot be BOPPCdy. srccoiinccnnesanensrenass 139 The American swarm-catcher, 140 The conflict of queens,......... 141 Death or victory, v.00... 141 CHAPTER XXVIII. PUIMOUS, ssiccoagacmagisegole edtecn sine 145 New honey, . . 145 The “‘almighty dollar,” ...... 147 CHAPTER XXIX. Feeding, siscsssessssenemensnncerace 148 BA HEASONIB; sccscaitnisicdeniae sacs 148 The disappointment of fresh DEGINNEHS,. a s.seiere Ser ocen overs 148 CONTENTS. Success is certain to the per- severing, . 149 Profits of bee-keeping during the last five years,............ The importance of feeding Well psisseioisuthenarwrea What happens if not well fed, 150 Hunger swarms, ...........0664 150 Wealthy mill-owners of Lan- PUSHING, execincesdcocumananene Best artificial food is sugar- and-water, 151 In what proportions mixed,. 151 152 152 Many ways of feeding bees,... None condemned, ............... Feeding-board, cistern, and TDOUB possiecsisaricsianciicarsccntes, Flower-pot saucers, The ‘‘express” method of feed- ing bees, Feeding in winter,............... CHAPTER XXX. Is sugar syrup converted into honey by bees? ............... 157 A fraudulent practice, ......... 157 A bad shilling and spurious ONC Fe, ssid sesiasaace sueiiaicitsice CHAPTER XXXI. Diseases of bees, ............... 159 DYSODELY), owiscciisvesenircnsscraee’s 159 Powlbrood;. 5...ccserasmoveraeacvage 159 How to discover its existence, 162 Tucurable, 162 CHAPTER XXXII. The enemies of bees,............ 163 Mies SMHS, ceie sigs cqecannaas 163 RO DDSLS}. se sea ninck an eeysenssdse sees 164 How bees know each other,... 165 CHAPTER XXXIII. Transporting bees from one place to another, . 166 x1 Great care required,............ 166 Best hives generally suffer,... 167 Various ways of preventing suffocation, ......cccccceeeeeees The value of cross-sticks,...... CHAPTER XXXIV. The selection and preparation of stock-hives for another Should be full, or nearly full, OR. COMDS vec. nucoaceeeseiavcnrvne 171 Should contain young queens, 172 The destruction of swarms condemned, . .. 172 What should be dong: ‘with Pham sec aseiviersacnnion awry Greater consumption of food in populous hives, ............ What to do with very light AVES §: - sciescnsadevncchemtienneites Value of fresh combs to a YOUNG SWATM,.......-. seer eee What is to be done when all the hives are too heavy for KGepin gs sucescsccesesiracrasanien 174 CHAPTER XXXV. The brimstone-pit, Is it more inhuman to use it than cut the throat of a SHEEP pepcccenesnansaevayerins 17 CHAPTER XXXVI. On driving and shaking bees from hives, and uniting them to other swarms, ... 179 How they are shaken out, ... 180 Done in about half a minute, 180 Often done in candle-light, ... 181 Minted syrup and nutmeg,... 182 The hilarity of children and _ DOGS; ssavinsisieanenmnteaarateinnss 182 xi CHAPTER XXXVII. On taking honey and wax, ... How to know the quantity of honey in a hive, .............4. CHAPTER XXXVIII. Winter treatment, ............ The importance of keeping bees warm, 185 CONTENTS. Many destroyed for want of sufficient protection,......... Bad luck comes from bad management, ...........cseeeee 190 Can bees be wintered beneath the ground? ..........eeseeee 191 CHAPTER XXXIX. When should hives be pur- chased ? a PART FIRST THE HANDY BOOK OF BEES. PART FIRST. Art certain times of the year, in every healthy hive of bees, there are a queen or mother bee; males, which are called drones ; and working bees. There are also honey and wax, bee-bread and propolis. Worker. CHAPTER I. THE QUEEN BEE. Her Shape and Appearance.—By looking at the repre- sentation of the different bees, the reader will see that a queen is less in size than a drone, and larger than a A 2 HANDY BOOK OF BEES, working bee. In shape she is more like a worker than a drone, but more genteel and beautiful than either. Her abdomen or belly is comparatively very long, and gradu- ally and gracefully tapers to a point—giving her an ap- pearance quite distinguishable and different from all in the hive. She is really a queenly creature, and modest and graceful in all her movements. Mother and Monarch.—Being mother and monarch of the hive, her life is very precious. The loyalty of her people, and the activity and vigilance of her “ body-guard,” are most remarkable. No human monarch was ever half so well attended to by his subjects as a queen bee is by hers. The life and prosperity of a hive depend on the presence of a queen—a queen moving and reigning in the hive—or in prospect—that is, in embryo; for when a queen dies, or goes with a colony or swarm, she leaves behind her some princesses in their cells, or infant state; or eggs which the bees hatch into queens. If a hive lose its queen without expectation of getting another, all pros- perity comes to an end—the contentment, loyalty, and industry of the bees depart from them: their stores of honey are often undefended and unprotected in such queenless hives, and stolen by the bees of prosperous ones. THE AGE OF QUEEN BEES. They live four years. In this fact the worth of their lives to the community is seen. The working bees live but nine months, and the drones are permitted neither to live nor to die; they are destroyed. The climax of their history is a chapter of horrors. But queens, gene- rally speaking, live four years. A few die when they are three years old: scarcely one dies a natural death. sooner. It is of great importance to a bee-keeper to know THE AGE OF QUEEN BEES. 3 the age of his queens, but this point will be noticed again in another place. Queens are fourteen days in being hatched ; that is, perfect queens are produced on the fourteenth day after eggs have been put into royal cells. The length of their days is not, to a thoughtful bee-keeper, so great a marvel as the shortness of time in which they are in their cradle- cells, Only fourteen days for the process of developing small eggs into princesses of the blood? Yes, they are perfect in fourteen days. How long is a worker in the cell? Twenty-one days. And a drone? Twenty - four days. It is herein seen that queens are hatched in less time, by one half, than drones. The mystery of this is beyond our depth, but the fact indicates the value of the presence of the queens in their hives. When a queen is accidentally killed, or dies unexpectedly, or is taken from a hive, as in artificial swarming, the bees have the power to make another. They take an egg meant fora worker from a commen cell, where, if unmolested and undisturbed, it would be developed into a worker ‘in twenty-one days, and place it in a royal cell, and there convert it into a queen in fourteen days. In the royal cell the egg is developed into a different bee—different in size and colour, perfect every way, and perfect in. seven days less time than it otherwise would have been if left in a common worker-cell. This is an exceedingly interesting point in bee-history, and a wise provision of nature. It is a fact established beyond dispute, that bees have the power of rearing queens from common eggs. How do they accomplish this work, and by what means ? The power seems to be in a substance termed “ royal jelly,” which has a milky, gelatinous appearance. When- ever an egg is set in a royal cell, the bees place around it this milky-like substance, in which a little worm or grub 4 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. is soon floating, and by which itisfed, What this “royal jelly” is, I do not know—neither can I tell where it comes from. It is understood that no writer has ven- tured to describe how or where it is manufactured or obtained. It has been said that this substance, which possesses so great and peculiar a power, is more pungent to the taste than that which is used in feeding the young of workers. We have never tasted either. If some ana- lytical chemist would ever like to examine the two sub- stances, with a view to discover the difference, we would gladly furnish him with a thimbleful of jelly in the swarming season—taking it, of course, from the cells in which it may be deposited. What takes place at the birth of queens will be ex- plained when we come to the chapter on swarming, natural and artificial. IMPREGNATION OF QUEENS. This is a very important affair—so important that a bee- keeper should know all he can about it; when and where it takes place, and what happens when it never takes place at all. Very well. Queens are mated or take the drone when they are very young—viz., from two to ten or twelve days old. If they are not mated before they are ten or twelve days old, they are worthless for breeding pur- poses, worthless for every purpose save that of keeping the bees together till they are worn out by labour or old age. ‘When we consider the importance of impregnation, the nuraber of drones is not to be wondered at, especially when we consider that copulation never takes place inside a hive. If the weather be unfavourable for ten days after their birth, queens are not mated. Some five-and- twenty years ago I caused a hive to rear a queen in the IMPREGNATION OF QUEENS. 5 month of September, after all the drones had been de- stroyed. I wanted to know on how many days she left her hive to find a companion. Being a journeyman gar- dener at the time, I visited the hive but once a-day, gene- rally about four o’clock in the afternoon. The mouth of the hive was shut, so that every bee had to pass through a narrow tube, projecting two or three inches, before it took wing. Though the way out was plain and easy, neither the queen nor bees ever found the way back into the hive. For nine days the queen came threugh the tube, though the weather was rather cold and showery at the time, and was invariably found sometimes trying to find an entrance into the hive, or nestled up in a small cluster of bees near the door of the hive. Once I saw her come home and light on the flight-board at four o'clock. The sky was heavily clouded, and the atmosphere rather cold. Of course the queen and bees found out- side the hive were admitted every afternoon. This simple experiment fully convinced me that the impulses of a young queen for a mate are very strong and urgent ; and when she fails to find one, the fault is not hers. The drones seldom leave their hive but in very fine weather. This fact accounts for the non-impregnation of queens during unfavourable weather. Very cold or stormy weather may, and often does, I daresay, prevent queens from leaving their hives on these errands or occasions of necessity. Failure is very uncommon in fine weather. About the time her majesty is expected to leave her hive, the drones come out in great force and make a tremendous noise in front of the hive. By reason of their number their buzz becomes a roar, heard at a considerable dis- tance from the hive. Last year I happened to hear this well-known sound, and went at once to see her majesty come out of her hive and go away on her marriage-tour, 6 HANDY BOOK OF BEES, The hive was no sooner reached than she was seen going into it. She had been abroad before the drones had come out. In about five minutes after her return she came out again, and took wing amid a noisy rabble of drones. The statements of some authors about queens selecting their lovers in their hives, and then going away together to make their nuptial couches high up in the air, where no eye may follow, are mere poetical fancies. When a queen comes out for this purpose, she comes by herself: she has no favourites—will accept a mate from a strange hive, or from a distance, as readily as from her own hive. How far she will fly in search of amate isnot known. But it is well known that drones fly great distances from home, and often impreg- nate queens which they happen to meet. Though there were a great many hives in our garden last year, and drones enough in every one of them, some of our young queens were made fruitful by contact with Italian or Ligurian drones. Now, no bee-keeper within a distance of four miles has bees of this kind. This fact shows that pairing inside never takes place. But where does copulation take place? In the air, -or on the ground? Most writers think it takes place in the air. We believe it takes place on the ground—that the queen is caught, in the air by the drone, and both come down. Last summer I saw a queen hotly pursued by two drones. She was overtaken, but they did not catch her, As soon as they apparently reached her, she doubled and went back as a hare does when pursued by dogs. She gained a few paces at the turn, and all went out of my sight. When I was a lad, in my father’s house, a labouring man called to tell us what he had seen while dig- ging in a field about half a mile from our house. He heard a great noise, as if a swarm were passing over his head; he instantly looked up, when a ball or cluster of drones fell EGG-LAYING. 7 at his feet, half the size of his spade-handle. He got a bit of stick and began to poke amongst the drones, when to his astonishment a queen crawled out of the cluster and took wing, followed in a twinkling by all the drones. His statement we believed at the time, and still believe it. A great many queens are lost on their marriage-tours; they never return. Whether they fall into water and are thus lost, or lose their way home, or go into the wrong hives, I cannot say; but most bee-keepers of observation and experience well know that these necessary excursions are not unattended with risk, and sometimes with loss. It is well for the bee-keeper that his queens, when timely impregnated, never require the drone again as long as they live. They never again leave their hives for this purpose. It is believed that during the first ten days of their lives copulation may take place more than once, but afterwards it never takes place. And this is one of. the most extraordinary things in bee-history. A queen bee lives four years; lays a vast number of eggs—at least 2000 a-day—in the heat of summer, for months together, every year. I guess that a healthy fertile queen, during her life, lays at least 800,000 eggs—200,000 a-year. Now these eggs are all duly fecundated, and capable of hatching into young bees, though the queen never meets a drone after the first few days of her existence. ; EGG-LAYING. This commences from six to ten days after impregna- tion takes place. Who can think of the laborious and monotonous life of a queen bee without feeling a little compassion? This queenly creature leads a life of toil. Six months of the year does she move from comb to comb, and from cell to cell, minding her own business. Thus she travels up and down the hive, seeking empty cells in 8 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. which to lay her eggs. Her eggs are of some size and substance, in shape somewhat akin to birds’ eggs. When she finds a cell empty, she inserts her abdomen and then drops an egg, which adheres to the bottom of the cell by the small end. The eggs come so fast from her that she has neither time nor strength to lay one in each cell: often two and sometimes three drop into one cell. An amateur bee-keeper in this neighbourhood came to see me a few months ago, and said, “I believe all you say about bees but one statement as to the number of eggs laid by aqueen, I think it is not possible for a queen to dis- tribute 2000 eggs in twenty-four hours.” He was told that the working bees helped to distribute and deposit the eggs in their cells; that where two were laid, the bees removed one and placed it in another cell. He was asked if he ever watched the queen’s attendants in a leaf or unicomb hive. He said he had observed how they kept their heads towards her abdomen, and moved around ,her with the greatest vigilance. He was then told that these attendants nimbly caught the eggs as they came from her body. He at once acknowledged that his doubts were removed, and now understood how the cells were furnished with 2000 eggs daily. It is always pleasant to meet with honest, intelligent ° inquirers, men that will not believe a thing without a reason, And what reason have you for saying that a single queen bee lays 2000 eggs every day in the height of the season? A very satisfactory one. We have seen hives containing more than 2000 square inches of combs each. Let us suppose that only half of these combs were filled with brood, and the rest filled with honey and bee- bread: that is 1000 inches of comb for brood in each hive. One inch of comb has fifty worker-cells in it, twenty-five on each side. Very well, 1000 inches of comb con- THE SEXES OF EGGS. 9 tains 50,000 young bees, in all stages, from the egg up. These 50,000 young bees came from one queen in three weeks. Divide the 50,000 by 21, and it will be found that the average number laid per day for three weeks amounts to some hundreds beyond 2000 per day. What prodigious fertility! What generous feeding of the queen is necessary to repair the waste and wear of such fertility!’ We have not yet seen a hive large enough to overtax the laying powers of a queen bee. THE SEXES OF EGGS. Most writers on this subject believe that a healthy and timely-impregnated queen bee lays both male and female eggs—that the male eggs hatch into drones only, and that the female eggs may become either queens or working bees, according to the treatment they receive in their cells. These writers maintain that a queen is a perfect female, and a worker an imperfect one. They hold that the food supplied to the little worm does not alter the sex, but simply develops its organs of reproduction; in other words, makes it a perfect female. In the case of workers, it is said, the same food is not supplied ; that though the eggs from which they come are identically the same as those which yield queens, they are fed differently, and hence are born imperfect, with organs undeveloped. It is questioned by some whether the special treatment is, given to the young that become perfect and fully developed females, called queens, or to the young that are dwarfed and crippled into workers. The reader is earnestly re- quested to bear in mind that all enlightened bee-keepers as well as all bee-historians have not a doubt, or the shadow of one, as to the capability of these female eggs becoming either queens or workers. Six-and-twenty years ago I wrote a short treatise on bees which appeared in 10 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. the pages of the ‘ Gardeners’ Chronicle’ at that time. In that treatise we held that all the eggs laid by a perfect pregnant queen were alike, and that the bees have the power, or seem to have it, of producing queens, drones, or working bees from them. The Rev. J. G. Wood, whose book appeared some twelve years later, quotes my language, and adds that “this is a point to which it would be well if scientific men would give renewed attention. All the known facts appear at present to favour Mr Pettigrew’s statements.” The question may be asked if nothing has transpired amongst my own bees, during the last twenty-six years, to make me alter that opinion. Nothing has been seen to make me alter the opinion expressed so long ago. Within the last three months, my friend J. W. Woodbury, Esq. of Mount Radford, Exeter, perhaps the most distinguished bee-historian of this age, finding that I intended to pro- duce a work on bees, very kindly and considerately under- took to discuss the matter in hand privately, with the hope that he would thus convince me that the eggs of the honey-bee were not alike, but of different sexes. Mr Woodbury has consented to let me insert in this work his letters on this subject. On perusal they will be considered by all to be the product of a mind honest and enlightened —one that has long been open to the influence of reason, analogy, and investigation. Though I am yet to be con- vinced that he is correct in all his conclusions on this subject, I wish the reader to know that I set a very high estimate on the opinion of Mr Woodbury on all matters pertaining to the habits of bees. After inserting his letters we shall quote a few paragraphs from an American author, Mr Quinby, who thinks for him- self, and honestly and fairly states what he thinks. Then we shall supplement the whole with a few remarks of our own. THE SEXES OF EGGS. 11 Letter First. “‘ Mount RADFoRD, EXETER, 22d Sept. 1869. “ My pear Mr Perricrew,—I hold that the eggs of bees when laid are of two sexes, male and female, and that no after-treatment can alter their sex. “Male eggs invariably hatch into drones whether laid in drone or worker cells, or even when laid in royal cells. Female eggs as invariably hatch into females, either per- fect or imperfect—z.e., queens or workers—according to the mode in which they are reared. “That workers are females is proved by the fact that they sometimes lay eggs, which, however, always hatch into males. That the sex of eggs is unchangeable is de- monstrated by the fact that those laid by workers or by certain queens (usually called drone-breeders) can never be developed into females, either perfect or imperfect, by any course of treatment. “T have often had recourse to the plan you describe by placing drone-combs in the brood-nest, when wanting Italian drones, feeding liberally at the same time, and, if other circumstances were favourable, seldom failed in my object. This, however, only shows that if extraordinary facilities be afforded, the laying of drone eggs may be pro- moted and increased, not that the sex of eggs is changed, —Yours ever, J. W. Woopsury.” The next letter is well written, and is very suggestive and comprehensive. He was requested to confine his re- marks to the eggs of healthy timely-impregnated queens, and té remember that drone-breeding queens and fertile workers were abnormal, and therefore not to be discussed in these letters. 12 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. Letter SECOND. &€ Sent. 30th, 1869. “My pear Mr Perricrew,—I am far from presuming to teach you, but will simply place facts before you in the light in which they present themselves to me, and must leave you to decide whether they agree with your opinions or with my own. “Tn the first place, I must agree to differ from you in toto with regard to excluding the eggs laid by virgin queens from consideration. To my mind they throw so much light on the subject that they may really be said to decide the question. These queens lay eggs which cer- tainly are of a fixed sex, for under no circumstances do they hatch into females. Anatomical examination proves the males hatched from them to be perfect in their kind, nor do they differ one iota from the male offspring of fecundated queens. A priori, therefore, the conclusion is to my mind inevitable, that, no matter whether laid by perfect queens, drone-breeders, or fertile workers, the eggs which produce males are in all cases identical ; and that if the sex be unalterable in some eggs, it must, in the absence of irrefragable evidence to the contrary, be equally so inal]. The raising a queen from a worker egg or grub is quite a different matter, consisting as it does merely in the development of organs which would otherwise remain dormant, and not in any respect reversing the sex. “A ‘healthy and timely-impreenated queen’ sometimes begins by laying a confused mixture of worker and drone eggs in worker-cells; these all receive their appropriate coverings, causing the surface of the comb to present a curiously uneven surface; after a while this irregflarity disappears, and worker-eggs only are laid in the usual manner. I had one queen which, after impregnation, THE SEXES OF EGGS. 13 commenced by laying in a beautifully regular manner—not a single worker among them—some thousands of drone- eggs in worker-cells ; they were all reared to maturity, and then cast out by the workers. Now, all these that I have referred to were unquestionably healthy and timely- impregnated queens, which, after the first aberration, con- tinued the fulfilment of their functions in a perfectly regular and satisfactory manner. “To me the conclusion to be drawn from this appears so logical as to be perfectly irresistible,—that the workers had no control whatever over the sex of the bees. Under your hypothesis they would seem to have indulged the whim of raising some hundreds (or thousands, as the case may be) of drones at a time when they could be of no possible use, only to destroy them as soon as they come to maturity. “ An ample population, abundant food, and the presence of drone-cells, generally dispose a queen to lay drone-eggs ; and so far as the apiarian can contribute to this state of things, you are correct in what you say about his being able to command the production of drones at a given time. But more than this, with an old queen he will scarcely ever fail in the attempt; with a young queen of the cur- rent year he will scarcely ever succeed. This fact, which has been proved over and over again by myself and others, is sufficient to demonstrate that the workers are perfectly unable to determine into which sex eggs shall hatch. If bees had the power of developing eggs, after they were laid, into either males or females at will, the same instinct which impels them to rear perfect females from worker- eggs or young brood, when deprived of their queen, would doubtless lead them, in the absence of drones or drone- brood, to transform the remainder of the worker-eggs which they might possess into drones. I need not tell 14 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. you, however, that nothing of the kind ever takes place, and that the absence of this power has doomed many a colony to extinction.—Yours most sincerely, “J, W. Woopsury.” On the receipt of this last letter, notice was specially made of the fact that when a queen is produced from an egg taken from a worker-cell, something more takes place than the mere development of organs. Mr Woodbury was reminded that a queen is a different bee from a worker— different in form, colour, habit, and lives six times as long as a working bee. He wrote a third letter, part of which will be quoted, as the rest is a repetition of what has gone before. He says: “The development of queens from worker eggs or grubs is without doubt a most marvellous trans- formation, but I understand that we are both agreed that it is not a change of sex. “The well-known singular effects of mutilation of, or injuries to, the reproductive organs in man and in animals, seem, however, to bear some slight analogy to the wonder- ful development to which you refer. A eunuch has a treble voice and no beard, whilst his hips become more than ordinarily developed, and his limbs assume the roundness of the female form. A woman with diseased ovaries sometimes develops a beard and obtains the bass voice of a man; whilst a hen in a similar condition may assume the plumage and loud crow of the cock. All these instances apply rather to workers than to queens ; and it may certainly be said, that in them something more takes place than the repression of organs which would otherwise have been developed. The individuals affected may in fact be pronounced quite different from others of their kind ; but the marvel would, I think, become an actual THE SEXES OF EGGS, 15 miracle if there were a positive reversal of sex. It seems to me also that the prolongation of life in the queen bee may not be the direct consequence of the full development of her sex, but may arise from it in a secondary manner— viz., from her exemption from outdoor labour, Worker- bees, when confined to the hive during winter, live five or six times as long as in the summer; and it appears, there- fore, not improbable that, if proper means were adopted, the lives of fertile workers, which, I believe, never leave home, might be prolonged until they equalled those of queens.” From the same letter I will make one more short quota- tion. Mr W. says: “A young and prolific queen of the current year, in the full flow of working egg-laying, can scarcely be induced, under any circumstances, to deposit drone-eggs, but year by year she gets to lay them with greater and ever-increasing facility, till in extreme old age she may become incapable of laying any others. To my poor comprehension it seems perfectly impossible to re- concile these facts with your theory, that her eggs are throughout all of one kind, convertible by the workers into either sex.” Mr Woodbury’s last letter of this correspondence goes deeper into the subject than any of the former ones. It grapples with the physiology of the question. The reader, it is believed, will be greatly interested in perusing the following quotation :— “ The ovaries of a queen bee are never impregnated, the semen being stored in a distinct vesicle called the sper- matheca, a portion of the contents of which is either com- municated to, or withheld from, every egg as it passes through the oviduct—and this difference determines the sex. Every egg which received a portion of the contents of the spermatheca becomes a female, either perfect or imperfect ; every egg which passes unfecundated can hatch 16 HANDY BOOK OF BEES, only into a male. Drone-breeding queens are virgin queens, which can, of course, lay only unfecundated eggs, and whose eggs must therefore always hatch into males. Old queens, when the contents of their spermatheca be- come exhausted, may, and sometimes do, return to the: drone-laying condition of virgins. These are not mere theories, but absolute facts, which have been abundantly demonstrated by anatomical and microscopical investiga- tions. I can speak with perfect certainty on the point, as I happen to be the first Englishman who has been enabled to repeat and verify these investigations. “T cannot tell why unfecundated ova in bees should always produce males: I only know that it is so.” Mr M. Quinby’s book is remarkable for this, that, un- like most others on bees, it is not a mere compilation from various authors. He is an open-eyed bee-keeper of great experience, and a vigorous thinker, who can take nothing for granted. Somewhere in his book he shrewdly remarks that his bees do not behave like those of other people—meaning thereby that his experience is at variance with many writers. Though I cannot say Amen to some things advanced by Mr Quinby, I have great pleasure in stating that his book is the result of his own researches, and is, in my opinion, calculated to remove foolish notions from the minds of those who do not think for themselves. At page 80 of his ‘ Mysteries of Bee-Keeping’ Mr Quin- by says: “I am not anxious to establish a new theory, but to get at facts. If we pretend to understand natural history, it is important that we have it correct; and if we do not understand, say so, and leave it open for further investigation. Itis my opinion that we know very little about this point. I wish to induce closer observation, and would recommend no positive decision until all the facts that will apply have been examined. Theories differ- THE SEXES OF EGGS. 17 ing materially are advanced by nearly all writers. One says, ‘In spring the queen lays about 2000 eggs of males, resumes it in August, but during the interval lays exclu- sively worker-eggs.’ Another writer repeats the same, and states that he has found out that the eggs for the two kinds of bees are germinated separately, and the queen knows when each kind is ready, as well as the workers, &c. Now I beg leave to differ a little from these authors, Hither there exists no difference in the eggs germinated, and any or all will produce drones or workers, just as they happen to be deposited and fed ; or else the periods of laying drone-eggs are much more frequent than any writer with whom I am acquainted has been willing to allow. Whether these drone-egg theories have been too hastily adopted, the reader can decide: I shall offer a few more facts, somewhat difficult to reconcile with them. The following circumstance would appear to indicate that all the eggs are alike; and if they are laid in drone-cells, the bees give the proper food, and make drones—if in worker-cells, workers, just as they make a queen from a worker-egg when put in a royal cell. “Tn a glass hive, one sheet of comb next the glass, and parallel with it, was full size; about three quarters of this sheet was worker-cells, the remainder drone-cells. In about the middle of June 1850, I discovered on this outside sheet. the bees preparing it for brood, by cutting off the cells to their proper length. In a day or two after, I saw a few eggs in both worker and drone cells; four or five days afterwards, on opening the door, her ‘ majesty’ was engaged in depositing eggs in the drone-cells. Nearly every one contained an egg; most of these she examined, but did not use them; six or eight were all that were unoccupied—in each of these she immediately deposited an egg, She continued to search for empty cells, and in B 18 HANDY BOOK OF BEES, doing so she got on the part of the comb containing worker- cells, where she found a dozen or more empty, in each of which she laid one. The whole time, perhaps thirty minutes. Query, Was her series of drone-eggs exhausted just at this time? If so, it would appear that she was not aware of it, because she examined several drone-cells, after laying the last one there, before leaving that part of the comb, and acted exactly as if she would have used them had they not been preoccupied.” “Tf food and treatment would create or produce organs of generation in the female, by making an egg destined for a worker into a queen (a fact which all apiarians ad- mit), why not food and treatment make the drone? Is the difficulty of developing one kind of sexual organs greater than another?” “Other animals or insects usually produce the sexes promiscuously. As we are ignorant of ‘the causes decid- ing sex in any case, we must acknowledge mystery to be- long to both sides of the question. The stumbling-block of more than two sexes which seems so necessary to make plain, is no greater here than with some species of ants, that have, as we are told, king, queen, soldier, and labourer —four distinct and different-formed bodies, all belonging to one nest, and descended from one mother. Whether they are four distinct kinds of eggs producing them, or the power is given to the worker to develop such as are wanted from one kind, we cannot say. If we make two kinds of eggs only, it helps the matter but little. There is still an anomaly.” “JT shall leave this matter for the present, hoping that something conclusive may occur in the course of my ex- periments or those of others. At present I am inclined to think that the eggs are all alike, but am not fully satisfied.” THE SEXES OF EGGS. 2 19 The reader has in these quotations the opinions of two advanced bee-historians on the question before us. Ob- servation, extending over many years, has not led Mr Quinby and myself to the conclusions arrived at by Mr Woodbury, who considers the evidences and facts which he has adduced quite sufficient to convince any reason- able mind that the eggs of a queen bee are, when laid, of a fixed sex, unalterable in that respect. Having held the opinion that all the eggs of a queen bee, in proper condition, are of one kind only, and con- vertible into queens, males, or workers, for so many years, 1t becomes us to give our reasons for holding to the same opinion still. Supposing the eggs are of different sexes, we are yet to be convinced,— I. That queen bees know what kind they are about to lay. If Mr Woodbury’s conclusions are correct, they do know this, and lay male eggs in drone-cells, and female eggs in worker-cells. The reader, of course, will use his own reason in settling this “knotty point” to his own satisfaction. Has a queen bee more power than a bird, or beast, or human being, in the generation of offspring, to determine and fix the gender before her eggs are dropped into cells? Can she wild to lay 1000 male eggs to-day, and 1000 female eggs to-morrow? Or has she no more power to destine gender otherwise than may occur in human generation ? If the queen cannot will and fix the sex of eggs before they are laid, do the working bees know any difference between male and female eggs after they are laid? If neither the queen nor workers can distinguish the male from the female eggs—i.e., those that are not fecundated from those that are—how comes it to pass that male eggs are deposited in drone-cells, and female eggs in worker- cells? Till the knowledge of the difference of male and 20 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. female eggs be established, and the law of their distribu- tion explained, it seems a very difficult matter to believe in any difference at all. Let us suppose that we have six hives, three of which have scarcely a drone-cell in them; the other three are half filled with drone-combs. Those filled with worker- cells will be filled with worker-brood; and to the same extent will the three with drone-cells be filled with young brood, but the half of it will be drone-brood. Three of the hives will have very few drones, the other three will be half filled with them. If the three queens which have been depositing eggs in the hives containing worker-combs exclusively, and thus producing nothing but working bees, were exchanged for, and put in the places of the queens in the hives containing the drone-combs, we would find that their progeny, like the other queens, would be half male and half worker. If this experiment were repeated a hundred times, in various ways, the result would be the same—viz., the number of cells determining the number of drones bred. The bee-keeper can command his bees to breed drones, simply by placing empty drone-comb in the queen’s way while laying eggs. Ifa hive have drone- comb near the centre, where the queen commences to lay her eggs in early spring, drones will be produced in it much sooner—a month or six weeks sooner—than in those whose drone-combs are built on the outsides of the combs. Mr Woodbury admits that he rarely fails to get drones by placing a bit of empty drone-comb in the midst of the nest sooner than usual. Again, in strong hives, drones are produced four, six, or eight weeks earlier than in weak ones. If the queens of the weak hives were transplanted into the strong ones, we should find drones produced as plentifully from their eggs, as from those whose places they fill, And, more- THE SEXES OF EGGS. 21 over, if the queens from the strong hives were placed in the weak ones, their eggs become exclusively workers. Admitting that there are difficulties on both sides of this question, the reader will naturally, like electricity or running water, follow the line of least resistance. Where there is room left for guessing—where conclusions are not yet fully demonstrated—it ill becomes us to speak in posi- tive terms. Mr Woodbury honestly thinks that the results of his investigations have placed the matter absolutely beyond a doubt. For above thirty years I have not had a doubt as to the convertibility of eggs into queens, drones, or workers. But as this question is interesting alike to the student of physiological science and to the intelligent bee- keeper, we shall, if all be well, probably put the question to the test of searching experiments. When I was lately in Scotland, I was informed of two instances of drone-comb containing eggs being placed in queenless hives. From these eggs the bees manufactured queens for themselves. This test or experiment may be easily tried; and, if fairly and fully tried, will put the mat- ter beyond adoubt. It is an easy matter to take a queen from a hive, and, five or six days after that is done, to cut out every royal cell containing a young queen. In twenty-four or forty-eight hours afterwards, a bit of drone- comb, with fresh-laid eggs in it, could be cut from another hive, and fixed in the hive thus robbed of its queen and royal cells. If the eggs are all of one gender when laid, the bees will manufacture queens from the eggs thus transplanted. If the eggs are male, as Mr Woodbury and others say they are, the bees must be unable to rear queens from them. No experiment can be more simple or satis- factory than the one now suggested. If the bees fail to rear queens from such eggs, we shall be most ready 22 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. to acknowledge the mistake we have made all our life long. The same test could be applied to hives that have swarmed. Four or five days after the first swarms have left, cut out the royal cells, and transplant a few eggs in drone-cells as described above. This experiment is within the reach of very inexperienced persons, and it is hoped that in a short time all doubt and scepticism will be removed. But the reader may say that Mr Woodbury has not the shadow of a doubt on his mind that eggs are of different sexes, male and female. Thad intended to examine minutely every paragraph of Mr Woodbury’s letters, but as we are anxious to bring this chapter to a conclusion, we shall notice only a few of them. Mr W. says,—“ A young and prolific queen of the cur- rent year, in the full flow of worker-egg laying, can scarcely be induced, under any circumstances, to deposit drone- eggs ; but year by year she gets to lay them with greater facility, till in extreme old age she may become incapable of laying any others. To my poor comprehension, it seems perfectly impossible to reconcile these facts with your theory, that her eggs are throughout all of one kind.” Stop a little. We have known many queens die of old age, but their eggs till the last were capable of being hatched into either males or females. "When a queen dies of old age in the breeding season—and queens generally die then—the bees almost invariably set a considerable number of eggs in royal cells, and these hatch into females. It is not a fact in our experience that the eggs of a queen, timely impregnated, ever become incapable of hatching into workers and queens. Take another statement of Mr W. ‘The ovaries of a THE SEXES OF EGGS. 23 queen bee are never impregnated, the male semen being stored in a distinct vesicle called the spermatheca, a por- tion of the contents of which is either withheld from, or communicated to, every egg as it passes through the ovi- duct, and this difference determines the sex.” If this is true, it appears to us all but impossible to account for the fact that impregnation makes a queen prolific ; that is to say, causes her to lay ten times—nay, fifty times—more eggs than a queen unimpregnated. If the impregnating matter is simply lodged in a dis- tinct vesicle—not affecting the laying or productive powers of a queen, but merely touches and femalises so many eggs in passing through the oviduct—how comes it to pass that unmated queens are nearly barren? Here is an insur- mountable barrier or difficulty in the way to Mr Wood- bury’s conclusions, Difficulties as insurmountable rise up before the mind when it thinks of the mere will of the queen determining which eggs shall be laid male and which female in char- acter. And by what muscles, voluntary or involuntary, in the body of the queen, does she effect the fecundation ? Mr Woodbury believes in both the will of the queen and the apparatus by which she carries it into execution in” the fecundation of her own eggs. We are slow to follow him. It is well known that a queen lives four years, and a common worker nine months. It was stated to Mr Wood- bury that the mere development of her sex could not pro- long the life of a queen. He replies in these words: “ It seems to me also that the prolongation of the life of a queen bee may not be the direct consequence of the full development of her sex, but may arise from it in a secondary manner—viz., from her exemption from outdoor labour.” Most people would think that the absence of 24 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. outdoor exercise would weaken her constitution and shorten her days, considering the fact that her indoor life is one of toil and drudgery. The story of the eunuch, and the woman with the beard, and the loud crow of the hen, is very beautiful, and indicates great breadth and ingenuity ; but who will admit that it touches the differ- ence between nine months and four years? The eunuch, the woman, and the crowing hen may live as long as any of their kind ; but a queen bee lives six times longer than a worker, and yet she is said to be a perfect female, and a worker an imperfect one. To my mind they are both perfect, but very different, bees. Mr Woodbury says,—“ An ample population, abundant, food, and the presence of drone-cells, generally dispose a queen to lay drone-eggs.” We should say, these dispose the bees to set eggs in drone-cells, and administer their appropriate food. But this long and tedious discussion will not help us much in our search for the most profitable mode of bee management. Let us conclude in the language of Mr . Quinby—viz., “ We are inclined to think that the eggs of a queen bee are all alike, but are not fully satisfied.” DRONES OR MALES, 25 CHAPTER II. DRONES OR MALES. THESE are about the most idle and unfortunate crea- tures in existence. They are generally hatched in drone- combs ; that is to say, in cells larger, considerably larger, than those of common workers. These large cells, built up together, are called drone-comb. The less drone-comb there is in a hive, the better it is for breeding purposes ; for though the bees can rear drones in worker-cells, they never rear workers in drone-cells. Whena hive has much drone-comb in it, there will be produced a superabundance of idle fellows, which will consume a great deal of honey. Drone-combs are generally situated on the extreme out- sides of the worker-combs, but sometimes they are found near the centre of the hive. It is the position and num- ber of drone-cells in a hive that determines the number of drones reared. If such cells are near the centre, drones will put in an appearance long before the hive is ready for swarming; and if on the outside of the combs, the hive will be ready for swarming about the time drones are first hatched. The appearance of drones is therefore. no safe guide as to the ripeness of a hive for swarming. The drones are twenty-four days in being hatched from eggs; that is, they come to perfection in twenty-four days, being three days longer in their cells than workers, and ten days longer than queens. 26 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. But why so many idle fellows in a community remark- able for industry and activity ? It is easier to ask the question than to answerit. They are produced for a purpose, and that is the impregnation of queens. When the importance of this impregnation is considered, the apparent want of economy in the produc- tion of so many otherwise useless creatures will not be wondered at. The time given for this impregnation is very limited—ten or twelve days at most. "When weather is cold or wet, drones do not leave their hives; and even when the weather is fair and favourable, they do not all leave their hives at the same time. As the reader is already aware that copulation takes place outdoors—it may be at some distance from the hive—he will see at once why so many drones are usually produced. Better to have a superabundance of 10,000 drones than the queen fail to meet one. The more drones in a hive—indeed, the more hives in a garden—when a queen becomes marriage- able, the more likely is she to be seen and mated when she leaves on that errand. Queens and drones, the product of one mother, mate without the least deterioration of blood. In-and-in breed- ing amongst bees for generations and ages does not in the smallest degree produce bad results. The great characteristic of a drone bee is his laziness. He will die of want rather than work. Drones have never been known to do “a hand’s turn.” In fact it is a question whether they feed themselves in the midst of plenty. We daresay they do sometimes; but how fre- quently are they to be seen stooping down to be fed by the working bees! If the reader has seen young sparrows or pigeons fed by the old ones, he will be able to form a pretty correct idea as to the way in which the working bees pump honey out of their bags into those of the drones, DRONES OR MALES. 27 Drones wanting to be fed place their fecding-tubes alongside of those of workers, and thus remain apparently motionless while the pumping process goes on. But these idle gentlemen know the country geographi- cally better than the working community. In fine weather they take longer excursions into the country for pleasure than working bees do for food. If a hive be removed in fine weather two miles, some few bees and a great many drones return to the old place. If removed three or four miles, a considerable number of drones return, but no workers. Drones have been known to return five miles. . Comparatively useless in their lives, drones come to a sorrowful end. What is termed the massacre of drones is a strangely cruel process: they are starved to death. Well might a great naturalist, and a friend of the writer, exclaim,—‘ The climax of drone-life is wonderful—a chapter of horrors, which clouds the harmony of an other- wise beautiful system of insect-life.” About fourteen days after the queen of a hive has been impregnated, or some days after she has begun to lay, the working bees begin to haul and maul the drones about. Day by day the bees seem more anxious to worry the drones, and feign to sting them, but seldom use their stings. Inside the hive the drones are driven from the honeycombs, and may be found in heaps on the board for days. Here they become weak from want; and when they leave their hive many of them have savage tormentors on their backs. Some fall off the flight-board so weak that they cannot fly; but most die at a distance, being unable to return. Some drones go with the first swarm, but as they are not wanted there they are soon destroyed. But as the hives of these first swarms become full of combs and bees, drone-cells are built, and preparations for swarming are 28 HANDY BOOK OF BEES, made as in the.old hive in spring. Soon the first swarm will be as full, and contain probably as many drones as the mother hive did when on the eve of swarming. If this swarm be kept full and prosperous, drones may be’ continuously reared till the end of the season, when the general massacre takes place. But often the lives of drones and drone-brood are destroyed.during weather un- favourable for gathering honey. On the appearance or prospect of hard times the bees destroy these comparatively useless creatures and cast them out of their hives. When- ever white drones are seen being cast out, the owner may be pretty certain that his bees are on the border-land of starvation. The lives of drones being always cut short, no one can say how long they would live if let alone. THE WORKING BEES. 29 CHAPTER III. THE WORKING BEES. THE common working bees are twenty-one days in their cells, and live nine months. Probably nine-tenths of them die, from some cause or another, before they have reached their alloted span; but at the end of nine months or thereabouts, after their birth, all perish. The working bees are considerably smaller than either queens or drones. They do all the work ‘and drudgery of the hive, and do it with a willingness and activity that beggar description. They manufacture the wax, build Bie “pouty, gather honey by day, and store it away by night. It is hard to believe that they never sleep, though we have never seen one either sleepy or asleep, in summer or winter. Put a swarm into an empty hive; in less than an hour the working bees commence to clean it out. Speedily the foundation of a great and wonderful city is laid. Great Bez! some one has said, that steps forth to lay the first stone of a city that can never be excelled for architectural beauty and order—a city of wax, in which may-be born yearly 300,000 beings—brave loyal citizens! For industry, ingenuity, and courage the working bees stand very high. THE INDUSTRY OF BEES. How few bee-keepers know the worth of their own stock—the value of their own servants! No writer can 30 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. get near enough to touch the hem of the garment of the industry of honey-bees. It is beyond our comprehension or description. Fancy a large and prosperous hive, full of combs, bees, and brood; fancy 20,000 little grubs in this hive requiring constant attention and proper food, and all receiving them in due season ; fancy the care and diligence of the bees in mixing and kneading this food before they give it to their young; fancy 2000 of these grubs daily requiring and receiving beautiful lids on their cells to cover them up while they pass into the insect form and chrysalis state ; fancy 800 or 1000 square inches of this brood being built wp every three weeks. Try these combs in the scales against a twenty-eight-pound weight and see which conquers. Stand and look at that bee-hive, and remember that all therein goes on with unerring exactness and without light: then think of the untiring energy and perseverance of the bees outside the hive— ranging fields and woods from morn till dewy night, gathering up the sweets and pollen of flowers, storing the one in sacks, the other in baskets, returning to their home laden as donkeys with panniers, increasing their honey stores in weight from 2 Ib. to 6 lb. per day, securely locked up after it has been twice swallowed and dis- gorged, and thus made into honey proper. Yes; think of all these things being done, together with nameless and countless offices performed every hour, and methinks you will be dumb with amazement at the industry of these wonderful bees !! What a world of wonders is in a bee- hive! Bonny wee bees! your own fanning wings will drive from your hives scores of tons of the sweat of your labours ere the imagination of the poet or the pen of the historian can compass your industry! Without any pretension to accuracy, and anxious to be THE INGENUITY OF BEES. 31 within the facts, we may say that the daily consumption and waste of a large and prosperous hive of bees in the summer-time is more than 2 1b. To repair this waste, upwards of 2 1b. of materials have to be collected every day. Beyond this there is often accumulated honey to the amount of 4 Ib. and 6 lb. daily in favourable weather. Once — but only once — have we known 20 lb. weight gained by one hive in two days. + THE INGENUITY OF BEES. This subject also defies description. To mention half the instances of ingenuity seen in a large apiary would fill a book. In the building of combs and formation of cells, design is strikingly evident. Honey-cells are made to dip to the bottom. If a piece of guide-comb is put in wrong side up, the bees adopt it as a commence- ment, but reverse the dip of the cells, so as to make them better shaped for holding honey. The stays and props so frequently given to weak places and loose combs display great ingenuity. When a swarm is put into an empty hive which it can only half fill, the bees, on commencing work, find that the way to the door by the sides of the hive is round about, and to shorten the way to the dvor they let down two or three beautiful bee-ropes, on which to descend and ascend. These ropes are made by one bee suspending itself to another, each bee coming lower down till the board is reached. In large hives, three of these ladders are let down and used ; and in small hives, only one. It is exceedingly interesting to watch the bees which form and compose these ladders. They remain motionless, allowing those 32 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. going out and in to ascend and descend with sure and speedy steps. In the spring months bees are anxious to hatch as many young bees as possible, and therefore spread themselves out as widely as they can. In this way they cover more eggs. Sometimes the weather suddenly becomes cold, causing the bees to have some fears about the brood being chilled. How do the bees then act to protect the brood—or, in other words, to keep up the warmth of the hive? In the most orderly manner they gather themselves into a cluster at the door of the hive, and thus prevent the cold from going in; or, as our more accurate scientific friends would say, keep the heat in. The wisdom of closing their doors in cold weather during the breeding season, and the manner in which the bees do it, ever command the admiration of the thoughtful observant bee-master. Often is the door so closely wedged up—so nicely corked—by these clusters, that there is just room left for one bee to go out and in. On the return of warm weather these protecting ‘sandbags ” are removed. The story of the dead snail in a bee-hive is worth men- tioning. Snails are very fond of honey, and often take lodgings for months, in the winter, inside a bee-hive. They eat both honey and wax. Bees attack and drive out of their hives every enemy but snails and worms. These they will not touch. It happened that a snail died in one. It was more unpleasant to the bees after death than before, but they could not cast it out. Their ingenuity was set to work, resulting in a coffin of wax being built around the snail. If my memory serves me well, an instance of this happened in one of my father’s hives when I was young—some fifty years ago. Once we put a queen nearly dead on the flight-board of THE COURAGE OF BEES. 33 a queenless hive. As soon as she was discovered, the bees came out in a continual stream for some time, heaping themselves upon her to keep her warm and restore anima- tion. This they accomplished in a short time, and safely guided her into the hive. The ingenuity of bees is strikingly evident when they are at work on a windy day. In calm weather they fly straight on their journeys to and from the fields; but when the wind is high, they seek the shelter of houses, banks, and fences. Often have we seen them flying at great speed along open drains and ditches, and in this way escaping the violence of the wind, And when it be- comes necessary for them to leave their sheltered course, they rise like a rocket, and dive again into the most sheltered way. Last August, I placed twenty-five hives near a cutting on one of our lines of railway. Ona windy day the bees used this sheltered part pretty freely—indeed so freely that one of the guards told the station-master that he had just passed a swarm of bees going down the line. THE COURAGE OF BEES. Cowardice is not an element of their nature; they fear no foe and shrink from no danger. Being furnished with weapons of defence, they know how to use them. I say defence, for that is the proper word. When bees attack anybody or anything, it is owing to some molestation received in act or appearance. The bees of hives placed near a peopled thoroughfare, or in a garden in which men, women, and children are often moving about, become as quiet and peaceable as cocks and hens. They are really domesticated, and will not annoy us if we do not annoy c 34 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. them. Human breath and sweat are very offensive to bees, and hence it is not wise to move much amongst them while in a state of perspiration. But what about vicious bees and their courageous attacks? All bees born away from the haunts of human beings, are apt to attack people going near their hives. Away from their own hives they do not attack anybody or anything; but on seeing strangers approach their hives, they anticipate molestation, and are not slow to use their weapons of defence. Again and again have we proven that bees once domesticated never become vicious. Bees that are quiet and peaceable in autumn, are quiet and peaceable in spring, though they may not have seen anybody near their hives all winter. But bees that are born and fly about in lonely places will fearlessly attack either men or beasts that go too near their hives. HOW TO TAME AND DOMESTICATE VICIOUS BEES. This is done by making them accustomed to the sight and form of human beings. A scarecrow or two (what the Scotch folk call potato bogies or bogles), placed in front of their hives, soon makes them all right. The scarecrows can be shifted from one position to another a few times. Some years ago I bought a hive in the country and placed it amongst some others at home. The bees would not let me go near their hive. A bogle was placed in front of it, and to me it was interesting to watch the attack: one or two of the savage creatures were seen eyeing the face, and looking for a tender spot on which to dart. In a few days they became as quiet as the rest. HAVE BEES A LANGUAGE ? 35 We have been told that a vicious, kicking horse is cured by hanging a bag of hay at his heels in the stall. It is tit for tat ; the more he kicks the bag the more it molests him, till his strength is exhausted. His vice leaves him, and the hostler is allowed to do as he likes, and the bag to dangle at his heels. The bee-keeper may place a provok- ing handkerchief or two in the hands of the scarecrow. HAVE BEES A LANGUAGE? To be sure they have. Who has not seen a flock of rooks or crows feeding quietly in a green or ploughed field tise on wing as a black cloud, in the twinkling of an eye, on hearing the watchword sounded by a single bird, which has seen apparent or possible danger near? So bees have a language well understood by themselves ; and, we might venture to say, pretty well known by bee-keepers of exten- slve experience. There is the hum of contentment and the hum of trouble —the hum of peace and the hum of war—the hum of attack and the hum of defence—the hum of plenty and the buzz of starvation—the hum of joy and the roar of grief—the cry of pain and the music of their winter’s sunshine-dance—the buzz of the heavy-laden and the scream of suffocation. Where is the bee-keeper who is not acquainted with the sound of bees bent on mischief? They have not stung him, but he knows they mean it. Sometimes we have been wishful to let the bees of a weak hive have the honey of some combs half empty. When no bees were at work outside, a morsel of comb has been taken to the door of this weak hive ; and as soon as four or six bees 36 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. began to feed on it, they were carried quietly to the combs to be emptied. As soon as these few bees got home with their booty, the whole hive seemed to be made aware that there was more to be had, and hundreds, nay thousands, were soon busily carrying it home. Bees, then, have a language. LIGURIAN OR ITALIAN BEES. 37 CHAPTER IV. LIGURIAN OR ITALIAN BEES, As our object in writing this book is to guide inexperi- enced bee-keepers in a safe and profitable course, we may be expected to say a few words about Ligurian bees, which were introduced into this country some years ago. The principle of novelty is implanted in the human mind, and the weakest part of an Englishman is his gulli- bility. A new style of dress, a Cochin-China fowl, a Ligurian bee, if well puffed and advertised, will command lots of customers. People go mad for novelties. If any- body were bold enough to advertise that he would swallow his own foot at the Free-Trade Hall, the half of Manches- ter would go to see him; and the house would be filled two hours before the time. But do you mean to say that the Ligurian sort of bees, which is so much praised and talked about, and sold at such high prices, is not better than the common English sort? Better for what? Do they fly faster? No. Do they carry heavier loads? No. Do they lay more eggs 4 No. Do their eggs become perfect bees sooner? No. Are they not earlier astir in the morning? No. Do they work later at night? No. Don’t they gather more honey? No. Nor breed faster? No. Nor swarm more? No. But are they not better in any sense? No. But are they not prettier then? I think they are, rather ; 38 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. but a wasp is prettier than either. Why then give £5 or £6 for a swarm of Ligurians? We cannot answer this question. Ifa gentleman sets his heart on possessing a stock of such bees, let him have it by all means. The gratification and satisfaction arising therefrom may be more than an ample return for all the money he paid for it. At first these bees were by some honestly considered superior to our common bees. The reader will, we hope, see that our object in making these remarks is to guard him against representations that might mislead him, that might induce him to pay a large sum for Ligurian bees, which are not a whit better than those he may already possess, THE GOVERNMENT OF A HIVE. 39 CHAPTER V., THE GOVERNMENT OF A HIVE. M. Lamanrrtine once said that “England is a great repub- lic, with a monarchical frontispiece.” Using his language, we say a hive of bees is a great republic, with a monarchi- cal frontispiece. The political system of bees is admir- able, and perhaps the best that can be adopted by any country or community of human beings. The queen bee is monarch of the hive ; and every hive of bees must have a queen reigning, or in prospect, that is, inembryo. If they have not, their loyalty and activity leave them; they soon become worthless. The monarchy of a bee-hive is a very limited one; for the presence of the queen amongst the bees or in the hive is all the authority she wields; but that is enough to secure the greatest order, contentment, and activity. Deprive a hive of its queen, and we presently find the bees thrown into a state of chaos and commotion, tumultuous to a degree. Let her be restored to them, and there is presently a great calm, and evident tokens of joy and satisfaction. The queen is called monarch, but she does not rule and govern. The wee workers are the governors, rulers over both queen and drones. ‘The harmony of a hive is so great and, unique, that it is but seldom necessary for the bees to exer- cise their great ability, or call into play their mastership. When queens become old and enfeebled, their governors 40 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. resolve to have younger queens. Royal cells are prepared, eggs are set in them, and then comes the dethronement of the old ones. Frequently these old queens are cast out alive. I have known one such crawl back into the hive four or five times. It was a sad end; but the bees mer- cifully abstained from hurting her. The welfare of the community demanded her removal, and a worthy successor in her place. Hence they cast her out, and reared another. -If they had let her die a natural death, it might have taken place when there were no eggs in the hive, and thus doomed the whole colony to extinction. In times of threatened poverty and starvation, a queen may lay many eggs, but the bees often wisely remove them, rather than consume the little food left for themselves in rearing brood. Frequently brood, half hatched, is torn out of the cells and cast out of the hives by the will of the workers. Commands are often given not to swarm, after arrangements have been made for swarming. When we come to speak of swarming, and explain the same, it will be seen that it is by the will and authority of the working bees that it does or does not happen—weather not interfering. SWARMING, 41 CHAPTER VI. SWARMING. Ir is our intention to explain this more fully when we come to the practical part of this work. Though it is one of the most interesting parts of bee-history, swarming and all its adjuncts are very difficult to explain, or put in a tangible form. The building of drone-combs, and the formation of royal cells, long before they are wanted, indicate that swarming is a law amongst bees—it is an instinct of their being, and tends to their preservation. In spring months hives have not very much honey in them. The combs afford plenty of scope for hatching brood ; and young bees are born much faster than they die. Hives soon become “choke-full.” Sometimes clus- ters of bees, like bunches of grapes, hang outside. They are ready to swarm. Preparations are made for the im- portant event. The bees well know, long before it comes to pass, that the queen (call her the old or mother queen) goes with the first swarm from every hive. What about a successor to the throne? When the swarm shall have gone, there will be no queen in the hive, no fresh-laid eggs. These wonderful creatures know all this, and there- fore never fail to set eggs in royal cells, and thus have young queens on the way when they send off a colony. Generally the eggs for young queens are set about four days before swarming takes place. Inclement weather 42 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. may prevent the swarm leaving at the usual time; and therefore the young queens may be nearly ripe, and ready to leave their cells, ere the old queen, with the swarm, leaves the hive. Sometimes these young queens are torn out of their cells, by reason of wet or cold weather ; and when this takes place, swarming is postponed for a week or two. The weather may become more favourable, and a second time preparations be made for swarming. As the time draws near, the bees send out scouts to find a place for the swarm to go to. Like a queen-wasp in spring, seeking a place to build her nest, these scouts go from bush to bush, up and down the hedgerows, in their own locality. When the spot is fixed on, there is, in some way or other, a consultation about it in the hive, for mes- sengers are seen going straight to and from the place some short time before the swarm leaves. It may, and some- times does, happen that two places may be selected, half the swarm going to the one, and half to the other. But let us return to the hive, and we shall find some- thing to excite our admiration. Thirty or forty thousand bees are about to leave the place of their birth, and the comforts of home, never to return. Home-sickness is un- known to emigrant bees, provided they have a queen amongst them. The signal for departure will soon be given, but not before these thirty or forty thousand bees have well filled their bags with honey. Which great bee gives the signal to go will never be told, but unquestion- ably a signal is given, for in a moment the swarm gushes pell-mell, like a flowing stream, out of the hive! What an interesting sight! Talk about the Pilgrim Fathers (and all honour to them) leaving their native land for the shores of America! Look at these courageous bees in the act of swarming, rushing forth to make the air ring with their cheers, rising into the air above us, and there roaring SWARMING. 43 at the fullest pitch of joy and gladness; and, by reason of their numbers, fying in all directions, giving us all the shapes and forms of a thousand kaleidoscopes. The swarm- ing of bees is like a wedding, or the tally-ho of the hunts- man, in this particular, that it seems to inspire all spec- tators with a felt interest and enthusiasm in the scene. Brave colonists! go and prosper, and multiply exceedingly ! Let us look into the mother hive. Why so quiet now? No suffocation, no crowding, scarcely a sound is heard. More than half the bees have gone; still there are enough left to rear and hatch the brood. Comparatively few hands can be spared to gather honey now ; but great num- bers are born daily—the brood becomes population. There are no fresh eggs, or queen to lay them. In a short time many cells will be empty, and an ample population, all but free from the duties of nursing, ready and willing to fill them with honey. In this transition state, while the brood is passing into insect forms and living bees, there is great loss of weight. If the weight of honey gathered during the first three weeks after swarming is equal to the — loss sustained in hatching the brood, we reckon that the bees have done exceedingly well. But what about second swarms? Well, we had intended to look into the hive after the swarm had departed. We turn it up, and find three, four, or five royal cells have little maggots in them, floating or lying in a white substance like milk. That milky substance is royal jelly—where the bees get it nooneknows. Those little maggots will grow uncommonly fast, and be beautiful princesses in ten days. If there is ever anything like a regency in a bee-hive it is now, for there is no queen reigning, no queen born—still all goes on well. By-and-by there are strange sounds made in that hive. They come from a royal cell. One of the princesses has 44 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. come to maturity, and intimates her intention to claim the queendom of the hive. She calls “ Off, off, off,” which sounds like the barking of a dog at a distance. These sounds she repeats several times ; and, being unanswered, she leaves her cell, and becomes the rightful sovereign of the hive. She commences to speak in another tongue altogether. The sounds she utters are now shrill and sharp: she calls, “Peep, peep, peep,” or rather, “ Pa-ay, pa-ay, pa-ay,” eight or ten times. The other young prin- cesses come to maturity, and commence to bark “ Off, off, off,” in their cells. This barking provokes the reigning queen very much. With murderous intent she runs up and down the hive to find these barking queens. Again and again, every few minutes, is she heard calling, “ Pa-ay, pa-ay, pa-ay,” sometimes in one part of the hive and sometimes in another. And the responses, “ Off, off, off,” come regularly from the cells of her sisters. This calling of the queens is termed “piping.” What is it for? Who can tell? It goes on for three days and three nights. The reigning queen during these three days is seeking an oppor- tunity of killing her rivals, but the working bees ward off her attempts to get at the young queens; and they too are securely watched and kept in their cells. If the weather be favourable on the fourth day after the calling began, a second swarm will issue from the hive, taking with it the queen which called “ Peep, peep.” What hap- pens in the old hive? One of the princesses which had been kept confined to her cell for three days is permitted to take the place of her sister. She in her turn calls “Pa-ay, pa-ay ;” and if the responsive bark of “ Off, off” is continued, a third swarm may be expected on the fol- lowing day, or, at latest, the day after that. Third and fourth swarms have been known to issue from a hive in one day. Third and fourth swarms are not very common ; for the bees find that two swarms in a SWARMING. 45 fortnight are enough to send off; and sometimes they can’t afford to do that. And to prevent second swarms leaving, the bees adopt signal measures. As soon as the first princess is born, and commences to call or “ pipe,” they hush her into silence at once. Before she gets the one “‘pa-ay” half uttered, the bees prevent her from going on with it. In stopping her, they make a sound like the word “hush” spoken by the human voice. The super- numerary princesses are killed and cast out of the hive. It has been said that the usual time of piping for second swarms is three days and nights; but it ought to be stated that when the weather prevents swarming, and the bees are bent on swarming, the piping will be continued for some days longer. I have known it continued for seven days; and during those seven days, not one of the princesses ever closed an eye in sleep. The piping of queens, and their deadly and undying hatred of one another, are extraordinary things in the history of bees. Two old queens, or two young ones, it matters not whether they be mother and offspring, or sisters of the blood, or strangers every way, will, on meeting, rush savagely at each other, and fight with greater fury than bull-dogs. In every contest between two queens it is death or victory. In some such contests both die. I have known two engaged in this deadly and violent struggle roll out at the door of the hive, over the flight-board, and fight it out on the ground. In this battle the one was killed and the other wounded. Once we saw two young queens meet on the flight-board of a hive while a second swarm was issuing from it. They ran and embraced each other in furious combat ; but, as we wished to obtain the second swarm, we tore the combatants asunder, and threw them up in the air. Both went with the swarm. Next morn- ing one was found dead in front of the hive into which the swarm was put. 46 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. CHAPTER VII. FERTILE WORKERS. Asout these we can say nothing. Many respectable bee- keepers believe that fertile workers occasionally exist. Those that write about them admit that their existence in hives is very rare indeed. If Mr Woodbury is correct in his opinion, they never leave home. Though we have never seen one, and once offered £10 for one, or a dozen of her eggs, we are not now disposed to question the evi- dence of those who say they have seen them. Huber’s opinion as to the cause of the fertility of a working bee is very lucidly stated in his book—a book which has less weight and authority amongst advanced and intelligent bee-keepers now than it had when first published. He says, ‘ Fertile workers are reared by the sides of royalty. When the bees are feeding young queens in their celis, a little of the royal jelly or food goes by mistake or acci- dent into common cells, and there does the work of ferti- lising common workers.” We are utterly ignorant about fertile working bees. HONEY. 47 CHAPTER VIII. HONEY. THis substance or sweet juice is found in the flowers of certain plants in almost every country. Doubtless it is odoriferous, and hence bees, whose scent or smelling powers are wonderfully keen, can easily find it. They are furnished with proboscises of some length, wherewith they can reach most of the nectaries of flowers in which honey is found. It has been said that at the point of each proboscis there is a little brush of exquisite softness, which is used for collecting the honey, and thus enabling the bee to fill its own bag. But we cannot speak of this brush, or of the manner of collecting honey, without getting into cloudland and difficulties. These subjects are left for’ those who have studied the anatomy of the honey-bee, The honey as it is collected in the flower and carried to- the hive is not honey proper. It is a thin sweet juice, deposited in the first open cells found in the hive by the bees. During the day they carry as much home as pos- sible, and during the night they re-swallow it, when it undergoes a thickening process, and thus becomes honey proper. Before it is swallowed a second time, it readily runs out of the cells whenever the hive is turned up or a little to on side. But after having been put twice through the stills of bees it is not easily disturbed. Be- 48 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. sides, the taste is considerably improved. Doubtless there has been much water eliminated during the process. The honey of one plant, it is believed, is different in some small degree from the honey of other plants—dif- ferent in substance, colour, and taste. For instance, the honey collected from the flowers of gooseberry and syca- more trees is of a sea-green colour, the flavour of which cannot be surpassed for excellence. The honey collected from the flowers of Dutch or white clover is clearer—more like spring-water—than any honey gathered from other flowers known in England. It pleases the eye better than honey of a higher colour. The flavour of clover-honey is good and pungent, but not so rich and pleasing to the palate as that of sycamore and gooseberry. Honey gathered from heather-blossoms is considerably darker in colour than any other pure honey gathered in Great Britain and Ireland, It has a much stronger flavour too—peculiarly grouse-land. We have tasted honey from Australia very much like our heather-honey. This heather-honey, though to appearance of greater sub- stance and consistence, is considerably lighter in weight, taking bulk for bulk. The clear sort goes to the bottom of the jar, and the heather is on the top. In England the clear honey is greatly preferred. It was the same in Scotland thirty years ago. In the mind of the thoughtful reader the question will arise, whether bees do or do not impoverish our fields by sucking the sweets out of their flowers. Twenty acres of white clover will yield to bees 100 lb. of honey every day favourable for gathering honey. If the bees get 100 lb. per day, will the cows suffer at all? ‘Will their milk and butter be equal in quantity and quality to those whose pastures are never much visited by bees? I re- member mentioning the case of a parsimonious old farmer HONEY, 49 whose fields were much visited by bees, So convinced was this old farmer that the bees robbed his fields, that he trod to death all he could put his feet upon, and even threatened to drag the horse-roller over them. The late Dr Lindley said, “this old farmer was a great blockhead.” Honey in the flower may be said to be a volatile oil, which is constantly passing into the atmosphere by eva- poration. Ungathered by bees, this substance “wastes its sweetness on the desert air.” Hundreds of thousands of tons of honey are thus wasted in England every year, for want of bees to collect it. If bees collect the contents of a flower in the morning, a second visit in the afternoon will find it as full as ever. A land flowing with milk is, in one sense, a land flowing with honey. Honey-flowers, like cows, will bear milking twice and thrice a-day, and be none the worse for it. The farmer will not find that the five or six pounds of honey per acre extracted from the flowers of white clover affect the produce of his dairy in the smallest degree. 50 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. CHAPTER IX. HONEY-DEW. Tus material is found on the upper surface of the leaves of trees, has a shining appearance, and is sticky to the touch. Many ignorant people in the country think it falls from the skies during the night. It is simply the product of an insect (aphis) found frequently on the under sides of the leaves of certain trees. This kind of insect is most plentiful in times of prevalent east winds, and it is well known that flowers yield very little honey indeed when the wind comes from either east or north. In these times of scarcity the bees work on these shining leaves, and thus collect honey-dew. Two years ago—both in England and Scotland—considerable quan- tities of it were gathered and stored in the hives. It is dark in colour—disagreeable both to the eye and the palate. Last year our bees collected so much of it that much of our honey was unsaleable. It was our good luck never to become acquainted with it till 1867; and last year, 1869, we became familiar with it. Some of it is in all our hives, numbering above forty stocks. Will it injure the health of the bees? This is a ques- tion we are unable to answer at present. If the mortality of our bees is great this winter, the dark honey will be blamed for it. Fortunately there is not much of it, com- pared to the good and pure honey, in the hives—perhaps HONEY-DEW. 51 about one-twelfth part only.’ But, unfortunately, it does not candy or crystallise like good honey. If the bees eat the liquid black stuff at this dull season of the year, and leave the beautiful crystallised honey untouched, it is to be feared that their ranks will be much thinned during the winter months ; for we know that the mortality of bees fed on the best of heather-honey is greater than that of those fed on the honey of fruit-trees and white clover. Honey-dew is a great nuisance to bee-keepers whose aim is profit. It is a great pity that bees touch it at all, 52 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. CHAPTER X, WAX, Wax is not gathered like honey, or pollen, or propolis. If bees could gather it, it would cost them less than it does. They have to manufacture it at very great cx- pense—great expense to themselves and their owners. As milk is manufactured in the body of the cow, so wax is manufactured in the bodies of bees. It is both a secre- tion and excretion of bees. In collecting honey, bees carry it in their bladders or bags, and when they wish to make wax and build combs, the honey goes into their intestinal canals, passes into the juices of their bodies, and scales of wax ooze from, or are excreted on the under sides of, their bellies. Wax, then, is a “home- spun” article, wholly made or manufactured by the bees themselves. Dr Liebig, in his appendix to his great work on ‘Animal Chemistry,’ says that “bees have to consume 20 lb. of honey to make 1 lb. of wax, and that 1 oz. of comb holds 1 Jb. of honey.” We do not vouch for the accuracy of Liebig’s calculations or experiments, but they are stated merely to show that wax costs the bee-keeper a great deal more than he gets for it in the market. But we are not quite sure that 20 lb. of honey are consumed in the manufacture of 16 oz. of wax. A swarm was put into an empty hive. This swarm and hive and board would weigh about 17 lb. In seven WAX, 53 days after—or seven and a half, for the afternoon of the day of swarming was not included—this hive weighed 45 lb., and was filled with combs. These combs, pure and simple, would weigh 2 Ib. If 40 1b. of honey were con- sumed in the production of the 2 Ib, of wax, the gather- ing of this swarm was enormous. Who can believe that this swarm consumed 40 lb. and stored up about 20 Ib. of honey in seven days? Liebig’s experiments were honestly made, and: the results honestly recorded, but no close observer of comb-building in bee-hives will admit that they are, or ever can be, representative in their character. Why? The experiments were made with about 10 oz. of bees—a mere handful. Both the weather and the warmth of a hive have a great influence in comb- building. Dr Liebig says that it takes thirty-eight hours to con- vert honey into wax ; that is to say, that the laminz or thin plates of wax do not appear on the bellies of the bees till thirty-eight hours after it has been taken into their intestines. This surely is not correct, for bees that are driven into a hive at six o’clock of a summer evening, often commence to build combs before six o’clock next morning. And if no combs be formed or visible then, there will invariably be seen lamine or flakes of wax lying on the board inside beneath the swarm. The making or secreting of wax is voluntary on the part of bees; and this is one of the secrets of bee-history that car never be fathomed. Bees do not secrete wax when their hives are filled with combs ; but remove the bees from a large full hive into an empty one, and in less than twelve hours they make two or three pieces of comb. Wax is made from syrup or treacle as well as from honey, and neither pollen nor water is necessary in its production. If a swarm were put into an empty hive, 54 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. and carried to the bottom of a coal-pit, and there fed, combs beautifully white would be the product. But combs made from syrup are more brittle than those made from honey; and combs made from the honey of one kind of plant differ in: colour from those made from another kind. In the covers or lids of brood-cells there will be noticed this fact, that they are always like the cells they cover. Ifthe combs are ten years old, and as dark as an Ethiopian’s skin, the lids are of the same colour; and if the combs are white the lids are white. Doubtless part of the old combs in the dark hives is used in the manu- facture of lids ; but why it is so used, or why bees will have lids and combs of the same colour, has ever appeared a very remarkable thing. In Professor Liebig’s remarks on wax, there is another statement which is not absolutely correct. He says combs are never built in a hive unless the bees have the presence or prospect of a queen. Now we have seen a second swarm that lost its queen a day or two after being hived, half fill its hive with combs, chiefly of the drone kind. These quotations from Liebig’s invaluable book are made, not with a view to combat them, but to let the reader know that the question of wax-making and comb- building is a very important and interesting one in the history of a bee-hive. In comb-building the bees are wonderfully frugal in the use of wax. We guess that not more than 2 lb. of it is used in the construction of 80,000 cells. It is a very inflammable substance, con- taining more than 80 per cent of carbon. BEE-BREAD. 55 CHAPTER XI. BEE-BREAD. Tats is the pollen or farina of flowers. Bees can with great ease gather it, and carry it home in pellets sticking to their hind legs. Some writers say that every bee is furnished with two baskets in which this pollen is carried home. Of course the colour is different in different kinds of flowers. Bees do not change its colour. Anciently it was considered crude wax, and even now many think it is made into wax. It is not capable of being made into wax. It is used principally for feeding maggots in their cells, and hence it is termed bee-bread. If it were required for the building of combs, swarms put into empty hives would gather much’ of it; but we find that all such swarms do not gather any pollen for some days, or till combs are built to contain it. After some combs are built, the bees are seen returning with pellets on their legs. In most hives it is stored in their centres where the young are hatched, and too often. there is stored up more than is required. If cells are filled, or half or quarter filled, with farina, they are useless * for the time being for breeding purposes. Some seasons are remarkable for the abundance of it stored up, and some hives have more than others. It is never a scarce article, and the hive that has fewest cells filled or half 56 HANDY BOOK OF BEES, filled with it, is generally the most prosperous,—all] other things being equal. Three years ago we had a hive which we considered second to none. In the autumn previous it received a large swarm, and therefore was very populous. It was a large hive, and weighed about 50 1b. It was deemed the best hive in our possession. It lost but few bees during the winter. We expected an early swarm trom it, but somehow it loitered behind the rest. It gathered three, four, and five pounds of honey a-day off the fruit-tree blossoms. Still it did not come up to the swarming point. At last we swarmed it before it was ready ; and three weeks later we drove all the bees out of it into an empty hive. We then found the cause of its sluggish -movements: four-fifths of the breeding combs were filled with farina or bee-bread. Pollen is mixed with honey and water when used in the feeding of young bees. And occasionally it may be mixed with wax in the manufacture of lids of cells. Bees do not eat it. They die of starva- tion with a superabundance of it in their hives, PROPOLIS, 57 CHAPTER XII. PROPOLIS Is a kind of cement used in hives to fill up all holes and cracks, and prevent unnecessary ventilation. It is a sub- stance not absolutely necessary to the wellbeing of a hive, but doubtless the bees derive benefit from using it, otherwise they would not collect it. It is a sort of resin orgum. A few ounces’ weight, at most, is all that is found in the largest hive. It is generally considered that the bee-glue or propolis is collected from the buds of poplar and other trees, and also from the resin of old pine-wood exposed to the raysof the sun. -Doubtless, trees wounded may yield some. It is a very much harder substance than either wax or bee-bread. 58 HANDY: BOOK OF BEES. CHAPTER XIII. WATER. A very great deal of water is carried into a hive in the height -of the breeding season. It is used with bee-bread in feed- ing young bees. It is collected in dewy mornings, and after showers, from the blades of grass and the leaves of plants. In the absence of showers and dew, bees resort to brooks, rivers, and water-tubs for it. In dry seasons we have often seen them suck it out of the soil that has been artificially watered. It has been a marvel to us how speedily they scented the water falling from the water-can into the soil. Bees do not store it up; they seem to act on the conviction that ‘ sufficient for the day is the sup- ply of water.” The sight of bees seeking and sipping water, is a proof that breeding is going on in their hives. During inclement weather, when not a particle of honey can be obtained, bees often venture out for water. Mr Quinby thinks that much water is necessary in comb-building. Bees placed in a dark cellar, he says, have been known to raise brood without water. This may be true; but probably the bees used the moisture condensed on the insides of their hives, Mr Quinby’s hives being made of wood. If Mr Quinby were to try the experiment, he would find that bees can build combs in great quantity without water, in a dark cellar, more readily than they hatch brood there. In spring months water is extensively used in hives, and long before comb- building commences, PART SECOND. PRACTICAL MANAGEMENT 61 PART SECOND. WE now come to the practical part of our work; and our aim shall be to make the reader understand everything necessary to the successful and profitable management of bees. This book is not written for the benefit of the ad- vanced students of bee-history ; and if they chance to look into its pages they will find some things twice repeated, and evidence enough of an extra effort made to instruct the most ignorant to manage his bees intelligently and well. It is Cobbett who says that all books should be written for the benefit of those who are entirely ignorant of the subjects of which they treat. If this is necessary on most subjects, it is absolutely necessary when the subject of the bee-hive is considered, because the bees in that hive have stings, which tend to prevent investigations being made by new beginners. The reader is requested to remember, that our stating certain facts and opinions will not make him, or anybody else, an intelligent bee-manager, unless his mind be fully convinced and held captive by the reasonableness of such: statement, All is to be weighed in the balance of his own reason, and whatsoever is found light and wanting he will cast aside. If a thing must be done, please to let us have the why and the wherefore; and then tell us how to do it. 62 HANDY BOOK OF BEES, CHAPTER XIV. THE APIARY OR BEE-GARDEN. Ir is not which garden, but which place in the garden, shall the bees occupy? very bee-keeper consults his own convenience in the choice of a spot on which to place his bee-hives. Near the door, or in front of a window, from which the swarms can be seen, is generally preferred by cottagers, for they have not much time to lose in watching for the swarms leaving their hives. So far as honey- gathering goes, one corner of the garden will answer as ‘well as another. And it does not matter much, if any- thing at all, whether the hives look east or west, north or south. Hives placed in the centre of a wood or small forest, where the rays of the sun never reach them, thrive about as well as those placed outside to bask in his smiles all day long. A sheltered corner, with an open space in front, and at some distance from ponds or sheets of water, is perhaps the best possible in any neighbourhood for bees. If hives are placed in an exposed and bleak situation, or near sheets of water, high winds do a little harm to them. Bees with heavy loads are fatigued when they return to their hives, and therefore it is desirable to let them enter them as safely and speedily as possible. If driven to the ground by the violence of the wind, they sustain a rueful THE APIARY OR BEE-GARDEN, 63 shock, and have to rest a considerable time, and perhaps be driven down a second time. In the winter time a sunny spot is of greater advantage to bees than it is in the summer; for when bees come out for a dance and airing during the dark days of winter, the rays of the sun prevent many that sit down to rest from being chilled to death. Still, practically and experi- mentally considered, the advantages of such sheltered places are of small importance. If the pasture of the neighbourhood be good, bees will do well wheresoever placed. On the housetop and on the bleak hillside, un- derneath the hedgerow and in the open field, we have found them to thrive exceedingly. We have seen them placed amid lofty houses, where they were compelled to rise to their tops in short spiral turns, and drop down about as perpendicularly as a bucket in a well, and yet, in this position, collect from 4 lb. to 6 lb. per day, per hive, in fine weather. An unfavourable position for an apiary will not, we hope, prevent any of our readers from — keeping bees, for they have wits and ingenuity enough to make the best of every position. A warm sheltered place is, however, recommended for the home of bees. How far should hives be off the ground, and how far asunder ? We think 8 inches above the ground is quite enough, and most of our hives in summer are not more than. 4 inches above the level of the ground. But why keep them so near the ground? Is the health of the bees not affected when placed near the earth? Bees are as healthy when placed 2 inches above the ground as when placed 20. If hives are raised 2 and 3 feet above the ground, the bees, when heavily burdened, often miss the flight- board on their return from the fields, and thus come un- 64 HANDY BOOK OF BEES, expectedly to the ground; and, by reason of the sudden and severe shake, they do not rise for some time, and many are chilled to death ere they gain nerve and resolu- tion enough to make another attempt. If an elevated position has any advantages at all, we have hitherto failed to learn what they are. Three posts, about 15 inches long, driven half their length into the ground, answer well for a stand for one hive. These posts are driven into the ground about 15 inches apart, and the front one a little lower than the two behind, so as to make the rain run off the flight-board, and not into the hive. Three round stones or river bullets, half buried in the soil, will answer as well as the posts. In fact, anything that is well grounded and secure, and rising a few inches above the ground, is quite as good as something better for stands for bee-hives. Some bee- keepers are of opinion that bee-hives are like corn-stacks, if not placed high above the ground vermin will’go in and eat their treasures. A very little schooling will teach these men how to keep mice out of their hives, with- out hoisting them aloft on ugly single posts. How far should hives be placed asunder? As far as convenience will permit. When we come to the chapter on artificial swarming, it will be pretty evident to the reader that 6 feet distance between stock hives is near enough. Many reasons could be given in favour of some distance being left between hive and hive. When apart 5 or 6 feet, young bees and young queens do not mistake their own hives; but if hives are near each other, mis- takes may and do happen, and ruinous consequences follow. But where many hives are kept, would you have them spread all over the garden? No, if economy of space and THE APIARY OR BEE-GARDEN, 65 compactness of appearance are objects aimed at. Besides, it is possible to place a great many hives within small compass, and be free from all danger of receiving mistaken visits. Many of our hives are removed, in spring, to cottage and market gardens in the country. We pay rent for a small space, and make it answer well. The follow- ing representation will show the reader how ten hives can be safely placed on a spot not much larger than a dining- room table. 7 (a @ Every hive is separate from the rest, and so placed that there could be no mistakes made by the bees as to their own hives; but there is not room enough between them to hold a swarm from each hive without risk. As there is a peculiar smell in each hive, which appears to be the bond of union in the community of it—bees knowing each other by smell—the intelligent bee-master will keep his hives as far asunder as he can conveniently, or sufficiently far to prevent the peculiarity from being lost. Close proximity may destroy it. 66 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. CHAPTER XV. BEE-HOUSES. Ir appears a work of supererogation to say a word about bee-houses in a work on the profitable management of bees. Such houses are very expensive and inconvenient. All bee-keepers of experience consider them a hindrance to good management, and objectionable in many senses. We have nothing to say in their favour, save this, that they help to protect hives from the severity of winter storms. Of course there are people who will have bee- houses, and have them to please the eye of the most fastidious, real models of beauty and architecture. One gentleman in this neighbourhood built one, some four years ago, at a cost of £20. He placed some hives of bees in it; but every year something went wrong with them. We called this season to see them, about swarm- ing time. We found three hives on one bench, contain- ing bees of the most social and neighbourly characters and dispositions we had ever seen; for they marched in and out of each other’s hives in the most friendly manner, apparently without let or hindrance. This gentleman met the writer about a month ago, when he said—“TI have lost all my bees; I can’t manage them.” No wonder his bees did not prosper. In bee-keeping there is no profitable return for foolish and unnecessary expenses. If this gen- tleman’s bees had been kept apart, on separate stands, he would have had success instead of loss and disappointment. THE PASTURAGE OF BEES. 67 CHAPTER XVI. THE PASTURAGE OF BEES. Waar a mint of money, what a mine of wealth, rise up before the mind of a thinking man as he approaches the consideration of this subject ! Bee-pasture? A mint of money? A mine of wealth? Why, sir, you once said that, “At the rate of £2 profit per hive, it took fifty bees a whole season to earn one farthing’s worth of honey and keep themselves.” Why, then, talk about a mint of money in connection with this subject? Stop a little, and think a bit! How many hives will find ample pas-. ture in a parish four miles square, containing 10,000 acres : of land? How many parishes, some larger, and some less, in every county? If a twenty-acre field of grass, well sprinkled with the flowers of white clover, yield to the suck of bees 100 lb. at least per day, value £5, and strongly scent the air as well—and twenty acres of good heather yield probably 200 Ib. of honey per day, value £20,—who will venture to calculate, and give the sum total of honey-value of all the counties of Great Britain and Ireland? We remember being startled at the state- ment of a citizen of Manchester, in a paper which he read before the British Association for the Advancement of Science, while that Association met, two or three years ago, in this city. I forget the title of the paper, but the subject was the poisonous exhalations of the city. The E 68 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. number of tons of carbonic acid gas constantly passing off into the atmosphere was named, a number great enough to quicken the attention of all sanatory reformers, and the movements of the Corporation of Manchester. But who can accurately weigh or number the millions upon mil- lions of pounds of honey that pass away (ungathered by bees) into the atmosphere? Who can estimate the mil- lions of pounds worth of honey thus wasted on the “ desert air” ? Suppose a mild form of mania were to seize the railway porters of the wayside stations of the various railway companies of this country ; and suppose it were to run in the direction of bee-hives. Well, what then? There can be no better position for bees than the banks of our rail- ways. If fifteen hives were placed on an average per mile, how’much income would be derived? At the rate of only one pound per hive annually (about one-half the usual rate), 500 miles would return £7500 yearly. If our worthy porters were to receive Christmas presents to the tune of £15 per mile of line, they would doubtless be pleased and full of gratitude; but if the money were to come from bees, and a little attention given to them, they would be equally enriched in purse, and probably much more so in mind, by their uplifting acquaintance with the industry and economy of honey-bees. “A land flowing with milk and honey” is this England of ours. Cows we keep to yield the milk : bees are either not kept or greatly mismanaged; hence the honey is not gathered. But is it not possible to overstock a given locality or parish with bees? Yes; though we have never known one overstocked. We have known from fifty to one hun- dred hives standing in one garden, the stronger of which gained from 2lb. to 51b, per day in fine weather. If THE PASTURAGE OF BEES. 69 the number had been twice as large, the probability is great that the gains or accumulation of honey would not have been perceptibly less ih any of the hives. If there be food enough in a grass field for thirty head of cattle, it does not matter much to the cattle whether ten or twenty be kept in it: there will remain grass uneaten. So with bees there is in almost every place far more food for them than they can gather. But are all localities equally good for bees? No; there is a great difference. Some are very much more honeyed than others ; and some are rich at one period of the season and poor at another. In my own garden, on the imme- diate south of the black city of Manchester, bees do very well in spring—till the apple-tree blossoms fail; after- wards it is a poor, poor neighbourhood for bees. They can barely keep themselves in ordinary seasons—in extra fine seasons they gather small stores of honey. We find, it desirable to remove them farther into the country, where they can find better pasture. We have alluded to this elsewhere, and may allude to it again. It is perhaps beyond the powers of the most observant and best-informed mind in the realm to name every plant in this country that yields honey, or from which honey may be gathered. Their number is great. But as there are some of greater value to bees than others, we will now mention those which we consider the best for yielding honey. In one small work on bees in my library there are upwards of seventy bee-flowers enumerated, and put in classes for spring, summer, and autumn. Crocuses in early spring receive great attention from bees. Much pollen and some honey are collected from their flowers. In some places there are two kinds of willow (salix) 70 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. which bear yellow flowers, beautifully conspicuous, in early spring, which are much visited by bees. The border hyacinths of our gardens—the same sort as are forced to decorate and scent our conservatories—fur- nish bees with many a sweet mouthful. Single wallflowers—grown largely in some localities for cut flowers and seed-—are excellent for bees. The flowers of gooseberry and plum trees are super- excellent, yielding honey of the finest quality in great abundance. Apple, pear, and currant trees are also of great value to bees, furnishing the bees with rich and large stores of honey. Cherry, peach, and apricot are also honey-yielding plants. Field-mustard (sinapis arvensis), which is a weed, super- abounding in some districts, frequently covering our corn- fields with its yellow flowers, is an invaluable thing for bees. In Derbyshire this plant is called ketlock, in Lanarkshire it is called skelloch, and in Wigtownshire it is termed ranches. Here, in Lancashire and Cheshire, it is called the yellow flower. It continues a long time in flower, and the honey gathered from it is very clear and excellent. The flowers of turnip, cabbage, and all the brassica tribe, are exceedingly tempting to bees, and yield them large supplies. Field-beans are about as rich in honey as they can be —rich in quantity and rich in quality. There is some mystery as to the means employed to extract it from the flowers of beans, which are tubular in shape, and of con- siderable thickness. The honey, of course, lies at the bottom of these flowers—deeper than the length of a bee’s proboscis. The tubes are pierced or tapped near their bottoms, and through the holes thus made the bees ex- tract much rich treasure. It has been said that bees are unable to pierce the tubes of the flowers, and that the THE PASTURAGE OF BEES, 71 holes are made by humble-bees, which have greater powers. No one can watch humble or earth bees at work in a field of beans, and remain in doubt that they do some work in this way. They do push their trunks through the petals of the flowers with a view to reach the honey ; but the question is, Can bees make holes for themselves, or do they merely make use of the holes made by humble-bees? We have never seen a honey-bee make a hole through the petal of a bean-flower; but, from the scarcity of humble- bees in some neighbourhoods where bean-flowers are found well pierced, we are ready to believe that the “ jemmies” of our own friends are used for breaking through the thick walls of bean-flowers. Maple, sycamore (or plane), and lime trees are of great value to the bee-farmer. Maples are not so abundant in this country as sycamores and limes. Honey is not dis- tilled from the flowers of the sycamore, but it liter- ally lies on them, and is clammy and sticky to the touch of human hands. Elsewhere we have said that the honey gathered from the flowers of sycamore and gooseberry trees is of a sea-green colour, rich and highly flavoured. The strong and rather pleasant scent of lime-trees in flower, and the music of bees busy at work on them, indicate that honey in abundance is collected from them in the month of July. Wimberry, raspberry, and brambleberry deserve honour- able mention as honey- producing plants. Wimberry- bushes—acres, and scores of acres of them—abound in moorland districts. They flower early, and are rich in honey; but as few bees are permanently kept in such neighbourhoods, the honey produced by them is lost. Borage, mignonette, helivtrope, buckwheat, and birds’- foot trefoil (lotus corniculatus), gorse, and broom, are useful in their day. 72 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. White or Dutch clover is the queen of honey-plants. It is widely cultivated in this country, and continues to flower a long time. In Scotland the farmers use more white clover seed in laying down the land in grass than the farmers of England; hence the clover-fields are bet- ter there than here. And the use of lime and bone-dust as manures has a great influence in the production of clover. In travelling to Edinburgh some years ago by the Caledonian line, whole fields white with clover- flowers caught my eye, and made me take a second look to see if the whiteness came from daisy-flowers. Whole districts, unsurpassed for excellence, met my eye during a visit to my native land, many of which hardly ever received a complimentary visit from bees, and for this rea- son, that there were no bee-keepers in these districts. I verily believe there is more wealth (in honey) in the clover and heather fields of Scotland than there is in the gold-fields of Sutherland—if not of California; but few people know it, otherwise bees would be kept to collect it. Pastures eaten bare by cattle are, of course, not so good for honey as those less severely eaten. And apart altogether from the bee-keeper’s view of the matter, the wisdom of the farmer in putting too many cattle into his fields is not very evident. Bare pastures keep cattle con- stantly on the trudge, wasting their substance in seeking food which, when easily obtained where grass is abundant, goes to form either milk or flesh. Sheep are fonder of clover than cattle, and more able to nibble off its young heads ; hence sheep-pasture is infe- tior in a honey point of view to cow-pasture. “A land of milk and honey,” is a more congruous term than one of “mutton and honey.” Clover is more uncertain in ils yield of honey than most other plants, inasmuch as it is more easily affected THE PASTURAGE OF BEES. 73 by cold nights than they. Three years ago, a stock- hive from which one swarm only was obtained was weighed every morning during the hot weather of July. On the 17th and 18th it gained 12 Ib. in weight, next two days only 4 Ib. and on the following day it gained 4 Ib, The differences of honey gathered was attributed to the variation of night temperature, for the one day was as hot as the other. Heather-blossoms, during the months of August and September, yield a harvest of honey prodigiously and mar- vellously large. This is so well known, that in Scotland, and some parts of the Continent, there may be seen cart- loads of bee-hives going to grouse-land. Bee-keepers find that there is an ample return for the trouble and expense of taking bees to the moors, even though the distance be thirty or forty miles. On no spot of Scotland can it be | said that heather is not within easy distance of it, so that all Scottish bee-keepers can avail themselves of the honey that is so abundantly produced by its pinky-purplish blooms. To me it appears wonderful that we have in England heather enough for all the bees in the world. In Yorkshire there are magnificent seas of it. On the hills of Derbyshire, within twenty miles of Manchester, we find miles of heather that cannot well be surpassed for excellence. In the south, we find heather in Devon, Sussex, and Hampshire. I have seen it, too, in Warwick- shire; but of the quantity I cannot speak from personal knowledge. In Ireland, Wales, and the most northern counties of England, it is as abounding and ‘“‘comeatable” as it is in Scotland. Heather-honey is so different in taste and appearance from other honey, that it is called in Scotland “‘heather-honey,” all the rest being termed ‘‘flower-honey.” = It need not be said that plants grown on warm well- 74 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. drained lands yield more honey than those grown on cold heavy soils. Even in the case of heather this is true. In ordinary seasons heathery hills yield more honey than heathery swamps. And the good sense of every bee- keeper will tell him that hilly exposed pastures and dis- tricts are, in showery seasons, much better for honey than flat and sheltered ones, We have known hives placed in hilly districts increase greatly in weight in such seasons ; whereas those standing in low sheltered places could scarcely keep themselves, the flowers being hardly ever dry. In very droughty seasons the low sheltered parts may be the better of the two for honey-gathering. HOW FAR WILL BEES GO FOR HONEY ? This question we cannot answer, Our experience in this matter goes dead against the wonderful stories that are told in some books. We read of bees flying four, seven, and twelve miles for food! Our bees will droop and die within four miles of rich pasture. In the finest of weather they fail to smell or taste it. In fine sun- shiny weather bees go farther from home for food than they do in dark cloudy weather. We find this out by removing hives to a distance of two or three miles at such times. In cloudy weather very few bees will return two miles to their old stand. Considerably more return when removed in bright weather. But even in the best and brightest of weather in June and July, very few, if any, find their way home to their old stand if removed three miles. But even the return of some bees does not prove that they travel three miles in search of food. It proves that some of the bees travel a little more than one mile and ahalf from home, and finding themselves on known HOW FAR WILL BEES GO FOR HONEY ? 7o pastures within one mile and a half of the old place, they return thither, forgetting, as it were, where they came from last. I am therefore of opinion that few bees go. from home more than two miles in search of food. How desirable, then, to have bees as near as possible to the pastures on which they work! Short journeys are not only a saving of labour to bees, but also a protection of their lives. When compelled to fly far for honey they are often caught by showers and destroyed. In warm genial weather, with a superabundance of honey in the flowers, bees will have it. They will even go beyond the bounds of safety for it. Gentle showers do not stup out- door labours. Black clouds often send them home with all speed. But they are frequently caught, and die on the altar of their industry. Hives containing 8 Ib. and 10 Ib. of bees have lost two-thirds of their ranks by sudden showers in warm honey weather. Bees driven to the earth by showers do not die at once. If the fol- lowing day be warm and fair, the rays “of the sun some- times reanimates these storm-beaten creatures, enabling them to return to their hives with joy and gladness, 76 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. CHAPTER XVII. HIVES. As we have now come to the most important chapter of the book, it is hoped that all readers seeking profit from bee-keeping will try to go through it in the light of com- mon-sense. Bees ever have been, and ever will be, profitable to their owners, when well managed. Most bee-keepers in England are apparently fifty years behind the day; they have yet to learn the A BC of profitable management. Agriculture has made great advancement during the last half-century, so has horticulture, and they are not going to stand still now. But apiculture, alas ! makes but poor progress, if it moves at all. What hin- ders it? We repeat and emphasise this question, What hinders it? When the astronomer discovered and re- ported the fact that the planet Uranus loitered in one part of his orbit, it was an act of common-sense on the part of another man to push his telescope towards that part in order to find out the hindering cause. He was thus successful in discovering another immense planet (Neptune) lying far behind, the attractive influence of which is so great as to impede and hinder Uranus in his race or course round the sun. Now there is something which hinders the bee-keepers of England from making as much money of their bees as they ought. Twenty-five years ago we told them that all the books that were ever HIVES. 77 published, and all that we could possibly say, would never put them on the highroad to the successful and profitable management of bees unless they kept large hives. Bonaparte, the great general, soon found that good luck attended those who had most cannon ; and he said, “ God was always on their side.” So in bee-keeping, good luck attends those who use hives large enough to hold many bees. The secret of profit is here. It is rather puzzling to do sums in practice before the multiplication table has been mastered : it is equally puzzling to get large profits from small hives, so generally used in England. We are well aware that it is a difficult matter to remove prejudices of long standing. "When water cuts its own channel it runs along it, year after year. To a large extent bee- keeping has done the same. We are glad to see some signs of an alteration taking place. The adoption of large hives by one or two bee-keepers of intelligence and ability in every county would, in process of time, revolutionise bee-keeping throughout the country. Having far more confidence in the power of facts and figures than in that of logic and argumentation for con- vincing men not remarkable for activity of brain, that large hives, well managed, are incomparably better than: small ones, we have of late recorded the results of bee- keeping in our native village, where hives are of consider- able dimensions. These records have already stimulated the attention of many bee-keepers throughout the country, and in several parishes adjoining or lying near Carluke, the pluck and energy of many bee-masters are in full play. If the weight of Carluke swarms rise up to 100 Ib, 130 Ib., and 160 Ib. each, according to the season, why not elsewhere? In 1864, the weights of an old hive and its two swarms, belonging to Mr Robert 78 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. Reid, Carluke, were published in the ‘Hamilton Adver- tiser’ of that year :— “Old stock, or mother, was 92 lb. weight. First swarm from it, 160 ,, MS Second swarm ,, 76 ,, ” Altogether, 328 Ib. weight.” In the year 1865, the first swarms at Carluke weighed about 90 Ib. while on the clover; but when taken to the moors many had lost weight, owing to the weather being unfavourable for gathering honey. The heaviest swarm of 1866 at Carluke was 148 Ib. The account of the success of bee-keeping in 1868 came to me in a letter from my friend Mr Reid, part of which I will now quote :— © CARLUKE, 25th Sept. 1868. “My pear Frisxp,—We brought our, bees home from the moors the week before last; the weather being fine, we thought they would be gaining weight, but were wrong. Henshilwood got his home about ten days before us. During that time ours lost 8 Ib. and 10 1b. each in weight. -,Our heaviest first swarm was 112 Ib. —another about 6 Ib. lighter. Our best second swarm weighed 75 lb. “ Robt. Scouler had three first swarms, which were about 120 Ib. each; and his best was 130 1b. John Jack had two stocks in spring, which did better than most. One first swarm weighed 161 Ib., another 104 lb. ; and a se- cond swarm was 68 lb. I have not heard of the weights of the old ones, but he took 230 lb, of honey from the produce of his two stocks. HIVES. 79 ‘Samuel Dempster had two also in spring. His two first swarms weighed respectively 110 Ib. and 148 Ib. Henshilwood had one 168 1b., and my brother had one 130 Ib. “ P.8.—Scouler had two seconds, one of which weighed 80 lb., the other 90 lb.—Yours truly, ‘“‘Rosert Rep.” Mr Reid’s letter containing the results, or some of them, at Carluke for 1869, has already appeared in print, in connection with our own balance-sheet, which appears annually :— “ CARLUKE, 5th October 1869. ‘My Dear OLD Friznp,—I beg to be excused for not replying to your note sooner, but I waited till I got my bees home from the moors and the honey taken from them. I jarred it all up yesterday, and find that out of the 10 hives we have taken upwards of 400 lb. of honey. The heaviest hive was 1204 lb., two or three of them about 90 1b., the rest from 60 Ib. to 70 1b. each. We had three boxes of honeycomb, which realised 27s. And one second swarm, 80 lb. weight, was sold for £2, 2s. The above is the produce of six stock-hives, so you see the bees have done well with us this season.— Yours truly, eR. Re? The heaviest hive in the parish for 1869 was 128 Ib. And an old widowed aunt of the author’s got 250 lb. of honey from four stocks. These facts and figures are quoted with the view of stim- ulating the attention of bee-keepers generally. We are of opinion that agricultural and horticultural exhibitions do more to advance the sciences of farming and gardening 80 HANDY BOOK OF BEES, than the teaching of books and periodicals ; and we fancy that example, even in bee-keeping, is better than precept. When we resolved to write a book on bees for publication, we sent the following three questions to bee-keepers in many counties :— I. What is the general size of hives used in your county? IJ. What time does swarming commence 4 III. In good seasons what weight are the first swarms at harvest-time ? Our correspondent near Norwich, in Norfolk, says: “The hives used here are rather smaller than usual; the middle of May is a good time for early swarms; and at the end of the season a good stock may weigh only one stone. This may surprise you, but some are not half that weight.” From Yorkshire, a gentleman at Hull answered the ques- tions as follows: ‘‘The size of the hives used hereabouts contain about 1300 cubic inches, and swarm about the first week in June. As to the general weight, that depends on the management of them. The most I have ever taken from a swarm was 32 Ib.” From Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, we learn that “the first week in June is the time of general swarming ; the size of the hives about 12 inches deep and 12 inches wide ; and the weight of swarms at the end of the season depends on the summer. If not much rain to stop their work, a good swarm ought to weigh 30 1b.” Our informant in Cornwall (Lewanwick) says: “ In favourable and pleasant spots, bees begin to rise from the 16th to the 20th of May ; but the time of general swarm- ing is the first and second week of June. The size of the hives in use is, I think, about 14 inches diameter and 11 inches deep. The average weight in good seasons is about 28 lb., hive and combs together; the heaviest I have ever HIVES. 81 known was 35 lb. Taking one year with another, the average produce of a hive is about one gallon of honey. In the parts of Devonshire which I have visited, bees appeared to be treated much as we treat ours, the hives being a little less, if anything.” ‘ In Lincolnshire, “ Swarming generally takes place from the 10th to the 20th of June; hives 12 inches diameter and § or 9 inches deep; and the weights of good swarms range from 30 Ib. to 45 1b.” “We think,” says our Devonshire correspondent, ‘25 lb. to 30 Ib. a good weight for swarms in common hives ; I have known some 50 lb., but this is rare. I do not think your figures could be approached in this county with hives of any size.” We happen to think differently of Devonshire, and believe that if large hives were introduced and properly managed in that splendid county, the honey-harvests would be enormous. Instead of swarms being rarely 50 Ib. each, they would often be 100 Ib., and sometimes 150 Ib. each. Having lived eight years in the neighbourhood of Lon- don, we may be allowed to state that bee-keeping there, and in Hertfordshire, has not improved one iota since the days of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Soin Oxfordshire and other parts of England. Let us now go to Northumberland, where we are told “that the time of general swarming is the month of June, but some early swarms are obtained about the 18th of May. The general size of the hive here is 15 inches in diameter and 12 inches deep; and the best hives at the end of an average season contain from 25 lb. to 35 Ib. of honey.” Northumberland is a long way in advance of any other county south of the Tweed that has responded to our questions. 82 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. Ayrshire and Perthshire, according to the figures we have received, are about on a par with Northumberland, “Wigtownshire, and Mid-Lothian ; but other parts of Scot- land are represented by figures indicating their honey- harvests as being rather less than that of Northumberland. Now, come back to the parish of Carluke, and tell us if you think that the great success of the bee-keepers there is owing altogether to the use of large hives. No, not altogether. A great measure of their success comes from good management. But good management, without large hives, will not end in great results, large hives being the foundation,or basis of success, and good management the superstructure. They go hand in hand; and whenever the intelligent bee-keepers of this country adopt and use larger ones, they will be utterly astounded at their former blind- ness in this matter. A queen bee lays about 2000 eggs every day in the height of the season. She lays as many in a small hive as she does in a large one: but in a small one there are not empty cells for 500 eggs a-day; and therefore 1500 eggs are destroyed in some way every day. The bees must either eat or cast them out. Now, suppose the bees were allowed room to set and hatch all these eggs, how much more numerous the population of the hive would be, how much more honey would be collected, and the swarms or colonies sent off would be better too. On former occasions, when we have been trying to make bee-keepers think, we asked them to consider the folly of a farmer’s wife expecting large eggs from bantam hens. And we ventured to predict that if Shetland ponies only were used by farmers, agriculture would speedily collapse —nay, it would never have been advanced to its present state, commanding the energies of our best men. Without the muscle and strength of the fine horses of the Suffolk, HIVES. 83 Clydesdale, and other breeds, what would agriculture have been? Would it be worth the attention of men of skill and energy? So it is, and so it will be, with bees kept in small hives. They are hardly worth the attention they require, and the profits from them will never call out that enthusiastic energy and latent power which, put into play, makes the most of everything. Of course apiculture is a thing of trifling importance to agriculture ; but we hold that the general adoption of large hives will bring about a reform and revolution in bee-management, that will confer large and lasting blessings on the rural population of this and other countries. But let us return once more to the hives which weighed from 100 Ib. up to 168 Ib, Why, it would take three ordinary English hives, if not more, to hold as much honey as was in one of these hives—it would take three or four of them to hold bees enough to gather as much in the same space of time. It is not necessary to say half so much in favour of large hives to minds unwarped and unprejudiced ; but as almost all writers on bees, ancient and modern, have recommended hives unprofitably small, we have the hard and painful task to perform of nullifying, in some degree, the influence of their opinions, ere we can successfully recommend the general adoption of hives profitably large. It is well known that, in very fine seasons for honey, there are considerable profits derived from the produce of small hives: we know this very well. But we wish the reader to know that in such favourable seasons, the pro- duce and profits of large hives, well managed, are incom- parably larger. The writer's father once realised £20 profit from two hives in one season, and £9, 12s. from another held jointly by himself and James Brown of the same place, And the profits came from the honey F 84 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. gathered by the bees, not from swarms sold at an exor- bitant price, a practice common in our day. The question of sizes and shapes of hives we now come to consider. Three sizes have been recommended, namely : first, 20 inches wide by 12 inches deep, inside measure ; second size, 18 inches wide by 12 inches deep ; and the third size, 15 inches wide by 12 inches. aN, The first size contains about 3000 cubic or square inches ; the second size, about 2700 cubic inches; and the last, about 2000 cubic inches. We say about, for hives are sometimes made more convex or round in the crown, and when this takes place, the cube measure will be lessened somewhat. It is not expected that bee-keepers will be guided to the adoption of hives corresponding exactly with the sizes given above, but it is hoped that they will adopt and use hives, after their own models, equal in size to the second and third mentioned above. Three years ago, I ordered in Scotland 60 hives of the above sizes; but an old uncle who got the order did not comply with my wishes, for there were not two of all he made for me of one size. Last year we got 28 made to order in Ayrshire, 24 of them are 18 inches wide, 12 of which are 12 inches deep, and 12 are 14 inches deep. This winter we have sent an order to the same man for 48 hives of the same sizes. For convenience’ sake we shall cleave in future to these sizes,* for by using hives exactly one width, ekes for enlarging them will always fit the hives without having to be altered. These hives will often need enlarging in good honey seasons ; and where supers are used, eking below will not be necessary. This process of eking is mentioned now with a view to let the reader see the wisdom of fixing on certain sizes for his hives—at least the width of his hives—so that enlarge- ment may be easy when necessary. *18 and 16 inches wide, and 12 deep. HIVES. 85 A hive 20 x 12, well filled, will weigh about 100 Ih. ; one 18 x 12, 80 1b.; and the 16-inch hive will weigh about 50 Ib. These figures are meant to give the reader an approximate idea of the contents of the hives recom- mended. In the months of May and June, the hives would be at the swarming-point before they reach the weights here mentioned, and in the autumn of favourable seasons they would probably go beyond these weights without the bees ever thinking of swarming. But we want to know a little of the capabilities of these big hives. How much honey can they gather in fine weather per day? That greatly depends on the state of the atmo- sphere ; for soft warm winds from the west and south fill the nectaries of flowers with honey, whereas winds from the east and north seem to stanch the flow of honey almost completely. Well, but on good pasture, and with favourable weather, a 20-inch hive, well filled with bees, will gather from 4 to 10 1b. per day; the 18-inch hive, from 3 to 7 Ib. per day; and the 16-inch hive, from 2 to 4b. per day. Here, again, a great deal depends on the number of empty cells in a hive, and the quantity of brood that requires attention. We have known, as already stated, one hive only that gained 10 lb. in weight per day. It was placed in the midst of good pasture, when it weighed’39 lb. It rapidly rose in weight to 109 lb., and in two days it gained 20 lb., besides keeping itself. The traffic of bees going out and in of this hive, while gathering so much honey, was graphically described to resemble the steam of a tea-kettle going two yards from its mouth before vanishing amongst thin air. But it is good work for a hive to gather from 3 Ib. to 5 Ib. per day, and this is of frequent occurrence where large hives are kept. But why use the smaller size at all when we see that the 18-inch hive does more work of every kind? We are 86 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. glad this question has been mooted, for it gives us the opportunity of saying that hives of two or three sizes are of great advantage tu a bee-keeper who acts on a principle, sound and natural, and with his eye constantly open to his own interests. All seasons are not alike favourable, and all swarms are not equally large, and some are early and some late in leaving their mother hives. "When we come to the chapter on swarming, instructions will be given as to which size of hive will be best for certain swarms and seasons, but half a word to the wise is enough. The shape of hives may be rather conical at the top, or flat crowned. It is a matter of taste and convenience this. Some bee-keepers like the one sort and some the other; and some skep or hive makers can produce or build a hive each after his own pattern only. We have been accustomed to the use of hives rather flat in their crowns, and we prefer them to the hives with conical crowns. Here is a straw hive 18 inches by 12. Its sides are nearly perpendicular; its crown nearly flat. It has an opening 44 inches wide in the crown for a super, and a lid to cover that opening when supers are not required. The 16-inch hives are made after the same fashion—all with holes in their crowns for supers of honeycomb. A well-made 18-inch hive weighs when empty about 5 Ib., and a 16-inch one about 4 lb. THE MATERIALS OF HIVES, 87 ‘When an 18-inch hive receives an eke—say, 4 inches deep—it will measure 18 x 16, and contain nearly 4000 cubic or square inches of space. Now, tell us if a hive of such dimensions, well filled with combs, will not overtask the laying powers of a queen bee? No; we have seen larger hives as full of brood as the smallest hive in the country ever was. Before we leave the question of sizes, let us warn our readers not to be too hasty in introducing the large sizes into their apiaries. Begin with the 16-inch hive, and never purchase one less. The second year the swarms from these will be able to fill the larger sizes, THE MATERIALS OF HIVES. Straw hives, well sewed with split canes or bramble- briers, are incomparably better for bees than any other kind of hive yet introduced. Nothing better is needed, and we believe nothing better will ever be found out. On the score of cheapness, neatness, lightness, suitability, and surpassing worth, we advise all bee-keepers to use nothing but straw hives as domiciles for their bees, if their aim be to get honey and profit. Where straw hives cannot be obtained, wooden boxes are used ; but they are very objectionable in every sense, save, perhaps, their durability. Hives made of wood, at certain seasons condense the moisture arising from the bees, and this condensed mois- ture invariably rots the combs. The walls of a wooden hive are often like the walls of a very damp or newly- plastered house. The outside combs, and sometimes the . centre combs too, perish before the wet walls of these wooden hives, They perish in this sense, that their 88 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. nature or adhesive power goes like mortar in walls, and becomes as rotten as a piece of burnt paper. All such rotten combs are worse than useless in hives, for they have to be taken down and fresh ones put in their places. There is in this work of the bees a waste of both time and honey. But how can we account for the use of boxes as bee- hives in this country at all? The great bulk of straw hives of English make are exceedingly small and ill made, and are really not fit to be used as bee-hives ; compara- tively, they are not worth one shilling a-dozen. Well, many bee-keepers finding them very unsatisfactory, and unsightly too, have invented hives of wood. Of course everybody loves his own offspring, and likes to see it bear a good name, and be recognised in society. Every inven- tion is a grand affair! Both architect and builder join hands in supplying the world with an article decidedly superior to all that has gone before! And what was ‘begun in honest effort ends in full-fledged quackery. And hundreds, ignorant of bee-science, are induced to purchase these costly hives, which, in their own turn, are found so unsatisfactory, that the purchasers think that they will never be duped again, Another invention turns up in the shape of a costly hive—to be managed on the “depriving” or humane system! Many, again, are be- witched by the very name of the last invention, and ignorantly spend their money for hives which the writer would not accept as a gift. It appears from Mr Quinby’s book on bees, that in America the new inventions in bee-hives are more numerous than they are in England, and are well patented and patronised. He says, after showing the worthless- ness of many patent hives, “that in Europe the same ingenuity is displayed in twisting and torturing the bee, THE MATERIALS OF HIVES. ‘89 to adapt her unnatural tenements, invented not because the bee needs them, but because this is a means available for a little change. ‘Patent men’ have found the people generally too ignorant of apiarian science. But let us hope that their days of prosperity, in this line, are about numbered.” Mr Quinby, who is one of the most enlightened and common-sense bee-keepers living, knows well, that where profit is the object, common hives are the best. If we were to give full expression to our opinion of the various kinds of hives now being sold in this country at exorbi- tant prices, who would venture to protect us from the hurricane of abuse that would be poured upon us? Hear what Mr Quinby says: “We have faithfully supported a host of speculators on our business for a long time ; often not caring one straw about our success, after pocketing the fee of successful ‘humbuggery.’ One is no sooner gone than we are beset with another with some- thing altogether different, and, of course, the acme of per- fection.” In making these statements and quotations, we know that the prejudices of some of our readers will be offended. We are sorry for this, but we cannot help it; we like to be honest. To have done, let me again say that well-made straw hives of considerable dimensions are better than wood hives of any description ; better for the swarming system of management, and better for the non-swarming ; better for comb-building and better for honey-gathering ; better for health and better for ventilation ; equal in every way to wood for supers, better for sinltnty better for wiley, and better for summer. I am not aware that good skeps (straw hives) are made in England; hence my order goes to Scotland, through Mr 90 HANDY BOOK OF BEES, Samuel Yates, seedsman, 16 and 18 Old Millgate, Man- chester, who has found out two parties in the west of Scotland who make excellent hives. Mr Yates, last year, ordered some dozens for selling in his shop, beyond the twenty-eight he got for me. They were all speedily sold, and this year, I believe, he intends to order more largely. I have no interest in the sale of this or that hive; but merely mention where and how I obtain mine, that the reader residing near Manchester may know where to find well-made straw skeps in the event of his wishing to do so. Where these cannot be bought, wooden boxes will have to be used. The wood of such boxes should not be planed on the inside, for bees cannot hold by, or walk on, smooth surfaces. Such boxes should be 15 inches square and 12 deep for first size, and 10 inches deep for second size, all with holes, 4 inches in diameter, in their crowns, for honeycomb glasses or boxes. The boxes should be well made of wood, three-quarters of an inch thick; but all expense in the way of ornamentation will be lost. For any extravagance in this line the bees will not render thanks, or return one penny of interest for the outlay. THE BAR-FRAME HIVE. Do you approve of this hive? No, for it is very incon- venient, clumsy, and expensive. We do not see one feature in a bar-frame hive which will commend it to an experienced bee-keeper, whose object is honey and profit. We believe it will soon go into disuse. "We would aban- don bee-keeping for profit if we were compelled to use hives filled with bar-frames. They would be a perfect nuisance to us. But are they not useful to some bee- THE BAR-FRAME HIVE. 91 keepers who like to get a bar of honeycomb now and then? Perhaps they are; but anybody may get honey- comb from a common hive more easily than from a bar- frame one. By using comb-knives, he could cut out of a common hive 2 Ib. or 4 Ib. or 6 Ib. of honeycomb about as soon as he could unscrew the lid or top of a bar-frame one. el a = Here are two tools used for cutting combs out of hives, and which are exceedingly handy when we want a few pounds of honeycomb. They are useful on more occa- sions ; but they are introduced here to the notice of the reader, merely to let him see that movable bars in a hive are not at all necessary for the purpose of obtaining a comb of honey. The broad tool or knife is simply a piece of iron or steel, with a chisel end, for cutting the combs from the sides of the hive, and for splitting them elsewhere. The other is a rod of steel, rather more than a quarter of an inch thick, with a thin blade at the end 14 inch long— both edges sharp—for cutting the combs off at the top of the hive, or crosswise anywhere. These knives should be from 20 tc 24 inches long. But do you not consider the bar-frame hive very useful to the student of bee-history? Yes, very; for he can take out a bar of comb and examine the brood in it daily, or as often as he chooses. The hees do not always make their combs in the line of the bars; and when they do so, the bars are not movable without great sacrifice. And while the combs in a bar-frame hive are not wholly made, 92 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. ‘it is rather dangerous to move it, for there are no cross- sticks in these hives to steady and support the combs. Till the combs reach the bottom, there is great risk in moving these hives. A slight shake or blow may cause all the combs in them to fall down in confused masses. ‘Woodbury’s bar-frame hive is made principally of straw, and is therefore incomparably the best of its kind. Now, in common hives, cross-sticks are used with great advan- tage and safety. We use five or six in every hive. These cross-sticks go from side to side, and, by the use of guide- combs, the combs are made to run from front to back, so that every comb is well supported. Before the combs are well started from the crown of the hive, they are securely fastened to the top centre stick ; and as they are enlarged they are cemented to the other sticks. The bottom sticks should be at least four inches above the board, for if less than four inches the bees some- times do not close their comb round them. GUIDE-COMBS. These are simply little bits of clean old comb (the older the better) about two inches wide and one or two inches deep, fastened to labels, such as are used for naming plants. Well, the bit of comb and label are laid together, and fastened by dropping between them a little melted GUIDE-COMBS. 93 wax. This is best done by holding a warm poker over the two, and touching it with a bit of wax. The poker should just be warm enough to make the wax drop. If the poker be too hot the wax will boil, and melt the guide-comb as it falls. When the wood and comb are . thus cemented together, the wood is nailed in the crown of the hive—that is to say, fastened by pinning with nails, guiding the bees to build their combs running from back to front. When the combs are so made, the bees can see the door from the centre of the hive, or anything going in at the door, which they could not do if the combs ran from side to side. But as the sticks run from side to side, the combs are well supported, and will bear removal from the Land’s End to John-o’-Groats without injury. Another advantage of using sticks in hives is this, that the bees, being great economists, use them for cross-lanes. Where the combs cross the sticks, and are fastened to them, the bees leave little holes or doors in the combs, which they use as passages from comb to comb. They thus get shorter journeys for indoor work, In hives with- out sticks, such byways and convenient passages are very tare indeed. I may now be excused for saying that it has pained me exceedingly to say some things in this chapter on hives; for I know they will touch the prejudices and stir the feelings of some bee-keepers whom I do not wish to offend. But if I had not said these things, my own conscience would have condemned me for withholding from a work on the profitable management of bees the deep-seated and honest convictions of my own mind. One gentleman, a manufacturer of hives, has written to me to say, that he will give me much information on bees if I will only publicly mention “his ten-bar frame hive.” Poor fellow ! 94 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. THE LEAF OR UNICOMB HIVE. This is “the hive” in which to see bees at work. No other hive is to be compared to it for observation, And it appears to us that no other is necessary. In this hive every bee, and all it does, can be seen, and all the movements of the queen can be noticed and watched. A common hive with glass windows is all but useless for observing what goes on inside. All that can be seen in them are some combs and bees next the win- dows. But when there is only one comb with glass on each side of it, there is opportunity given for witnessing the internal operations of a bee-hive. As the unicomb hive is not meant for honey or profit, I need say little about it. To those engaged in the investigation of the habits of bees, we strongly recommend the use of uni- comb hives. BOARDS. 95 CHAPTER XVIIL BOARDS, Boarps should be about 14 inch wider than the hives standing on them. They are best when made of one piece, that is, without a seam of junction ; but if they cannot be cut whole from a deal board wide enough, they can be made of two pieces well joined. But whether of one piece or two, it is necessary to nail two bars on the under side of each board, to keep it from warping or twisting. The wood of which they are made should be either 3 or 1 inch thick. A good board weighs 4 Ib. The flight-board should be seven inches in diameter. Small flight-boards are objectionable, for the bees return- ing with heavy loads often miss them. This is not all ; for bees require breathing room at the doors of their hives, as well as a good broad landing-stage. All birds and in- sects fill their bodies with air before they take wing. A pheasant hops while he is filling his body with air; a pigeon does it by taking two or three inspirations. If the pheasant is suddenly disturbed, and has to rise without hopping a bit, he does rise, but so heavily and slowly— with a great cackling noise—that he is often knocked down by the shot of the sportsman ere he gets a fair start. If bees have a broad flight-board they run like the phea- sant ; but if the board be small, there is often at the doors of strong hives a crowd and a crush and a want of free- 96 HANDY BOOK OF BEES, dom, such as are seen and felt by large congregations in leaving a church. If the board and the door of a hive be wide enough, the bees go out and off without hesitation. They never loiter, and it is a pity the ignorance of their owners should ever compel them to do so, The beautiful gush or stream of bees in the act of swarming is owing to the fact that their bodies are so full of honey that they cannot rise on wing without first fill- ing their bodies with air; and in doing this they run nearly to the point of the flight-board. Two Boards marked for sawing out of Deal or Plank, THE DOOR OF THE HIVE. Some bee-keepers have channels cut in the boards for doors. Where this is done, the flight-boards are uneven and unlevel ; but the hives are unbroken or uncut in any way. As we like the flight-boards pretty even, and some playroom on them, we prefer the doors cut in the hives, About 4 inches in length of the bottom roll or round of a straw hive cut clean out makes a fine spacious doorway. The door will be thus 4 inches long and 1 inch high, which is little enough for strong hives in the busy season. Our system of feeding, which will be mentioned here- after, requires the flight-boards to be level, and the doors THE DOOR OF THE HIVE. 97 to be made through the bottom rolls of the hives ; but as far as honey-gathering goes, it is of trifling importance whether the boards or hives be cut for doors. Only let them be large enough, so that the bees may dave and ladle the honey through them into their hives. At the end of the season the doors are contracted very much, and remain so all through the winter months. 98 HANDY BOOK OF BEES, CHAPTER XIX. COVERS FOR HIVES. In summer as well as winter hives require protection. If not shaded from the summer sun, the combs are likely to become softened at their fastenings, and drop down in a confused mass. The rays of the sun should be warded off by coverings of some kind. And it is well when not a drop of rain can touch hives, either in summer or winter. Of course, rains in summer that touch hives do less harm than in winter, inasmuch as the wetted parts are sooner dried in hot weather. It may be stated as an axiom that perfect protection of hives, from both sun and rain, should “be aimed at in covering them. Milk-pans are in common use in many parts. With small hives they answer in summer, but they are a mis- erable protection in winter. For cheapness and con- venience, anything at hand that will shed the rain off hives in summer is made use of. Three or four cabbage- blades placed on a hive, and held there by a stone, are often used till something better turn up. We now use felt (sold at one penny per foot) largely as a covering for hives. It is impervious to water, and very durable ; indeed I cannot yet say how many years it will last. The covers of felt that I got four years ago are as good as ever they were, and apparently will last for an indefinite length of time. These felt covers suit us well, for they COVERS FOR HIVES. 99 are very light, soft, and pliable, and can be carried about in small compass. When we remove our bees to gardens in the country, the felt covers go with them; and when we remove them to the moors, we find it more convenient to take them for covers than it is to cut peat-sods on the spot where the hives may be set down. Another induce- ment to us to use these felt covers is that they are not very conspicuous ; and this is a consideration to us, if not to other people, for we are glad to get permission to set a few hives down in any odd corner, even at a distance from any human abode. : These felt covers are rather thin for a burning sun; hence it is wise to place a little hay, or heather, or grass, or rags between them and the hives. Sods cut off peaty land and dried, are impervious to wet, and make excellent summer coverings. But straw coverings are incomparably the best of all—best for sum- ny te mer as well as winter; and they look better than any- thing else I have seen used as covers for hives. When a farmer’s corn-stacks are all well thatched and nicely clipped, they not only please the eye, but convey to the mind of every passer-by the idea of comfort, and also that his pro- fits will not go into the wrong pocket. A row of well- thatched bee-hives in a cotter’s garden is calculated to please the eye, and breed pleasant thoughts to the mind. Gq ———5 100 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. These are simply made, by tying one end of a bunch of straight or well-combed straw with tarred string, dipping them in water before placing them on the hives, hooping them on, and then clipping them neatly. When put on wet, they set, and stiffen to fit, and may be lifted off and on like a man’s hat. When well made they last two years. As hives, out of doors, cannot be kept too warm in winter, the reader will, in another place, be urged to protect his bees from the cold of the winter storms, by giving them not only a good outer covering, but plenty of under flannels. Thousands of hives are starved to death for want of food, and thousands more for want of sufficient winter covering. STINGS, 101 CHAPTER XxX. STINGS. Ir bees had not been furnished with weapons of defence, the probability is great that they would have been de- stroyed centuries ago. The treasures of a bee-hive are so tempting to men and brutes, birds, and creeping things, that it has been necessary to provide bees with a means of defence ; and this is done by giving them stings and bags of poison, which they can use at will) When they receive or anticipate molestation they are not slow to make use of their ‘‘ poisoned arrows ;” and every arrow is barbed, so that, if inserted, it sticks fast—so fast that it drags or tears the venom-bag attached to it from the body of the bee. And after separation from the bee, the sting is moved by a self-acting machinery, intended, no doubt, to empty the entire contents of the venom-bag into the part stung; hence the wisdom of withdrawing a sting as soon as it is inflicted. The pain and probable inflammation will be greater and longer continued if the sting be not extracted at once. Some people are much disfigured by being stung on the face ; and the question has been asked, If these people were frequently stung, would the stings continue to have as great influence ? We cannot answer this question with certainty, though we have known men who suffered great inconvenience from stings in early life, disregard them 102 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. after a time ; at least the swelling or inflammatory power of stings was comparatively lost on them. Those who are liable to swell much on receiving a sting should wear a bee-dress when likely to be attacked by bees, or when doing anything among them. A bee-dress is simply a piece of crape or muslin tied above the brim of a hat, to hang over the face, and some inches below the chin. The other parts exposed are the hands only, which can be protected by gloves. Fortunately we ourselves do not suffer or swell much on being stung, and there- fore never use a bee-dress of any description. When bees attack one, or mean to do so, the hands should be spread in front of the face—or, better still, a bush held before it —then walk slowly away. When the bees see the fingers . or bush they are afraid of an ambuscade—as sparrows are kept from gooseberry-buds by the use of thread. FUMIGATION. 103 CHAPTER XXI. FUMIGATION. Tats is a grand invention—how long it has been prac- tised I cannot tell, About sixty years ago, when selling honey in Edinburgh, my father met an Irishman, who undertook to teach him how to carry a hive of bees, open and exposed, through the streets of that city without re- ceiving a single “ stong,” for a gill of whisky. Far too tempting an offer this to be rejected by my father. He got the secret, and, I presume, the Irishman got some whisky for it. The secret was worth all the whisky in Edinburgh ; for ever since we have been enabled to do what we like with our bees without risk or fear. Smoke from the rags of fustian or corduroy, blown into a hive, is the secret bought from the Irishman. A few puffs of smoke from a bit of corduroy or fustian rolled up like a candle, stupefies and terrifies bees so much, that they run to escape from its power. Tobacco-smoke is more power- fal still, but it has a tendency to make bees dizzy, and reel like a drunken man ; besides, it is far more expensive and less handy than a bit of fustian or corduroy. Old corduroy or fustian is better than new, unless the matter which is used to stiffen it be completely washed out. This stiffening matter won’t burn—won’t Jet the rags burn ; hence we use and recommend old stuff which has lost it. The old worn-out and cast-away fustian and corduroy 104 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. clothes of labouring men cannot be surpassed for the pur- pose of stupefying bees. Let me ask the most timid bee- keeper in the country to try it. Get a piece, the size of. a man’s hand, rolled up rather tight and fired at one end —not to blaze, but simply to smoke. Let him now place the smoking end so close to the door of a hive that all the smoke may go in when he blows on it. After six or eight puffs have been sent into the hive, let him lift it off the board, turn it gently over, upside down, so that the bees and combs stare him in the face. By holding and moving the smoking end of the rags over the face of the bees, and blowing the smoke amongst them, they run helter-skelter down amongst the combs, far more afraid than hurt. Now he can carry the hive round his garden under his arm, and then carry it round the house, and over it too if he choose, without being stung. "Whenever the bees are likely to rise they should be dosed again. If the reader has hitherto not dared to handle his bees in this manner, we ask him to try the experiment, believ- ing that he will be more than satisfied with the result, for he will find that he has now got the mastery over his bees, and can do what he likes with them. Yes, he will be able to drive them out of a hive full of combs into an empty one, and, moreover, shake them back, or tumble them back, or spoonful them back, into the old hive or another, as men take peas from one basket to another, Nay, he will be able, after another lesson, to swarm his bees artificially, and thank the Irishman for revealing the virtues of corduroy-smoke. This smoke does not injure the health of the bees, does not stop them from work more than two or three minutes. The material of it is cheap and comeatable ; the use of it is so easy and simple and efficacious, that we have no wish to find-anything better for stupefying bees. Old calico FUMIGATION. 105 rags or strong brown paper may occasionally be used as substitutes ; but they are so apt to blaze that no bee- keeper who can find a piece of fustian will use them. Chloroform or puff-ball may sometimes be used by ex-: perienced men to produce the complete prostration and stupor of a swarm—.e., all the bees in a hive—for a short time ; but the use of these things is dangerous and quite unnecessary. 106 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. CHAPTER XXII. WHETHER IS THE SWARMING OR NON-SWARMING SYSTEM OF MANAGEMENT THE MOST PROFITABLE ? Tis question is of great importance, and will be con- sidered as fully as our limits will permit. The swarming system of management is not only more profitable, but, taking a run of years, is better every way, and more natural, than the system that prevents swarming. One bee-keeper in the neighbourhood of Manchester who writes on the subject, once said to me that “honey and swarms could not be obtained from ‘hives in the same season.” I venture to express a contrary opinion. Now, during the last three years my best swarms every year have risen in weight to 70 lb. each, and sometimes more, whereas his non-swarmers have not approachéd that weight —nay, my old stock-hives, after yielding one and two swarms each, have been as heavy as his, which never swarmed at all. All this has not been owing to their being allowed to swarm, but partly to the size of the hives and our system of management. But after making many trials we can state that in good seasons for honey, a good early swarm will, at the end of the season, weigh more than a hive that has never been permitted to swarm at all. A swarm put into an empty hive is doubtless placed at a great disadvantage, and SWARMING OR NON-SWARMING. 107 apparently will never both fill its hive with combs and gather as much honey as the old one already full, weigh- ing perhaps 30 lb. or 40 lb. But wait a little: the swarm which is far behind during the first ten days, afterwards rapidly gains upon the old one, and generally overtakes it when they are both about 70 lb. or 80 lb. each ; the young one now goes ahead, at the rate of 2 lb. for 1 lb. And, besides the great superiority of the first swarm over the hive which did not swarm, there are the mother hive and probably a second swarm, weighing by the end of the season from 40 Ib. to 80 Ib. each. Of course these weights will not be gained in seasons not remarkable for honey-gathering; and in unfavourable years, when bees have to be fed, the fewer hives we have the better,—as, in times of calamity, or famine, or want of work, the working classes of Manchester and other cities find it cheaper to give up house and take lodgings—two or three families swarming into one house, instead of each family paying rent for a whole or separate house. But, even in ordinary seasons for honey-gathering, the swarm- ing system is by far the most lucrative. If asked to explain how it is that swarms put into empty hives gather more honey and do better than hives not weakened by swarming, we might not be able to do so satisfactorily ; neither can we explain how it is that a spring-struck verbena grows more vigorously and does better than an autumn-struck one. As with verbenas so with bees : young ones do better and run quite ahead of old ones. However, we may venture to guess, or give our opinion, as to the reasons why good early swarms of the same or current season outdo those that never swarm at all. Ist, The stimulus of an empty hive makes the bees work harder, In the absence of combs, all the eggs laid 108 z HANDY BOOK OF BEES. by the queen are lost. Combs must -be built to hold both honey and eggs. For-the first two or three days, the greater part.of the honey gathered is eaten by the bees witha view to secrete wax for comb-building, which goes on with marvellous rapidity. Liebig thinks that it takes 20 1b. of honey to make 1 Ib. of wax; but let us suppose that 2 lb. of wax is manufactured from 20 Ib. of honey. Now, in good-sized hives there are about 2 Ib, of wax. We have known a swarm fill, or nearly fill, its hive with combs, and gain about 28 1b. weight in ten days. What a stupendous amount of work these young colonists per- formed in ten days! Young swarms work harder, appar- ently, than older ones. 2d, The combs of swarms are clear and free from a superabundance of farina or bee-bread; therefore the cakes of brood will yield a young bee from every cell, making the hatch of the swarm considerably larger than the old hive. By the end of the season a swarm is much more populous than the other which we have been com- paring with it. Even a second swarm, in honey years, will sometimes pull itself abreast the stock or mother hive, with a weight of 30 Ib. to gain. ; By swarming we double and often treble the number of our hives annually, and therefore have two or three queens laying instead of one. By-and-by it will be seen more clearly how invaluable these additional swarms are to a bee-keeper; and, therefore, the superiority of the swarming system over the non-swarming one. 3d, By the adoption of the swarming mode of manage- ment we can change our stock of hives every year; that is to say, we can set aside one of the swarms for stock, and take the honey from the old one and other swarm, and thus our stock is full of new sweet combs, and free from foul brood, which is a great advantage. No hive SWARMING OR NON-SWARMING. 109 should be kept more than two years, as old combs are objectionable for many reasons, and ugly to look at. Besides all these considerations, there is, in the swarm- ing system well carried out, the cpRTaInTY of success in bee-keeping. On the non-swarming system, hives are comparatively weak in bees in early spring ; whereas, on the swarming system (as we recommend it to be done), the hives are of great strength and power even in early spring. And we maintain that ten strong hives will do more work than twenty-five weak ones. How does the swarming system secure strong hives? In this way: the bee-keeper has one and often two swarms to spare for every hive he selects for stock in autumn. This selected hive for stock gets the one or.two extra swarms united to it, and thus becomes doubly or trebly strong. Hives of such strength are well able to face the difficulties of a severe winter—difficulties that often crush and kill weak ones ; and when spring arrives, these strong hives gain weight fast, and are ready to swarm a month earlier than those that had no additional bees given to them in the autumn. In this neighbourhood bees do not gather much honey after the apple-blossoms fall, there being scarcely any white clover near enough. If the hives are weak in bees they gain but little from fruit-blossoms, which are. so rich in honey, simply because they are not strong enough to do much work; but when made strong in autumn by the addition of extra swarms, they gain here, off the fruit-blossoms, in fine weather, from 3 Ib. to 5 Ib. per hive. 4th, On the non-swarming mode of management the queens become old and die; and at the time of the death of.a queen there is a loss sustained. The hive in which she dies is without eggs for three weeks, or there- abouts ; for ordinarily the young queens are not matured 110 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. till about ten days after the old one dies, and it is ten days more before she begins to lay. But there is the risk of the loss of the whole, for if the queen dies when she is not laying, the bees cannot raise a successor. Now, in the swarming system, the bee-master may have nothing but young queens in his hives, by destroy- ing the queens of the first swarms when the bees are united in the autumn. We hope we have made this matter so plain and simple that none will misunderstand our meaning. If the bee-keeping reader is seeking know- ledge on the question before us, we trust he begins now to feel his feet touching pretty solid ground. But some bee-keepers say, “‘ We don’t want swarms ; we want supers of honeycomb: it is not an increase of hives, but an increase of pure honeycomb we are aiming at.” And the question may be urged whether the swarming or non-swarming system is best for getting most supers of honeycomb. At present we could not answer this ques- tion with any degree of certainty, for we have not tested it by experiment. And even if fairly tested by actual experiment in one season or locality, the same experiment in another locality or season may produce different results. We are strongly inclined to believe that the swarming system will yield more supers than the non-swarming one, if the bee-keeper understands his work, and earnestly sets his wits to the task of getting all the supers possible. But tell us how you would set your wits to the task of getting supers and swarms too? Well, we would have our hives well filled with bees in autumn, as already de- scribed. They would be ready to swarm very early in May; but before they were ready to swarm we would put a super to hold 8 lb. or 10 Ib. on each. If the weather permitted, and the hives did not swarm, these supers would be filled in fourteen or sixteen days, After SWARMING OR NON-SWARMING. lll cutting the supers off we would swarm all the hives arti- ficially—that is, a swarm from each hive would be taken off and put in a 16-inch hive, which is the smallest size we use. The stock would be left full of brood, with sufficient bees to hatch it. On each a super should be placed, for every day the populations of the hives would be augmented by the brood coming to perfection. Probably no combs will be made in the supers for ten or fourteen days, when second swarms may be expected to issue. When these second swarms are thrown off, the best way is to throw them back on the front of the hives whence they came. They creep into their hives and rarely come a second time. The hives are now full of bees, with no brood to feed or attend to. At this time the bees generally gather a great deal of honey, and will fill supers, weather permit- ting. I know an experienced bee-keeper who succeeds thus in obtaining supers from hives which do not throw off second swarms. In about three weeks from the time the first swarms were put into the 16-inch hives, supers should be placed on them—that is, if the weather has been at all favourable, for they will then be full of combs with brood coming to perfection every day. These young swarms will not be long in filling their supers from the fields of white clover now at their best. Here we see the likelihood of having three supers from one hive managed on the swarming system. With two strong hives in the middle of July, there is left the probability, if not the certainty, of getting a super of honey from each of them before the season closes. If the season be favourable, all this may be done under good management. Then there will remain a hive of honey for further profit, the bees. of which will be united to the other, to be kept for stock ; and this stock will be incomparably better for keeping than one that has never swarmed at all. 112 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. It were easy to suggest other ways of obtaining supers of comb on the swarming system. The great difficulty in obtaining supers is the tendency of the bees to swarm ; and this difficulty is greater by half in the non-swarming system of management, for it is the nature of bees to colonise, and therefore great care is necessary to prevent hives from casting off swarms when supers on them are nearly full. In the hands of ignorant people, hives that have received supers often swarm before a bit of comb is built in them. On the conviction that it is a waste of material and loss of time to make swarms fill empty hives, the non-swarm- ing system has been introduced in every shape and form, and generally introduced with the assertion that more honeycomb will be obtained. In certain seasons it is well known that a great deal of pure honeycomb has been yielded by hives managed on the non-swarming mode. In 1863 Mr George Fox of Kingsbridge, Devonshire, got from two hives two glass boxes (or supers) of pure honey- comb, weighing respectively 109} Ib. and 112 Ih., their gross weights being 123 Ib. and 126 Ib., but the empty boxes were 14 lb. each. These magnificent supers and results seem to throw into the shade all other results of beekeeping. But in the same year Mr Fox got ‘an octagon box of fine white comb,’ which weighed 93 lh. 4 oz., from a swarm of June 28, 1863. Here is a late swarm yielding a super 93 lb. If the swarm had come off four or six weeks sooner, which is the usual time, the probability is great that it would have overtaken and out- run those that never swarmed at all. Well might Mr Fox say, as he does in a letter before us, “These glasses were exceedingly beautiful, but the risk and fatigue of removing them were great ; and as I never like to ask as- sistance, in case of an accident, I had to exert myself too SWARMING OR NON-SWARMING. 113 much, And I assure you it was no joke carrying about those 126 lb, and 123 Ib. glasses, and some little diffi- culty in getting the bees to leave them.” SUPER HIVE ae rl My Fox’s supers were filled on the adjusting principle. The above sketch will enable the reader to form a pretty correct idea as to the way in which it is carried out, and how Mr F. succeeded in inducing his bees to fill so large glasses. The supers fitted or slipped over the outsides of the hives, and were let down so far that their crowns were not far from the crowns of the hives. The bees had not far to go to make a commencement in them; but as soon as the combs came down, the supers were raised bit by bit till they were filled. The sides of the supers being glass, Mr Fox could see when to raise them. He says: “The season of 1863 was better for honey than any of the twelve years going before ; but, notwithstanding, such large fine glasses of honey could not have been obtained, except by working the hives upon his adjusting principle.” Kings- bridge, too, he says, is a good place for bees; and we add this remark, that it has an able man to manage them. 114 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. Supers about 10 Ib. weight are most readily sold. We got one 22 lb. weight from a swarm last year. From the non-swarmers, supers are got by cutting them off as soon they, are full and putting empty ones in their places to be filled. Both systems of management could be well carried out in the same apiary. Suppose the owner has ten stock- hives, five of which are permitted to swarm, and five prevented from swarming: the non-swarming hives would be greatly helped and strengthened by receiving extra swarms in autumn from the others, We conclude this chapter as we began, by saying that, with an eye to profit, we greatly prefer the swarming mode of management. Hives that do not swarm are often affected and made useless by that awful and incurable disease of “ foul brood.” SUPERS. 115 CHAPTER XXIII. SUPERS. THESE are made of straw, wood, and glass. Straw skeps, small and neatly made, are better than small boxes for supers. Honeycomb in them sells in the wholesale market at 1s. 6d. per Ib. Glass supers filled command a higher price. The straw and box supers are more eqnvenient for parties using their own combs ; but glass supers are ornamental on a dinner or breakfast-table, and therefore more saleable. Common Honey-Glass. Improved Honey-Glass. It will be seen that one glass is a very great improve- ment on the other; it looks better, and has a movable top or lid. In glass supers the combs are generally built upwards, and when they reach the tops they are fastened to them. When the improved glasses are filled and taken off, the lids are found securely fastened to the combs. By dipping a towel or cloth of any kind in warm water, and then laying it on the lids, they become unfastened, and H 116 HANDY BOOK OF BEES, can be lifted off and on without breaking a single cell. The combs can then be cut out from the top. When supers are full, the sooner they are taken off the better. They are severed from their hives by drawing a piece of fine wire or string between them. Of course this wire cuts-every cell in its way, leaving the cut parts wet with honey. In order that these cut wet parts may be quite clean and dry when the supers are taken off, we raise them three-eighths of an inch by wedges, so that the bees can more easily lick up the honey from the broken cells. They do this very cleanly in about one hour. Some people leave them on the hives for ten or twelve hours after they have been cut and raised. No harm can be done by letting them remain twelve hours, if the bees do not begin to carry the honey down-stairs—that is, out of the supers into the hives. There is sometimes a little difficulty experienced i in getting the bees to leave the supers. Our best friend and greatest helper in this work is the old corduroy, the smoke of which should be blown vigorously into the super from the top before it is lifted from the hive. The bees are thus hastily driven down below. The super should be removed at once to a place where bees cannot come to steal. Glass supers require a good deal of warm clothing while being filled, for the bees like both warmth and darkness. Bees will not build combs in glass supers, or even remain in them, if they are not warmly covered. EKES. 117 CHAPTER XXIV. EKES., Caw bees be prevented from swarming? Yes, by the use of ekes ; and what are these? Additions or enlargements from below—that is to say, eked or lengthened. Four or six inches stitched to the bottom of the legs of a pair of trousers is eking: the legs are thus made longer. So hives are enlarged or eked by the use of riddle-rims, or four or five rolls of hives about the same width as the hives raised by them. These ekes are fastened to hives by nails or staples going into both, and the junctions covered with fresh cow-dung, which speedily hardens and cements the two together. Straw ekes, like straw hives, are much better than wooden ones, At present we use riddle-rims for eking because we have none of straw. The sides of a hive nearly worn out make two ekes, if properly cut and sewed a little. ‘ Are ekes better than supers for getting a great weight of run honey? Very much; for bees can put more than 3 lb. of honey in ekes for every 2 lb. they can put in supers. Bees not only gather more honey, but they breed more, by the use of ekes, and are thus prepared to do more work in future. The markets will determine whether eking or supering is the most profitable. If the 118 HANDY BOOK OF BEES, price of honey be 1s, per Ib., and comb Is. 6d. per Ib., the one mode of enlargement will be equal to the other for profit. In the use of supers there is the risk (in hot seasons very great risk) of swarms coming off unexpectedly and flying away, In the eking mode there is the trouble of running the honey and jarring it up for sale. But eking does not always prevent bees from swarming? Not always, but in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred it does. In some hot seasons, and on rare occasions, bees have been known to square the ends of their combs before their hives were quite full, and swarm. But this so seldom happens that it may be considered exceptional, and out of the usual run of events. When our hives are timely eked we have never the shadow of a fear that they will send off swarms. It is by the use of ekes that the bee-keeper can get hives in good seasons to weigh 100 lb., 120 lb., and 140 lb. each. But why not have hives big enough to do without eking? This question has been already answered. In rainy seasons, or cold ones, swarms cannot fill such large hives ; and it is of great importance to have all the hives kept for stock full or nearly full of combs. When ekes are used, cross-sticks are put in them at the highest parts, so that the combs become securely fas- tened to them. NADIRS, 119 CHAPTER XXV. NADIRS. Napirs are the opposites of supers. Nadirs go beneath bee-hives, and supers above them. Most bee-keepers know something of supering, but very few of them know any- thing of nadiring. If a hive which we wish to keep for stock becomes heavy in June or July, we place a nadir beneath it—that is to say, we lift it off its board, place a hive with cross-sticks and a large crown-hole on the board, then place the full hive on the empty one, pin the two together with strong nails, and cement the junction. The bees are soon found hanging in a large cluster, like a swarm, through the crown-hole of the nadir. New combs are speedily built from the upper hive, through the hole, down to the board; and in process of time the nadir is filled with combs and brood, almost all the honey going to the upper story. At the end of the season the top one is taken off for honey, and its bees driven into the bottom or nadir hive, which is kept for stock. Last year our earliest swarm was taken off about the 10th of May. By the end of four weeks it was full, and nearly ready for swarming. Instead of taking off a virgin swarm, we placed it on a nadir. At the end of the season we found that it weighed 70 lb. All the bees were driven below, and the top one rémoved. It weighed 50 Ib. and the nadir 20 lb. We thus got nearly 30 Ib, of honey and a stock- 120 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. hive from a swarm in May. —_ LISTORY OF EUROPE, From the Commencement of the French Revolution in 1789 to the Battle of Waterloo. By Sir ARCHIBALD ALISON, Bart., D.C.L. A New Liprary Epition (being the Tenth), in 14 vols. demy 8vo, with Portraits, and a copious Index, £10, 10s. ANOTHER EDITION, in crown Syo, 20 vols., £6. A Peopte’s Epition, 12 vols., closely printed in double columns, £2, 8s., and Index Volume, 3s. “ An extraordinary work, which has earned for itself a lasting Pisce in the literature of the country, and within a few years found innumerable readers in every art of the globe. 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Contents :—Church Music, and other Parochials.—Medical Attendance, and other Parochials.—A few Hours at Hampton Court.—Grandfathers and Grandchildren.—Sitting for a Portrait.—Are there not Great Boasters among us?—Temperance and Teetotal Societies.—Thackeray'’s Lectures : oe te Crystal Palace. —Civilisation: The Census, —The Beggar’s egacy- ESSAYS; HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, AND MISCELLANEOUS. By Str ARCHIBALD ALISON, Bart., D.C.L. Three vols., demy 8vo, 45s. LECTURES ON THE POETICAL LITERATURE OF THE PAST HALF-CENTURY. By D.M. MOIR. Third Edition. Fcap. 8vo, 5s. “ Exquisite in its taste and generous in its criticisms ”—Hugh Miller. LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF LITERATURE, Ancient and Modern. From the German of F. ScHLEGEL. Fcap., 5s. “A wonderful performance—better than anything we as yct have in our own language.”—Quarterly THE GENIUS OF HANDEL, ; And the distinctive Character of his Sacred Compositions. Two Lectures. Delivered to the Members of the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution. 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Detailing the Labours of the Farmer, Farm-Steward, Ploughman, Shepherd, Hedger, Cattle-man, Field-worker, and Dairymaid, and forming a safe Monitor for Students in Practical Agriculture. By HENRY STEPHENS, F.R.S.E. 2 vols. royal Svo, £3, handsomely bound in cloth, with upwards of 600 Ulustrations. “The best book I have ever met with."—Professor Johnston. “Wo have thoroughly examined these volumes; but to give a full notice of thelr varied and valuablo contents would occupy a larger space than wo can conveniently devote to their discussion ; we therefore, in general terms, commend them to tho careful study of every young man who wishes to become o good. practical furmer,”—Times, “ One of the works on of which eur li can boast."—A grit ‘al Gazette. THE BOOK OF FARM IMPLEMENTS AND MACHINES. By JAMES SLIGHT and R. SCOTT BURN. Edited by Henry STEPHENS, F.R.S.E. Illustrated with 876 Engravings. Royal 8vo, uniform with the ‘Book of the Farm,’ half-bound, £2, 2s. 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