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THE 
 
 HIYE AND THE HOIEY-BEE; 
 
 WITH 
 
 PLAIN DIRECTIONS 
 
 OBTAINING A CONSIDERABLE ANNUAL INCOME FROM THIS 
 BRANCH OF RURAL ECONOMY. 
 
 TO WHICH IB ADDED, 
 
 AN ACCODNf OP THE DISEASES OP BEES, 
 
 ■WITH THEIR REMEDIES. 
 
 REMARKS AS TO THEIR ENEMIES, AND THE BEST MODE OF 
 PROTECTING THE BEES FROM THEIR ATTACKS. 
 
 H. D. EICHAEDSON, 
 
 Anthor of "The Horse," "Domestio Fowl," "The Pests of the Farm," 
 "The Hog," etc., etc. 
 
 WITH n,lT7STBATI0NS ON WOOD. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 C. M. SAXTON, 
 
 AGRICULTURAL BOOK PUBLISHER. 
 1852. 
 

 Entered according to act of Congress, iu the year 1852, by 
 
 C. M. SAXTON", 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern 
 
 District of New York. 
 
 Q V/35D 
 
 S. W. BENEDICT, 
 Stereotyper and Printer. 
 16 Spruce ttieet, X. Y. 
 
PUBLISHER'S ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The Publisher, having found the want of small, cheap Books, of 
 acknowledged merit, on the great topics of farming economy, and 
 meeting for those of such a class a constant demand, offers, in this 
 one, a work calculated to fill the void. 
 
 The works of Richardson on the Hog, the Horse, the Bee, the 
 Domestic Fowl, and the Pests of the Farm, are popular in England 
 and in America, and, in evidence of their worth, meet vfith continued 
 sale both there and here. Hitherto they have not been offered to the 
 American public in an American dress ; and the Publisher presents 
 in this Beprint, one of the series, adapted to American wants, and 
 trusts that a discerning Public wiU both buy and read these little 
 Treatises, so admirably adapted to all classes, and fitted by their 
 size for the pocket, and thus readable at the fireside, on the road, 
 and in short everywhere. 
 
 C. M. SAXTON, 
 
 Agrkultural Book Pvilisher. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chaptek I. — Introductory 
 
 Chapter II. — The Honey-Bee and its three Classes 
 
 Chapter III. — Architecture of the Honey-Bee, and Economy of the 
 
 Hive 
 
 Chapter IV. — Generation of the Honey-Bee 
 
 Chapter V. — Position of the Apiary 
 
 Chapter VI. — Hives and Boxes 
 
 Chapter VII. — How your Stock is to he obtained 
 
 Chapter VIII. — Swarming . 
 
 Chapter IX. — The Honey Harvest . 
 
 Chapter X. — Management during Winter and early Spring 
 
 Chapter XI. — The Diseases and Enemies of Bees . 
 
 Chapter XII. — How to treat the Produce of your Honey Harvest 
 
 Page 
 7 
 9 
 
 14 
 18 
 23 
 27 
 41 
 44 
 49 
 61 
 65 
 69 
 
THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INT RODUCTOBY. 
 
 The subject of Bee culture is one that should occupy a far 
 more prominent position than it at present does, in the do- 
 mestic economy of the farmer. When successfully conducted, 
 the management of these interesting insects becomes a source of 
 pecuniary profit ; and to be a successful cultivator requires only 
 a very moderate degree of care and attention : let it be remem- 
 bered that the first outlay in procuring a swarm, and providing 
 suitable accommodation in the shape of hives or bee-boxes, is the 
 only expense to be incurred ; while the return, yielded by each 
 honey harvest, is very considerable, and to be regarded as clear 
 gain. 
 
 In order to give the reader some idea of the profit which- may 
 accrue from bee-keeping, under favorable circumstances, I may 
 mention a statement of the late Mr. Nutt, relative to the quantity 
 of honey taken by him from one set of collateral boxes, in a 
 single season, viz : 183 lbs. 5 oz. 
 
 This statement has surprised many, and its accuracy has been 
 doubted by some bee-keepers ; and it certainly does, at first 
 sight, appear startling. A correspondent informed me that he 
 had last season, and one considered a bad one for bees, taken 
 102 lbs. of honey from two sets of boxes, and that he might 
 have taken, perhaps, 10 lbs. more, without impoverishing the 
 bees. The writer on Bees in the " Naturalists' Library," details 
 the quantity taken from cottage hives in one season at about 10 
 Jbs. from each hive. This is a very low average, however, and 
 it has reference to a single deprivation only, as well as to a very 
 imperfect description of hive. It is not my intention to exhibit 
 the advantages of keeping bees on old and erroneous, and, I 
 
8 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 wish I could add, exploded systems of management, but to show 
 what can be done, if done correctly. I shall say nothing, there- 
 fore, as to what may be done with the common old hives, as I 
 regard keeping bees in them, when more fitting ones may so 
 easily be procured, as evincing something very, like- a self-willed 
 determination not to make profit. Bee-keeping, when conducted 
 on a proper principle, will form no mean item in the domestic 
 economy of the extensive agriculturist ; while to the humble 
 cottier it will prove a little fortune, and furnish the means of 
 efiectually and permanently bettering his condition. I would 
 say that a single set of collateral boxes, so simple in its con- 
 struction, and composed of such inexpensive materials that any 
 one could make them, ought to yield a profit at least sufficient to 
 pay the rent of from five to ten acres of land, by no means a 
 despicable holding, and one which, in its turn, will become a 
 source of comfort, of independence, of social, and consequently, 
 of course, of national amelioration. 
 
 The importance of honey both as an article of food and a 
 valuable medicament, would appear to have been known to the 
 ancients from the very earhest times. " The land of promise," 
 to reach which the IsraeUtes journeyed in protracted pilgrimage 
 across an arid desert for a period of forty years, was described 
 as " a land flowing with milk and honey ;" while numerous pas- 
 sages throughout the sacred volume furnish evidence of the 
 attention devoted by the ancient fathers of the Jewish people to 
 the habits of the Bee itself, and the degree of acquaintance with 
 that insect at which they had arrived. We are also told that 
 several of the enlightened sages of ancient Greece deemed this 
 subject worthy years of diligent investigation. Pliny informs us 
 that Aristomachus made bees his whole study for a period of 
 fifty-eight years. 
 
 Philiscus retired into desert places for the purpose of keepipg 
 and contemplating them. 
 
 Aristotle, also, wrote much concerning bees, provipg himself 
 intimately acquainted with the subject, and his observations were 
 subsequently confirmed and enlarged upon by Pliny. Aristotle's 
 observations furnished the Mantuan bard, Virgil, with the ground- 
 work of his very beautiful, and in many respects faithful descrip- 
 tions of these insects, and their management. We have since 
 them Columella and others, and in more modem times an actual 
 host of writers, amongst whom I may mention Prince Frederick 
 
THE HONEY-BEE AND ITS THREE CLASSES, 9 
 
 Ceci, Swammerdam, Boerhave, Wildman, Reaumur, Huber, 
 Huish, Nutt, Cotton, Briggs, with a host of other and eminent 
 names, to many of whom, but to Mr. Briggs in particular, I have 
 to acknowledge myself indebted, for some of the suggestions 
 conveyed in the course of these pages, which it is to be hoped 
 may prove as useful as it is my earnest desire they should, and I 
 sincerely trust that no obstinate attachment to old usages, or dis- 
 like to encounter the very trifling degree of trouble consequent 
 on a change of management, will prevent their being, at all events, 
 taken into consideration. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE BONEY-BEE AND ITS THREE CLASSES. 
 
 The Honey-bee belongs to the social family of the Apidae (from 
 Apis, the Latin for bee), to the order, fifth of insecta, termed 
 Hymenoptera, and including all insects possessing four mem- 
 branaceous, gauze-like wings, of unequal sizes, furnished also 
 with a sting, or process at the extremity of the tail, resembling 
 one. The interesting family of bees now under consideration, is 
 known peculiarly as the Apis Mellifica, Honey-making or Honey- 
 bee — not that this species alone makes honey, but that it is the 
 one so long known to man, and which has so long yielded to him 
 its rich store of sweets. 
 
 Of the family of the Honey-bee there are two varieties to be 
 met with in Europe — one inhabiting the north, and the other the 
 south ; the principal diflFerence, however, would appear to consist 
 in color, the southern bee having the rings encircling his body of 
 a deeper red color ; the description, consequently, of the common 
 Hive-bee of the British Islanck will apply, sufficiently for every 
 practical purpose, to both insects. 
 
 The number of bees contained in a hive will, of course, vary 
 with their condition, and the amount of accommodation they 
 possess : whatever, however, be their numbers, their occupations 
 are alike, and are similarly distributed amongst the three classes 
 composing the inmates of the hive. These classes are, first, the 
 Queen-bee, the sovereign of the community, and literally, the 
 prohfic parent of her subjects. The Queen-bee reigns alone ; 
 1* 
 
10 THE HIVE ANT) THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 but one of her sex is permitted to exist in a hive at the one time, 
 and to her protection and comfort are the 
 , energies of the other bees to be directed. 
 The Queen-bee may be recognized by her 
 greater length of body, which is of a 
 blackish color above, and of a yellowish 
 tint beneath. She is usually, but not by 
 any means invariably, of a larger size than 
 either of the other classes ; her abdomen 
 contains two ovaries, or receptacles for eggs ; and her sting is of 
 a curved form. The Queen-bee commences depositing her eggs 
 when about five days old ; during the heat of the season she lays 
 from 150 to 200 eggs per day, and lays with little or no inter- 
 mission from early Spring to the middle of Autumn. The pro- 
 gress of her eggs from their deposition to maturity, shall be 
 treated of elsewhere. 
 
 The second class of bees are the Drones. These are bulkier 
 in the body than either the Queen or the Working-bee. Their 
 head is rounder, proboscis shorter, eyes 
 fuller, an additional articulation to the 
 ) antennse, >nd no sting. They also make 
 more noise in flying than the other bees. 
 The Drones are the males of the hive ; 
 by them the royal mother is impregnated 
 and her eggs fertilized. How or when 
 this intercourse takes place has long furnished philosophers with 
 a subject for controversy and inquiry ; and it has not even yet 
 been set at rest in such a manner as to admit being proved to a 
 positive demonstration. 
 
 Aristotle supposed that no such connection took place ; Swam- 
 merdam held the same opinion, but imagined that she required 
 to be in the neighborhood of the Drones, from whose bodies 
 there firoceeded to her a vivifying aura, producing fertilization. 
 It has been by some supposed that the eggs are fertilized by 
 the Droiies after having been deposited. This cannot be the 
 case, as many accurately instituted experiments satisfactorily 
 prove that eggs once laid will progress to maturity, and prove 
 fertile in the absence of Drones. 
 
 M. de Reaumur described passages which occurred between 
 the Drones and the Queen, which were sufiBcient to induce sus- 
 picions at least of somewhat more than he actually witnessed. 
 
THE HONEY-BEE AND ITS THREE CLASSES. 11 
 
 but farther, he never could ascertain. The passages to which I 
 allude are not very creditable to the royal character, from whom 
 De Reaumur states all the advances came, while the Drones ap- 
 peared cold, distant, and to prefer being let alone, destitute of 
 all gallantry, and thoroughly justifying their name. 
 
 The celebrated Huber, whose reiterated experiments and 
 close observation entitle him to the greatest confidence, is of 
 opinion that actual intercourse does take place, not, however, 
 while the parties are in the hive, but during their flight in the 
 air. This also satisfactorily explains the reason why the number 
 of drones in each hive is so great, viz., in order that the queen- 
 bee may have the greater likelihood of meeting with a consort 
 when on the wing ; it is also probable that the drones perform 
 some yet unexplained functions relative to the young or larvse. 
 The late Mr. Nutt coincided with Mr. Huber in this opinion, 
 while at the same time he expressed his conviction that this will 
 ever remain a debateable point. Mr. Huber, likewise, was of 
 opinion that the Queen, once impregnated, remained so during 
 her life ; and that as she exists for some years, the Drones are 
 called into existence for the purpose of fecundating the young 
 Queens, or supernumeraries — insects kept as it were in reserve — 
 lest she which first comes forth should prove sterile, or meet 
 with any casualty. During the working season, especially the 
 months of May, June, and July, when the working bees are con- 
 tinually absent from the hive, the presence of the Drones is per- 
 haps requisite for some offices they may render the larvse ; but 
 whether they are spared for that purpose, or are, contrary to 
 Ruber's opinion, still requisite for the impregnation of the Queen, 
 I am not prepared to say ; but the fact remains the same, that 
 at the end of summer they are ignominiously expelled the hive, 
 and even slain by the workers, as if they, being of no longer any 
 utility to the community, should not be fed from the store during 
 winter, and were killed to avoid this unnecessary waste. This 
 destruction usually takes place in August or the end of July. 
 
 During summer, the Drones remain dispersed through differ- 
 ent parts of the hive, but towards its close they assemble to- 
 gether in companies, as if preparing for their impending fate, 
 which they await in patience, or rather, perhaps, in motion- 
 less lethargy. When the attack commences, they resist 
 to their utmost ; from the number of their executioners, how- 
 
12 THE HIVE AND THE HOlfET-BEE. 
 
 ever, and their own deficiency, not being furnished vrith a sting, 
 they have not a shadow of chance. 
 
 It is, perhaps, unnecessary to observe that the Drones do not 
 work for the support of the hive, but lead an idle life, feeding 
 upon the produce of others' labor. 
 
 We now come to the most interesting inmate of the hive — the 
 Working-Bbb. 
 
 The Working-bee is considerably less 
 than either the Queen-bee or the Drone. 
 It is about half an inch in length, of a 
 blackish brown color, covered with closely 
 set hairs all over the body, which aid it in 
 carrying the farina it gathers from the 
 flowers ; and on the tihia, or forearm, as it 
 were, of the hind leg, is a cavity of cup- 
 like form, for the reception of the little kneaded ball of pollen. 
 It is the Working-bee which collects honey and pollen, and 
 which forms the cells, cleans out the hive, protects the Queen, 
 looks after the condition of the young brood, destroys or expels 
 the Drones, when these are no longer necessary to the well-being 
 of the community ; who, in short, performs all offices connected 
 with the hive and its contents, save only those which have refer- 
 ence to the reproduction of the species. The Working-bees are 
 of no sex, and are furnished with a homy and hollow sting, 
 through which pobon is ejected into the wound it makes ; this 
 poison is of an acrid character, and of great power in its effects, 
 proving fatal to any insect, and instances being on record of its 
 proving so to horses and cattle, nay, even to human beings : 
 ■when human beings, however, are stung (an accident that will 
 happen very seldom, if they use the precautions, in manipulating 
 with their bees, that shall be detailed in the course of this 
 volume), they can instantaneously obtain relief by pressing upon 
 the point stung with the tube of a key ; this will extract the 
 sting, and relieve the pain, and the application of common spirits 
 of hartshorn will instantaneously remove it ; the poison being of 
 an acid nature, and being thus at once neutralized by the appli- 
 cation of this penetrating and volatile alkali. 
 
 I may here describe the structure of the bee. The one descrip- 
 tion answering, with some exceptions, to be pointed out as I pro- 
 ceed, for the three classes — Queen — Drone — and Workers. 
 
 The bee is, like insects generally (which derivp their name 
 
THE HONEY-BEE AND ITS THREE CLASSES. 13 
 
 from two Latin words, signifying cut in parts, or divided), com- 
 posed of three parts — the head, thorax or chest, and abdomen. 
 The shape of the head varies somewhat, as also does its size, in 
 the three classes ; it is attached to the thorax by a thin liga- 
 ment, and the thorax is attached in a similar manner to the ab- 
 domen. In front of the head are two eyes, which are protected 
 by hairs from any substances that might otherwise injure them, 
 and on the top of the head are three smaller eyes. This visual 
 apparatus renders the bee's power of sight a very extended one. 
 Tiwo feelers, or antennae, spring from between the front eyes, and 
 curve outwards on each side ; these are endowed with a very 
 acute sense of touch, and doubtless perform many of the offices 
 of eyes in the dark recesses of the hive. It is probably by the 
 assistance of these delicate and highly sensitive organs that 
 these insects form their combs, fill their cells, and feed the 
 young. I am of opinion also, that they serve as a medium by 
 means of which the bees convey intelligence to each other. 
 
 The mouth of the bee is composed of a pair of mandibles, or 
 jaws, which open vertically, and act (opening and shutting) to 
 the right and left. These are furnished with teeth at their ex- 
 tremities. The mouth is also furnished with a very minute 
 tongue, and with a long, slender instrument, called a proboscis, 
 or trunk, resembling in form and use that of the elephant ; it is 
 composed of numerous cartilaginous rings, fringed with minute 
 hairs. This instrument does not, however, act as a tube, but by 
 rolling about and attaching to the hairs which fringe it, whatever 
 substances the insect wishes to convey to the mouth ; fiom about 
 the base of the proboscis also arise the labial feelers, as they are 
 called, which are also furnished with a hairy fringe. 
 
 The bee possesses three pair of legs, of which the posterior 
 are the longest, and the anterior the shortest. These are formed 
 and articulated much like the same limbs in man, and are at- 
 tached to the thorax ; at their extremities we find two little 
 hooks, which appear like sickles, or reaping hooks, and have 
 their points opposed to each other. By means of these, the in- 
 sect suspends itself to the top of the hive, or in any other posi- 
 tion it may desire. I have already mentioned the basket-like 
 provision on the hinder thighs of the workers — ^it is peculiar to, 
 and characteristic of them. 
 
 To the superior portion of the thorax are attached four wings, 
 consisting of two pair of unequal size. These wings are hooked 
 
14 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 together, in order that they may act simultaneously, and not 
 only serve to convey the insects from place to place, through 
 the air, but by the humming, buzzing noise their motion pro- 
 duces, to give notice of their departure from, and return to, the 
 hive, as well as possibly to animate their fellows in their mutual 
 labors. 
 
 Interiorly, the thorax contains the oesophagus, or gullet, 
 which traverses its extent on its way into the abdomen, where 
 it dilates into, first, the honey-bag, which is furnished with two 
 pouches posteriorly, and a muscular apparatus, by which it is 
 enabled to give forth its saccharine contents; and, secondly, 
 into the true stomach, in which digestion goes on for the nourish- 
 ment of the insect, and the secretion of wax. 
 
 Next to the stomach is situated the sting : this consists of 
 two darts enclosed in a sheath. The whole apparatus enters the 
 wound, and the two small darts then enter still farther : these 
 are barbed, and, on the insect withdrawing them, aid in widen- 
 ing the puncture, and thus afford greater room for the introduc- 
 tion of the poison. At the base of the sting, the bag containing 
 the poison is placed ; this fluid is, as already stated, an acid, but 
 further than that it is so, has not been ascertained. 
 
 The bee respires by means of spiracles, or breathing-holes, 
 situated in the thorax, beneath and behind the wings. Through 
 these, air is admitted into the thorax, for the purpose of oxy- 
 genating the circulating system : for oxygen is no less essential 
 to the well being of the bee — nay, to its very existence — than it 
 is to that of man. Will not this convince every reader of the 
 necessity which exists for duly ventilating the hives, or bee- 
 boxes ? — an operation so much neglected, and yet so important 
 a feature, as I shall show hereafter, in the proper and remune- 
 rative management of these insects. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ARCHITECTURE OF THE HONEY-BEE, AND ECONOMY OF THE HFVE. 
 
 When a new swarm of bees establish themselves in a hive, or 
 other receptacle, whether natural or artificial, their first proceed- 
 ing is to cleanse the interior thoroughly, and carefully to stop up 
 
ARCHITECTURE AND ECONOMY OP THE HIVE, ft 
 
 every chink tliat might admit the weather : the substance which 
 they employ for the latter purpose, and which likewise forms the 
 basis of their comb, is called propolis, and is quite distinct from 
 wax. Even the ancients appear to have recognized the distinc- 
 tion between wax and propolis ; for Virgil particularly describes 
 two sorts of wax, one of a character adapted for smearing (this 
 was the true wax), the other for cementing or glueing — this was 
 the substance we now know as propolis. This is a resinous sub- 
 stance of a greyish-brown color, and aromatic odor, and possessed 
 of singular tenacity. Huber first showed that the bees collect 
 this substance from the alder, birch, and willow trees, but espe- 
 cially from the poplar. A small filmy thread of the viscous pro- 
 duce of the tree is drawn off by the bee, and carefully kneaded 
 into a ball by the action of the matidibles, after which it is secured 
 in the basket which I have described as existing on the hinder 
 legs : so tenacious is this substance, that on the laden bee's arriv- 
 ing at the hive, it requires the united efibrts of many bees to dis- 
 engage the load from the receptacle in which it has been placed ; 
 it also rapidly hardens ; the bees, therefore, use it at once while 
 it is yet fresh and plastic. It is with this substance, also, that 
 the hive is attached to the stand on which it is placed,' and with 
 which the bees attach the comb to the hive : it is, ' however, of 
 wax that the cells are formed. 
 
 To Huber we are indebted for having been the first to commu- 
 nicate to the world the mode in which tlie cells are commenced. 
 He compelled the bees to build upwards, instead of allowing 
 them to begin in the ordinary manner from above, downwards, 
 and thus avoided the concealment of their work, attendant on 
 their usual suspension from the top of the hive. A glass window 
 did the rest. 
 
 Mr. Huber's discoveries are astonishing and interesting in the 
 extreme. The combs formed by the bee, when permitted to 
 follow its natural instinct, are commenced from the top of the hive, 
 and consist of parallel plates of comb, having cells on both sides, 
 the one base, therefore, serving for both, which effects a great sav- 
 ing of material. The form of each cell is hexagonal, having six 
 equal sides, with the exception of the uppermost row, the shape 
 of which is an irregular pentagon. 
 
 Here we must pause for a moment to wonder and admire — to 
 admire the extraordinary instinct the Almighty has implanted in 
 the bodies of these little insects. The chief requisites to be looked 
 
18 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE; 
 
 for in constructing the cells, would naturally be, economy of ma- 
 terials, of room, of labor, and the greatest possible quantity of 
 internal space. M. De Reaumur employed the celebrated mathe- 
 matician, Koenig, pupil of the no less celebrated Bernouilli, to 
 ascertain what the measurement of the angles composing these 
 prisms should be, in order to obtain the above requisites ; and 
 the result of his calculations showed the exquisite nicety with 
 which instinct enabled the bees to work. I shall explain in the 
 words of Dr. Bevan : — 
 
 " The partition which separates the two opposing rows of cells, 
 and which occupies, of course, the middle distance between their 
 two surfaces, is not a plane, but a collection of rhombs, there 
 being three at the bottom of each cell ; the three together form 
 in shape a flattened pyramid, the basis of which is turned towards 
 the mouth of the cell ; each cell is in form, therefore, a hexagonal 
 prism, terminated by a flattened trihedral pyramid, the three sides 
 of which pyramid are rhombs, that meet at the apex by their 
 obtuse angles. 
 
 " The union of the lozenges in one point, in addition to the 
 support which it is the means of afibrding to the three partitions 
 between opposing cells, is also admirably adapted to receive the 
 little egg, and to concentrate the heat necessary for its incubation. 
 Each obtuse angle of the lozenge or rhombs forms an angle of 
 110 degrees, and each acute one an angle of about 70 degrees. 
 M. Maraldi found, by mensuration, that the angles of these rhombs, 
 which compose the base of a cell, amounted to 109 degrees and 
 28 seconds, and 70 degrees and 32 seconds ; and the famous 
 mathematician, Koenig, pupil of the celebrated Bernouilli, having 
 been employed for that purpose by M. Reaumur, has clearly 
 shown, by the method of infinitesimals, that the quantity of these 
 angles, using the least possible wax, in the cell of the same ca- 
 pacity, should contain 109 degrees 26 seconds, and 10 degrees 
 and 24 seconds. This was confirmed by the celebrated Mr. Mac 
 Lauren, who very justly observes, that bees do truly construct 
 their cells of the best figure, and with the utmost mathematical 
 exactness." It will be seen, then, that, in their architecture, the 
 bees obtain the requisites wliich I above enumerated. 
 
 Perhaps the following is the most wonderful of Huber's dis- 
 coveries : The design of every comb is sketched out, and the rudi- 
 ments laid by one single bee, who forms a block from a rough mass 
 of wax, from materials furnished him by hosts of indusiriom 
 
ABCHITEOTUEE AND ECONOMY OF THE HIVE, 17 
 
 woril^Qicn ; determines the relative position of llie combs, and 
 their distances from each other,; attaches the blocks to the hives, 
 and then leaves his inferior architects to, go to work, and form the 
 cells. One bee does not complete any cell ; but these insects re- 
 lie,ve each other in succession, to the number of from fifteen to 
 twenty, until the last finishing polish is given to the work. The 
 cells designed for the drones are built with due reference to their 
 superior size, and ai-e usually near the bottom of the combs. 
 The royal cells are built last, are usually from five to ten in num- 
 ber, and placed near the centre of the hive : these are designed 
 as receptacles for the infant queens. I should not omit observing, 
 that, while one set of workers are forming the comb and cells, 
 another set are busy flying to and fro, collecting materials, and 
 bringing them to the hives. Kcp: do they furnish- their architec- 
 tural brethren with materials only ; they supply them with food 
 also, and with the sweets from which they likew:ise elaborate wax 
 in their interior. . 
 
 The royal cells differ in form and dimensions from the others. 
 They are much larger ; more wax is expended on their formation ; 
 their form is not hexagonal, but an oblong spheroid ; the mouth, 
 which is at bottom, is left open until the grub is ready to undergo 
 its transformations, when it is closed like the rest ; and imme- 
 diately on a perfected queen emerging from her cradle, it is de- 
 stroyed, and its site built upon with common cells. Nor are the 
 royal cells built in among the other cells, but attached to them 
 externally, suspended perpendicularly, with their sides parallel to 
 the orifices of the common cells. 
 
 The bees occasionally depart from the regular form of their 
 cells, and in doing so exhibit something so. nearly resembling de- 
 sign as to become absolutely startling to the observer. These 
 deviations appear when, after having formed a number of small 
 cells, the bees wish to form larger ones — they may be termed 
 cells of transition ; their bases are composed of two rhombs and 
 two hexagons, instead of three. Reaumur and others have re- 
 garded .this departure from regularity as a proof of imperfection. 
 Dr. Bevan justly looks upon it as " determined by a sufficient 
 motive," and forming " no impeachment of the sagacity of the 
 bee." 
 
 The cells are by no means used indiscriminately for all the pur- 
 poses of the hive : there are, on the contrary, as I have shown, 
 cells peculiar to the royal brood : there are also cells peculiarly 
 
18 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 kept for the young workers, and others for the young drones — 
 these latter are much less numerous than those of the former : 
 there are likewise cells reserved for containing honey. It is true 
 that, when the breeding season terminates, the cells of the drones 
 and workers are generally well cleansed out, and these also em- 
 ployed as receptacles for'honey, but the honey preserved in them 
 is never so pure or fine in quality as that which has been kept in 
 its own peculiar storehouses : some of the cells are also kept 
 apart for holding pollen ; these are of large size. Pollen is not, 
 as Reaumur erroneously conceived, the sole substance on which 
 depends the formation of wax — if, indeed, it have anything at all 
 to do with that process. It is eaten by the bees, forms a large 
 portion of the food for the young, and may possibly thus lend its 
 quota of assistance to the general elaboration. 
 
 To give some idea of the extreme thinness of the walls of the 
 cells, I may mention that two of them laid together are not equal 
 in thickness to a leaf of ordinary letter-paper ; yet not only are 
 they first formed, independent and sufficiently strong, of wax 
 alone, with a basis of propolis, but are likewise subsequently coated 
 over with a mixture of propolis and wax. The soldering at the 
 orifice of each cell is formed with a large proportion of propolis ; 
 according as each cell is filled with its appropriate contents, it is 
 carefully covered in. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 GENERATION OF THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 As SOON as the severity of winter has passed away, and the 
 genial influences of spring have begun to be felt, the queen-bee 
 commences laying ; and a hive, however it may have lost in num- 
 ber during winter, will by "the middle of summer be crowded to 
 excess, and, unless properly managed, throw off a swarm. The 
 queen continues to lay until about September, and as she is calcu- 
 lated to deposit nearly 200 eggs per day, my readers may form 
 some idea of the prodigious number she deposits in an entire sea- 
 son. This has by many authors been calculated at from 8,000 
 to 10,000, which I think much under the mark. 
 
 Wherever the queen-bee moves, she is attended by ten or a 
 
GENERATION OF THE HONEY-BEE. 19 
 
 dozen woi-kers, who -watch her every motion apparently with the 
 utmost attention. Previous to depositing the egg, the queen puts 
 her head into the cell for a moment, as if. to ascertain its empti- 
 ness and fitness otherwise to receive its charge. If she find 
 everything satisfactory, she then turns round, introduces her pos- 
 terior extremity until it almost touches the bottom of the cell, 
 and lays the eggs. Mr. Wildman says, that while thus occupied, 
 the attendant bees, surrounding her in a circle, perform a sort of 
 obeisance, and caress her with their feet and trunks. I am dis- 
 posed to think this a little fanciful ; I have never witnessed any 
 such demonstration myself, but it is possible that my observation 
 may have been defective. When she has deposited one egg, she 
 goes on to another cell, and so on, and after laying about ten 
 eggs in succession, she retires for awhile, and then resumes her 
 prolific employment. The egg remains without undergoing any 
 apparent change for about four days, when it gradually assumes 
 the form and aspect of a little maggot, changing in the same 
 manner as the caterpillar. This little maggot is nouiished by 
 the bees until the eighth day, by which time it has grown so 
 much as to occupy the whole cell, when they close up the cell, 
 and imprison its inmate for about twelve days more, during which 
 time it undergoes gradual transformation until it becomes a 
 nymph or aurelia, presenting the appearance of a perfect fly, 
 except in being soft and white in color. 
 
 The white pellicle which envelopes the nymph now gradually 
 strips ofi^, and about the twentieth day the perfect fly is ready to 
 attempt extricating itself from its confinement. This object she 
 speedily attains by cutting round the cover with her mandibles. 
 
 On first emerging from the cell, the young bee appears weak 
 and lethargic, doubtless from the novelty of its situation and the 
 eflFects of the new medium by which it is surrounded. It soon, 
 however, acquires vigor, and the very first day of its entrance 
 into the world it may be seen returning from the fields, emulating 
 its elder bom comrades in the richness and quantity of the sweet 
 burden with which it is laden. 
 
 As soon as the young bee has left the cell, two workers come 
 to it, one of which draws out and works up the wax of which it 
 was composed, while the other repairs it, restores its symmetry, 
 and cleans out its interior. Sometimes new eggs are deposited 
 in these cells the same day, and sometimes they are filled with 
 
20 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 honey or farina. When five days old, the young bee, if a queen, 
 is ready to commence the office of a mother. . 
 
 In the event of the eggs being designed to produce drones, 
 their changes present precisely the same phenoBiena^as in the 
 case of workers, except that they take more time, requiring, 
 twenty-four days for the change. Huber states that the eggs of, 
 the males require eleven months to be perfected in the ovaria of 
 the queen, and assigns this as a reason why the eggs of workers 
 continue to be deposited for eleven months before the queen 
 commences depositing those of Drones. There are, however, 
 some facts which at least throw some doubt on this suggestion ; 
 among others, that if a young queen be not impregnated within 
 twenty days after her emergence from the cell, all her subse- 
 quent progeny will be drones, and drones only. I am not aware 
 that any naturalist has yet attempted an explanation of this very 
 remarkable fact. The eggs of the queen differ in, no respects, 
 when laid, from those of workers or drones, but they are deposit-ii 
 ed in peculiarly formed cells, already described ; but when, the 
 larva appears on the fourth day, and from that time, extraordi- 
 nary attention is bestowed upon it, and it is fed upon a peculiar 
 substance, a sort of rich jelly of an acid character. In five days 
 the royal larva commences forming her web, and the nurses close 
 up her cell. In four and twenty hours she has completed her 
 cocoon, in which state she remains for nearly three days. She is 
 then pupa aurelia or nymph, and after five or six days more the 
 royal insect is perfect. The young queen does not, however, 
 like the other bees, begin at once to extricate herself from her 
 cradle ; her cell is, on the other hand, now more securely fasten- 
 ed than ever. But one reigning monarch is permitted to exist in 
 the hive, and it is only in the event of the old queen dying, or 
 issuing forth with a swarm, that the young aspirant to the throne 
 is discharged from captivity. So strong is the instinct which 
 prompts the bees to permit but the presence of a single sovereign 
 in each hive, that the old queen makes frequent attempts to get 
 at the royal cells ; if she succeed in doing so, she will rend them 
 open, and furiously destroy their contents ; and the moment a 
 young queen is suffered to depart from her cell, her very first 
 act is to destroy her yet unreleased, and often undeveloped, 
 royal sisters. It occasionally happens that two queens emerge 
 at the same time ; when this occurs a mortal combat ensues, 
 which only terminates in the death of one of the combatants — 
 
GENBEATION OF THE HONEY-BEE. 21 
 
 the workers meanwhile looking quietly on, not only not interfer- 
 ing to put a stop to the conflict, but actually, should one or both 
 appear anxious to give up the struggle, hemming them round, 
 and will permit of no compromise, but compel the rivals to bring 
 the affair to a deadly issue. It very rarely happens that both 
 queens perish in the encounter, for such is their instinctive dread 
 of leaving the community unprovided with a sovereign, that 
 should they, in the engagement, get into such a position in refer- 
 ence to each other, as would permit of mutually plunging their 
 stings into each other's bellies, the only point where they are 
 vulnerable, they hastily disengage, and do not use their stings un- 
 less when one queen can take the other at a disadvantage. 
 Even, however, should such a casualty occur as the death of both 
 queens, or should any other accident occasion a hive to be de- 
 prived of its queen, the bees possess a most wonderful power of 
 supplying the deficiency. 
 
 The bees do not at once discover the loss of their queen, but 
 when they do, all is tumult and confusion, these insects humming 
 loudly, and hurrying hither and thither over the combs in a state 
 of apparent distraction. If there be any royal nymphs ready to 
 be released, one is at once set free — if only royal larvae exist, 
 their attention is at once devoted to them ; but now comes the 
 wonderful portion of the matter. If the bees possess only the 
 larvae of working bees they at once enlarge their cells, converting 
 them into royal cradles, for which purpose they pull to pieces 
 whatever cells are in the way, unhesitatingly sacrifloihg life after 
 life to the great end they have in view : these larvte, by peculiar 
 feeding, become converted into queens. It was that close ob- 
 server, Schirach, who first made this singular discovery, the 
 truth of which was subsequently confirmed by Huber I quote 
 his account : " I put some pieces of comb, containing worker's 
 eggs in the cells, of the same kind as those already hatched, 
 into a hive deprived of the queen. The same day several cells 
 were enlarged by the bees, and converted into royal cells, and 
 the worms supplied with a thick bed of jelly. Five were then 
 removed from these cells, and five common worms, which, forty- 
 eight hours before, we had seen come from the egg, substituted 
 for them. The bees did not seem aware of the change ; they 
 watched over the new worms the same as over those chosen by 
 themselves ; they continued enlarging the cells, and closed them 
 at the usual time. When they had hatched them seven days. 
 
22 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 we removed the cells to see the queens that were to be produc- 
 ed. Two were excluded, almost at the same moment, of the 
 largest size, and well formed in every respect. The term of the 
 other cells having elapsed, and no queen appearing, we opened 
 them. In one was a dead queen, but still a nymph ; the other 
 two were empty. The worms had spun their silk cocoons, but 
 died before passing into their nymphine state, and presented 
 only a dry skin. I can conceive nothing more conclusive than 
 this experiment. It demonstrates that bees have the power of 
 converting the worms of workers into queens, since they succeed- 
 ed in procuring queens by operating on the worms which we 
 ourselves had selected." 
 
 Huber hkewise proved by experiment that the working-bees 
 occasionally become endued with fertility, this taking place only 
 in hives which have been deprived of their queen, and altogether 
 he came to the conclusion that a development of the ovaries can 
 be given to any bees by feeding them on the royal food, a won- 
 derful provision, by which nature has secured the industrious in- 
 habitants of the hive from the eflfects of unexpected contingen- 
 cies, which would otherwise be attended with disastrous results. 
 
 " When bees," says Huber, " give the royal treatment to cer- 
 tain worms, they, either by accident, or by a peculiar instinct, the 
 principle of which is unknown to me, drop some particles of 
 royal jelly into cells contiguous to those containing the worms 
 destined for queens." 
 
 It will occasionally happen, however, that a queen is lost when 
 no eggs of any kind in a fit state of transformation exist in the 
 hive. When such is the case, the bees discontinue the collection 
 of honey ; live riotously on whatever is left in the hive, while 
 that lasts ; fly about with no apparent object, and soon either 
 perish or seek a home elsewhere. If, however, they be supplied 
 with a new queen, they revive ; but if they appear much reduced 
 in numbers, it is better to join them to another stock. 
 
 It has been suggested that this power possessed by bees of 
 manufacturing queens in cases of necessity, might be taken ad- 
 vantage of for the purpose of forming artificial stocks. I do not, 
 however, see either the necessity or utihty of so doing. One 
 strong stock is ever worth three weak ones ; and union not scat- 
 tering — giving the bees plenty of house-room, according as they 
 may require it, instead of partitioning them into insignificant and 
 feeble colonies, is the only line of conduct towards them that 
 
POSITION OF THE APIARY. 23 
 
 may be expected to keep the hive wealthy, and consequently 
 bring profit to its human proprietor. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 POSITION OF THE APIARY. 
 
 The most favorable aspect for your hives or boxes is south- 
 westerly ; but if you can so contrive as to reserve to yourself a 
 power of modifying this aspect with the season, so much the 
 better. In spring, for instance, the aspect would be improved 
 by inclining more to the west ; in autumn the reverse. My rea- 
 son for this recommendation is, that the mominc/ sun is prejudi- 
 cial to the interests of the hive, not from any inherent bad qua- 
 Uty in its rays, but because when the bees are so placed as to 
 receive the early light, they are tempted forth too early — an 
 event objectionable on two accounts ; first, that, especially in 
 early spring, the dawn is too cold, and will occasion the death of 
 numbers if they are induced to venture forth ; and secondly, be- 
 cause the bees, if they commence operations so early, become 
 wearied before they have performed a good day's work, and the 
 afternoon is a more advantageous period for their labors. I shall 
 afterwards treat of " shifting" — a subject which has produced 
 considerable controversy among bee-fanciers. 
 
 The place where you intend to fix your stand must be a dry 
 soil — if sandy, so much the better. . It should slope towards the 
 front, in order to carry oiF the surface water produced by occa- 
 sional rains, and should hot, on any account, be exposed to the 
 droppings from the eaves of houses, or even hedges. Shelter is 
 essential, especially behind, and on the east of the hives, a house 
 or high wall is the best you can procure ; and I am also an advo- 
 cate for the stand being placed in a sort of small, open shed, well 
 painted on the outside to protect it from the weather ; a few 
 shrubs planted about the stand are also good as additional shel- 
 ter. Some recommend high trees for the purpose of keeping the 
 air calm, lest the bees should be blown down when returning 
 home. Sigh trees axe not advisable ; they form an evil them- 
 selves of greater magnitude than that which they may be de- 
 signed to remove. Bees are seldom blown to the ground by mere 
 
24 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 wind ; but even when they are, they can, in a great majority of 
 cases, recover themselves. Whereas, if blown amongst trees, 
 they will be sure to be whipped so violently by the branches, 
 that they are absolutely hurled to the ground with such force as 
 to render their recovery hopeless. The boes also fly low on their 
 return, when they arrive at the immediate neighborhood of their 
 stand, and, consequently, high trees would be not only useless, 
 but absolutely inconvenient. Whatever trees you wish, therefore, 
 to plant in tlie immediate vicinity of the hive should be of low 
 size. Wildman recommends them — and I think very judiciously 
 — to be " of the dwarf kind, with bushy heads, in order that the 
 swarms which settle on them may be more easily hived." Now 
 although by judicious management swarming will generally be 
 prevented from taking place, yet despite of our utmost care it 
 may accidentally occur ; or the bees may quit their boxes in a 
 body, from various causes — some of which I shall endeavor here- 
 after to explain — and under Such circumstances, Mr. Wildman's 
 suggestions willbe found valuable. The garden, therefore, in 
 which you fix your stands should be thus planted ; and I further, 
 for the same reasons, recommend wall fruit trees and espaliers. 
 
 Avoid a site near mills or other noisy places, or the neighbor- 
 hood of bad sm'ellsj ag factories and the like ; and if, as occasion- 
 ally may happen, your stand' be placed against your garden wall, 
 behind which is the farniTyard, let not a dunghill be built against 
 the opposite side. I have witnessed this before now, and in one 
 instance found the consequence to b6 a desertion of the boxes. 
 Do not place your stand where you. see rat or mouse holes, and 
 let your shed be all of wood, never thatched with straw, as that sub- 
 stance harbors mice, moths, and other similar enemies to your stock. 
 
 Water is essential to the well-being of your bees; it must, 
 however, be presented to them, judiciously, or it will prove a 
 greater evil than a good.' If you can coax a shallow rippling 
 brook through your garden, so much the better ; if not, place 
 near the stand, small, shallow, earthen pans of water, and 
 put some pebbles in them. This water must be changed 
 daily. It is highly objectionable to have a pond or canal 
 in your neighborhood : you will lose thousands of your bees 
 through their means every season, as they will be constantly 
 blown into them when returning heavily laden to the hive, es- 
 pecially in the evening, when wearied after the toil of an indus- 
 triously-spent day. The pebbles in the trough are for the bees 
 
POSITION OF Tm^ APIARY. ^ 
 
 to rest on while drinking, and are the recommendation of Colu- 
 mella. I haye seen tin plates perforated with holes, and placed 
 over the pans, just on the surface of the water, used for drinking- 
 vessels for bees ; I, however, prefer the pebbles. 
 
 It is essential that you have your gardens abundantly planted 
 with such shrubs and flowers as afford honey, in order, as much 
 as possible, to prevent the necessity of your bees constantly 
 traveling to an inconvenient distance in search of food. It will 
 be as well also that you contrive to have a succession of such 
 food, adapted to the season, a matter comparatively easily man- 
 aged and of very great consequence to the well-being of your 
 stock. Among these plants I may enumerate broom ; furze or 
 gorse ; thyme, especially lemon thyme ; clover ; crocus ; heaths ; 
 fruit-trees; mustard; mignionette ; sage; single roses; radish- 
 es; primroses; privet; parsley ; pease and parsnips; marigolds; 
 violets ; lily ; laurustjnum ; daflfodils ; celery ; cauUflower ; as- 
 paragus ; sunflowers, &c. Mr. Nli.tt has given a very copious list 
 of bee flowers in his work on bees, buf f think many of tiheiji 
 might be omitted without any loss. Mr. Briggs, a most enthusi- 
 astic bee-fancier, mentions also as good bee-flowers — phacelia U- 
 nacitifolia; salvia nemorosa ; lithry,m, salicaria ; winter aconite ; 
 hepatica and vfall-flpwers ; borage, winter vetches, ivy, a few 
 perches of turnips running to seed in spring, and a succession of 
 crops of buckwheat during summer and autumn. Mr. Briggs 
 also mentions a plant sp very valuat),le to bees that it is only a 
 pity it is not more generally known, viz., melilotus lbucantha, 
 \yhich, with bokjvge, he seems to think the most important of 
 bee-flo5vers. Mr. Briggs ^sidds that the former, for bee purposes, 
 " should be sown in March or the beginning of April, On a deep, 
 rich, and dry loamy soil, in drilj|^ jabout eighteen inches apart, and 
 .tfhe plants thinned to nine or ten inches' distance from each other. 
 It ^illgrow from six to eight feet in height during the first sum- 
 mer, and from ten to twelve .during the seqond. xi some plants 
 of it are cut down to the sroui^d, when about two feet in height, 
 they will bloom latter in t^ .summer-;-a succession oif them m^y 
 be had from June l;o Jjfoyen^her, ajid.they ^will be frecLuented by 
 tljousaiids of bees during .every [fine day throug^ovit the season. 
 Mr. Briggs has, with unusual generosity, distribute(i quantities 
 of this valuable seed to bee fenciers, so that there can be no dif- 
 ficulty in obtaining it. 
 
 While I recommend the sowing of such seeds as will produce 
 % 
 
26 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 plants beneficial and grateful to the bees, I have also to observe 
 that there are plants which prove noxious to them or to the con- 
 sumers of their produce ; sometimes to one, sometimes to both. 
 Xenophon mentions, in the Anabasis, that soldiers of his army 
 ■were poisoned by honeycomb they found near Trebizond ; and 
 M. Tournefort, a traveler through that country, discovered a 
 plant called " chamaerhododehdron, mespili folio," a plant closely 
 resembling the honeysuckle in smell, which produced effects iden- 
 tical with those described by Xenophon, namely intoxication, 
 vertigo, stupor ; the men affected recovering from their illness in 
 about three or four days. 
 
 Recollect also that your hives should on no account be so 
 placed as to be exposed to the noonday sun^this will injure the 
 honey and melt it, and will raise the temperature of the hive so 
 as to produce unwished-for swarming, besides otherwise annoy- 
 ing and injuring the bees. A few shrubs, therefore, should be 
 so placed as to cast their shadow across your stand during the 
 heat of the day ; you may also let these shrubs be of such a de- 
 scription as the bees are fond of — you will thus effect a double 
 object ; and you may also dispose them tastefully, so as to give 
 your apiary a pleasing and picturesque appearance. 
 
 Finally, I object to bee-houses, whose chief recommendation is 
 set forward as consisting of their capacity for containing a ffreat 
 number of hives — these are only fit for keeping the bee-boxes in 
 during winter — one, two, or three sets of collateral boxes are as 
 many as any moderate bee-keeper will desire, or be able conveni- 
 ently to attend, and these can be kept, each in a little shed by 
 itself. Beehives should never be placed close to each other, as 
 they must necessarily be in these houses, for bees are naturally 
 very irritable and pugnacious insects, and if two colonies be kept 
 too near each other, battles will ensue, and the weaker hive be 
 destroyed. If you persist, therefore, in using hives, at all events 
 let them be at least three feet apart — but I shall show you in 
 the next chapter, how you can make for yourselves collateral 
 boxes, suflScient for success, and for so little money, if indeed you 
 are called upon for any outlay, that I think 1 shall be able to 
 wean you altogether from the old and unprofitable straw basket. 
 
HIVES AND BOXES. 27 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HIVES AND BOXES. 
 
 The old straw, conical-shaped hive is too well known to need 
 description, and is too unprofitable to be worthy of it. I may 
 merely observe, that its mode of management was simple enough, 
 consisting only in leaving the bees to themselves until autumn, 
 then inserting brimstone matches into the hive, suffocating its 
 miserable inhabitants, and taking, perhaps, 15 or 16 lbs. of very 
 bad honey, smeHing foully of sulphurous acid gas, and full of the 
 dead bodies of its ill-requited producers. When, about midsum- 
 mer, the temperature of the hive increased to such a degfree 
 as to become insupportable to the inmates, they swarmed, as it 
 was called, that is to say, the queen took her departure, accom- 
 panied by a certain number of her subjects, to seek a more 
 roomy residence. 
 
 The main objections to this old system of management are, its 
 inhumanity, its absurdity, and its unprofitableness. What could 
 be more inhuman than killing the poor things unnecessarily, for 
 the sake of their produce ? What would be said, did we kill 
 the cow for her milk, or calf,- or the hen for her eggs ? Indeed, 
 to nothing can I compare this practice more aptly than to the 
 man in the old fable, who killed and cut open his goose, in order 
 to come at her golden eggs. What can be more absurd than to 
 destroy in mere wantonness the lives of multitudes of creatures 
 that, if permitted to live, would be ready to resume work for you 
 the following spring? and in what is its absurdity shown so 
 plainly as in its unprofitableness ? What signify ten or fifteen 
 pounds weight of honey, or even thirty pounds weight to be 
 produced by a single stock in a season — and that, too, when 100 
 lbs. weight will be furnished, provided only that you take advicn 
 — and that honey, moreover, of superior quaUty, pure, crystal- 
 line, and limpid ?— very unlike the foul produce of a dirty straw 
 hive, copiously clogged with the bodies of your murdered bene- 
 factors. 
 
 The chief objects to be effected by the use of a suitable re- 
 ceptacle for your bees are — 
 
 First — The power of depriving your bees of their honey at 
 pleasure, and without injury to them. 
 
28 THE HIVE ASD THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 Secondly — The obtaining it in its pure and uncontaminated 
 form. • 
 
 Thirdly — The means of enlarging their accommodation when 
 necessary, and the consequent prevention of swarming. 
 
 These requisites have been recognized for a great many years 
 back ; and the humane system of management so enthusiastically 
 promulgated and insisted upon by the late Mr. N.utt, is by no 
 means novel, as it is identical in principle with that described by 
 bee-fanciers who lived more than half a century before him. As 
 Mr. Nutt's hive is in more fashionable repute at present than any 
 other with which I am acquainted, I shall give it the precedence 
 in order of description ; I shall quote Mr. Nutt's own descrip- 
 tion, from his very interesting work. 
 
 " There has been some difference of opinion as to the mo*t 
 suitable dimensions for bee-boxes. I approve of and recommefld 
 those which are from eleven to twelve inches square inside, and 
 nine or ten inches deep in the clear. 
 
 " The best wood for them is, by some, said to be red cedar ; 
 the chief grounds of preference of which wood are, its effects in 
 keeping moths out of the boxes, and its being a bad conductor 
 of heat. But of whatever kind of wood bee-boxes are made, it 
 should be well seasoned, perfectly sound, and frjee frppi what 
 cai-penters term shakes. The sides of the boxes, particularly the 
 front sides, should be, at the least, an inch and a half in thick- 
 ness ; for the ends, top, and back part, good boards one inch 
 thick, are sufficiently substantial ; the ends that form the interior 
 divisions and openings must be of half-inch stuff, well dressed off, 
 so that, when the boxes and the dividing tins are closed — :that h, 
 when they are all placed together, the two adjoining ends:shouId 
 not exceed five-eighths of an inch in thickness. These commu- 
 nication ends, the bars of which should be exactly parallel with 
 each other, form a communication or division, as the case may 
 require, which is very important to' the bee, and by which the 
 said boxes can be immediately divided, without injuring any part 
 of the combs, or deluging the bees with the liquid honey, which 
 so frequently annoys them, in extracting their sweets from the 
 piled or storified boxes. This is not the only advantage my 
 boxes possess : the receptacles, or frame-work, for the ventila- 
 tors, which appear upon each side of the end boxes — the one 
 with the cover off, the other with it on — must be four inches 
 square, with a perforated flat tin, of nearly the same size ; *nd 
 
HIVES AND BOXES, 2® 
 
 in the middle of that tin must be a round hole, to correspond 
 with the hole through the top of the box, in the centre of the 
 frame-work just mentioned, an inch in diameter, to admit the 
 perforated cyUnder tin ventilator, nine inches long. This flat tin 
 must have a smooth piece of wood, well made to fit it closely, 
 and to cover the frame- work just mentioned, so as to carry the 
 wet off ; then placing this cover over the square perforated tin, 
 your box will be secure from the action of wind and rain. The 
 perforated cylinder serves both for a ventilator, and also for a se- 
 cure and convenient receptacle for a thermometer,, at any time 
 when it is necessary to ascertiiin the temperature of the box into 
 which the cylinder is inserted. Within this frame-work, and so 
 that the perforated flat tin already described may completely 
 cover them, at each corner make a hole with a three-eighths cen- 
 tre bit, through the top of the box. These four small holes ma- 
 terially assist the ventilation, and are, in fact, an essential part 
 of it. 
 
 " We next come to the long floor, on which the three square 
 bee-boxes which constitute a set, stand collaterally. This floor 
 is the strong top of a long, shallow box, made for the express 
 purpose of supporting the three bee boxes, and must of course 
 be superficially of such dimensions as those boxes, when placed 
 collaterally, require ; or, if the bee boxes project the eighth part 
 of an inch over the ends and back of this floor box, so much the 
 better ; because the rain or wet that may at any time fall upon 
 them will drain oflf completely. For ornament, as much as for 
 use, this floor is made to project about two inches in front; but 
 this projection must be sloped, or made an inclined plane, so as 
 to carry off the wet from the front of the boxes. To the centre 
 of this projecting front, and on a plane with the edge of the part 
 cut away for the entrance of the bees into tlie pavilion, is attached 
 the alighting board, which consists of a piece of planed board, 
 six inches by three, having the two outward corners rounded off 
 a Uttle. The passage from this ahghting board into the pavilion 
 is cut, not out of the edge of the box, but out of the floor-board, 
 and should be not less than four inches in length, and about half 
 an inch in depth, or so as to make a clear half inch way under 
 the edge of the box for the bee passage. I recommend this as 
 preferable to a cut in the edge of the box; ; because, being upon 
 an inclined plane, if at any tame the wet should be driven into 
 the pavilion by a stormy wind, it would soon drain out, and th« 
 
80 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 floor become dry ; whereas, if the entrance passage be cut out 
 of the box, the rain that may, and at times will be, drifted in, 
 will be kept in, and the floor be wet for days and perhaps for 
 weeks, and be very detrimental to the bees. In depth, the floor- 
 box, measured from outside to outside, should be four inches, 
 so that, if made of three-fourth-inch deal, there may be left for 
 the depth of the box part two inches and a half. Internally it 
 is divided into three equal compartments, being one for each bee- 
 box. Admission to these compartments, or under boxes, is by 
 the drawer, or drawer-fronts, or blocks, which will be described 
 presently. 
 
 " The bottom, or open edge of each of the boxes, should be 
 well planed, and made so even and square, that they will sit 
 closely and firmly upon the aforesaid floor, and be as air-tight as 
 a good workman can make them, or technically expressed, be a 
 dead fit, all round. In the floor-board are made three small 
 openings, i. e., one near the back of each box. These openings 
 are of a semilunar shape (though any other shape would do as 
 well), the straight side of which should not exceed three inches 
 in length, and will be most convenient, if made parallel with the 
 back edge of the box, and about an inch from it. They are 
 covered by perforated, or by close, tin slides, as the circumstances 
 of your apiary may require. The drawer, the front of which 
 appears under the middle box, is of great importance, because 
 it afifords one of the greatest accommodations to the bees in the 
 boxes. In this drawer is placed, if necessity require it, a tin 
 madftto fit it, and in that tin another thin fiame, covered with book 
 muslin, or other fine strainer, which floats on the liquid deposited 
 for the sustenance of the bees. Here, then, you have a feeder, 
 containing the prepared sweet, in the immediate vicinity of the 
 mother hive, and without admitting the cold or the robbers to 
 annoy the bees. When you close the drawer thus prepared with 
 bee food, you must draw out the tin placed over the semilunar 
 aperture, which will open to the bees a way to their food in the 
 drawer beneath. The heat of the hive follows the bees into the 
 feeding apartment, which soon becomes the temperature of their 
 native hive. There the bees banquet on the proffered boon in 
 the utmost security, and in the temperature of their native domi- 
 cile. Under such favorable circumstances, it is an idle excuse, 
 not to say a want of humanity, to sufiier your bees to die for 
 want of attention to proper feeding." 
 
HIVES AND BOXES. 81 
 
 The box fronts on each side of the feeding drawer are formed 
 of a bit of talc suspended over a hole on the outside, thus per- 
 mitting egress, but precluding ingress. By means of this con- 
 trivance you are enabled to add to the number of TOur bees, 
 without alarming or annoying them, and they can likewise escape 
 when you are depriving them of one or the other of the collateral 
 boxes. This contrivance further precludes the intrusion of insect 
 enemies. 
 
 The centre is perforated on the top, and over the hole a bell 
 glass is placed, which, when the hive is filled, the bees fill with 
 honey, and it is unnecessary to add that this honey is of the 
 very purest description. Wooden fittings or covers are provided 
 for the protection of these glasses. 
 
 The bees being placed in the centre box, or pavilion, soon 
 commence operations, and^peedily fill it with honey. When full, 
 which you may ascertain by looking through a wmdow fixed in 
 the back of the box, you are to draw the tin slide which sepa- 
 rates it fiom the bell glass ; this is best done on a warm day, and 
 you should previously cut through the comb with a thin wire. 
 Before taking off the glass the operator should pause for a few 
 minutes, to observe whether there be any unusual stir among 
 the imprisoned bees, for if they do not appear alarmed, the 
 queen is among them, and, in that case, you should withdraw 
 the slide, and postpone the operation to another day. 
 
 In taking away the glass, envelope it in a silk handkerchief, 
 and remove it about ten yards from the boxes ; then place it a 
 little on one side, so as to permit the imprisoned bees to eslsape, 
 which they will do in the course of a few minutes. 
 
 When occasion requires, the bees are to be similarly admitted 
 into the side boxes, by drawing the slides, but in removing one 
 of these boxes some precautions require to be used. For in- 
 stance, open the ventilator the night previous ; this will, by 
 lowering the temperature of the hive, and admitting a current of 
 air, induce the bees to leave the box thus treated, and to con- 
 gregate in the pavilion. You may then put down the slide, and 
 let the bees remain for ten minutes or so in darkness. If the 
 queen be not in the box to be taken, any bees that may remain 
 in it will be restless and in confusion. If she should be there, 
 the commotion will be in the centre box. If the queen should 
 he in the box you intend taking, draw up tlie slide again and she 
 will soon leave it. Having emptied the full box, return it to its 
 
S2 THE HIVE JlSTi l-HE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 place. In Mr. Nutt's systeni it will be perceived that fiitrdga- 
 tion, or bee-dress (hereafter to be described), are rendered unne- 
 cessary, and that even a child may manage his boie^ with ease 
 and .safety. 
 
 The centre box, on account <jf its being the breeding place, is 
 never to be meddled with. 
 
 " Weaken not its population, but support its influence, and 
 extend it to those accommodations which no practice, expect my 
 own, has yet put into operation^ or made provision for." 
 
 The v^ue of Mr; Nutt's set of bee-boxes is unquestionable, 
 but they are, at the same time, necessarily too costly to be 
 within the reach of those whonl Providence has not seen fit to 
 bless with " golden store." Mr. Nutt's views, although possibly, 
 as far as he himself is concerned, original, were entertained by 
 bee-keepers many, many years before him. Amotig the rest, I 
 may mention Wildman, who not only used collateral boxes, but 
 even bell glasses, similar to those of Mr. Nutt ; the Rev. S. 
 White, and Madame Vicat. Mr. White evidently mismanagfed his 
 boxes, for the complaint against their utility was, that the queen 
 laid her eggs promiscuously in all of them. This would have 
 been obviated had he thought of Mr. Nutt's subsequent idea, 
 viz., of reserving one box as the seat of generation, and sepa- 
 rating it from the side boxes, until necessity called for junction, 
 by tin sliders. Not only, however, must I pronounce Mr. Nutt's 
 boxes an evident improvement upon those I have just mentioned, 
 on the score of utility and completeness, but actually also on the 
 score of simplicity; and the comparative facility with which they 
 are consequently susceptible of being worked. 
 
 Any person of common ingenuity can form for himself a Set of 
 collateral boxes, by attending to the following directions : 
 
 Take as a stand a piece of strong board ; let it be about four 
 feet long, and about two feet wide, as thick as you can procure 
 it ; place it on four legs; and let the edge project over the legs; 
 in order to prevent the incursion of insects ; plane the upper 
 surface smooth. 
 
 Make three boxes, each about ten inches square, with, of 
 course, no bottom, and have the edges of the bottomless portion 
 planed smooth, so as to lie as close as possible to the board. 
 Cut away a portion of the bottom of one side of each box, and 
 in that designed for the centre box, do so on two opposite 
 sides — these are for communication. Get two sheets of tin, or 
 
HIVES AND BOXES. S8 
 
 thin wood — a piece of a troken tea-ehest will do admirably — 
 and place one between each of the collateral boxes and the cen- 
 tre one, so as to cut off communication between them, until it is 
 desired to open it, when of course one of them is withdrawn, 
 and, at the same time, the side-box, thus opened, will be 
 pushed close to the central one. ' Let the standboard be on an 
 inclined plane, sloping towards the front, so as to throw off wet, 
 and let the said board project a couple of inches, to serve the 
 bees as a place on which to alight.. You may make a small hole, 
 about half an inch, or rather less, in diameter, in front of this 
 centre box, partly in the box, and partly in the board, for the 
 ingress and egress of its inhabitants. If the board have a pro- 
 per inclination outward, there is no fear of any wet either pene- 
 trating or lodging. Paint your boxes externally, but do so a 
 considerable time before you require to use them, and encom- 
 pass them, with the best sort of rough shed that you can 
 " knock up ;" bore a hole, witb a centre bif, in the top of each 
 box, and place a glass vessel over it. When it is necessary to 
 feed your bees, you can do so by attaching a feeder to the en- 
 trance door, and the holes for the bell glasses will afford you am- 
 ple means of ventilating. In case they should not, however, you 
 may have a hole at the back of each box, stopped with a cork, 
 which you can withdraw for the admission of air when neces- 
 sary. Take care, however, that you do not push the cork en- 
 tirely through' the wood of the box, or it will' be so cemented by 
 propolis, that you cannot, perhaps, draw it out without injury or 
 disturbance to the combs. Such a set of boxes as I describe 
 may be made easily enough, and for little or no cost, and will 
 answer all purposes of utility, though, perhaps, deficient in or- 
 nament, as well as the most costly and elaborate. 
 Mr. Briggs, on the formation of bee-boxes, says : 
 " They should be chosen, or constructed, of as good quaUty 
 as possible, so as to effectually preserve their contents from 
 either extreme heat or cold, dampness, or any sudden changes of 
 temperature. 
 
 " The size of tbe centre box should be about ten and one-half 
 inches cube, inside measure ; and it would be an advantage to 
 have six bars fixed across the top of it, from front to back, 
 which should be one and one-eighth inch in width, half an inch 
 in thickness, and half an inch apart — the ends of each of which 
 should be neatlr rabbeted into the front and back of the box. 
 "q* 
 
84 
 
 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 Over the bars should be laid a piece of thin gauze, and upon it 
 the top or covering board of the box, which may have a circular 
 hole in the middle of it, securely stopped by a good cork bung. 
 
 to be removed for the purpose of placing a small bell glass over 
 the hole as occasion requires. 
 
 " The side boxes may be made and used of different sizes if 
 desired, and to contain from 350 to 1100 cubic inches each. If 
 the smaller sizes are adopted, the entrance to them must be 
 along the hollow part of the bottom board ; but it would be con- 
 sidered more complete to have the side boxes of the same width 
 and depth as the centre one, and to have them well fitted and 
 secured together during the honey-gatliering season. The en- 
 trance from the centre to the side boxes may then extend along 
 the under edges of each of them from front to back, and about 
 three-eighths to one-half an inch in depth : there should also be 
 a perpendicular one three inches long, and half an inch wide, up 
 the centre of the end of each of the boxes, the upper part of 
 which should reach to within three inches of the top of the box 
 inside. 
 
 " The use of bars to the top of boxes is frequently of much 
 service to the apiarian, as he can thereby occasionally remove a 
 few of the old combs from the box, and can, at any time, have 
 an opportunity of examining the state of the interior of the 
 boxes. Before using a new box with bars, as above, a piece of 
 pure and clean brood comb should be neatly fixed to each, or 
 every alternate bar, which may be readily accomplished by the 
 assistance of a long and smooth piece of heated iron — the comb 
 being rubbed for a few seconds on the iron, should immediately 
 be applied to the bar, and will then, in a short time, firmly ad- 
 here to it. 
 
 " The use of hives of straw is by many persons still continued 
 anu approved ; and I have no doubt, that when they arc pro- 
 
HIVES AND BOXES. 35 
 
 perly made, and judiciously managed, according to the direo; 
 tions previously given, the returns from them will often equal, or 
 surpass, those from some of the more fancy-shaped and expen- 
 sive wooden boxes. 
 
 " The size of straw hives should be from sixteen to seventeen 
 inches in diameter, and twelve t« thirteen inches in height ; and 
 they should have a narrow, flat, and thick top of wood, with a 
 circular hole and cork bung in the centre of it, similar to that 
 which is recommended for wooden boxes. 
 
 " The outer box, in which the stock-hive and side boxes are 
 enclosed, having been made wider_ than the interior hives or 
 boxes, should have a paitition from front to back, on each side 
 of the stock-hive, and the interstices round the centre hive filled 
 up with dry sawdust, powdered charcoal, or other suitable ma- 
 terials, which will be of service in preserving the temperature of 
 the hive in a congenial and uniform state. 
 
 "1 have_ above stated that the communication from the straw 
 stock-hive to the side boxes should be along the hollow centre 
 of the bottom board ; and I recoihmend that three or more cir- 
 cular holes be made in the bottom board on each side, in such 
 a manner that each of them may be covered with a bell-glass, 
 or that one of the larger side hives or boxes may be placed over 
 them, as may suit the wishes or convenience of the apiarian. 
 
 " When glasses are used, they should be well covered with 
 some soft woollen materials, and a hive or box should then be 
 placed over them to effectually exclude the light, and preserve 
 them from accidents of any kind, and sudden changes of tempe- 
 rature. 
 
 "It is advisable to have the outer box well made, with a neat 
 and substantial roof to carry off the wet, &o. ; and it should be 
 made of such breadth as to leave a space of one-half inch on 
 each side of the stock-hive. 
 
 " I would recommend, that if the bees are kept in a straw 
 hive, that it be of a large size, and well made ; and should be 
 stocked with a strong swarm at the usual period of the year. It 
 should then be placed on the centi-e of a stout bottom board, 
 made long enough to hold a small hive or box on each side of it, 
 and having hollow communications from the centre hive to the 
 side ones, which can be opened or closed at pleasure. When the 
 bees require room in the Spring or Summer months, the entrance 
 from the centre to one of the side hives must be opened, and 
 
3d THE HIV* AST) TSE HONEY-BEB. 
 
 aftel- they have feirly taken pdsseission of it, it must be J)roperly 
 ventilated by a hole previously Formed on the top, and covered 
 ■with a piece of perforated zinc, keeping the temperature between 
 65° and 75° of Fahrenheit's thermometer. 
 
 " The three hives should have a well ttiade wooden covering 
 bver them, with a span-shapecf roof to carry off the wet, &c., 
 and an opening at the back fof the purpose of examining the 
 progress of the bees ; the outer box should be well painted and 
 waterproofed, and will greatly assist in regulating the tempera^ 
 ture of the hives, and in protecting them from extreme cold, 
 dampness, and sunshine. 
 
 " I would recommend a set of two or three of the improved 
 Collateral boxes, which inay be made Of well-seasoned boards, 
 about ten and a half inches cube, inside measure, and to be 
 neatly fitted together, with convenience for ventilation and in- 
 spection, and they must also have a wooden covering over them, 
 Mth ah Opetiing at the back, similar to the one above mentioned. 
 
 " The outer box should be one inch, or one and a half inch 
 wider inside thaii the outer dimensiolis of the interior boxes. 
 
 " By cOnstracting boxes oh the above J)lan, the swarming of 
 the bees mky be, by judicious management, for a time prevented, 
 but it is not recomrheiided that that propensity should be en- 
 tirely defeated, as a swarm may be occasionally taken from col- 
 lateral boxes with advantage to the swarm and to the stock hive.. 
 
 " By proper attention, large quantitie.s of pure honey may be 
 obtained by the above system of management. Last year, a 
 friend in this vicinity obtained 109, 91, and 89 pounds of pure 
 honeycomb from three sets of Nutt's collateral boxes." 
 
 Mr. Taylor, in his ^ Beekeeper's Manual," speaks as follows of 
 tree-boxes : — 
 
 '' It matters not much of what wood the boxes are made, pro- 
 vided it is sound, thoroughly seasoned, and well put together. 
 Difierent opinions are entertained as to the best size of beer 
 boxes, but I think that rntich must depend on the number of 
 bees they are to contain, and on the honey locality ; tliere must 
 also be a referenfce to the proposed mode- of working them, for, 
 wheTe no swarming is permitted, a larger hive may be advan- 
 tageously used. K good size is twelve inches square, and nine 
 Inches deep withinside, the thickness throughout being not less 
 than an iiich. The top of the b6x ought to project on all sides 
 nearly thfe'e-qiiarters of an inch, for better protection and ap- 
 
HIVEB AND BGXB8. 87 
 
 pearance, and as aflFordiiig convenience for lifting. On the top, 
 a two-inch hole should be cut in the centre, for placing a bell- 
 glass, and for the purpose of feeding ; and another hole to re- 
 ceive a ventilator may be made near the back window, that posi- 
 tion being better for inspection, and less in the way of the beesj 
 than the centre of the hive, whfch is, or ought to be, the seat 
 of breeding, and should not be disturbed. A window may be 
 placed at the back and front, five inches high, and six or seven 
 inches Wide. The best and neatest way of securing the win- 
 dows, that I have seen, is by a sliding shutter of zinc. Round 
 the window, there must be a projecting moulding, mitred at the 
 corners. On one side, the piece of moulding is movable, and to 
 the back of this is screwed a plate of sheet zihe. This passes 
 into a rabbet to receive it, cut, on the remaining three sides, at 
 the back of the loWer edge of the Moulding. To prevent any 
 wet from lodging at the bottom moulding, an 6pening or two 
 may easily be cut through, on the under side, to allow its es- 
 cape. For the sake of uniformity of appearance, blank win- 
 dows may be made opposite to the real ones. Hives of this 
 kind require to be placed under some cover or shed, as a pro- 
 tection from wet, and a hot sun." 
 
 It will not, I am sure, be deemed amiss that I here supply nay 
 readers with an account of the " Leaf Hive" invented by the cele- 
 brated Huber, and designed by him to furnish all the requisites 
 for which Mr. Nutt produced his collateral boxes : — 
 
 " This hive," says Huber, " consists of eight frames, each 
 eighteen inches high and ten inches wide inside, having the up- 
 rights and top cross pieces one and a half inch broad, and one 
 thick, so that the eight frames, when placed close together, con- 
 stitute a hive eighteen inches high, twelve inches between end 
 and end, and ten inches between back and front, all inside measure. 
 The frames are held together by a flat siiding-bar on each side, 
 secured by wedges and pins. To the first and eighth of these 
 frames is attached a frame with glass, and covered with a shutter. 
 The body of the hive is protected by a sloping roof, and the en- 
 trance is made through the thickness of the floor-board. We dis- 
 like the sliding-bars, with their pins and wedges, which are so 
 far inconvenient, that, in drawing them out, all the frames are 
 liable to open, and the observer is exposed to some hazard of 
 annoyance, from the bees issuing out at every joint : and we have 
 substituted for them hinges on one side, and a hook-and-eye on 
 
88 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 each frame on the other ; we can thus open any particular leaf 
 without meddling with the rest. In taking honey from this hive, 
 the bee-master has the whole interior completely under his eye, 
 and at his disposal, and can choose what combs best suit his pjir- 
 pose, both as to quantity and quality ; taking care, however, to 
 do so only at such periods as will leave the bees time to replenish 
 the vacancy before the termination of the honey season. It is 
 also well adapted for artificial swarming. By separating the hive 
 into halves, the honey, brood-combs, and bees will, generally 
 speaking, be equally divided ; and by supplying each half with 
 four empty frames, we shall have two hives, one half empty, 
 equal in number of bees, of brood, and even of stores. One of 
 the new hives will possess the queen ; and if the operation has 
 been performed at the proper time — that is to say, a week or ten 
 days before the period of natural swarming — the probability is, 
 there will be a royal brood coming forward in the other ; at all 
 events, there will be plenty of eggs and larvae of the proper age 
 for forming an artificial queen." 
 
 Cheapness, and an obstinate adhesion to the customs of our 
 forefathers, induce straw hives still to be used by many. Mr. 
 Briggs has already shown how they may, when necessarily or 
 optionally employed, be rendered almost as productive as boxes. 
 I add the following from Mr. Taylor, who objects to the use of 
 sticks or cross-pieces, sometimes employed for the purpose of sup- 
 porting the combs : — 
 
 " The sticks are only an annoyance to the bees ; and there is 
 little fear of the combs falling, except in very deep hives ; at any 
 rate, it may be prevented by contracting the lower part a little. 
 The best way of doing this is, by working a wooden hoop inside 
 the bottom band of the hive, as recommended by Dr. Bevan, 
 who says, ' It should be perforated through its whole course. 
 
HIVES AND BOXES. 89 
 
 and the perforations made io an oblique direction, so distant from 
 each other as to cause all the stitches of the hive to range in a 
 uniform manner.'. The hoop gives greater stability to the hive, 
 preserves the lower edge from decay, and affords facility in moving 
 it. I advise a circular piece of wood (turned with a groove at 
 the edge, to retain it in its place) to be worked into the crown, 
 having through it an inch and a-half hole. With a little ingenuity, 
 the bees may be fed through this opening — a better method than 
 the ordinary one at the bottom of a hive. A piece of wood or 
 tin will commonly cover the hole ;- but at times, and especially in 
 winter, it may be used for the purpose of ventilation, and allow- 
 ing escape to the impure air of the hive. In this case, a bit of 
 perforated tin or zinc should be placed over it, which, when 
 stopped up by the bees, can be replaced by a clean one. An 
 earthen pan is a common cover to a straw hive ; and this may be 
 slightly raised by wedges on the four sides, to permit a small 
 space underneath. Of whatever material the outer covering con- 
 sists, it must project so far on all sides as to protect the hive from 
 the least moisture. This cannot be too much guarded against ; 
 and whether of wood or straw, all hives ought to be well painted 
 at the beginning, and periodically afterwards." 
 
 I can confidently recommend the following simple and cheap 
 description of hive to my readers : — Get a common straw hive, 
 but let it be of somewhat larger dimensions than are ordinarily 
 used, and cut it across (about one-third of its length) from the 
 upper or conical end ; fit to this end a round piece of wood, 
 about an inch in thickness, having in its centre a hole about an 
 inch and a half in diameter, fitted with a cork or bung. Take 
 another hive of ordinary dimensions, and place it over this. This 
 is called capping. When, during the proper .season, the bees 
 have filled the lower part of the hive, and show symptoms of re- 
 quiring more room, you have only to draw out the cork, and 
 place the cap over the board. This acts as a bell-glass ; and the 
 honey you will collect in it will not be inferior to that procured 
 from the most costly set of bee-bo.\es. A coating of Roman 
 cement on the exterior surface of these hives, will render them 
 almost everlasting. 
 
 De Gelieu states that he took 72 lbs. weight of fine, pure 
 honey from a straw hive thus capped, in one season. 
 
 Glass, or, as they are called by some, " observatory hives," 
 are not such as I approve of. Bees love darkness, and hate light 
 
40 
 
 THE HIVS AND THE adWlY-BEE. 
 
 Ot obseiration. In a state of nature they are m the habit of 
 seeking some hollow, vacant spot beneath a bank or rook, the 
 cleft of a tree, or some similarly dark and secluded situation. 
 The observatory hive is, then, foreign to the natural habits of the 
 insects, and as such, of course, it is not to be recommended. 
 The accompanying cuts will give a good idea of stands for 
 hives. This one is intended for the open ground. It is a post 
 
 set into the ground, with cross pieces let into it. 
 
 [ I 11] , I i_i ' . ' . 
 
 '%) 4 |>st^ I 1 ^m»iJ "l I ii»«'.'"" 
 
 The annexed cuts Show a frame-work for shelves, instead of 
 
 ^^^^BBm 
 
HOW YOUR SiOCE IS f flfi OBf AltTED. 4l 
 
 Whole boards'. These frame-yfoifks h&W the advantage of more 
 firmness and the facility thiey afford for ventilation. On whole 
 boards thd hive must be'elevated by bars, or holes be cut through 
 the shelf. 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 HOW TOUR STOCi 19 TO BE OBTAINED. 
 
 You may procure stock either in the spring or autumn . I 
 should prefer the former period, because that is the fitting time 
 for removal of stocks from the old-fashioned, awkward hives to 
 the more improved modern receptacles ; but it is more difficult 
 to ascertain the exact condition of the stock you are about pur- 
 chasing in spring than it is in autumn. I am sorry to say that 
 unless you purchase your stock from a friend, or from some one, 
 at all events, that you can confidently depend on, you are very 
 likely to be taken in, and must, therefore, be upon your guard 
 against imposition : as some writer — I forget who — quaintly 
 enotigh remarks, " Let it be with the bees as with a wife, never 
 take them on the recommendation of another party." If you 
 would purch^e a stock in early spring, just after the bees have 
 been removed from their winter qiiarters, you need not attempt 
 it unless from a person on whose honor you can positively de- 
 pend. If during the months of May or June, you can form some 
 judgment for yourself, and if you act cautiously, may, perhaps, 
 bid defiance to trickery : in this case yoii should visit the garden, 
 or other locality, in whicli the hive stands th^t you intend pur- 
 chasing, about mid-day ; stand opposite to it, and observe atten- 
 tively the actions of its inhabitants. If they crowd busily in and 
 out of the hive, giving evidence of their industry by the ladeh 
 appearance of their legs, and altogether exhibiting a busy ear- 
 nestness in their toils, you may safely buy ther hive ; and if yon 
 obtain this hive before swarming has taken place, you may look 
 upon yourself as a fortunate man. 
 
 If the object of your intentions be ah autujfinal hive, you had 
 better ascertain that the massacre of the drones has taken place ; 
 an observation of the stand and of the ground around the hive 
 will tell this. Observe the action^ <if these bees— see that they 
 
42 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 are lively and industrious ; and if, on your loo near approach, 
 one or two bees dash at your face, do not be alarmed, but rather 
 regard their pugnacity as a sign of vigor, and buy the hive. 
 Some writers speak of the necessity of purchasing only such 
 stocks as are in nice new hives. This is an advice very necessary 
 to be attended to, but it would not be so, were you sure that tlie 
 interior of the hive were filled only with honey-comb, and with 
 no old, worn-out comb, the accumulation of years. If you are 
 in doubt on the subject, you should fumiff ate the hive in the 
 evening, in the manner hereafter to be described ; then, turning 
 up the hive, you can readily ascertain the character of its con- 
 tents. If the comb be black, have nothing to do with the stock. 
 The genuine color of the comb is white, aiid, consequently, the 
 lighter it is, the more the stock is to be esteemed. 
 
 Never, unless you can depend on the party, send your hive to 
 receive a swarm ; for you may, if you do, have a second swarm 
 imposed upon you for a first — a comparatively valueless stock 
 for just the very .thing you desire. The first swarm begin the 
 formation of the combs at the middle of the apex of the hive ; 
 the second does so at the side. These are the only criteria I can 
 furnish, for neither weight nor bulk are to be depended upon. It 
 is to the obstinate use of -the old-fashioned hive that these diffi- 
 culties, and these opportunities for fraud, are attributable. Were 
 the improved sj'stera once established, these cautions would be 
 no longer called for. Wildman has given some good advice 
 as to the purchase of stocks ; and in this advice he speaks hke 
 an oracle. Attend to him : — 
 
 " The person who intends to erect an apiary, should purchase 
 a proper number of hives at the latter end of the • year, when 
 they are cheapest. The hives should be full of combs, and well 
 stored with bees. The purchaser should examine the combs, in 
 order to know the age of the hives. The combs of that season 
 are white ; those of a former year are of a darkish yellow ; and 
 when the combs are black, the hives should be rejected, because 
 old hives are mosfchable lo vermin and other accidents. 
 
 " If the number of hives wanted have not been purchased in 
 the autumn, it will be necessary to remedy this neglect, after the 
 severity of the cold is past in the spring. At this season, bees 
 which are in good condition will get into the fields earlj' in the 
 morning, return loaded, enter boldly, and do not come out of the 
 hive in bad weather, for when they do, this indicates that they 
 
HOW YOUS STOCK IS TO BE OBTAINED. 48 
 
 are in great want of provisions. They are alert on the least dis- 
 turbance, and by the loudness of their humming we judge of 
 their strength. They preserve their hives free from all filth, and 
 are ready to defend it against every enemy that approaches. 
 
 " The summer is an improper time for buying bees, because 
 the heat of the weather softens the wax, and thereby renders 
 the comb liable to break, if they are not very well secured. The 
 honey, too, being then thinner than at other times, is more apt 
 to run out at the cells, which is attended with a double disad- 
 vantage — viz., the loss of the honey, and the daubing of the 
 bees— -^whereby many of them may be destroyed. A first and 
 strong swarm may indeed be purchased ; and, if leave can be 
 obtained, permitted to stand in the same garden until the autumn ; 
 but if leave is not obtained, it may be carried away in the night, 
 after it has been hived. 
 
 " I suppose that in the stocks purchased, the bees are in the 
 hives of the old construction. The only directions here necessary 
 are, that the first swarm from these stocks should be put into one 
 of my hives ; and that another of my hives should, in a few 
 days, be put under the old stock, in order to prevent its swarming 
 again." 
 
 . Nor can I very well leave Wildman, without saying something 
 of the " Count de la Bourdonnaye," so frequently quoted by him 
 in his "Account of Bees." M. de la Bourdonnaye is justly 
 entitled to our gratitude and remembrance as the original inventor 
 of the caped or capped hives ; a most useful contrivance, and 
 one which I have already described. 
 
 " Count de la Bourdonnaye's hives are made of straw, divided 
 into two parts, which are placed one over the other. Each 
 of these parts is thirteen inches in diameter in the inside, and 
 twelve inches high ; so that when joined, they make a hive 
 twenty-two inches in height. They are nearly flat on the top, 
 and have in the middle of the top a hole an inch and a quarter 
 square. The upper half rests on the lower. They are made of 
 sufficient thickness to be proof against cold, and not to be heated 
 by the rays of the sun. When united, their joining is luted close." 
 
 So then the origin of our mjpdern caps is to be referred to a 
 period of upwards of ninety years ago ! I may, however, ob- 
 serve that proper fitting of the uppBr portion, or cap, upon the 
 lower portions or true hive will quite do away with the necessity 
 oi luting. 
 
44 TBE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SWABMING. 
 
 Bees multiply, during the breeding season, with astonishing 
 tapidity ; it is, therefore, not to be wondered at that the young 
 brood should speedily produce crowding in the hive, thus ba' 
 eotoing not only inconvenienced for room, but more than agreeably 
 warm : it is also supposed that the queen becomes alarmed at 
 the number and progress to maturity of the, royal larvae, which 
 indeed she would fain kill, were not she prevented from doing so 
 by the workers. While swarming is by no means to be forced^ 
 yet if symptoms of a swarm present themselves, early, say in 
 April or May, you may permit it to take place — provided the 
 parent Stock be still sufficiently sti'ong in numbers — otherwise it 
 is of course highly disadvantageous to the well-being of the hive 
 as well as to the emigrants. I disapprove altogether of late 
 swarmS) i. e., allowing them to come off in July or August — 
 hence the utility of such hives as place this circumstance vmder 
 the control of the keeper. 
 
 The most certain indications of swarming are, the hive ap- 
 pearing full of bees — clusters of them gathering on the outside, 
 and Sometimes hanging from the alighting-board ; they also ne- 
 glect their daily toil and refrain frofti going abroad in search of 
 sweets, even though the weather be ever so inviting. Just be- 
 fore they take flight the hive is hushed,, the bees are silent and 
 carefully loading themselves with provender for their journey. 
 For two or three nights prior to swarming, you will also hear a 
 peculiar humming noise within the hive; the second swarm is 
 announced by a difierent sort of buzzing, being, according to 
 some writers, the result of a contest as to which of the two 
 queens shall lead ofl' from the hive. It is the old queen who 
 leads oflf the first swarm. 
 
 If a swarm be about to quit the hive, the slightest change of 
 weather will prevent their doing so ; but nothing so efteetually as 
 a shower of rain : hence an excellent mode of preventing it, 
 when the bees cluster on the outside of the hive, by syringing 
 them with water from a common metallic sj-ringe. When a 
 swarm leaves the hive, if it do not settle on some tree or bush, 
 but remains in the air, and you fear its going oiF to too great a 
 
distanee, ji pot ev(»ding you altogjetlier, you jmy bn^ ti down 
 by thrwiybg up sand or dust, which the bees mUJake W rain, pjt 
 by firing » gup, wiidcb they mistake for thunder ; hence the pld 
 &shion of the po»ntry-people fojlowjng » swarm with the PQis§ 
 of fire-shovels and frying- paiOS. You must be the more (^iligent 
 in at once securing your ^warm, for it is a fact that the b.eps send 
 out scouts previous to swarming, whose duty it is to se.lept a 
 proper habitation for the colony. It is, op this account, a good 
 plan, when you anticipate a swarm, to Ififtve an empty hive, pre- 
 viously smeared on the interior with hopey, ip some convenient 
 place, but not too near the old one. 
 
 When the swarm settles, the bees collect themselves in a heap 
 round the queen, hapgit^ to each other ;by means of their feet. 
 When thus auspended from a tree, .they ipay be secured by sim- 
 ply holding an empty hive under them, and tapping the branch 
 from which they are suspended. They should, in this case, 
 be sprinkled with honey and water, and confined for about twelve 
 hoiArs. When a swarm divides into two or more bands, and 
 settle separately, it is proba>ble that there are two queens. In 
 this case you must secure one of them. 
 
 Jf thiQugh your inattention, a second swarm comes off, you 
 should, as soon as you have hived it, secure its queen, and reiurn 
 the swarm to the hive ; indeed, when deprived of its queen, it 
 will usually immediately return of its own accord. Swarming is 
 a subject 1 have reason to believe is very generally misunderstood, 
 most persons desiring to promote jt, conceiving that the greater 
 number of swarms, the richer will the hives be in August. The 
 very reverse of this is the case ; for when a hive is weak in num- 
 bers, a sufficient number of bees cannot be spared to go forth for 
 honey ; and, hence, they will be scarcely able to collect enough 
 for their actual support, far less to collect any surplus for their 
 master's benefit. Hear Jilr. Briggs : — 
 
 " The swarming of bees is .a subject on which much miscon- 
 ception prevails. Mosjt persQps who keep their beps in .the old 
 straw-hive plan, ,and .suffpeating system, appear to anticip^ate 
 th^r swarming with much anxiety, and to be of opinion that the 
 greater number of swarms — firsts, seconds, thirds, ice. — that they 
 O.btain|ropi their old hives during the summer, the more remu- 
 nerative will they prpve fo the owner at the end of the season ; 
 whereas ,the reverse of the above practice is much nearer of 
 being the best system to follow, which 1 shall endeavor to eluci- 
 
46 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 date. It has been proved from observation, tliat the average per 
 centage of swarms have been — twenty-four in May, sixty in June, 
 fourteen in July, and two in August ; from which it will appear 
 that June is the principal month for swarming, in ordinary sea- 
 sons ; and it is in June and July that the greatest quantities of 
 honey are stored up by the bees, when managed in a judicious 
 manner. 
 
 " When the swarming is assisted and encouraged during June 
 and July, the old stocks are considerably weakened, and the 
 swarms are employed in building combs in their new hives, col- 
 lecting pollen, and attending to the young brood, until the best 
 part of the honey-storing season is over ; so tjiat, at the honey 
 harvest in autumn, it will frequently require the contents of five 
 or six old stocks, or late swarms, to produce as much pure honey 
 as might have been obtained from one colony on the system of 
 management which is recommended." 
 
 In collateral boxes, and in capped hives, swarming may be 
 prevented by affording the bees additional accommodation, and 
 reducing the temperature ; and for this end, it is recommended, 
 by most apiarians, that the hive or box should be furnished with 
 a thermometer as well as ventilator. I think, however, that 
 even those who do not possess these accommodations may man- 
 age well enough by proper observation and attention to the 
 symptoms I have detailed. When these appear in a collateral 
 box-hive, open one of the partitions, and admit the bees into a 
 new apartment ; if all be full, take off a box, empty and restore 
 it. In the case of a capped hive, remove the bung, and admit 
 the bees to the cap ; if full, remove, empty, and restore it. On 
 this subject, Mr. Briggs says : — " The most favorable degrees of 
 heat for the prosperity of the brood are from 75° to 90° in the 
 stock hive, and from 65° to 75° in the side boxes. The heat in 
 a prosperous hive is sometimes upwards of 70° at Christmas, and 
 will, in hot summer weather, sometimes rise to near 120°, at 
 which time the combs are in great danger of being damaged, 
 and of falling to the floor of the hive ; this may, however, be 
 prevented, by giving extra room when required, and by shading 
 the hives from extreme heat as previously directed. It should 
 always be borne in mind that all operations with bees should be 
 performed as carefully and as speedily as circumstances will per- 
 mit." The late Mr. T. Nutt remarked, in a conversation with 
 him a few months previous to his decease, ' that in removing 
 
SWAEMING. 47 
 
 boxes, glasses, slides, &o., the apiarian should proceed in a man- 
 ner so steady and cautious, that the bees should scarcely know- 
 that their habitation had been meddled with j' in which remarks 
 I fully concur." 
 
 After having a new swarm, you must also recollect, that if 
 unfavorable weather follow their departure, you must feed them, 
 otherwise they will be starved ; indeed it would be well if each 
 new swarm were always fed for a few days, as this will assist 
 them in gaining strength in numbers and in store, before the 
 principal part of the honey season goes over. In conclusion I 
 would merely say, that the weight of a good swarm should be 
 from five to seven pounds, and that all under five pounds in 
 weight should be united to others, as being too weak in numbers 
 to support themselves. 
 
 You shall receive instructions for uniting swarms in the next 
 chapter, as the process is the same as that adopted in depriving 
 a hive of its honey. In hiving a swarm it is as well to be pro- 
 tected with a proper bee dress, as well as to use such precau- 
 tions as you will find detailed in a subsequent chapter when treat- 
 ing of the honey harvest. Prevention is better than cure, and it 
 is letter to he sure than sorry ; yet bees are certainly less apt to 
 sting at this time than any other. 
 
 Some persons are particularly unhappy in possessing those 
 qualities which render them disagreeable to bees. The main ob- 
 jections are, excessive timidity, and likewise, with some an un- 
 pleasant odor, in some instances the result 'of personal negli- 
 gence, but frequently of peculiarity of constitution. The remedies 
 are, a bee-dress for the foi-mer, and the use of some strong per- 
 fume which the bees like, and which will effectually conceal 
 whatever is oflfensive to them. 
 
 " I have gone among them," says Mr. Worlidge, in their 
 greatest anger and madness, only with a handful of sweet herbs 
 in my hand, fatining about my face, as it were to obscure and 
 defend it. Also, if a bee do by accident buzz about you, being 
 unprovided, thrust your face amongst a parcel of boughs or 
 herbs, and he will desert you. But the most secure way of all, 
 and beyond the completest harness yet published, is to have a 
 net knit with so small meshes, that a bee cannot pass through, 
 and of fine thread or silk, large enough to go over your hat, and 
 to lie down to the collar of your dress, through which you may 
 
48 THK HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 perfectly see what you do, without danger, having also on ^ fait 
 ,of gloves, whereof woollen are the best." 
 
 .Some writers on bee management have suggested other mode? 
 to prevent objectionable swarming, besides the collateral boxes 
 and the sapped hive. Among these plans I may mention sfpri- 
 fying or piling, and eking. I^he latter Js speedily disposed of ; 
 it consists of adding ehfs,, or additional bands of straw to the 
 bottom of the common hive, aeeorcjing as ;9j(Jditional room was 
 required. The objection i§, t))ftt altihough it may thus answer 
 your purpose during one season, the next finds yoji in as much 
 perplexity as ever. 
 
 Storifying requires sopie notice, gs it jg .9, custom of very .con- 
 siderable antiquity, and also ,as it is a practice that has ^een ap- 
 proved by such eminent bee-masters as Warder, Thorley, and 
 more recently by Dr. Sevan. 
 
 The principal objectiQBs to the sto^ified Mv,e M^ — 
 
 1st, Its occasioning tfae bees greater jtrouble ?,nd labor, an^ 
 hence rendering thesir labor less productive. 
 
 2d, The absence of provision for dividing the ordinary celk 
 from the more sacred and mysterious .operations of the queen, 
 land of course a consequent deterioration of the honey In respect 
 of purity ; besides much inconvenienpe and waste of time to the 
 poor bees, which certainly should fee taken into <;onsid*ration. A 
 laden bee cannot mount up from one box to another, and through 
 a labyrinth of cojnb, with anything like cornfort or ease. 
 
 3d, In taking a box of honey, the proprietor cannot be cer- 
 tain of not taking away a quantity of brood-comb, (fee. This 
 objection, however, may be classed with that which rests on the 
 impurity of the honey, ejtoept with the additional oije, that this 
 also refers to loss of life, which the bees, both brood and adult, 
 must thus sustain. And, 
 
 4th, In consequence of these objectionable circiHnstanoe?, 
 which are the inevitable consequences of the piling system, the 
 profit accruing from su^h management will be f^r inferior to that 
 obtainable by the system I have already repoqi^ended. 
 
 A very eminent writer on bee management says — " In ,pile4 
 boxes bees are subjected to unnecessa,ry labor, which is so far a 
 waste of time. From piled boxes .not nearly the quantity qf 
 honey and wax is procured, that may be procured from collate- 
 ral boxes ; nor is that deficient quantity of a quality at all com- 
 parable with the other. In managing piled boxes many bees are 
 
THE HONEY HARVEST. 49 
 
 destroyed. These are my objections to that system of bee man- 
 agement ; and I put it to every person who has pi-actised stori- 
 fying to say whether they are not well founded." 
 
 It sometimes, but very rarely, happens, that a swarm is almost 
 wholly, if not altogether, composed of an entirely new genera- 
 tion of bees, but usually old and young go forth together. You 
 may distinguish the young from the old by the intensity of their 
 coloring, the latter being of a deeper red. The swarm is usually 
 led forth by a ycyunc/ queen ; but at all events the bees never swarm 
 unless led by a queen, and sometimes by two or even three. In 
 this case the supernumerary sovereigns are put to death by the 
 workers. Sometimes, indeed, instead of the supernumerary queens 
 being destroyed, the swarm divides, and a portion follows each 
 monarch, and sometimes the queens themselves do battle for the 
 throne. The destruction of the supernumeraries by the workers 
 is, however, the most common case. 
 
 Battles also will frequently occur in consequence of a swarm 
 seizing upon a habitation already occupied by other bees, or two 
 swarms simultaneously selecting a similar place of abode. The 
 attack is said to be usually begun by tiie queens, with what truth, 
 however, I am unprepared to say. 
 
 Having now suggested all that occurs to me interesting, or 
 profitable for you to know, on the subject of swaiming, we shall 
 leave the bees at work, and in the next chapter presume matters 
 ripe and ready for the " honey harvest." 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THB HONEY HARVEST. 
 
 Those who possess collateral boxes may begin taking a box or 
 a bell glass very early in the season, indeed even so early as May 
 or June; this must be, of course, dependent on the state of af- 
 fairs, and on their own discretion. Those who keep their bees in 
 the capped hive, may also get a cap full of honey in or about 
 the middle of June — I do not call this the " honey harvest." I 
 allude to the grand deprivation that should take place in the be- 
 ginning or middle of Aagust, ere commencing other operations 
 stjll to be explained. 
 3 
 
50 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 I may observe with reference to the collateral hives that no in- 
 structions of mine are necessary further than those already given 
 when describing the mechanism of Mr. Nutt's boxes. You who 
 possess these admirable contrivances will have little or no trouble 
 — a child could manage them, and long ere this (August) you 
 have already begun to gather your delicious harvest. You have, 
 of course, had more than one bell-glass full, and possibly a box 
 of pure honey removed in May. You have certainly obtained, 
 at least, one box in June ; but I should rather imagine that you 
 have, during that month, obtained both the side boxes full of ho- 
 ney. You must now, however, act with caution, and recollect 
 that wet, damp weather is unfavorable to the operations of *he 
 bees ; they cannot go abroad to collect their treasure, and you 
 must avoid trespassing too much upon theii' stores in such wea- 
 ther. 
 
 The old mode of obtaining the honey was, by the suffocation 
 ' of the inmates of the hive. I fear I need scarcely tell the ma- 
 jority of my bee-keeping readei-s, but sincerely hope I am wrong, 
 that this used to be effected by digging a hole in the ground, 
 placing therein a bundle of matches, or scraps of tow dipped in 
 sulphur, igniting these, and setting the hive, covered with a thick 
 cloth over it, in the latter part of the evening. The fumes of 
 the sulphur soon caused death, and the honey was removed af- 
 terwards at pleasure. Whatever others may think or write, I 
 must assert as my own opinion that this is a most barbarous prac- 
 tice ; and it is as silly as it is cruel. You, if you act thus, ef- 
 fectually prevent the fulfillment of what should be your chief 
 object, viz., the increase of your stock, you also impregnate your 
 honey with filthy vapors, and seriously injure its quality by the 
 dead bodies, which you thus cause to be intermingled with the 
 combs. 
 
 Mr. Huish recommended dried rags, or leaves, to be employed 
 instead of sulphur, the smoke from these only producing partial 
 stupefactions from which the bees subsequently recovered, when 
 the surviving stock was united to some other weak hive in the 
 apiary. 
 
 It is a long time indeed since Wildman, White, and others, 
 showed that the "honey could be taken, even from a common 
 straw hive, without injury to the inmates. Without, however, 
 wearying my readers with an investigation of the several ap- 
 proved methods of doing this, I shall briefly direct them as to 
 
THE HONEY HARVEST. '51 
 
 the manner in wbioh I, myself, recommend this veiy simple 
 process to be performed. 
 
 " Fumigation" is a word employed by bee-keepers to express 
 the process in which, by the aid of certain intoxicating smoke, 
 the insects become temporarily stupefied, in which state they are 
 perfectly harmless, and may be deprived of their honey without 
 any risk or trouble. They subsequently soon recover from their 
 stupefaction, and are nothing the worse for it. Indeed, as Mr. 
 Cotton quaintly observes, this intoxication proves, contrary to its 
 effects in the case of man, rather salutary than otherwise. The 
 dried Fungus Pulvurulentus, or fuzz ball ; the Bovista gigantea, 
 or frog-cheese, will be found best for that purpose : but, in their 
 absence, rags steeped in a solution of saltpetre, or a few tobacco 
 leaves, wrapped in brown paper, will do nearly as well. If 
 tobacco be used, care is necessary, lest the fumigation be carried 
 to too great an extent, so as to cause the death of some or all of 
 your stock. Persons not accustomed to deal with bees, should 
 wear an over-all of thin gauze over the head and breast, and 
 gloves on their hands. With this, and a little bottle in their 
 waistcoat-pocket, containing aqua ammoniae, or aqua potassae, to 
 be used in case of accident, they need have no cause for trepida- 
 tion, but can go to work with coolness and deliberation. 
 
 There should be provided, for the purpose of fumigation, a 
 small tin box, with a tube extending from each of two opposite 
 ends ; one end of this tube being so fashioned that it can readily 
 be inserted into the hive, and the other so formed, that it can 
 readily be attached to the tube of an ordinary bellows. The box 
 should -be so formed that it can be opened at pleasure. 
 
 In this box the matter to be employed in fumigation is first 
 placed, hliving, of course, been previously ignited, and the proper 
 end of the tube having been inserted into the hive at the lower 
 part, ply the- bellows very gently. The bees begih at once to 
 feel the effects of the smoke. At first, you will hear an unusual 
 humming and commotion, but in less than ten minutes all will 
 be still. The bees will fall upon the board under the hive, and 
 he quite still, as if dead. The hive may then be removed, and 
 a fresh hive — the interior well smeared with honey — may be 
 placed over them, or they may be united to another stock, which 
 should also be previously fumigated, one queen being removed. 
 
 Some persons may conceive it to be a difficult matter to come 
 at the queen. When fumigation is resorted to, she is, of course. 
 
52 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 easily discovered ; but even when it is dispensed with, and the 
 practice adopted which I have yet to describe, she is not so very 
 difficult to come at ; for, on a hive being turned up and tapped, 
 the queen is among the first, if not indeed the very first, who 
 makes her appeaiance, as if to discover the occasion of the un- 
 wonted disturbance ; the dusk of an autumnal evening answers 
 best for this purpose. The queen usually lodges near the crown 
 of the hive, and is, when fumigation is resorted to, one of the 
 last to fall ; she will, consequently, in this case, be found amongst 
 the uppermost bees. In practising fumigation, two persons should 
 act in concert, each taking a hive, and operating upon it, in order 
 that botli stocks should be simultaneously in a similar condition 
 as to intoxication. I may add, that in fumigation, the hive must 
 be well covered with a cloth, to prevent the escape of the smoke. 
 When you have united the two stocks in the manner I have de- 
 scribed, it is advisable to confine the insects to their hive for that 
 night and the following day. Do not, however, wholly deprive 
 them of air in doing so, or you may smother them. On the 
 evening of the following day, about dusk, uncover the hive, and 
 open the entrance. The bees will probably at first tumultuously 
 issue forth, but finding the lateness of the hour, will as hastily 
 return. Let me here forewarn my readers to be more cautious 
 on this than perhaps any other occasion, as the bees will doubt- 
 less be very indignant at the manner in which they have been 
 treated. They are naturally a very irritable insect, and if they 
 find you near them and unprotected when they sally forth, they 
 will be apt to attack you in a body. The sting of a bee is not 
 only very painful, but even sometimes seriously dangerous. 
 
 The most suitable period of the year for uniting weak with 
 strong stocks is from the middle of August to the latter part of 
 September. This, however, is not a proper time to remove stocks 
 from straw hives to boxes, for the season is too far advanced. 
 When taken from their warm hive, and removed into a cold box, 
 bees rarely recover from the effects of the fumigation sufficiently 
 to resume business. May or June is the best time for this removal, 
 or perhaps still earlier, say the beginning of April, before the 
 eggs of the queen bee have attained the stage of larvae. If the 
 operation be performed in cold or even cool weather, it is recom- 
 mended by Nutt to do so " in a room where the temperature is 
 about 60 degrees." Twelve hours or thereabouts suffice for the 
 
THE HONEY HARVEST. 58 
 
 recovery of the bees, and they may then be removed with safety 
 to their ordinary stand. 
 
 Various other precautions besides outer clothing are recom- 
 mended by writers on bee management — such, for instance, as 
 taking a short pipe in the mouth, and smoking during the opera- 
 tion : eveiy one does not, however, smoke. Others recommend 
 taking a drink of ale previous to commencing. Others again 
 recommend rubbing the face and hands with ale or beer ; for my 
 own part, I do not see any absolute necessity for the adoption of 
 any of these measures, if the protecting overall be used ; but if 
 I were to recommend any, it would be that spoken of by Mr. 
 Briggs — viz., water to which a small quantity of creosote has 
 been added. Mr. Briggs adds, " The juice of the Black ocymum, 
 or Indian bazil, is also strongly recommended for the same pur- 
 pose ; and it is said that the bees will not go near to a person 
 whose skin has been recently rubbed with it. It is, I suppose, 
 unnecessary to observe, tliat aqua potassce will answer the same 
 purpose, and fully as well. These remedies will likewise be found 
 equally efficacious for the sting of that wolf of insects — the 
 ferocious and formidable wasp. It may be as well that I wind up 
 my observations on fumigation with a few directions for the pre- 
 paration of the fuzz balls for that purpose. 
 
 Put the ball into a piece of stout paper, and compress it as 
 tightly as you can ; tie it closely up in this condition, and put it 
 in a moderately cool oven, about as cool as tliat from which 
 bread has just been withdrawn — let it remain there until it will 
 serve as tinder. The quantity of the prepared fungus necessary 
 for the fumigation of a hive is a piece of about the size of a hen's 
 egg— less may, in some instances, answer ; but it is unquestiona- 
 bly better to have too much than too little. I should have ob- 
 served, that, prior to union, even where fumigation has been em- 
 ployed, the sprinkling with Uquid honey should not, on any ac- 
 count, be omitted. 
 
 The system which dispenses altogether with fumigation, called 
 tapping or " Driving," is spoken of favorably by many writers ; 
 it is as follows : — 
 
 When twilight appears, you will find the bees all quietly re- 
 posing in the hive ; let whoever is in the habit of tending the 
 bees be the agent in the process ; no assistance is necessary ; let 
 him or her take an old chair from which the bottom has been 
 either worn or cut away — but a worn one is best, as it best fits 
 
54 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 the reversed hive ; turn up the hive on the chair, and pkce over 
 it an empty one, which you have previously smeared interiorly 
 with honey, or sugar dissolved in water ; wrap a cloth round the 
 point of junction for the first few minutes, and, with a stick, tap 
 the reversed hive round the sides, beginning near the bottom, and 
 gradually ascending in your strokes towards the top ; let your 
 strokes be not too rough, lest you loosen the combs ; still, how- 
 ever, these are far more firmly attached than non-practical 
 writers are aware of. 
 
 Ere you have been long thus employed, you will hear a hum- 
 ming noise, and presently the disturbed loees, more than half 
 asleep, will mount into the upper hive. If the ascent of the bees 
 appear checked ere all have left the lower hive, remove the cloth, 
 which, by the way, is, once the ascent has commenced, no longer 
 necessary, and raise the upper hive an inch or so above the low- 
 er. This will be found to facilitate the emigration, and will be 
 unattended with danger. The lower hive being fully deserted, 
 place that containing the bees on the stand. Some like to close 
 the aperture for a short time ; but I conceive such procedure to 
 be useless, as, at that hour, the insects are too sleepy, too stupid, 
 to have any desire "to stir abroad ; and on the morrow will pro- 
 ceed to their ordinary avocations, as if nothing had occurred. 
 This resumption, however, of the insects' ordinary avocations, 
 will not take place unless the above operation be perfoimed early 
 in the season. 
 
 The most secure mode of procedure, and the most approved, is, 
 to unite these exiled bees with those of another hive. You must 
 always, be it remembered, leave your bees a sufficient store of 
 honey as food. This is usually done by setting apart what is 
 called a stock-hive — a hive well filled with honey, and capable of 
 containing and supporting more bees. Turn up this stock-hive ; 
 sprinkle its drowsy inmates, or rather drench them, with sugar 
 or honey, dissolved in water. Do the same with your exiles ; 
 and once again invert the abode of the latter over the mouth of 
 your inverted stock-hive. Proceed in other respects as you did 
 before ; and by tapping drive them down. The two families 
 speedily recover from their sui-prise, and the agreeable employ- 
 ment afforded to all their individual members, of licking the re- 
 sults of your sprinkUng from each other's bodies, wiU soon pro- 
 duce friendliness, meanwhile the odor of the liquid with which 
 you have saturated them, will prevent their distinguishing 
 
THE HONEY HARVEST. 55 
 
 betwixt stranger and comrade. Of course you have previously- 
 taken the precaution of removing the queen of the swarm to be 
 united to the stock hive. Some recommend permitting the rival 
 queens to " fight it out." This is too apt to occasion a general 
 affray, which can readily be avoided by the plan I mention. The 
 whole procedure will not occupy above half an hour, if indeed so 
 much. You need be under no apprehension of being stung. 
 The bees are too sleepy, too lethargic, too much fatigued after 
 their day's toil to care for you. In order to inspire you with 
 confidence, let me call to your recollection the lethargic condition 
 of common house-flies on a ceiling, in a summer or autumn even- 
 ing. The bees are similarly disposed ; and unless you clumsily 
 crush some of them in your hand, they will not take the trouble 
 of hurting you. If you be so very clumsy as to do so, you have 
 only yourself to blame. 
 
 This is your first harvest : you may, by adopting the following 
 approved system of management, obtain even a second, ere plac- 
 ing your bees in their winter quarters. This latter operation is 
 termed "shifling.'' 
 
 Many writers on bee management have been in favor of shift- 
 ing the hives at certain periods of the year, in order to secure a 
 succession of food, according as it fails in one place, or proves 
 more abundant in another. One of the earliest advocates of this 
 system was Columella. He founds his advice on the observation 
 that scarcely any one district can afford an equally adequate sup- 
 ply of pasture both in spring and autumn. Celsus and Pliny 
 hold the same opinion. Later writers have also recommended 
 this removal, as A. de Montfort, Maillet, in which they are fol- 
 lowed b)' Wildman and others. This practice is still extensively 
 followed, and there is still living on the Pentland hills near Edin- 
 burgh, a shepherd, who takes charge' of upwards of a hundred 
 hives annually for bee-keepers living at a distance. 
 
 From the middle of August to the end of September is the 
 usual time when we perceive the food of bees beginning to fail 
 them. This is the period for removing them to new pasture, 
 which is then in bloom. Before moving, ascertain the condition 
 of your hives ; for these which are well stocked with honey 
 should be deprived by the process already detailed ; and this 
 should be done some days prior to I'emoval, for the combs con- 
 taining the young may have been loosened in the operation, and 
 
56 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 the bees should be allowed time to fasten them once again se- 
 curely in their places. 
 
 " Water carriage, when procurable, is the best, as it shakes 
 the hives least ; but when land carriage must be resorted to, the 
 hives should be carried on poles, slung on men's shoulders. 
 The journey should be pursued at night only, and the bees suf- 
 fered to go forth and feed during the day. Such is their instinct, 
 that they will readily find their way back ; but they should not 
 be suffered to go forth until at the distance of upwards of ten or 
 eleven miles from their original home, otherwise they will be lost 
 in endeavoring to regain it — a moderate distance induces them 
 to abandon the idea, and to become reconciled to their new quar- 
 ters If traveling by canal, the hives should be removed from 
 the boat, and placed on stands, at some distance from the bank 
 ere the insects are let out, otherwise they will be lost in thou- 
 sands by falling into the water on their return. If your weak 
 stocks happen to be placed near the strong ones of some one else, 
 you will stand a fair chance of having them all killed in encoun- 
 ters with their more powerful neighbors. It would be well also 
 to see that your hives are placed in a situation where they will 
 be safe from the attacks of cattle or other foes. Before fetching 
 the hives home again, it will not be amiss to ascertain their con- 
 dition and weight, and to take from them what honey they can 
 spare. 
 
 I must here infonn you how to ascertain the state or wealth of 
 a hive. About the middle of September examine your hives ; at 
 all events do not, whatever be the aspect of the season, neglect 
 this necessaiy operation until October; but if the season appear 
 likely to turn out to be a severe one, set about it even earlier 
 than I have indicated. But do not mistake me — I do not mean 
 that you can deprive your bees of any honey so late as this ; if I 
 said so, I should be only instructing you in the best and most ex- 
 peditious method of destroying your stocks. I only mean, that 
 under certain circumstances, and in peculiarly favorable weather, 
 you may postpone until the periods I have named, your f-nal ex- 
 amination of your stocks, in order to ascertain which can, and 
 which cannot, support itself, unaided by you, during the winter 
 months. 
 
 In observatory hives, and such as are formed on the collateral 
 box, or piled box principle, there are usually such contrivances as 
 will admit of inspection of the hive and its contents without the 
 
THE HONEY HARVEST. 67 
 
 necessity of handling it. In the ordinary hive, however, we can- 
 not avoid manually ascertaining the weight and condition of our 
 stock. In order to do so, you must previously have been ac- 
 quainted with the weight of your hive, and of the probable num- 
 ber of bees which it contains ; and I may also add, that it would 
 be as well if you had your stands so contrived as to admit of their 
 being raised with the hive for the purpose of weighing, as, if you 
 forcibly separate the latter from the former, you break the cemen» 
 of propolis — a substance I have yet to describe, which unites the 
 hive to its position on the stand, and puts the bees to much un- 
 necessary trouble and annoyance. 
 
 A hive should contain twenty pounds of honey for its support 
 during winter ; an increase of number in the hive, produced by 
 union, will not require an increase of food. Precisely the con- 
 trary is the case ; and the more abundant the stock of the bees 
 in autumn, the richer and the better able to work will they be in 
 spring — the more forward, therefore, will they be in summer, and 
 the greater will be your profit. 
 
 There should be twenty pounds of honey left in a hive for winter 
 consumption, exclusive of the weight of both hive and bees. Of 
 course I cannot give you any assistance in ascertaining the weight 
 of the former, as that feature must depend upon its structure, 
 &c., and the materials of which it is composed. But the weight 
 of the bees themselves is quite a difierent matter. In lib. avoir- 
 dupois, or 16 oz., there are about five thousand bees — from fifteen 
 to twenty thousand bees constitute a strong hive, that is, from 
 four to Jive pounds in weight. 
 
 If you find, after making these calculations and deductions, 
 that your stocks are under weight, you may either supply them 
 with food or unite two or more together. I am in favor of union ; 
 I now only speak with reference to such persons as have reaped 
 a second, or perhaps a third harvest from their bees. Had they 
 omitted the last, no such care would have been called for. 
 
 Mr. Briggs, in a few words as to autumnal feeding, says. 
 The hives should be weighed. Affe will cause hives to weigh heavier 
 than their legitimate contents would call for ; this is occasioned 
 by an accumulation of bee-bread and the cast sloughs which had 
 formerly served as envelopes to the young. In the case of old 
 hives, you must, therefore, allow from two to five pounds, accord- 
 ing to age, for these matters. These substances require to be 
 occasionally remo'ved from the hive, as otherwise they will accumu- 
 
58 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 late to such an extent as to render the hive too small for breeding, 
 and your stock will thus soon become extinct. Spring is tho 
 proper season for removing these substances ; the process is very 
 simple, consisting merely in fumigating the hives, and thus ren- 
 dering the bees for the time insensible, then, while they are in 
 this state, turning up the hive and cutting out a portion of the 
 old comb ; you should only cut away half at a time. The follow- 
 ing spring, perform the same process ; you will find the gap your 
 knife had made the previous year completely restored, and you 
 may now remove the remaining portion of old comb. By this 
 system of constantly inducing a renovation of the combs, you 
 ■will preserve your stock in a state of perpetual youth. Your 
 hive, even if made of straw, will last for an indefinite length of 
 time if protected externally by a thick coat of whitewash, or, 
 ■which is better, Roman cement ; do not let any one persuadeyou 
 to employ paint for this purpose ; if you do, you will lose your 
 bees. This cutting away of the combs may also be resorted to 
 in cases where your hives are infested with moths ; under such 
 circumstances you may cut away all the combs that contain the 
 larvae of those insects. 
 
 Every bee-keeper should have an ordinary spatula, 
 and a set of bee knives. These should be in the forms 
 of the cut. They should be a foot long, beside the 
 handle, of metal ; arid the blades should be so sharp as 
 to cut the combs and not bruise or break them. 
 
 All hives under the clear nett weight (bees and honey, 
 the hive and stand properly deducted) of 20 lbs. avoir- 
 dupois, must receive an allowance of food ; the exam- 
 ination to take place at the close of September. Honey, 
 vsrhen you have it and can spare it, is, of course, the 
 ' best food you can give your bees, and will not, as Mr. 
 Huish has asserted, give bees the dysentery ; but if you cannot 
 give honey, you may form an excellent substitute by boiling ale 
 and sugar together gently in a clean and well-tinned vessel, over 
 a clear fire, for about five minutes. One pound and a-half of 
 sugar may be added to each quart of ale, and the mixture is to 
 be skimmed, according as the scum rises to the surface during 
 boiling ; when the syrup is taken from the fire, add to it about a 
 teaspoonful of common table-salt for each quart of syrup. 
 
 The cuts show a bee feeder. Tiiere is a hole in the centre 
 and tube in it. The lower cut shows the feeder with a glass bell 
 
THE HONEY HAEVEST. 
 
 69 
 
 over it. It may either be placed near, or on top of the hive with 
 
 the tube going into a hole in the top of the hive. 
 It is bad to be compelled to feed bees in 
 
 the winter, as, by descending to the bottom 
 
 of the hive in order to get at the food, IhHy 
 
 expose themselves to cold, and many perish ; 
 
 by early examination in autumn, and uniting 
 
 weak hives, together with judicious feeding 
 
 at that season, if necessary, the winter man- 
 agement will be simplified. 
 
 Bees kept in boxes are as liable as any 
 
 others to the attacks of insects, mice, weasels, 
 
 and other foes. In such case the stand 
 
 should have been removed, and traps or 
 
 poison used to banish the vermin. You will 
 
 sometimes find the bees strong in numbers, 
 
 yet poor in stores. This may also be a re- 
 sult of the presence of moths, &c., in the 
 
 hive ; that should, therefore, be examined, 
 
 and the intruders removed. Do not, on any 
 
 account, fumigate a hive with tobacco or sulphur for the purpose 
 
 of expelling or destroying moths ; for, if you fail of destioying 
 
 your bees along with them, you may safely calculate on, at all 
 events, rendering the honey injurious to them ; and, in some 
 cases, especially when tobacco has been used, absolutely poisonous. 
 Doubtless, it was honey, impregnated with these deleteiious 
 fumes, that Mr. Huish found to give his bees the dysentery. 
 When bees are found to be • thus rich in numbers and poor in 
 store, it frequently happens that the cause is the loss of the queen ; 
 for if anything happen to the sovereign, the community speedily 
 decay away. The remedy in this instance is, of course,. union to 
 another stock. If this occur in winter, I should recommend you 
 to unite, and feed abundantly. Mr. Nutt, however,- says, that 
 when this occurs in winter, all your feeding will be thrown away, 
 and your bees perish, despite your care. Some people also defer 
 feeding until the bees are absolutely in want. This is very 
 wrong ; the assistance sho.uld be rendered several weeks before 
 the hive is in a state, of positive destitution, otherwise, when you 
 do feed, the bees will be too weak to avail themselves of your 
 bounty. The good mode of feeding is, to put the honey, or syrup, 
 as the case may be, in a shallow box ; lay over the sweet liquid 
 
60 
 
 THE HIVE AND THE HONET-BEE. 
 
 a sheet of strong paper, perforated with holes, through which 
 the bees can suck the syrup without falling into the mess, or 
 becoming clogged by it ; attach the box to the mouth of the hive, 
 the bees will soon make it out, enter, and remove the store to their 
 cells. 
 
 It is bad to lift up the hive for the purpose of feeding, as, by 
 so doing, you lower the temperature of the interior, and often 
 destroy your stock. When the feeder is attached to the entrance 
 of the hive, all this is obviated. 
 
 It is quite important to the bee-keeper to have a wdgUng 
 machine. This may consist of three poles of wood, seven feet 
 long, fastened by hinges to a triangular block of wood, six inches 
 on each side. The poles must have spikes at the lower end, to 
 stand firmly on the ground. To the underside of the block is 
 fastened a pulley wheel. Over this a cord passes, one end of 
 which is held by the hand, while to the other is attached a spring 
 balance, with a hook at its end. The cut will show the method 
 of using. 
 
WINTER MANAGEMENT. 81 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MANAGEMENT DURING WINTER AND EARLY SPRING. 
 
 One of the most important particulars connected with bee 
 management, is taking care that they are abundantly supplied 
 with food in autumn, and also taking care at that season to ascer- 
 tain whether or not they are sufficiently strong in numbers, and if 
 not, to unite your weak stocks, so as to form strong ones. It is 
 by such treatment as this that you may expect to preserve your 
 bees in health and strength through the winter, and tcJ have 
 them in a condition to attend properly to their brood in the early 
 spring. 
 
 In a large straw hive, there should be left, at your autumnal 
 honey harvest, from twenty to twenty-five, or even, according to 
 the size of the hive, thirty pounds weight of honey, exclusive, 
 be it remembered, of the weight of hive, stand, and bees. If 
 you should, from any accident, find your hive deficient in weight, 
 you must make up the deficiency by artificial feeding, either with 
 honey or with the mixture of ale and sugar. 
 
 Having ascertained that you have supplied your stocks with a 
 sufficiently ample quantity of food for their support during win- 
 ter, or that they already possess enough, you should next narrow 
 the entrance of the hive so that it will scarcely admit of the pas- 
 sage of more than a single bee at a time ; and towards the middle 
 of November the entrance should be closed nearly altogether. 
 The hives should be covered up with matting, fern, or other 
 similar substance, in order to preserve them from rain, frost, or, 
 the most dangerous of all, the sun's rays of a fine winter's day. 
 These deceptive rays would afibrd a temptation to the bees to 
 sally forth, and the result would be, that they would become 
 chilled by the cold. Few would survive the flight so as to return 
 to the hive : its temperature would fall, and you would lose your 
 stock. Your hives should remain thus carefully covered and 
 closed until the beginning of March. 
 
 I must here mention a mode of protecting your hives, and 
 rendering them in point of warmth in winter, coolness in summer, 
 iraperviousness to wet, inaccessibility to moths, and other foes at 
 least, unless through the entrance, and also in durability, equal 
 to wooden boxes, viz., a coating of Roman cement on the exterior. 
 
62 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 When there is snow upon the ground, the entrances of your hives 
 should be entirely closed, and a screen or shade should be placed 
 before the hive, in case of an accidental sunny day occuiriiig, in 
 order to prevent the bees from encountering even a single decep- 
 tive ray. 
 
 Another danger from which you are imperatively called upon 
 to protect your bees during winter is dampness. It is to this 
 cause that the loss of many a stock is to be attributed — an in- 
 ternal dampness, generated within the hive itself. This is best 
 remedied by careful ventilation, placing a bell-glass, well covered 
 with flannel, over the aperture on the top of your hive or box, 
 removing it from time to time, and carefully wiping away from its 
 interior the damp formed by condensed vapor ; this remedy is at 
 once simple and efficacious. 
 
 It will, perhaps, appear to some of my readers a singular ex- 
 periment, resorted to by some bee-keepers, viz., burying the hives. 
 When this is to be attempted, the hive should be buried in a 
 cool, dry, shady place, among leaves, about a foot deep, and the 
 interment should be performed during the first or second week of 
 November. 
 
 A friend buried a hive of bees, in the first week of November, 
 about a foot deep, amongst dry leaves, <fec., and disinterred it in 
 the last week of February, when it was just 2 lbs. lighter than it 
 was in November, and the bees in a lively and healthy state. 
 Another person immured a hive of bees in the earth, four feet 
 deep, in the second week of November, and at the end of 
 January it was removed, and weighed only 3 oz. less than it did 
 before it was buried. 
 
 The above experiments are worthy of attention ; a shed, having 
 a northern aspect,, and which is as dry as possible, would be a 
 suitable place for further trials. The principal points by which 
 there might be cause for fear of failure, would, as in other ca.ses, 
 be from dampness, disease for want of fresh air, and attacks from 
 vermin, <fec. To prevent the former I would recommend that the 
 hives be placed on a long frame of wood, covered by a web of 
 closely-worked wire, and raised a few inches from the ground, 
 the ends of which should communicate with, and be occasionally 
 opened to, the fresh air. A long tube should also be placed 
 from the hole at the top of each hive to the open air of the shed, 
 from the upper end of which any dampness might be condensed 
 by bell-glasses, and conveyed away as already directed. 
 
WINTER MANAGEMENT. 68 
 
 The materials with which the hives are covered and surround- 
 ed, should consist of dry leaves pressed closely together, or dry 
 and powdered charcoal or cinders, and may be several feet in 
 thickness, to presei-ve the bees in a cool and torpid state, and at 
 a regular temperature, in which state they should be kept as dry, 
 dark and quiet as circumstances will permit. 
 
 It is the opinion of many experienced apiarians, that a cold 
 winter is not injurious to bees, provided they are sufficiently pre- 
 pared for withstanding it, in the manner above detailed ; and 
 which, I trust, comprises several facts, hints, and suggestions, 
 which are not generally known, and may be of service to bee- 
 keepers of the present day. 
 
 It is considered that those localities which are suited to the 
 cultivation of good barley and Dutch clover, are also suited to 
 the production of honey, and . that where a rose will prosper, a 
 bee will prosper also ; consequently there are but few situations 
 in which the keeping of bees might not be profitably extended. 
 
 In all plans and operations with bees, the laws of nature 
 should be attentively observed and assisted, by which much may- 
 be experienced and acquired from attention and perseverance, 
 and the results aimed at obtained at less trouble and expense 
 than if an opposite course were pursued. 
 
 As the spring approaches, the winter coverings should be 
 gradually removed, and those hives which have been buried 
 placed in their summer situations. Small quantities of food 
 should then be supplied as occasion requires, until winter is past. 
 
 It must always be borne in mind that seasons, situations, and 
 the, law^s of nature, present influences which may be guarded 
 against, or assisted, but cannot be completely controlled. Thus, 
 the aspect for the entrances of the hives may require to be varied 
 a few points between the eastern and western sides of the king- 
 dom ; and there may also require to be, on some occasions, an 
 advance or delay of a few weeks in some operations with bees 
 between the northern, and the southern parts of any country of 
 some considerable extent. 
 
 Among other obvious mistakes, I may mention the recommen- 
 dation to give the bees an opportunity of leaving the hive, and 
 going abroad every fine day, already detailed. What advantage 
 is expected to be derived from thus permitting the insects to go 
 forth 1 They may be supposed to want exercise. This is a mis- 
 take ; for the bees naturally crowd together, and remain in a 
 
64 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 sort of torpor during -winter, and every thing that could tend to 
 interfere with, or arouse them from it, must, of course, prove 
 contrary to their natural instincts, and consequently, prejudicial. 
 During winter the bees are inactive. 
 
 It seems generally recommended that the hives should be re- 
 moved to a northern aspect during winter. If the bees are to be 
 set at liberty, this very removal, otherwise so necessary, will 
 cause their destruction ; for they will, on being permitted to issue 
 from the hive, of a certainty fly back to their old quarters, where 
 they will remain until benumbed by the cold that, despite a few 
 gleams of treacherous sunshine, pervades the air, and will, of 
 course, soon fall to the ground, and miserably perish — all owing 
 to your bad management. 
 
 Independent of these considerations, I may also, and I think 
 most reasonably, adduce the very considerable, and at the same 
 time, most unnecessary waste of food consequent on the adoption 
 of the liberty system. 
 
 Bees can endure the extreme cold of a Russian winter with 
 impunity, while a far inferior degree of cold often proves fatal ; 
 the true cause of the phenomenon is the greater dryness of the 
 Russian climate, and that to dampness it is that we are to ascribe 
 failure. 
 
 An old French work suggests a mode of preserving bees by 
 interment during winter. It consists of laying some very dry, 
 powdered earth upon the bottom of an old cask, to the depth of 
 about half a foot, pressed down very hard, and setting on this 
 the stool with the hive ; then- preserving a communication with 
 the air, by cutting a hole in the cask, opposite to the mouth of 
 the hive, and placing a piece of reed from the mouth of the hive 
 to the hole in the cask ; then covering the hive up with a quanti- 
 ty of dry earth similar to that on which it stands. In spring it 
 is only necessary to remove the winter coverings gradually and 
 with caution ; to examine also the state of the bees' provisions, 
 and, if necessary, feed them. Be cautious in at once giving them 
 liberty, or in doing so too early, or in unsettled weather. The 
 mouth of the hive should be kept facing due west, until all these 
 dangers have passed away : when the working season arrives, 
 the aspect of the hive must be moved southward, and the insects 
 left entirely to themselves. When spring-feeding is necessar)', it 
 is usually in April, for then the demands of the young brood call 
 for a greater consumption of honey than ordinary, and from 
 
THE ENEMIES AND DISEASES OF BEES. 65 
 
 want of attending to this circumstance, hives have been lost even 
 so late in the season as the month of May. 
 
 About the beginning of the month of March, is the proper 
 time for transferring stocks from hives to boxes ; the latter should 
 be previously well cleaned out, their interior smeared, and sup- 
 plied with a portion of honey, in a proper feeder. 
 
 As the warm weather approaches, shade your hives from the 
 sun. If the bees be induced by the heat to attempt injudicious 
 or ill-timed swarming, and hang in clusters about the entrance of 
 the hive, you can check it by sprinkling them with some water 
 from the nose of a watering pot or syringe ; they will mistake 
 this for rain, and retire within the hive to resume their work. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE DISEASES AND ENEMIES OT BEES. 
 
 Bees, when properly attended to, and managed on the im- 
 proved modern system, are neither very subject to disease, nor 
 very liable to suffer from the attacks of enemies ; still, however, 
 accidents of these kinds will occur, once in a while, despite of 
 our most anxious care. 
 
 The diseases of bees are not numerous, so that a lengthened 
 detail will be unnecessary. 
 
 DISEASES OF BEES. 
 
 These are Diarrhoea and Dysentery. The latter is probably 
 only produced by neglect of the former : at all events, we may 
 regard these two affections as springing from the one cause, and 
 certainly they can only be combated by the same remedies. 
 
 Columella speaks of diarrhoea as a purging which seizes bees 
 annually, in the spring ; and conceives it to be occasioned by the 
 bees surfeiting themselves on the young flowers in their first re- 
 past. He recommends a remedy, still earlier proposed by Hygi- 
 nus, viz., covering the bees with the warm ashes of the fig-tree. 
 On his own part, Columella recommends giving them rosemary 
 and honey diluted with water. 
 
 Ill my opinion this looseness is occasioned by the bees feeding 
 on what is called " candied honey" — a substance, the deleterious 
 effects of which were well known to Aristotle, and subsequently 
 
66 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 to Virgil, who gives, in his account of bees, express directions for 
 preventing honey from candying. He regarded the cause of its 
 doing so to be cold. 
 
 I cannot very positively account for the formation of candied 
 honey, unless, as is very probable, Wildman's opinion be correct, 
 viz., that it becomes so by being too long in the hive, too stale, 
 and hence unfit for use. The mode of prevention is obvious : — ■ 
 A periodical examination of the hives or boxes, and a removal of 
 a portion on each occasion of the old or mouldy combs. The 
 presence of candied honey in a hive is so obnoxious to bees, that 
 it frequently induces them to desert it. 
 
 The candied honey proves fatal to bees in another way beside 
 their being poisoned by it. When the bees find candied honey 
 in the combs, they, knoveing its prejudicial qualities, if they have 
 other and wholesome store, throw it out of ihe combs, and it of 
 course falls on the bottom board of the hive. In doing this the 
 bees prepare their own graves. They can neither enter nor leave 
 the hive without bedaubing themselves, and their endeavoi-s to 
 free themselves and their companions from the incumbrance only 
 make matters worse. When bees are found in this state, it is 
 difficult to relieve them ; but if anything will do so, it is immer- 
 sion in tepid water ; for this purpose you can sweep them into a 
 tub with the wing of a fowl, leave them in the water until insen- 
 sible, and unite them, when they revive a little, to the bees of 
 another hive, taking care to serve these latter similarly. Though 
 I recommend this treatment, I can b}' no means pronounce it in- 
 fallible ; but I have known it to succeed in more than one in- 
 stance. 
 
 In an old French treatise we find purging and dysentery at- 
 tributed to the bees feeding on too pure honey, which is there 
 said not to be sufficiently substantial for them by itself. The cure 
 recommended is to give them from another hive combs well sup- 
 plied with bee-bread or crude wax. 
 
 ENEMIES OF BEES. 
 
 These are far more numerous than their diseases, and are as 
 follows : — 
 
 Poultry, Mice, Toads, Frogs, Snails, Slugs, Caterpillars, Motlis, 
 Millipedes, Woodhce, Ants, l/ice. Spiders, Wasps, Hornets. 
 
 Fowls should not be permitted in any apiary. They will kill 
 and eat the bees, and such as they do not destroy they will an- 
 noy and disturb — besides, your bees will probably occupy a 
 
THE ENEMIES AND DISEASES OF BEES. 67 
 
 stand in your garden, a quarter whence other reasons should ne- 
 cessarily exclude poultry. 
 
 Mice. — While the bees are vigorous, the field-mouse does not 
 dare attack the hive ; but as the cold approaches, and the bees 
 become less active, he enters, and commencing with the lower 
 comb, ascends by degrees as the bees become torpid, until he 
 either clears all away, or by the smell of the honey he has wast- 
 ed on the board, induces other bees to come and plunder. As 
 soon as the warm weather returns, the surviving bees will leave 
 the hive in disgust. Tlie remedy is easy. By having your straw 
 hives, if you use such, coated on the exterior with Roman ce- 
 ment, you will prevent mice from nestling in the straw, whence 
 otherwise they would speedily eat their way into the interior, and 
 by narrowing the entrance of the hive in the manner already de- 
 scribed, you will effectually keep out these little intruders. If 
 your stands be placed on a sinsrle foot, or if the feet are so 
 placed under tlie foot board as to leave a wide, projecting ledge, 
 no mice can arjive at the hive. 
 
 Toads will kill bees occasionally, but not in sufficient numbers 
 to excite our alarm ; but is rather to be regarded as a friend to 
 the bees, one of their enemies, the spider, being his favorite food. 
 
 Frogs may be classed with Toads. 
 
 Snails and Slugs. — These creatures are not absolutely enemies 
 of bees, as they have no design upon them or their honey in en- 
 tering the hi^ie, but merely do so from accident. The mischief 
 done by them consists in the alarm and confusion they occasion. 
 The bees first attack the unfortunate intruder and kill him with 
 their stings, after which they carefully encase hiui in propolis, 
 effectually preventing putrefaction or the production of maggots. 
 
 Caterpillars. — The most dreaded is the caterpillar of the 
 Wax-moih, so called fiom the ravages it makes amongst the 
 combs as soon as it obtains entrance. By having the legs of the 
 stand placed as I have already desciibed, no caterpillar can climb 
 up to the hive; but this will not prevent the Moth herself from 
 entering and depositing eggs in the hive ; and so prolific are 
 these moths, that a single brood would suffice to destroy a 
 whote stock. Periodical fumigation, and cutting away such 
 combs as contain the grubs, is the remedy to be adopted. Moths 
 are only nocturnal enemies. During the day you have nothing 
 to fear from their attacks.. Let the entrance to the hive, there- 
 
68 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 fore, be nearly closed in the evening, and you will protect your 
 iDees from their ravages. Columella recommends, as a trap for 
 moths, a bottle, or other vessel, with a long and narrow neck in- 
 creasing gradually to a wide mouth, and having a light in the 
 neck, to be placed under the hive in the evening. I can vouch 
 for the efficacy of this trap — it will desti'oy numbers. Another 
 particular to be attended to is to have your stocks sufficiently 
 strong ; and for this purpose, if the hive attacked be weak, unite 
 it to the bees of another hive, in the manner already described. 
 The bees are themselves, if sufficiently strong in numbars, both 
 willing and able to destroy the intruders. If weak, they will 
 necessarily fall victims. 
 
 Millipedes, or Woodlicb, are often produced by the stand 
 being made of decayed wood, or the hive being placed too near 
 an old hedge. Let the stand be of new wood, and strew soot on 
 the ground under and about the hive. This will also serve in 
 part as a protection against the attacks of 
 
 Ants. — You should always destroy such ants' nests as you 
 find in the neighborhood of a hive. In the West Indies glass 
 feet are used to prevent these insects from getting into furniture, 
 Ac. Might not such be used with advantage for bee-hives? 
 
 Lice. — These are small parasitical insects of a red color, which 
 adhere to the body of the bee, and derive their nourishment from 
 her juices. They are about the size of a grain of mustard seed, 
 or rather smaller. 
 
 Reaumur and others tried many remedies for these trouble- 
 pome insects, but in vain, till at length Madame Vicat discovered 
 that Morocco tobacco will kill the lice without injuring the bees. 
 
 Spiders. — Brush away their webs wherever you meet with 
 them near your stand. 
 
 Wasps and Hornets. — These insects are most noxious to bees. 
 Dig up and destroy their nests wherever you meet with them ; 
 but you will most effectually get rid of them by offering a re- 
 ward for every queen wasp brought to you in spring. The de- 
 struction of each queen is tantamount to that of an entire nest; 
 and if this plan were generally adopted, wasps would eventually 
 be extirpated. 
 
 Birds. — Among those which are the greatest enemies to bees, 
 I may mention sparrows and swallows. Set traps near the hives, 
 baited with dead bees ; shoot the birds ; and hang up a few of 
 
TREATMENT OF YOUR PRODUCE. 69 
 
 such birds as you kill, on trees near the stands. Perseverance 
 for a time in this -will rid you of the annoyance. 
 
 Bbes. — Bees are amongst the most dangerous foes of their 
 own kind, being bold and resolute plunderers. .It is only weak 
 stocks, however, that suffer, so that union is the obvious cure. 
 Avoid also placing your hives too close together ; and also avoid 
 at any time placing a weak stock near a strong one. 
 
 I have now enumerated the principal foes you have to appre- 
 hend, and you will find if you follow my directions, they will not 
 prove so very formidable, but be much more easily got rid of, or 
 guarded against, than you imagined. On the other hand, if you 
 neglect proper precautions, and suffer the enemy to remain un- 
 molested, you will be equally astonished at the incredible amount 
 of mischief they will do, and the rapidity with which they will 
 do it. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 HOW TO TREAT THE PRODUCE OF YOUK HONEY HARVEST. 
 
 In the first place, you must remove your store to some room 
 without a fire-place, for the bees have been known to make use 
 of even that mode of access in order to come at the honey, which 
 they are able to scent from a considerable distance. Close all 
 the doors and windows. You should previously have in the 
 room whatever implements you want — viz., some large glazed 
 earthen vessels, clean, new, horse-hair sieves, a strainer, some 
 clean linen cloths, and abundance of water to wash your hands. 
 Wildman recommends burning cowdung, or rotten hay, at the 
 doors and windows of the room in which you are at work, in 
 order to keep away the bees, and expeiience has shown that this 
 recommendation should be attended to. 
 
 Your first care should be to examine the combs, and free them 
 from all dirt, grubs, young bees, or other foreign matters — re- 
 membering, of course, to have previously well and thoroughly 
 washed your hands. You then cut the combs horizontally into 
 pieces of an inch wide, and lay^them on the sieve over the glazed 
 earthen vessels ; when they have dropped all the honey that they 
 will yield without squeezing, put them in the cloth already men- 
 tioned, and wrinff it over another crock; this will furni^h iliu 
 
70 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 
 
 second class honey — that spontaneously yielded is called virgin 
 honey, and is equal in purity to that obtained from the bell glass. 
 
 Some have recommended heating the combs in order to pro- 
 cure an inferior, a third, description of honey ; but this is bad. 
 When you have obtained all that you can squeeze through the 
 cloth or bag, carefully cover up the two sorts, put the combs, 
 also well covered, into a vessel by themselves, and remove all the 
 other cloths, vessels, and other utensils, to the wpiary, that the 
 bees may licTc them clean. 
 
 Your next object is to obtain the wax ; for this purpose, put 
 the combs into a clean vessel, and add as much soft water as 
 they will float in — distilled water' would be best— but rain will 
 answer nearly as well. Place the vessel on a clear and not too 
 hot fire, and watch it, stirring occasionally until the combs be 
 completely liquefied. You then strain this through a fine canvas 
 bag, into a tub of cold water. The water first flows through, 
 and then the bag requires pressure to make it yield the wax. 
 The simplest jrr^^^ is that recommended in Mr. Nutt's book : — 
 " Have ready then a piece of smooth board of such a length that, 
 when one end of it is placed in the tub of cold water, the other 
 end may be conveniently rested against, and securely stayed, by 
 your breast. Upon this inclined plane lay your dripping, reek- 
 ing strainer, and keep it from slipping into the cold water by 
 bringing its upper part over the top of the board, so as to be 
 held firmly between it and your breast. If the strainer be made 
 with a broad hem round its top, a piece of strong tape or cord 
 passed through such hem will draw it close, and should be long 
 enough to form a stirrup for the foot, by which an additional 
 power will be gained of keeping the scalding hot strainer in its 
 proper place on the board ; then, by compressing the bag, or 
 rather its contents, with any convenient roller, the wax will ooze 
 through and run down the board into the cold water, on the sur- 
 face of which it will set in thin flakes. When this part of the 
 operation is finished, collect the wax, put it into a clean sauce- 
 pah, in which is a little water, to keep the wax from being burned 
 to the bottom ; melt it carefully, for should it be neglected, and 
 sufiisred to boil over, serious mischief might ensue, liquid wax being 
 of a very inflammable nature ; therefore, melt it carefully over a 
 slow fire, and skim ofl' the dross as it rises to the top ; then pour 
 it into such moulds or shapes as your fancy may direct, having 
 first well rinsed them, in order that you may be able to get the 
 
..TREATMENT OF YOUK PRODUCE. 71 
 
 wax, when cold and solid, out of them, without breaking either 
 the moulds or the wax ; place them, covered over witli cloths 
 or with pieces of board, where the wax will cool slowly ; because 
 the more slowly it cools, the more solid will it be, and free from 
 flaws and cracks." 
 
 You may bleach your wax by re-melting it, and running it 
 several times into very thin cakes, suffered to cool; and exposed 
 to the influence of the air and sun. This will render the wax 
 perfectly white. 
 
 You will find the separation of the honey from the wax, and 
 the sale of those substances separately, much more profitable 
 than the sale of the honey in the comb. The larger the cakes of 
 wax are, and the better, the higher price it brings. The same 
 may be said as to the purity of the honey. Honey may be 
 CLARirrED by placing the vessel containing it in hot water, and 
 continuing to skim as long as any scum arises. In order to pre- 
 serve honey, it should be stored in jars, well bluddered, and 
 otherwise secured. It should also be kept in a dry place. 
 
 Mead. — Some persons may feel desirous of making for them- 
 selves this once famous drink, and I shall accordingly furnish 
 them with simple directions for so doing. Common mead is 
 formed by mixing two parts of water with one of honey, boiling 
 them together, and taking off' the scum. 
 
 Fermented mead is formed of three parts of water to one of 
 honey, boiled as before, skimmed, and oasked. The cask is to 
 be left unbunged and exposed to the sun, or in a warm room, 
 until it ceases to work. It is then bunged, and in about three 
 months is fit for use. The addition of a ferment is of course ne- 
 cessary, taking care that it be sound, sweet, and good. 
 
 Hops are an improvement to mead, taking from its extreme 
 sweetness ; and so is the addition of chopped raisins boiled with 
 it, at the rate of six pounds of honey to each half pound of 
 raisins ; also some lemon peel ; a few glasses of brandy, &c. 
 
 Methbglin is only another name for mead, altered by the ad- 
 dition of various ingredients, according to the taste of its pre- 
 parers. These liquors may be racked, fined, &c., like other wines, 
 and will, if properly managed, keep for years. 
 
 It now only remains for me to conclude my accoiint of the hive 
 and the honey-bee with a few parting directions, forming a sort 
 of summary of the instructions I have already endeavored to 
 convey : — 
 
72 THE HIVE AKD THE HOiSTiY-BEB. 
 
 I. — Never suflbcate your bees. 
 
 II. — Do not take too much honey from them at the honey 
 harvest. * • • 
 
 III. — Keep them in such receptacles as -will admit of extend- 
 ing their accommodation when (iesirable, and thus preventing the 
 necessity of unwished-for swarming. 
 
 IV. — Unite weak hives in autumn, and leave the bees a sul • 
 ficiency of food for the winter, so shall they be strong in store 
 and in numbers in the spring. * 
 
 V. — During winter keep them confined, cool, dry, and quiet ; 
 and in spring again examine and feed liberally such stocks as re- 
 quire it ; and 
 
 VI. — If you, by attending to the advice I have endeavorec, 
 through the medium of this little volume, to convey to you, suc- 
 ceed in the culture, and discover how profitable as well as how 
 interesting a pursuit it is, when judiciously conducted, communi- 
 cate your experience to your neighbors. Abjure selfishness, and 
 so may you prosper ; and in after years you will, perhaps, con- 
 gratulate yourself on having bestowed your attention on the 
 Hive and the Honet-bee. 
 
 THE EKD.