April may be considered the first month of the apiarian's year, a
month of busy preparation for the coming honey season and its many
pleasing occupations. A good supply of new straw hives (where they
are used) is supposed to be already in hand, with glasses and covers,
depriving-hives, adapting-boards, Bee-dresses for the operator and an
assistant, and indeed, of everything that will be required during the
season.
Feeding.--I must again press upon all persons who have weak stocks
the necessity of feeding. The Bees are beginning to bestir themselves
when the sun shines warm; and inexperienced Bee-keepers are apt to
think that their stocks are now past danger, and so take no more care
of them. But the truth is, that the early spring months are the most
dangerous of all; many stocks that have stood the winter die in the
spring, which a few ounces even of food would prevent. There is nothing
to be gathered in the fields till April, and in cold late seasons not
muck before even May. Stocks should be watched well in spring, and weak
ones fed liberally. As soon as they begin to stir a little food should
be given them every other day, or thereabouts, until they refuse to
take it, for they will neglect the food given them as soon as they can
gather honey.
Method of Feeding.--The best manner of giving food to Bees in a common
straw hive is to put it into a dinner-plate, cover it with a piece of
writing paper thickly perforated, and place it under the hive; but
should there not be sufficient room for the plate without touching the
combs, the hive may be raised upon a wooden hoop, the exact size of the
hive, and about 2 inches deep, or upon a piece cut from the bottom of
an old straw hive. The food must be given after sunset, and the plate
removed by sunrise the next morning. The entrance must be stopped while
the food remains in the hive; a piece of soft paper answers remarkably
well for this purpose.
Water.--This must be supplied to the Bees immediately, for it is in
the spring that they have the greatest occasion for it. The plan that
I have adopted is to have a trough of wood, or stone, 18 inches long,
12 inches wide, and 6 inches deep, sunk in the ground in the immediate
vicinity of the apiary, with a piece of thin wood, thickly perforated
with small holes, made to fit loosely into it. This perforated wood,
when the trough is filled with water, will float upon its surface,
and save the Bees from drowning--a mode of death causing the loss of
numbers should they, for want of this little accommodation, be obliged
to go to an open cistern or pool.
Hives.--It is now quite time to have a supply of hives for the coming
season, where new ones are required; and where old ones are to be used,
to have them well cleaned. It is also a good time to paint those hives
that are occupied--it will greatly improve their appearance, as well as
tend to preserve them. A well-made hive, painted before the Bees are
put into it, and once every other year afterwards, will last uninjured
for upwards, of twenty years; indeed, I have one at the present time
that has stood even much longer. They may be painted after six o'clock
in the evening without danger to the operator or inconvenience to the
Bees; of course, stopping the mouth of the hive for the time. I find
stone or straw colour to be the best, as absorbing less heat than green
or any dark colour. Perhaps, on this account, white would be best, but
the strong reflected light from it is very objectionable.
Floor-boards.--It will be well to give the floor-boards a final
cleaning for the season, and the middle of a bright day will be the
best time for doing it; and, at the same time, any pieces of comb
that during the winter may have fallen from the top of the hives, and
are fastened by the Bees to the bottom of the combs that are in their
proper places, should be removed.
Cutting out Old Combs.--This is also the best time to remove a leaf or
two of comb from old hives, perhaps the two outermost ones, but not any
more. The box hives are admirably adapted for this operation; still,
with a proper knife (the one figured in page 57), it may easily be
effected in the straw hive.
Putting on Glasses, &c.--It is very probable that at the end of the
month some of the most populous hives may require supering, as it is
termed, but I would advise its not being done too soon; indeed, not
till the Bees have shown evident signs of want of room, for it is
exceedingly desirable that the stock should be in such a state as to
ascend into the super immediately upon its being placed upon the stock
hive.
Guide-combs.--I would recommend guide-combs being fixed in glasses of
every kind that are to be placed either on hives or boxes. The Bees are
induced thereby to commence working in them sooner than they otherwise
would do; and it must always be remembered, that simply putting on a
glass, a box, or a small hive, will not prevent swarming, except the
Bees commence working in it, which a small piece of comb fixed at
the top induces them to do more readily. Upon each of the side-bars,
nearest the centre one, a small piece of comb should be fixed. This
is easily effected by heating a common flat-iron, slightly warming
the bars with it, then melting a little Bees-wax upon it. The comb
is now drawn quickly across the heated iron, and held down upon the
bar, to which it firmly adheres, if properly managed. These pieces of
guide-comb need not be more than 2 or 3 inches in diameter. Care should
be taken that the pitch, or inclination of the cells, is upwards from
the centre of each comb. Drone-celled combs for this purpose are to
be avoided, as well as those with elongated cells. Glasses will be
provided, and guide-combs fixed in them also.
Pollen.--This is not a busy month for the apiarian only, but for his
Bees as well in bringing in pollen. Mr. Golding tells us that the
neighbourhood of Willows is of great advantage to the Bees in early
spring. Should a few fine days accompany their flowering, many hives
will be enabled to ward off the impending famine which but too often
then threatens. He says that from the 20th to the 30th of March, in
1830, the weather was so favourable as to enable the Bees to make an
extraordinary collection. Single hives in some days gained in weight
upwards of 3 lbs. each, and worked in wax where room was given as
vigorously as at midsummer. The spring of 1841 was a very similar one;
and he says that his hives on the 16th of March of that year gained
from 2 to 3 lbs. each during the day.
The whole tribe of Crowsfoot are now making their appearance, all of
which are eagerly sought after by the Bees, but more especially the
Pilewort (_Ranunculus ficaria_), which affords them such an abundance
of pollen during the months of March and April, and which abounds in
meadows, pastures, and hedge-banks. Seeing an abundance of it carried
into a hive is a sure proof that the stock is in a healthy and thriving
state; but let it Be remembered that pollen has nothing whatever to do
with supplying the Bees with food, for they will die from starvation
with the combs filled with pollen, for it is only in the larvæ or grub
state that they eat it: therefore, if the stocks have not a store of
honey, go on to give barley-sugar.
Young Bees.--The population of every healthy stock of Bees is now
rapidly increasing, and numbers of young ones may be seen upon every
sunny day crowding the entrances of the hives to exercise their wings
for the first time, which they may be observed to do with the greatest
caution, running from side to side of the alighting-board before
venturing to fly. The imperfect nymphs, also, are strewed upon the
hives during the night to be carried away by the Bees as soon as the
hour of labour commences. This circumstance also indicates a rapidly
increasing population. A very large quantity of food is consumed by the
young Bees while in the larvæ or maggot state, which draws very heavily
upon the store of the food of the hive. It, therefore,, behoves the
apiarian to look attentively to all weak stocks, and more especially to
swarms of the last year, and to let them have a regular supply of food;
and, for those who like but little trouble in feeding, dry barley-sugar
is, unquestionably, the best mode in which it can be administered; it
may be given either at the top or bottom of the hive, for it does not,
like liquid food, attract robbers to the hives that are supplied with
it.
Drone Bees.--Drone Bees usually make their appearance towards the
middle or the end of this month; their first appearance is very
gratifying to the Bee-keeper, for it proves to him that his stocks are
in a healthy and prosperous condition. It is said that the celebrated
apiarian Bonner was always so delighted at their first appearance, that
he made the day one of festivity and rejoicing for himself and all his
family.
Robbers.--As considerable robberies frequently take place in this month
among the Bees, attention is required to discover if any hives are
attacked; and when it is found to be the case, it will be necessary to
narrow the entrance of the hive, so that only one or two Bees at most
can go in at the same time. The weak stocks, in general, are those
that suffer from pillage. Robber Bees may easily be distinguished from
others, for they fly rapidly round the hive, and hover before the
entrance for some time before alighting; and when they venture to do
so they are generally seized by some of the sentinels which guard the
entrance.
Queen Wasps.--The destruction of queen wasps, which are now beginning
to make their appearance, will prove the best security against their
progeny, those formidable enemies of the Bee. In April and May they are
very easily captured, and every one now destroyed would probably have
been the founder of a nest, which may be computed at 30,000 at the least.
Moths.--Moths are by far the most dangerous enemies the Bees have to
contend with. It is the caterpillars of these moths which gnaw and
destroy the combs; and they would soon be ruined by these insects, if
the Bees did not offer the greatest opposition to their ravages. The
perfect insect (_Galleria cerreana_ and _Galleria alvearia_) may be
seen fluttering about the hive at sunset, from April to October, and
should be promptly destroyed whenever observed.