Having given a description of the bar-frame-hive, it will be as well to
enter into the comparative advantages of using wooden boxes and straw
hives.
Some apiarians confine themselves to the use of straw hives, others to
wooden boxes, and a third party use both; but as far as the bees are
concerned it matters little what kind of hive is given them, for if the
season be favourable, and the bee-pasturage rich with flowers, they
collect and store up the honey in their combs in any receptacle of any
shape or size, provided it affords them shelter from the weather.
Hives made of straw are generally preferred for an out-of-door apiary,
as being less liable to be over-heated by the rays of the sun, and
in the winter they exclude the cold better than hives made of other
materials, while the moisture arising from the bees is more quickly
absorbed within the hive, and does not run down the sides as it
generally does in wooden hives or boxes; at the same time they are
always to be obtained from their cheapness, and from their simplicity
easily understood and made use of; wooden boxes can only be used with
advantage in a bee-house, they stand firmer on the bottom boards, or
one upon another, they admit of having glass windows, through which
to observe the operations of the bees, and they are not so liable to
harbour moths, spiders, and other insects, as the straw hives.
The objects to be attained in the construction and management of an
apiary, are, to secure the prosperity and multiplication of the colonies
of bees, to increase the amount of their productive labour, and to
obtain their products with facility, and with the least possible
detriment to the stock. It is to the interest of the owner, therefore,
that he provide for the bees shelter against moisture, and the extremes
of heat and cold--especially, sudden vicissitudes of temperature,
protection from their numerous enemies, every facility for constructing
their combs and for rearing their brood, and that the hive should be so
constructed as to allow of every part of the combs to be inspected at
any moment, and capable of removal when requisite: and while attention
is paid to economy, it should be made of materials that will secure its
durability.
These observations apply equally to the straw hives, boxes, or whatever
the bees may be lodged in or hived. Some cultivators of bees have been
chiefly anxious to promote their multiplication, and to prevent the
escape of the swarms in their natural way, by forming artificial swarms,
by separating a populous hive previous to its swarming, into two parts,
and allowing to each greater room for the construction of their works.
Others, and the most numerous class, have contemplated only the
abundance of the products which they yield, and the facility of
extracting them from the hive, without showing any particular solicitude
as to the preservation of the bees themselves. Another class of
apiarians have, on the other hand, had it more particularly in view,
to facilitate the prosecution of researches in the natural history and
economy of bees.
Then, again, amongst apiarians a diversity of opinion exists regarding
the system to be adopted in the management of the hives, whether the
bees are to be kept in single hives, caps or bell-glasses, and extra
boxes, which may be added at the top, which is called the _storifying_
system; or inserting additional room at the bottom, called _nadering_;
or whether adding boxes at the sides, called the _collateral_ system,
should be followed out; and a plan of ventilating the boxes has been
added to the last system, but experience has proved that it is utterly
useless, as in spite of ventilating tubes and thermometers, the bees
have swarmed, and the queen-bee has deposited her eggs in the collateral
boxes and destroyed the purity of the honey.
No successful plan has been yet devised to ventilate the combs where
the bees cluster; for the bees prevent the circulation of the cold air
amongst the combs by immediately forming themselves in thick rows at the
bottom of the combs; and instead of ranging the fields to gather honey
or pollen, have to collect together and idle away their time to retain
the necessary heat for the formation of the combs, or to rear their
brood.
As a single hive, Huber's leaf-hive is certainly the best; but it
requires great attention, and none but experienced apiarists can use it
for the purpose of trying experiments; but in the hands of experienced
apiarists it is invaluable. All other single hives are objectionable, as
neither the proceedings of the bees can be observed, nor the honey taken
out, without either destroying the bees, or driving them out with smoke
by which much of the brood is killed; or if rainy weather occur at the
time the bees are preparing to throw off a swarm, and the hive be filled
to its utmost limits with comb, all the bees must remain idle till the
return of fine weather for want of room.
To meet this objection, some apiarians have straw-hives with flat wooden
tops made, or use boxes, and have holes cut in them at the top, so that
small glasses may be added, when the bees require room. But this does
not prevent swarming, and besides, the flatness of the roof is
prejudicial, as it allows the moisture which exhales from the bees to
collect in the roof, and to fall in drops at different parts, to the
great injury of the subjacent contents of the hive, and, like the common
straw hive or square box, the bees cannot be examined, except partially
through the windows made in the sides.
To remedy this evil, the further plan of _storifying_ hives or boxes,
was introduced, and by this method swarming may to an extent be
prevented, and the wax and honey can be taken without destroying the
bees; and with the same view was introduced the _collateral_ system,
which is adding room at the sides (of course preserving a free
communication between the boxes and hives). But there are objections to
the _collateral_ system, as it is now a very well established fact, that
partitions of any kind are detrimental to the prosperity of the bees;
and the same applies, though perhaps in an inferior degree, to the
_storied_ system, or hives and boxes divided into stories one above
another; besides that which holds good equally to all hives or boxes,
that it is not possible to proportion the hives in all cases to the
magnitude of the swarms, or the energy with which they labour.
In single hives the honey becomes bad and discoloured from being put
into the old breeding cells. In double storied, or collateral hives,
the bees are divided, and live in different families; while their own
preservation, and that of the brood, requires them to live in the
strictest union; the heat also necessary for the secretion of wax is
lessened by the division of the bees into different groups. And,
besides, all these different hives or boxes should have some sort of
protection from the weather, either in the way of eaves or covers,
or be placed in a shed or bee-house.
They require also centre boards and division tins, &c. to separate
one hive or box from another, floor boards for them to stand upon,
as well as stands or stools to raise them from the ground, &c., for
a description of which, and a full history of all hives and boxes,
I refer the reader to Dr. Bevan's "Honey-bee."
In mentioning the defects of these different boxes and hives, I do not
mean to condemn them as useless, for they will all answer to a certain
extent the purposes for which they were intended, rewarding the
attentive bee-keeper, according to the seasons, and enabling the bees to
send forth many swarms, and collecting and storing up their treasures of
honey; but my object has been to point out briefly to those anxious for
the better, more extended, and economical mode of bee-management, the
difficulties to be provided against, and to recommend to their
consideration the advantages offered in the bar frame-hive. But,
however, I should not be doing justice to Mr. R. Golding, if I did not
particularly mention his "improved Grecian hive" by the use of which
combs may be removed from the interior of the hive and inspected at
pleasure: this improvement he has effected by carefully investigating
the laws of the insects for whose use the hives were intended, and by a
particular arrangement of the bars, (every alternate one being furnished
with guide combs,) the bees have been induced, in a manner at once
simple and beautiful, to construct a uniform range of combs. When the
hive is filled with honey, two or three, or more of the bars may be,
at any time, removed, or exchanged for unoccupied bars, without much
disturbing the brood combs, all annoyance from the bees being prevented
by a whiff or two of tobacco smoke being blown into the hive at the time
of the removal of the bars. With the protection of a bee-house these
hives can be applied to many of the systems of bee-management, and prove
equally profitable, and more manageable than some of the newly-invented
hives.