Every good swarm should weigh about 5 lbs., and according to the account
given in Key's Treatise, would contain 23,000 bees. The manner of hiving
them must be regulated chiefly by the places upon which they alight.
If they settle on a dead hedge, or upon the ground, set a hive over
them, putting props under it if necessary, and, with a large spoon or
brush of wet weeds, stir them softly underneath, and they will go in.
If they should happen to settle upon a small bough, you may cut it off,
and laying it quietly on a cloth, place a hive over them; or if you
cannot conveniently separate the bough from the body of the tree, you
may shake or sweep them off into the hive.
If the sun shines hot upon it, shade it with a few boughs, &c., but let
it remain near the place where the bees settled until the evening, at
which time move it to the bee-house, or the place where it is to stand
during the season, as just directed.
If the bees have hung a considerable time to the place where they first
settled, you will, perhaps, find it difficult entirely to dislodge them,
as they will neglect their labour and fly about the spot for many days
afterwards. The best method to prevent this is, by rubbing the branches
with rue, or any kind of herb disagreeable to the bees; but be careful
not to hurt any of the bees.
Swarms seldom return home again, when they are well settled, and if you
find them inclined to do so, depend upon it, some accident has happened
to their queen, which you will easily ascertain by their making a
murmuring noise, and running in a distracted manner over and about the
sides of the hive. When you observe this, immediately seek about for
her, beginning with the stock-hive from whence the swarm rose, and
pursue the track they took at setting out; you will seldom miss finding
her, for she is never alone, but generally encompassed with a cluster of
bees, who would sooner perish than leave her in danger.
When you have found her, take her up gently, and put her to the swarm,
and you will soon find the cause of their dissatisfaction removed by the
arrival of the queen.
The greatest care must be taken to have your hive clean and sweet, free
from loose straws or other obstacles, which will create great trouble
and loss of time to the bees, if left to them to remove.
If bees have flowers suitable to their tastes, and no great distance
to travel to them, they will fill their hives both with honey and wax,
in about a month or five weeks, and, if the season has proved fair and
pleasant, in less time; but the bee-keeper must expect four out of every
five seasons to be unpropitious to his little charge, and, therefore,
he must be on the watch to assist them with food in the time of need.
Scarcely has the swarm arrived at its new habitation, when the working
bees labour with the utmost diligence, to procure food and build their
combs. Their principal aim is not only to have cells in which they may
deposit the honey and pollen, but a stronger motive seems to animate
them; they seem to know that their queen is about to deposit her eggs;
and their industry is such, that in four and twenty hours they will
have made combs, twelve inches long, and three or four inches wide.
They build more combs during the first fortnight, than they do during
all the rest of the year.
Other bees are at the same time busy in stopping all the holes and
crevices they happen to find in their new hive, in order to guard
against the entrance of insects which covet their honey, their wax, or
themselves; and also to exclude the cold air; for it is indispensably
necessary that they be lodged warm and secure from damp, &c.
A second swarm scarcely is, and much less are the third ones called
_casts_ worth keeping single, because, being few in number, they cannot
allow so large a proportion of working bees to go abroad in search of
provisions, as more numerous swarms can, after retaining a proper number
for the various works to be done within the hive.
Bees sometimes swarm so often that the mother-hive is too much weakened
or reduced in population. In this case they should be restored; and this
should also be done when a swarm produces a swarm the first summer, as
is sometimes the case in early seasons.
The best way, indeed, is to prevent such swarming, by giving the bees
more room; though this, again, will not answer where there is a prolific
young queen in the hive; as she well knows that her life is the forfeit
of her remaining at home.
Before the union of one or two casts or late swarms is made, it is
better to kill one of the queens, if possible, to prevent the queens
destroying one another.
If an old hive is full of bees, and yet shows no disposition to swarm,
puff in a little smoke at the entrance of the hive, then turn the hive
up, and give it some slight strokes on the sides so as to alarm the
bees. They will immediately run to the extremities of the combs, and
if you then attentively examine them, you will, in all probability,
perceive the queen-bee the foremost amongst them. Seize her between your
fore finger and thumb, and confine her in your hand till most part of
the bees take wing; let her then go, the bees will soon join her, and
settle on some branch of a tree. Put them into an empty hive. Restore
the old hive in its place, that the bees which have been out in the
fields may enter it on their return, and having allowed them to remain
there an hour or two, place it upon another stand near or next to its
own.
The hive having what may now be called a swarm in it, is then placed
on the stand of the old stock; and if the bees in both hives work
regularly, carrying in loads of pollen on their thighs, all is well.
Bees are not apt to sting when they swarm naturally, therefore, it is
not necessary then to take extraordinary precaution against them; but
when any of these violent and artificial modes are attempted, I should
advise the operator to be well guarded at all points.
Wildman weighed bees and found it required 4,928 bees to make a pound of
sixteen ounces, but the different circumstances in bees may occasion a
considerable difference in their weight. When the bees swarm, they come
out loaded with wax secreted in their wax pockets and honey in their
honey bags, and would weigh heavier than bees taken for that purpose
by chance; and, therefore, the number of the bees is not to be thus
computed, from the weight of the swarm; for one fourth of the number at
least should be deducted, in lieu of the wax and honey they have brought
off with them. There is also another allowance to be made, namely, that
when alive, they do not probably weigh so heavy as when dead.
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 darkish yellow are
of the previous year; and, where the combs are black, the hives should
be rejected, because old hives are most liable to vermin and other
accidents.
If the number of hives wanted were not 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 early 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 are in great want of provisions.
They are alert on the least disturbance; and by the loudness of their
humming, you can judge of their strength. They preserve their hives
free from filth, and are ready to defend it against every enemy that
approaches.
But the better plan is at once to commence with new hives, and purchase
the first and strong swarms to put into them, and introduce them into
the bee-house.
There are various substances found in a hive, such as the _wax_, with
which the combs are built, the _honey_, the _farina_ or _pollen_, with
which the bee-brood is fed, and _propolis_.
_Honey_, is a fluid or semi-fluid substance, the materials of which are
collected by the bees, from the nectaries at the base of the corollæ of
flowers, where this vegetable production is secreted.
It cannot be said to be a purely vegetable production when found
in the combs, for after being collected by the insect by means of its
proboscis, it is transmitted into what is called the honey bag, where it
is elaborated, and, hurrying homewards with its precious load, the bee
regurgitates it into the cell of the honey comb. It takes a great many
drops to fill a cell, as the honey bag when full does not exceed the
size of a small pea.
When the cell is full, it is sealed up with a mixture of of wax and
pollen, and reserved for future use in winter and spring.
_Wax_. There are several varieties of this substance, but bees-wax is a
secretion of that insect from its ventral scales. With this substance
the comb is constructed; it takes the bees, according to Huber's
account, twenty-four hours to secrete the six laminæ of wax in the wax
pockets, which may be seen to exude between the segments of the under
side of the abdomen of the bee. For the purpose of the formation of wax,
the bees have to cluster and form themselves into festoons from the top
of the hive, and after the elapse of the necessary period, the wax
scales are formed, with which the bees commence immediately to build
their combs, and the various cells for the reception of the brood or
food, according to the season of the year.
_Propolis_, is a tenacious, semi-transparent substance, having a
balsamic odour; which the bees gather from the buds of certain trees in
the spring, such as the horse-chestnut, the willow, the poplar, and the
birch.
This tenacious substance is employed by the bees to attach more firmly
the combs to the top or foundation, and also the edges of the combs to
the sides of the hive or box, to stop the crevices, and fasten the hives
or boxes to the floor-boards, and in forming barriers against the
intrusion of enemies.
_Farina_, or _Pollen_, is the dust or minute globules contained in the
anthers of flowers, and is the fertilizing property of flowers, which
the bees thus assist to carry, whilst travelling from flower to flower,
without which the flowers would not fructify. The bees have been found
to continue collecting pollen from the same species of flowers, and
prevent the multiplication of hybrid plants. They collect and carry
this substance on the outer surface of the tibia, or the middle joint
of the hinder leg; this part of the leg is broad, and on one side it
is concave, and furnished with a row of strong hairs on its margins,
forming as it were a natural basket, well adapted for the purpose. This
substance mixed with honey, forms the food of the larvæ or young brood,
after undergoing, perhaps, a peculiar elaboration by the working or
nurse bees.
Having thus mentioned the different substances found in a hive, it only
remains to add a short history of the inmates of the hive. Every swarm
of bees comprises three distinct kinds of the same species, namely, the
_female_ or _queen_, the _neuter_ or _worker-bee_, and the _male_ or
_drone_.
As there is only one _queen-bee_ in each swarm or colony, she is seldom
to be seen amidst the thousands of other bees; but she is easily
distinguished from the rest by her slower movements, her greater length
and larger size; and the general appearance of her body, being of a more
dark orange colour, and her hinder legs having neither brushes nor
pollen baskets upon them, although longer than those of the worker-bee;
her wings also appear stronger, and she possesses a more curved sting,
which she seldom uses, except when asserting her rights to the
sovereignty of the hive.
Without a _queen-bee_ no swarm can thrive, for she is not only the
ruler, but chiefly the mother of the community in which she dwells, and
wherever she goes, the greatest attention is paid her. In the hive, the
utmost solicitude is evinced to satisfy her in every wish; wherever she
moves the bees anxiously clear away before her, and turn their heads
towards their sovereign, and with much affection touch her with their
antennæ, and supply her, as often as she needs, with honey or other
delicacy which their own exertions, or those of their fellow labourers,
have gathered for her use.
The queen-bee is said to live four or five years, and is generally
succeeded on her throne by one of her own descendants duly brought up
for the purpose; but in the event of her untimely decease, the workers
have the power of raising a sovereign from amongst themselves, and
fitting her for the station she is intended to occupy; this they do
by selecting one of the larvæ of the worker-bee of a certain age,
and, enlarging the cell which it is to occupy, supplying it with a
nourishment different from that which they give to the worker and
drone-brood.
A _queen-bee_ takes seventeen days to arrive at maturity, that is to
say, from the egg-state to the fully developed queen, but this period
will vary as a sudden change of temperature will prolong the interval;
and this also applies to the perfect _queen_ herself, who will not
deposit her eggs in the cells, when any severe weather happens at the
period she may be expected to produce the eggs.
The fecundity of the queen-bee is very great, for it is estimated that
during breeding time, unless prevented by the cold weather, she lays
at the rate of from one hundred to two hundred eggs a day, causing
an increase of not less than eighty thousand worker-bees, and drones
included, in a season when circumstances are favourable.
The cells formed for the royal brood are very different from those of
the males or the workers, and are generally suspended from the sides
or edges of the combs; in shape they are very much like a pear, the
thickest end joining the comb, and the small end having the mouth or
entrance to the cell, and hanging downwards, and being almost as large
as a lady's thimble.
The _drones_ or _males_ in a hive are computed at from six hundred
to two thousand, but the numbers are remarkably irregular, and the
proportion is not regulated by the number of bees contained in a hive;
for a small swarm or colony will contain as many, or more sometimes,
than a large one.
The drone may be easily distinguished from the _queen_ or _workers_,
from its greater breadth, having large eyes which meet at the top of the
head, and no sting, and from its making a loud humming whilst flying.
It takes twenty-four days from the time of the laying of the drone _egg_
to its coming forth a perfect insect. Drones are generally hatched about
the end of April or the beginning of May; they venture out of the hive
only in warm weather, and then only in the middle of the day, and they
are generally expelled by the bees from the hives about July or August,
after the impregnation of the young queens has taken place.
When the destruction of the drones takes place earlier, it may be
considered a certain indication that no swarming will take place during
that season; but the retention of the drones after August, is a very bad
sign, as the swarm must certainly perish in the winter, unless their
vacant throne is supplied with a prolific queen.
The _neuter_ or _worker-bee_, is the least of the three, and of a dark
brown colour; the abdomen is conical, and composed of six distinct
segments, and armed with a straight sting; it possesses a long flexible
trunk, known by the name of a proboscis, and has on its two hinder legs
a hollow or basket, to receive the propolis and farina which it collects
as before described.
The number of workers in a well-stocked hive is about fifteen thousand
or twenty thousand. Upon them devolves the whole care and labour of the
colony, to collect pollen, propolis, and honey; to build the combs and
to attend upon the brood or young bees.
The _worker-bee_ is short-lived, seldom surviving more than a year, but
this is more from the toil they have to endure, though it be a labour
of love, and the many risks they run upon each occasion of going out in
search of food, &c., from the weather, or their numerous winged enemies.
"Sunt quibus ad portas cecidit custodia sorti:
Inque vicem speculantur aquas et nubila coeli,
Aut onera accipiunt venientum, aut agmine facto
Ignavum fucos pecus à præsepibus arcent.
Fervet opus, redolentque thymo fragrantia mella."
LONDON:
Printed by S. & J. BENTLEY, WILSON, and FLEY,
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.
* * * * *
Transcribers notes:
A page of Errata appearing here has been applied to the text and
removed.
Inconsistency in the hyphenation of phrases has been retained.