STORIFYING.
[Illustration]
+Storifying+ means the piling of hives or boxes upon each other, as
shown in the above plate, and preserving a free communication between
them; a method which enables the apiarian to take wax and honey without
destroying the lives of the bees.
Attempts have been made to accomplish this object in different ways.
+Thorley+ placed empty hives or boxes over full ones, +Wildman+ and
+Keys+ placed full boxes over empty ones, +White+ and +Madame Vicat+
placed them collaterally.
Hives and boxes for storifying, as well as for observing the operations
of the bees, have been made of various forms and dimensions, and of
different materials: such as straw, osiers, glass, and wood.
+Aristotle+, +Pliny+, and other ancient writers, speak of contrivances
for taking honey, and inspecting the operations of the bees. Modern
writers, particularly +Mouffet+, ridiculed the ineffectual schemes of
their brethren of antiquity, and indeed they were very soon abandoned.
The way in which _they_ endeavoured to accomplish their objects, was by
the introduction of transparent substances into the sides of the hives or
boxes, such as _isinglass_, _horn_ (_cornu laterna_), _pellucid stone_
(_lapis specularis_), probably _talc_, which is still used in the Russian
navy for cabin windows, on account of its not being liable to break by
the percussion of the air during the firing of cannon, or in tempestuous
weather.
Mr. +Hartlib's+ _Commonwealth of Bees_, published in 1655, contains the
first account, I have seen, of bee-boxes being employed in this country.
He speaks of "an experiment of glassen hives invented by Mr. +W. Mew+,
Minister of Easlington in Gloucestershire: his boxes were of an octagon
shape, and had a glass window in the back." Soon after, in the year 1675,
+Jno. Gedde+, Esq. published, "_A new discovery of an excellent method of
Bee-houses and Colonies_," which was intended to preserve the lives of
the bees: he obtained a patent for his boxes from King Charles.
Gedde's boxes were considerably improved by +Joseph Warder+, a physician
at Croydon, who published an account of them in his work entitled "_The
true Amazons, or the Monarchy of Bees_." Dr. Warder enriched his account
with several curious circumstances respecting bees; some of which will
be detailed in a future chapter. The method of these gentlemen seems
not to have been generally known; for even Swammerdam, who published in
1680, makes no mention of it. Had Swammerdam known it, he would have
been informed of many circumstances, respecting which he was evidently
ignorant. This want of Dr. Warder's information is to be lamented, for
Swammerdam was an accurate observer, and a faithful reporter of what he
did observe.
Gedde and Warder were succeeded by the Rev. +John Thorley+ of Oxford,
who published "_An Enquiry into the Nature, Order, and Government of
Bees_;" and by the Rev. +Stephen White+ of Halton in Suffolk, who wrote
on "_Collateral Bee-boxes, or an easy and advantageous method of managing
Bees_." Collateral boxes have been objected to, because bees, when
the boxes are on a level, have laid their eggs promiscuously in both;
moreover side boxes occupy a great deal more room than storifying boxes.
Mr. +Thorley's son+ improved the method of his father. The indefatigable
Mr. +Wildman+ devoted much of his time to the same subject: to him we
are principally indebted for the present perfection of bee-boxes, and
particularly for obtaining fresh honey throughout the season, by means of
small glasses ranged upon a flat-topped hive. _Vide_ pages 93 and 99.
"But faintly, Rome, thy waxen cities shone
Through the dim lantern or refractive stone,
And faintly Albion saw her film-wing'd train
Glance evanescent through the latticed pane.
Ere Wildman's art unveil'd the straw girt round,
Its broad expanse with crystal vases crown'd,
And each full vase, like Amalthæa's horn,
For Man successive graced the festal morn."
+Evans.+
+Madame Vicat+, a very ingenious lady in Switzerland, published, in the
Memoirs of the Berne Society, some very judicious _Observations on bees
and hives_. She was the first who hinted, that upon the storifying plan,
the duplets and triplets should always be placed under the full hives;
as the bees, in constructing fresh works, evidently prefer descending to
ascending.
Lastly, we have Mr. +Keys's+ very useful book, "_The ancient Bee-master's
Farewell_," which has long been a standard work to the practical
apiarian.
Keys states, that upon the storifying plan, three pecks of bees will
collect more honey in a season, than four pecks divided into two
families, upon the common plan, and that the proportion of pure honey and
pure wax will likewise be greater. He observes, that a good storified
colony has, under favourable circumstances, received an accession of
thirty pounds of honey in seven days; whereas if a swarm had been sent
off, the increase, in the same period, would not, probably, have been
more than five pounds.
This difference of increase is owing, I conceive, to the divided family
occupying a larger proportion of its workers as nurses, than the
storified family employs, there being in the former the brood of two
queens, in the latter the brood of only one, to be attended to. The one
establishment is in fact divided, so as to form two establishments, and
there must be of course, an observance of the accustomed peculiarities
of dignity and office, in each of the two, as there was in the one;
consequently, fewer collecting bees can be spared from the divided
family, than would have been at liberty in their undivided state; and
this reasoning will apply with increasing force as the number of duplets
and triplets is increased.
In single-hiving, if rainy weather occur at the time the bees are
prepared to throw off a swarm, and the hive be filled with comb to
its utmost limit, all the bees must remain idle till the return of
fine weather; whereas if more room be given, as upon the storifying
plan, they will, by embracing every opportunity for collecting, and by
constructing fresh combs by means of the stores already collected, be
enabled to diminish that check to their activity, which wet weather
always occasions. Though rainy weather has this effect upon the bees,
yet are they much less susceptible to moisture than to cold: they may
frequently be seen in full activity upon a warm showery day, whereas on a
cold dry one, they cluster closely together within the hives. The colder
the weather the more closely they cluster. "When the lime-tree and black
grain blossom," says Huber, "they brave the rain, they depart before
sun-rise, and return later than ordinary."
Independently of the benefit derived from storifying, as congregating
a numerous body of bees together, it will always be found advantageous
to have hives of whatever sort well filled, as the bees uniformly work
best when in a numerous body: this has induced Mr. Espinasse and others
strongly to recommend the union of stocks that do not well fill the
hives.