TAKING HONEY BY MEANS OF DIVIDERS.
After having noted the utility of Dividers, in adding fresh _empty_
boxes, the reader will readily perceive their importance in the removal
of _full_ ones, when the period arrives for depriving a colony of a
portion of its honey. In this case, the two dividers must be introduced
between the middle board of the box to be removed and the box below it,
precisely as in nadir hiving. In the act of deprivation a little more
force will be required to push in, as well as to withdraw the divider,
as it will generally have to pass through a portion of honey-comb. The
above directions apply to the removal of an upper box, which will in
general be the first for which they will be required. When any other is
to be taken away, the plan of proceeding must be varied, but it would be
tedious to give directions for every case; an intelligent operator by
an attention to the instructions already given, and his own reflection,
will be able to adapt his mode of proceeding to the particular exigency.
Only one divider should be introduced till the situation of the queen be
ascertained: if she be in the box intended for removal, the divider must
be withdrawn, and the experiment tried again in a week or two. If in an
hour after the introduction of the divider, the bees in the box intended
to be taken should exhibit symptoms of inquietude, it may be assumed that
the queen is not within that box, the disturbance being caused by the
anxiety of the bees to have access to her; whereas if she be in the box,
the bees in company with her will be tranquil, and the excluded portion
of the family will be in a state of commotion. Having, we will suppose,
ascertained that the queen is in the desired place, the second divider
should be introduced as before directed, when the box, with one of the
dividers underneath it, must be removed. The apiarian, when performing
this operation for the first time, may find it convenient to raise a
stage of empty bee-boxes or other convenient articles, on one side or
at the back of the box to be removed, and upon a level with the bottom
of its middle board; he can then, after having introduced the dividers,
very easily slide the full box, with its middle board and divider, over
his temporary stage. (This mode of proceeding may likewise be found
applicable on other occasions.) The operation having proceeded thus far,
the box is ready for being applied over the hole of delivery, where a
floor board should be placed with its sliding shutter open, and with an
uncovered empty box upon it. (If the full box were itself placed upon
the floor board, stranger bees might smell the honey and become very
troublesome intruders:--this is the reason why an empty box is interposed
betwixt the full one and the floor board.) The full box and middle board,
with the divider underneath them, being raised upon the empty box and the
divider withdrawn, a portion of the bees will immediately sally forth,
to join the family from which they have been separated. I say a portion,
for notwithstanding their attachment to their queen, they will not all
quit, without reluctance, so great a treasure as a box full of honey; if
any of the combs contain brood also, this reluctance will be increased.
When therefore the bees issue slowly, the sliding shutter should be
closed, and re-opened in a quarter of an hour. This short imprisonment
will produce some impatience and restlessness, and consequent eagerness
to be set at liberty; and on re-opening the shutter there will be a fresh
sally: this method must be pursued, at similar successive intervals,
till all or nearly all the bees have quitted the box; should a few still
remain, the box, towards evening, may be taken out of doors and the
stragglers brushed out upon a board or cloth, with a wing, and placed
upon a support near the entrance to the stock; those that are not injured
by the wing will soon find their way in: thus will the whole operation
be completed. But if the upper story be taken, it will be obvious that
either an empty box or a top board must be placed over the stock.
If this method of deprivation should fail of success, some other course
must be pursued. +Mr. Isaac's+ _plan_ promises well. After removing the
box from the stock, he used to confine his bees in it, till their anger
and agitation had rendered their prison so hot and uncomfortable, and
probably so unwholesome, by the deterioration of the air, that they
were glad of an opportunity to quit it, which he soon afforded them.
Unscrewing the top of his box, and introducing a divider underneath it,
he placed an empty box _over_ the full one, and opened a communication
between the two, by withdrawing the divider. At the same time he gave an
additional impulse to the ascent of the bees by drumming smartly upon the
sides of the full box. When the bees were entirely or nearly gone, he
took out either the whole of the combs or such as contained honey without
brood, proceeding according to the directions given in page 163. There is
another resource, in _the method_ uniformly _practised by_ +Mr. Keys+,
viz. that of fuming, which is effected by placing an empty box over the
full one, in the manner described above, and expelling the bees with the
smoke of burning puff balls, probably that of woollen rags would answer
as well, though Mr. Keys relies upon the stupifying quality of the puff
balls, which however, he says, is in a great measure lost if the balls be
kept more than a year. The operation may be afterwards finished in the
usual way.
Where straw-hives are used, or where boxes are surmounted by them, _a
very simple method_ of taking the honey, without destroying the bees,
was _adopted by_ +J. F. M. Dovaston, Esq.+ a Salopian gentleman. I
will suppose that he took off the hive with a middle board and divider
underneath it; he then inverted it upon a kettle of hot water, fitted
to receive the hive without any part sinking into the water; the whole
being surmounted by an empty box, and the divider withdrawn: in ten
minutes the heat so annoyed the bees, that they were heard marching,
_magno cum fremitu_, into the empty hive. In a few minutes, when all was
quiet, the divider being introduced again, the hive was replaced by the
box containing the bees. Mr. D. found that on this plan not a single bee
remained among the combs. I see no good reason why a similar practice
should not be adopted with boxes or Moreton-hives; in this case the water
in the kettle should be heated gradually by a chaffing-dish, and the box
or hive should have a perforated divider under it, like that for uniting
stocks: the empty box had better communicate with the open air, lest the
heat of the steam should be intolerable to the bees. Having the top
unscrewed would probably answer the purpose, as it could then be easily
pushed on one side. +Dr. Evans+, when he could not readily dislodge the
bees from the box, had recourse to +Dr. Warder's+ plan of placing it over
an inverted empty box, that contained a lighted sulphur match, the fumes
of which stupified the bees'; and on the upper hive being rapped, they
fell down in a state of insensibility, but soon revived and joined the
family, by the usual entrance. The fumes of sulphur answered as well as
those of the narcotic fungus recommended by Thorley and Keys, which it is
sometimes difficult to procure and troublesome to prepare. Immersing the
bees in cold water would answer, with a glass or earthenware hive. +Dr.
Evans+ was led to adopt it in consequence of reading Wildman's account
of Madame Vicat's method of clearing her bees from vermin, by plunging
them in water. The chapter on Bee-maladies contains some remarks on this
subject.
At the commencement of my apiarian inquiries, I felt that there was a
want of more minute information than is given by Keys; and others with
whom I have conversed upon the subject, have had the same feeling: this
has induced me to enter into a descriptive detail of the whole business
of super-hiving, nadir-hiving, and deprivation. Those who are in
possession of "_The ancient Bee-master's Farewell_," will perceive that
I have made some alterations in the boxes of Keys and some additions to
them: the principal of these are the sinking of the entrances in the
floor boards, instead of having them cut in the lower edges of the boxes;
having fixed bars upon the tops of the boxes, instead of Keys's loose
ones, and the use of middle boards. The first was my own suggestion,
the two last were improvements made by Mr. Walond. Entrances made in
the floor boards enable the apiarian to place his boxes upon the boards
in whatever direction he chooses, and render sliding shutters in the
upper boxes unnecessary. The loose bars were inconvenient, from the bees
attaching their combs to the sides of the boxes, which they almost always
do, as well as from their attaching every comb to two or three bars. The
middle boards facilitate the introduction of the dividers, secure the
apiator against the effects of any little irregularity in the adaptation
of the boxes to each other, at the time of adding or taking away, and
form a good foundation for a superstructure of cell-work; for sometimes
the bees depart from their usual practice of suspending their combs from
the roofs of the boxes, and build from below upwards.
It is the usual custom in this country, to sacrifice the lives of the
bees, in order to get possession of their stores. This is generally
done in September, by setting the hive, late in an evening, over lighted
brimstone matches, placed in a hole dug in the earth; the soil being
quickly drawn round the hive, as well to prevent the escape of any of the
bees, as to confine the sulphurous gas. In about a quarter of an hour, if
the hive receive a few smart strokes on its sides, the bees will be found
to have dropped insensible into the hole, where they are immediately
buried; otherwise they would revive, such of them at least as were not
singed or otherwise injured by the fire. The heaviest and lightest hives
are usually selected for the purpose, the former as yielding most profit,
the latter as being unlikely to survive the winter.
If, after a hive of bees has been suffocated, the apiarian wish to
_search for the queen_, the best mode of doing so is to lay the whole of
the bees on white paper, or in water on a white shallow dish, and examine
them singly; her colour upon the back is not so remarkably different from
that of the workers as to be very striking; but on looking at the under
part of her, she will be immediately recognised.
I adverted to this latter mode of robbing bees of their treasure in Chap.
XIV. and there quoted the lamentation of Thomson at their fate. For this
humane appeal, he has been thus apostrophized by Dr. Evans.
"And thou, sweet Thomson, tremblingly alive
To pity's call, hast mourn'd the slaughter'd hive,
Cursing, with honest zeal, the coward hand,
Which hid, in night's dark veil, the murd'rous brand,
In steam sulphureous wrapt the peaceful dome,
And bore the yellow spoil triumphant home."