If one of my hives is used, the bee-keeper may feed his bees at the

proper season, without using any feeder at all, or rather he may use the

_bottom-board_ of the hive as a feeder. On this plan, the bees should be

fed at evening; so as to run no risk of their robbing each other. The

hive which is to be fed, should have the front edge of its bottom-board

elevated on a block, so as to slant _backwards_, and the honey should be

poured into a small tin gutter inserted at the entrance; one such will

answer for a whole Apiary, and may be made by bending up the edges of

any old piece of tin. As the frames in my hive are kept about half an

inch above the bottom-board, which is water-tight, the honey runs under

them, and is as safe as in a dish, while the bees stand on the bottom of

the frames, and help themselves. The quantity poured in, should of

course, depend upon the size and necessities of the colony; no more

ought to be given at one time than the bees can take up during the

night, and the entrance to the hive ought always to be kept very small

during the process of feeding, to prevent robber bees from getting in; a

good colony will easily take up a quart. It is desirable to get through

the feeding as rapidly as possible, as the bees are excited during the

whole process, and consume more than they otherwise would; to say

nothing of the demand made upon the time of the Apiarian, by feeding in

small quantities. If the bees cannot, in favorable weather, dispose of

at least a pint at one time, the colony must be too small to make it

worth while to feed them, if they are in hives by which they can be

readily united to stronger stocks.

If the bees have not a good allowance of comb, it will not, as a general

rule, pay to feed them. This will be obvious to any one who reflects

that at least 20 pounds of honey are required to elaborate one pound of

wax. I know that this estimate may to some, appear enormous; but it is

given as the result of very accurate experiments, instituted on a large

scale, to determine this very point. The Country Curate says, "Having

driven the population of four stocks, on the 5th of August, and united

them together, I fed them with about 50 pounds of a mixture of sugar,

honey, salt and beer, for about five weeks. At that time, the box was

only 16 pounds heavier than when the bees were put into it." He then

makes an estimate that at least 25 pounds of the mixture were consumed

in making about half a pound of wax!! No one who has ever tried it, will

undertake to feed bees for profit, when they are destitute of both comb

and honey.

If the weather is cool when bees are fed, it will generally be necessary

to resort to top feeding. For this, my hive is admirably adapted: a

feeder may be put over one of the holes in the honey-board directly over

the mass of the bees, into which the heat of the hive naturally arises,

and where the bees can get at their food without any risk of being

chilled. This is _always_ the best place for a feeder, as the smell of

the food is not so likely to attract the notice of robbing bees.

I shall here describe the way in which a feeder can at small expense, be

made to answer admirably every purpose. Take any wooden box which will

hold, say, at least one quart; make it honey-tight, by pouring into the

joints the melted mixture, (see p. 99,) and brush the whole interior

with the mixture, so that the honey may not soak into the wood. Make a

float of thin wood, filled with quarter inch holes, with clamps nailed

on the lower sides to prevent warping, and to keep the float from

settling to the bottom of the box, so as to stick fast: it should have

ample play, so that it may settle, as fast as the bees consume the

honey. Tacks on the clamps will always be sure to prevent sticking.

Before you waste any time in making small holes, for fear the bees will

be drowned in the large ones, try a float made as directed. In one

corner of the box, fasten with the melted mixture, a thin strip of wood,

about one inch wide; let it project above the top of the box about an

inch, and be kept about half an inch from the bottom; this answers as a

spout for pouring the honey into the feeder, and when not in use, it

should be stopped up. Have for the lid of the box, a piece of glass with

the corner cut off next the spout, so as to cover the feeder and keep

the bees in, and at the same time allow the bee-keeper to see when they

have consumed all their food. The feeder is now complete, with one

important exception; it has, as yet no way of admitting the bees. On the

outside corners of one of the ends, glue or tack two strips, inch and a

half wide, extending down to the bottom of the box, and half an inch

from the top; fasten over them a piece of thin board, (paste-board will

answer.) You have now a shallow passage without top or bottom, outside

of your feeder; give it a top of any kind; cut out just below the level

of this top, a passage into the feeder for the bees. It is now complete,

and when properly placed over any hole on the top of the hive, will

admit the bees from the hive, into the shallow passage which has no

bottom, and through this into the feeder. Such a feeder will not only be

cheap, but it might almost be made by a child, and yet it will answer

every purpose most admirably. If you have no wooden box that will

answer, a feeder may be made of pasteboard, and if brushed with the

melted mixture it will be honey-tight. By packing cotton or wool around

it, it might be used in most hives, even in the dead of Winter. Bees

however, ought never to need feeding in Winter, and if they do, it will

always be unsafe at this season to feed them with liquid honey.

I ought here to speak of the importance of _water_ to the bees. It is

absolutely indispensable when they are building comb, or raising brood.

In the early Spring, they take advantage of the first warm weather, to

bring it to their hives, and they may be seen busily drinking around

pumps, drains, and other moist places. As they are not noticed

frequenting such spots much, except in the early part of the season,

many suppose that they need water only at this period. This is a great

mistake, for they need it, and must have it, during the whole breeding

season. But as soon as the grass starts, and the trees are covered with

leaves, they prefer to sip the dew from them. If a few cold days come

on, after the bees have commenced breeding, so as to prevent them from

going abroad for water, a very serious check will be given to their

operations. Even when it is not so cold as to prevent their leaving the

hive, many become so chilled in their search for water, that they are

not able to return.

Every wise bee-keeper will see that his bees have an abundant supply of

water. If he has not some warm and sunny spot where they can safely

obtain it, he will furnish them with shallow wooden troughs or vessels

filled with pebbles, from which they can drink, without any risk of

drowning, and where they will be sheltered from cold winds, and warmed

by the genial rays of the sun. I believe that the reason why bees very

much prefer the impure water of barn-yards and drains, is not because

they find any medicinal quality in it, but because as it is _near_ their

hives and _warm_, they can fill themselves without being fatally

chilled.

I have used water feeders of the same construction with my honey

feeders, with great success. The bees are able to enter them at all

times, as they are filled with the warm air of the hive, and thus

breeding goes on, without interruption, and the lives of many bees are

saved.

The same end may be obtained, by pouring daily, a few table spoonsfull

of water into the hive, through one of the holes leading to the spare

honey boxes. As soon as the weather becomes warm, and the bees can

supply themselves from the dew on the grass and leaves, it will not be

worth while to give them water in their hives.

When supplied with water in their hives, I advise that enough honey or

sugar be added to it, to make it tolerably sweet. They will take it with

greater relish, and it will stimulate them more powerfully to the

raising of brood.

I come now to mention a substitute for liquid honey, the value of which

has been extensively and thoroughly tested in Germany, and which I have

used with great advantage. It was not discovered by Dzierzon, although

he speaks of its excellence, in the most decided terms. The article to

which I refer, is _plain sugar candy_, or as it is often called, barley

candy. It has been ascertained that about four pounds of this, will

sustain a colony during the Winter, when they have scarcely any honey in

their hive! If it is placed where they can get access to it without

being chilled, they will cluster upon it, and gradually eat it up. It

not only goes further than double the quantity of liquid honey which

could be bought for the same money, but is found to agree with the bees

perfectly; while the liquid honey is almost sure to sour in the unsealed

cells, and expose them to dangerous, and often fatal attacks of

dysentery. I have sometimes, in the old-fashioned box hives, pushed

sticks of candy between the ranges of comb, and have found it even then

to answer a good purpose. In any hive which has surplus honey boxes, the

candy may be put into a small box, which after being covered thoroughly

with cotton or wool, may have another box put over it, the outside of

which may be also covered. Unless great precautions are used, the boxes

will be so cold, that the bees will not be able to enter them in Winter,

and may thus perish in close proximity to abundant stores.

In my hives, the candy may be laid on the top of the frames, in the

shallow chamber between the frames and the honey-board; it will here, if

the honey-board is covered with straw, be always accessible to the bees,

even in the coldest weather. I sometimes put it directly into a frame,

and confine it with a piece of twine, or fine wire.

I have made a very convenient use of sugar candy, as a bee-feed in the

Summer, when I wished to give small colonies a little food, and yet not

to be at the trouble to use a feeder, or incur the risk of their being

robbed by putting it where strange bees might be attracted by the scent.

A small stick of candy, slid in on the bottom-board, under the frames,

answers admirably for such a purpose. If a little liquid food must be

used in warm weather, I advise that it be the best white sugar,

dissolved in water; this makes an admirable food; costs but little more

than brown sugar, and has no smell to tempt robbers to try to gain an

entrance into the hive.

If the Apiarian is skillful, and attends to his bees, at the proper

time, they will rarely need much feeding; if he manages them in such a

manner that this is frequently and extensively needed, I can assure him,

if he has not already found it out to his sorrow, that his bees will be

nothing but a bill of cost and vexation.

The question how much honey a colony of bees needs, in order to carry

them safely through the perils of Winter, is one to which it is

impossible to give an answer which will be definite, under all

circumstances. Very much will depend upon the hive in which they are

kept, and the forwardness of the ensuing Spring; (see Chapter on

Protection.) It is often absolutely impossible in the common hives, to

form any reliable estimate, as to the quantity of honey which they

contain, for the combs are often so heavy with bee-bread, as entirely to

deceive even the most experienced bee-keeper.

I should always wish to leave at least 20 lbs. of honey in a hive; and

as I can examine each comb, I am never at a loss to know how much a

colony has. If I have the least apprehension that their supplies may

fail, I prefer to put a few pounds of sugar candy where they can easily

get access to it, in case of need. In my hive, the careful bee-keeper

may not only know the exact extent of the resources of each hive, in the

Fall, but he may, very early in the Spring, ascertain precisely how much

honey is still on hand, and whether his bees need feeding, in order to

preserve their lives. It is a shameful fact that a large number of

colonies perish after they have begun to fly out, and when, they might

easily have been saved, in any kind of hive.

FEEDING, TO MAKE A PROFIT BY SELLING THE HONEY STORED UP BY THE BEES.

For many years, Apiarians have attempted to make the feeding of bees on

a large scale, profitable to their owners. All such attempts however,

must, from the very nature of the case, meet with very limited success.

If large quantities of cheap West India honey are fed to the bees in the

Fall, they are induced to fill their hives to such an extent, that in

the Spring, the queen does not find the necessary accommodations for

breeding. If they are largely fed in the Spring, the case is still

worse; (See p. 320.) It must therefore be obvious that the feeding of

cheap honey can only be made profitable where it serves as a substitute

for an equal quantity of choice honey taken from the bees. In the latter

part of Summer, the Apiarian may take away from the main hive, some of

the combs which contain the best honey, and replace them with combs into

which he has poured the cheaper article; or if he has no spare combs on

hand, he may slice off the covers of the cells, drain out the honey,

fill the empty combs with West India honey, and return them to the bees:

giving them at the same time, the additional food which they need to

elaborate wax to seal them over. If he attempts to take away their full

combs, and gives them honey in order to enable them, first to replace

their combs, and then to fill them, the operation, (see p. 326,) will

result in a loss, instead of a gain.

I am aware that for a number of years, persons have attempted to derive

a profit from supplying the markets of some of our large cities, with an

article professing to be the best of honey, but which has been nothing

more than the cheap West India honey fed to the bees, and stored up by

them in new comb. In the City of Philadelphia, large quantities of such

honey have been sold at the highest prices, and _perhaps_ at some profit

to the persons who have fed it to their bees. Within the last two years,

however, the article has become so well known that it can hardly be sold

at any price; as those who purchase honey, instead of paying 25 cents

per pound for West India honey in the comb, much prefer to buy it, (if

they want it at all,) for 6 or 7 cents, in a liquid state! It must be

perfectly obvious that to sell a cheap and ill-flavored article at a

high price, under the pretence that it is a superior article, is nothing

less than downright cheating.

I am perfectly well aware that many persons imagine that if any thing

_sweet_ is fed to bees, they will quickly transmute it into the purest

nectar. There is, however, no more truth in such a conceit, than there

would be in that of a man who supposed that he had found the veritable

philosopher's stone; and that he was able to change all our copper and

silver coins into the purest gold! Bees to be sure, can make white and

beautiful _comb_, from almost any kind of sweet; and why? because wax is

a natural secretion of the bee, (see p. 76,) and can be made from any

sweet; just as fat can be put upon the ribs of an ox, by any kind of

nourishing food.

"But," some of my readers may ask, "do you mean to assert that bees do

not secrete honey out of the raw material which they gather, or which is

furnished to them, just as cows secrete milk from grass and hay?" I

certainly do mean to assert that they can do nothing of the kind, and no

intelligent man who has carefully _studied their habits_, will for a

moment, venture to affirm that they can, unless for the sake of "filthy

lucre," he is attempting to deceive an unwary community. What bee-keeper

does not know, or rather ought not to know that the quality of honey

depends entirely upon the sources from whence it is gathered; and that

the different kinds of honey can easily be distinguished by any one who

is a judge of the article.

Apple-blossom honey, white clover honey, buckwheat honey, and all the

different kinds of honey, each has its own peculiar flavor, and it is

utterly amazing how any sensible man, acquainted with bees, can be so

deluded as to imagine any thing to the contrary. But as this is a matter

of great practical importance, let us examine it more closely.

When bees are engaged in rapidly storing up honey in their combs, they

may be seen, as _soon_ as they return from the fields, or from the

feeding boxes, putting their heads at once into the cells, and

disgorging the contents of their "honey-bags." Now that the contents of

their sacs undergo no change at all, during the short time that they

remain in them, I will not absolutely affirm, because I have endeavored,

through this whole treatise, never to assert positively when I had not

positive evidence for so doing: but that they can undergo but a _very

slight_ change, must be evident from the fact that when thus stored up,

the different kinds of honey or sugar can be almost if not quite as

readily distinguished as before they were fed to the bees. The only

perceptible change which they appear to undergo in the cells, is to have

the large quantity of water evaporated from them, which is added from

thoughtlessness, or from the vain expectation that it will be just so

much water sold for honey, to the defrauded purchaser! This evaporation

of the water from the honey by the heat of the hive, is about the only

marked change that it appears to undergo, from its natural state in the

nectaries of the blossoms; and it is exceedingly interesting to see how

unwilling bees are to seal up honey, until it is reduced to such a

consistency that there is no danger of its souring in the cells. They

are as careful as to the quality of their nectar, as the good lady of

the house is, to have the syrup of her preserves boiled down to a

suitable thickness to keep them sweet.

Let all who for any purpose whatever, feed bees, keep this fact in mind,

and never add to the food which they give them, more water than is

absolutely necessary. To do so, is a piece of as great stupidity as to

pour a barrel of water into the sugar pans, for every barrel of sap from

the maples, or juice from the canes! If a strong colony is set upon a

platform scale, it will be found on a pleasant day, during the height of

the honey harvest, to gain a number of pounds; if examined again, early

next morning, it will be found to have lost considerably, during the

night. This is owing to the evaporation of the water from the freshly

gathered honey, and it may often be seen running down in quite a stream

from the bottom-board.

Those who feed cheap honey to sell it in the market at a high advance

over its first cost, are either deceivers or deceived; if any of my

readers have been deceived by the plausible representations of ignorant

or unprincipled men, I trust they will be able from these remarks, to

see exactly _how_ they have been deceived, and they will no longer

persist in an adulteration, the profits of which can never be great, and

the morality of which can never be defended. A man who offers for sale,

inferior honey, or sugar which he calls honey, and which he is able to

sell because it is stored in white comb, to those who would never

purchase it if they knew what it was, or once had a taste of it, is not

a whit more honest, if he understands the nature of the article in which

he deals, than a person engaged in counterfeiting the current coin of

the realm: for poor honey in white comb, is no less a fraud than eagles

or dollars, golden to be sure, on their honest exteriors, but containing

a baser metal within! "The Golden Age" of bee-keeping, in which inferior

honey can be quickly transmuted into such balmy spoils as are gathered

by the bees of Hybla, has not yet dawned upon us; or at least only in

the fairy visions of the poet who saw

"A golden hive, on a Golden Bank,

Where golden bees, by alchemical prank,

Gathered Gold instead of Honey."

If a pound of West India honey costs about 6 cents, and the bees use, as

they will, about one pound to make the comb in which it is stored, it

costs the producer at least 12 cents a pound, and if to this, he adds,

say 5 cents more, for extra time and labor in feeding, then his inferior

honey costs him at least as much as the market price of the very best

honey on the spot where it is produced! If the bee-keeper allows his

bees to make what they will, from the blossoms, and then begins to feed,

after he has harvested the produce from the natural supplies, the

advance over the first cost will hardly pay for the trouble, even if it

were fair to palm off such inferior honey as a first-rate article. If,

however, bees are fed on this food very largely in the latter part of

Summer, they will fill up their hive with it, before they put it into

the spare honey boxes, and the production of brood will often be most

seriously interfered with, at a season of the year when it is important

to have the hives well stocked with bees, that they may winter to the

best advantage.

If Apiarians are anxious to have large quantities of choice honey, let

them manage their bees so as to have powerful stocks in the early

Spring, and they will then be able to have heavy purses and light

consciences into the bargain. I shall now show how liquid honey,

exceedingly beautiful to the eye, and tempting to the taste, may be made

to great advantage.

Dissolve two pounds of the purest white sugar, in as much hot water as

will be just necessary to reduce it to a syrup; take one pound of the

nicest white clover honey, (any other light colored honey of good flavor

will answer,) and after warming it, add it to the sugar syrup, and stir

the contents. When cool, this compound will be pronounced, even by the

best judges of honey, to be one of the most luscious articles which they

ever tasted; and will be, by almost every one, preferred to the unmixed

honey. Refined loaf sugar is a perfectly pure and inodorous sweet, and

one pound of honey will communicate the honey flavor, in high

perfection, to twice that quantity of sugar: while the new article will

be destitute of that smarting taste which honey alone, so often has, and

will be often found to agree perfectly with those who cannot eat the

clear honey with impunity. If those engaged in the artificial

manufacture of honey, never brought any thing worse than this, to the

market, the purchasers would have no reason to complain. As however, the

compound can be furnished much cheaper than the pure honey, many may

prefer to purchase the materials, and mix them themselves. If desired,

any kind of flavor may be given to the manufactured article; thus it may

be made to resemble in fragrance, the classic honey of Mount Hymettus,

by adding to it the fine aroma of the lemon balm, or wild thyme; or it

may have the flavor of the orange groves, or the delicate fragrance of

beds of roses washed with dew.

I have recently ascertained that if two pounds of the best refined sugar

be added to one of common maple sugar, the compound will be a light

colored article, retaining perfectly the maple taste, and yet far

superior to the common maple sugar. After making this discovery, I

learned that a large part of the very nicest maple sugar is made in this

way!

Attempts have been made to feed to bees, to be stored in the honey

boxes, a mixture of the whitest honey and loaf sugar; but the result

shows a loss rather than a gain. The mixture, before it is fed, will

cost about 10 cents per pound. At the very furthest, not more than one

half of what is fed, can be secured in the comb, for it requires about

one pound of honey, to manufacture comb enough to hold a pound of honey.

The actual cost of the honey in the comb, will therefore be, at least 20

cents per pound; and the pure white clover honey can be bought for less

than that. Those who desire to have something exceedingly beautiful to

the eye, and delicate to the taste, at a season when the bees are not

storing up honey from the blossoms, and in situations where the natural

supply is of an inferior quality, if they do not regard expense, can

place upon their tables, something which will be pronounced by the best

judges, a little superior to any thing they ever tasted before.

I have repeatedly spoken of the great care which is necessary to prevent

bees from getting a taste of forbidden sweets, so as to be tempted to

engage in dishonest courses. The experienced Apiarian will fully

appreciate the necessity of these cautions, and the inexperienced, if

they neglect them, will be taught a lesson that they will not soon

forget. Let it be remembered that the bee was intended to gather its

sweets from the nectaries of flowers: to use the exquisitely beautiful

language of him whose wonderful writings supply us on almost every

subject, with the richest thoughts and happiest illustrations, they were

created to

"Make boot upon the Summer's velvet buds,

Which pillage they with merry march bring home

To the tent royal of their emperor:

Who, busied in his majesty, surveys

The singing masons, building roofs of gold."--_Shakspeare._

When thus engaged, the bees work in perfect accordance with their

natural instincts, and seem to have little or no disposition to meddle

with property that does not belong to them. If however, their incautious

owner tempts them with liquid food, especially at times when they can

obtain nothing from the blossoms, they seem to be so infatuated with

such easy gatherings, as to lose all discretion, and they will perish by

thousands, if the vessels which contain the food are not furnished with

floats, on which they can stand and help themselves in safety.

The fly was intended to feed, not upon the blossoms, but upon food in

which, without care, it could easily be drowned; and hence it alights

most cautiously, on the edge of any vessel containing liquid food, and

warily helps itself: while the poor bee, without any caution, plunges

right in and speedily perishes. The sad fate of their unfortunate

companions, does not in the least, deter others who approach the

tempting lure: but they madly alight on the bodies of the dying and the

dead, to share the same miserable end! No one can understand the full

extent of their infatuation, until after seeing a confectioner's shop,

assailed by thousands and tens of thousands of hungry bees. I have seen

thousands strained out from the syrups in which they had perished;

thousands more alighting even upon the boiling sweets; the floors

covered, and windows darkened with bees, some crawling, others flying,

and others still, so completely daubed as to be able neither to crawl

nor fly; not one bee in ten able to carry home its ill-gotten spoils,

and yet the air filled with new hosts of thoughtless comers.

It will be for the interest of all engaged in the manufacture of candy

and syrups, to fit gauze wire windows and doors to their premises, and

thus save themselves from constant loss and annoyance: for if only one

bee in a hundred escapes with his load, the confectioner will be

subjected in the course of the season to serious loss. I once furnished

such an establishment, after the bees had commenced their depredations,

with such protection; and when they found themselves excluded, they lit

on the wire by thousands, and fairly squealed with vexation and

disappointment, as they tried to force a passage through the meshes. At

last as they were daring enough to descend the chimney, reeking with

sweet odors, even although the most who attempted it, fell with scorched

wings into the fire, it became necessary to put wire gauze over the top

of the chimney also!

How often, as I have seen thousands of bees, in such places destroyed,

and thousands more deprived of all ability to fly, and hopelessly

struggling in the deluding sweets, and yet thousands more blindly

hovering over them, all unmindful of their danger, and apparently eager

to share the same destruction, how often has the spectacle of their

infatuation seemed to me, to be an exact picture of the woful delusion

of those who surrender themselves to the fatal influences of the

intoxicating cup. Even although they see the miserable victims of this

degrading vice, falling all around them, into premature and dishonored

graves, they still press on, madly trampling as it were, over their dead

and dying bodies, that they too may sink into the same abyss of agonies,

and that their sun may also go down in darkness and hopeless gloom. Even

although they know that the next cup may send them, with all their sins

upon their heads, to the dread tribunal of their God, that cup of bitter

sorrows and untold degradation, they will drain even to its most

loathsome dregs.

The avaricious bee that despised the slow process of extracting nectar

from "every opening flower," and plunged recklessly into the tempting

sweets, has ample time to bewail its folly. Even if it has not paid the

forfeit of its life, but has been able to obtain its fill, it returns

home with all its beautiful plumage sullied and besmeared, and with a

woe-begone look, and sorrowful note, in marked contrast with the bright

hues and merry sounds with which the industrious bee returns from its

happy rovings amid "the budding honey flowers, and sweetly breathing

fields."

Just so, has many a pilgrim from the golden shores of California and

Australia, returned; enfeebled in body and mind, bankrupt often in

character and happiness, if not in purse, and unfitted in every way, for

the calm and sober pursuits of common industry; while thousands, yes,

and tens of thousands too, shall never more behold their once happy

homes. Bibles and Sabbaths, altars and firesides, parents and friends,

wife and children, how often have all these been wantonly abandoned, in

the accursed greed for gain, by those who might have been happy and

prosperous at home, and who wandered from its sacred precincts only

because they were determined to make the possession of wealth, the chief

object of life, but whose bones now lie amid the coral reefs of the

ocean, or moulder in the howling wastes of the "overland passage;" just

as the bones of the unbelieving Israelites whitened the sands of the

desert. Of those who have reached the "land of" golden "promise," how

many have died in despair, or worse still, are living so besotted by

vice, so lost to all power of virtuous resolutions, that they shall

never more see the happy homes from which they so thoughtlessly

wandered, never more hear the soft accents of loving friends; never more

worship God, in a peaceful Sanctuary, or ever again behold an opened

Bible!

"Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!

Bright and yellow, hard and cold,

Molten, graven, hammer'd, and roll'd;

Heavy to get, and light to hold;

Hoarded, barter'd, bought, and sold,

Stolen, borrow'd, squander'd, doled:

Spurn'd by the young, but hugg'd by the old

To the very verge of the churchyard mould;

Price of many a crime untold;

Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!

Good or bad a thousand-fold!

How widely its agencies vary--

To save--to ruin--to curse--to bless--

As even its minted coins express,

Now stamp'd with the image of Good Queen Bess,

And now of a Bloody Mary!"

_Hood._

CHAPTER XVI.

HONEY. PASTURAGE. OVERSTOCKING.

In the chapter on Feeding, it has already been stated that honey is not

a natural secretion of the bee, but a substance obtained from the

nectaries of the blossoms; it is not therefore, made, but merely

gathered by the bees. The truth is well expressed in the lines so

familiar to most of us from our childhood,

"How doth the little busy bee

Improve each shining hour,

And _gather_ honey all the day

From every opening flower."

Bees not only gather honey from the blossoms, but often obtain it in

large quantities from what have been called honey dews; "a term applied

to those sweet, clammy drops that glitter on the foliage of many trees

in hot weather." Two different opinions have been zealously advocated as

to the origin of honey-dews. By some, they are considered a natural

exudation from the leaves of trees, a perspiration as it were,

occasioned often by ill health, though sometimes a provision to enable

the plants to resist the fervent heats to which they are exposed. Others

insist that this sweet substance is discharged from the bodies of those

aphides or small lice which infest the leaves of so many plants.

Unquestionably they are produced in both ways.

Messrs. Kirby and Spence, in their interesting work on Entomology, have

given a description of the kind of honey-dew furnished by the aphides.

"The loves of the ants and the aphides have long been celebrated; and

that there is a connection between them, you may, at any time in the

proper season, convince yourself; for you will always find the former

very busy on those trees and plants on which the latter abound; and if

you examine more closely, you will discover that the object of the ants,

in thus attending upon the aphides, is to obtain the saccharine fluid

secreted by them, which may well be denominated their milk. This fluid,

which is scarcely inferior to honey in sweetness, issues in limpid drops

from the abdomen of these insects, not only by the ordinary passage, but

also by two setiform tubes placed, one on each side, just above it.

Their sucker being inserted in the tender bark, is without intermission

employed in absorbing the sap, which, after it has passed through their

system, they keep continually discharging by these organs. When no ants

attend them, by a certain jerk of the body, which takes place at regular

intervals, they ejaculate it to a distance."

"Mr. Knight once observed," says Bevan, "a shower of honey-dew

descending in innumerable small globules, near one of his oak-trees, _on

the 1st of September_; he cut off one of the branches, took it into the

house, and holding it in a stream of light, which was purposely admitted

through a small opening, distinctly saw the aphides ejecting the fluid

from their bodies with considerable force, and this accounts for its

being frequently found in situations where it could not have arrived by

the mere influence of gravitation. The drops that are thus spurted out,

unless interrupted by the surrounding foliage, or some other interposing

body, fall upon the ground; and the spots may often be observed, for

some time, beneath and around the trees affected with honey-dew, till

washed away by the rain. The power which these insects possess of

ejecting the fluid from their bodies, seems to have been wisely

instituted to preserve cleanliness in each individual fly, and indeed

for the preservation of the whole family; for pressing as they do upon

one another, they would otherwise soon be glued together, and rendered

incapable of stirring. On looking steadfastly at a group of these

insects (_Aphides Salicis_) while feeding on the bark of the willow,

their superior size enables us to perceive some of them elevating their

bodies and emitting a transparent substance in the form of a small

shower."

"Nor scorn ye now, fond elves, the foliage sear,

When the light aphids, arm'd with puny spear,

Probe each emulgent vein, till bright below,

Like falling stars, clear drops of nectar glow."

_Evans._

"The _willow_ accommodates the bees in a kind of threefold succession;

from the flowers they obtain both honey and farina;--from the bark

propolis;--and the leaves frequently afford them honey-dew at a time

when other resources are beginning to fail."

"Honey-dew usually appears upon the leaves as a viscid, transparent

substance, as sweet as honey itself, sometimes in the form of globules,

at others resembling a syrup; it is generally most abundant from the

middle of June to the middle of July, sometimes as late as September."

"It is found chiefly upon the _oak_, the _elm_, the _maple_, the

_plane_, the _sycamore_, the _lime_, the _hazel_, and the _blackberry_;

occasionally also on the _cherry_, _currant_, and other fruit trees.

Sometimes only one species of trees is affected at a time. The oak

generally affords the largest quantity. At the season of its greatest

abundance, the happy humming noise of the bees may be heard at a

considerable distance from the trees, sometimes nearly equalling in

loudness the united hum of swarming."

In some seasons, extraordinary quantities of honey are furnished by the

honey-dews, and bees will often, in a few days, fill their hives with

it. If at such times, they can be furnished with empty combs, the amount

stored up by them, will be truly wonderful. No certain reliance,

however, can be placed upon this article of bee-food, as in some years,

there is scarcely any to be found, and it is only once in three or four

years, that it is very abundant. The honey obtained from this source, is

generally of a very good quality, though seldom as clear as that

gathered from the choicest blossoms.

The quality of honey is exceedingly various, some being dark, and often

bitter and disagreeable to the taste, while occasionally it is gathered

from poisonous flowers, and is very noxious to the human system.

An intelligent Mandingo African informed a lady of my acquaintance, that

they do not in his country, dare to eat _unsealed_ honey, until it is

first _boiled_. In some of the Southern States, all unsealed honey is

generally rejected. It appears to me highly probable that the noxious

qualities of the honey gathered from some flowers, is, for the most

part, evaporated, before it is sealed over by the bees, while the honey

is thickening in the cells. Boiling the honey, would, of course, expel

it much more effectually, and it is a well ascertained fact that some

persons are not able to eat even the best honey with impunity, until

after it has been boiled! I believe that if persons who are injured by

honey would subject it to this operation, they would usually find it to

exert no injurious influence on the system. Honey is improved by age,

and many are able to use with impunity, that which has been for a long

time, in the hive, and which seems to be much milder than any freshly

gathered by the bees.

Honey, when taken from the bees, should be carefully put where it will

be safe from all intruders, and where it will not be exposed to so low a

temperature as to candy in the cells. The little red ant, and the large

black ant are extravagantly fond of it, and unless placed where they

cannot reach it, they will soon carry off large quantities. I paste

paper over all my boxes, glasses, &c., so as to make them air-tight, and

carefully store them away for future use. If it is drained from the

combs, it may be kept in tight vessels, although in this state it will

be almost sure to candy. By putting the vessels in water, and bringing

it to the boiling point, it will be as nice as when first strained from

the comb. In this way, I prefer to keep the larger portion of my honey.

The appearance of white honey in the comb, is however, so beautiful,

that many will prefer to keep it in this form, especially, if intended

for sale.

In my hives, it may be taken from the bees, in a great variety of ways.

Some may prefer to construct the main hive in such a form, that the

surplus honey can be taken from it, on the frames. Others will prefer to

take it on frames put in an upper box; (see p. 231.) Glass vessels of

almost any size or form will make beautiful receptacles for the spare

honey. They ought always, however, to have a piece of comb fastened in

them, before they are given to the bees; (see p. 161) and if the weather

is cool, they must be carefully covered with something warm, or they

will part with their heat so quickly, as to discourage the bees from

building in them. Unless warmly covered, glass vessels will often be so

lined with moisture, as to annoy the bees. This is occasioned by the

rapid evaporation of the water from the newly gathered honey, (see

p. 335.) All hives during the height of the gathering season, abound in

moisture, and this no doubt furnishes the bees, for the most part, with

the water they then need.

Honey, when stored in a pint tumbler, just large enough to receive one

comb, has a most beautiful appearance, and may be easily taken out

whole, and placed in an elegant shape upon the table. The expense of

such glass vessels is one objection to their use; the ease with which

they part with their heat, another, and a more serious objection still,

is the fact that the shallow cells, so many of which must be made in a

round vessel, require as large a consumption of honey for their wax

covers, as those which hold more than twice their quantity of honey.

I prefer rectangular boxes made of pasteboard, to any other: they are

neat, warm and cheap; and if a small piece of glass is pasted in one of

their ends, the Apiarian can always see when they are full. When the

honey is taken from the bees, the box has its cover put on, and is

pasted tight, so as to exclude air and insects. In this form, honey may

be packed, and sent to market very conveniently: and when the boxes are

opened, the purchaser can always see the quality of the article which he

buys. The box in which these small boxes of honey are packed in order to

be sent to market, should be furnished with rope handles, so that it can

be easily lifted, without the least jarring. Honey should be handled

with just as much care as glass. A box, four inches wide, will admit of

two combs, and if small pieces of comb are put in the top, the bees will

build them, of the proper dimensions, and will thus make them too large

for brood combs, and of the best size to contain their surplus honey.

The use of my hives enables the Apiarian to get access to all the comb

which he needs for such purposes, and he will find it to his interest,

never to give the bees a box which does not contain some comb, as well

for encouragement as for a pattern. I have never seen the use of

pasteboard boxes suggested, but after experimenting with a great many

materials, I believe they will be found, all things considered,

preferable to any others. Wooden boxes, with a piece of glass, are very

good for storing honey: but they are much more expensive than those made

of pasteboard, and the covers cannot be removed so conveniently.

Honey may be safely removed from the surplus honey boxes of my hives,

even by the most timid. When the outside case which covers the boxes, is

elevated, a shield is thrown between the Apiarian and the bees which are

entering and leaving the hive. Before removing a vessel or box, a thin

knife should be carefully passed under it, so as to loosen the

attachments of the comb to the honey-board, without injuring the bees;

then a small piece of tin or zinc may be pushed under to prevent the

bees that are below, from coming up, when the honey is removed. The

Apiarian should now tap gently on the box, and the bees in it,

perceiving that they are separated from the main hive, will at once

proceed to fill themselves, so as to save as much as possible, of their

precious sweets. In about five minutes, or as soon as they are full, and

run over the combs, trying to get out, the glass or box may at once be

removed, and they will fly directly to the hive with what they have been

able to secure. Bees under such circumstances, _never_ attempt to sting,

and a child of ten years, may remove, with ease and safety, all their

surplus stores. If a person is too timid to approach a hive when any

bees are flying, the honey may be removed towards evening, or early in

the morning, before the bees are flying, in any considerable numbers. In

performing this operation, it should always be borne in mind, that

large quantities of honey should never be taken from them at once,

unless when the honey-harvest is over. Bees are exceedingly discouraged

by such wholesale appropriations, and often refuse entirely, to work in

the empty boxes, even although honey abounds in the fields. Not

unfrequently when large boxes are removed, and being found only

partially filled, are returned, the bees will carry every particle of

honey down into the main hive! If, however, the honey is removed in

small boxes, one at a time, and an empty box with guide comb is put

instantly in its place, the bees, so far from being discouraged, work

with more than their wonted energy, and usually begin in a few hours, to

enlarge the comb.

I would here repeat the caution already given, against needlessly

opening and shutting the hives, or in any way meddling with the bees so

as to make them feel insecure in their possessions. Such a course tends

to discourage them, and may seriously diminish the yield of honey.

If the Apiarian wishes to remove honey from the interior of the hive, he

must remove the combs, as directed on page 195, and shake the bees off,

on the alighting board, or directly into the hive.

PASTURAGE.

Some blossoms yield only pollen, and others only honey; but by far the

largest number, both honey and pollen. Since the discovery that rye

flour will answer so admirably as a substitute, before the bees are able

to gather the pollen from the flowers, early blossoms producing pollen

alone, are not so important in the vicinity of an Apiary. Willows are

among the most desirable trees to have within reach of the bees: some

kinds of willow put out their catkins very early, and yield an

abundance of both bee-bread and honey. All the willows furnish an

abundance of food for the bees; and as there is considerable difference

in the time of their blossoming, it is desirable to have such varieties

as will furnish the bees with food, as long as possible.

The Sugar Maple furnishes a large supply of very delicious honey, and

its blossoms hanging in drooping fringes, will be all alive with bees.

The Apricot, Peach, Plum and Cherry are much frequented by the bees;

Pears and Apples furnish very copious supplies of the richest honey. The

Tulip tree, _Liriodendron_, is probably one of the greatest

honey-producing trees in the world. In rich lands this magnificent tree

will grow over one hundred feet high, and when covered with its large

bell-shaped blossoms of mingled green and golden yellow, it is one of

the most beautiful trees in the world. The blossoms are expanding in

succession, often for more than two weeks, and a new swarm will

frequently fill its hive from these trees alone. The honey though dark

in color, is of a rich flavor. This tree has been successfully

cultivated as a shade tree, even as far North as Southern Vermont, and

for the extraordinary beauty of its foliage and blossoms, deserves to be

introduced wherever it can be made to grow. The Winter of 1851-2, was

exceedingly cold, the thermometer in Greenfield, Mass. sinking as low as

30° below zero, and yet a tulip tree not only survived the Winter

uninjured, but was covered the following season with blossoms.

The American Linden or Bass Wood, is another tree which yields large

supplies of very pure and white honey. It is one of our most beautiful

native trees, and ought to be planted much more extensively than it is,

in our villages and country seats. The English Linden is worthless for

bees, and in many places, has been so infested by worms, as to make it

necessary to cut it down.

The Linden blossoms soon after the white clover begins to fail, and a

majestic tree covered with its yellow clusters, at a season when very

few blossoms are to be seen, is a sight most beautiful and refreshing.

"Here their delicious task, the fervent bees

In swarming millions tend: around, athwart,

Through the soft air the busy nations fly,

Cling to the bud, and with inserted tube,

Suck its pure essence, its etherial soul."

_Thomson._

Our villages would be much more attractive, if instead of being filled

as they often are, almost exclusively with maples and elms, they were

adorned with a greater variety of our native trees. The remark has often

been made, that these trees are much more highly valued abroad than at

home, and that to see them in perfection, we must either visit their

native forests, or the pleasure grounds of some wealthy English or

European gentleman.

Of all the various sources from which the bees derive their supplies,

white clover is the most important. It yields large quantities of very

white honey, and of the purest quality, and wherever it flourishes in

abundance, the honey-bee will always gather a rich harvest. In this

country at least, it seems to be the most certain reliance of the

Apiary. It blossoms at a season of the year when the weather is usually

both dry and hot, and the bees gather the honey from it, after the sun

has dried off the dew: so that its juices are very thick, and almost

ready to be sealed over at once in the cells.

Every observant bee-keeper must have noticed, that in some seasons, the

blossoms of various kinds yield much less honey than in others. Perhaps

no plant varies so little in this respect, as the white clover. This

clover ought to be much more extensively cultivated than it now is, and

I consider myself as conferring a benefit not only on bee-keepers, but

on the agricultural community at large, in being able to state on the

authority of one of New England's ablest practical farmers, and writers

on agricultural subjects, Hon. Frederick Holbrook, of Brattleboro',

Vermont, that the common white clover may be cultivated on some soils to

very great profit, as a hay crop. In an article for the New England

Farmer, for May, 1853, he speaks as follows:--

"The more general sowing of white clover-seed is confidently

recommended. If land is in good heart at the time of stocking it to

grass, white clover sown with the other grass-seeds will thicken up the

bottom of mowings, growing some eight or ten inches high and in a thick

mat, and the burden of hay will prove much heavier than it seemed likely

to be before mowing. Soon after the practice of sowing white clover on

the tillage-fields commences, the plant will begin to show itself in

various places on the farm, and ultimately gets pretty well scattered

over the pastures, as it seeds very profusely, and the seeds are carried

from place to place in the manure and otherwise. The price of the seed

per pound in market is high; but then one pound of it will seed more

land, than two pounds of red clover seed; so that in fact the former is

the cheaper seed of the two, for an acre."

"Red-top, red clover and white clover seeds, sown together, produce a

quality of hay universally relished by stock. My practice is, to seed

all dry, sandy and gravelly lands with this mixture. The red and white

clover pretty much make the crop the first year; the second year, the

red clover begins to disappear, and the red-top to take its place; and

after that, the red-top and white clover have full possession and make

the very best hay for horses or oxen, milch cows or young stock, that I

have been able to produce. The crop per acre, as compared with

herds-grass, is not so bulky; but tested by weight and by spending

quality in the Winter, it is much the most valuable."

"Herds-grass hay grown on moist uplands or reclaimed meadows, and swamps

of a mucky soil, or lands not overcharged with silica, is of good

quality; but when grown on sandy and gravelly soils abounding in silex,

the stalks are hard, wiry, coated with silicates as with glass, and

neither horses nor cattle will eat it as well, or thrive as well on it

as on hay made of red-top and clover; and as for milch cows, they winter

badly on it, and do not give out the milk as when fed on softer and more

succulent hay."

By managing white clover, according to Mr. Holbrook's plan, it might be

made to blossom abundantly in the second crop, and thus lengthen out, to

very great advantage, the pasture for the bees. For fear that any of my

readers might suspect Mr. Holbrook of looking at the white clover,

through a pair of _bee-spectacles_, I would add that although he has ten

acres of it in mowing, he has no bees, and has never particularly

interested himself in this branch of rural economy. When we can succeed

in directing the attention of such men to bee-culture, we may hope to

see as rapid an advance in this as in some other important branches of

agriculture.

Sweet-scented clover, (_Mellilotus Leucantha_,) affords a rich

bee-pasturage. It blossoms the second year from the seed, and grows to a

great height, and is always swarming with bees until quite late in the

Fall. Attempts have been made to cultivate it for the sake of its value

as a hay crop, but it has been found too coarse in its texture, to be

very profitable. Where many bees are kept, it might however, be so

valuable for them as to justify its extensive cultivation. During the

early part of the season, it might be mowed and fed to the cattle, in a

green and tender state, and allowed to blossom later in the season,

when the bees can find but few sources to gather from.

For years, I have attempted to procure, through botanists, a hybrid or

cross between the red and white clover, in order to get something with

the rich honey-producing properties of the red, and yet with a short

blossom into which the honey-bee might insert its proboscis. The red

clover produces a vast amount of food for the bumble-bee, but is of no

use at all to the honey-bee. I had hoped to procure a variety which

might answer all the purposes of our farmers as a field crop. Quite

recently I have ascertained that such a hybrid has been originated in

Sweden, and has been imported into this country, by Mr. B. C. Rogers, of

Philadelphia. It grows even taller than the red clover, bears many

blossoms on a stalk which are small, resembling the white, and is said

to be preferred by cattle, to any other kind of grass, while it answers

admirably for bees.

Buckwheat furnishes a most excellent Fall feed for bees; the honey is

not so well-flavored as some other kinds, but it comes at a season when

it is highly important to the bees, and they are often able to fill

their hives with a generous supply against Winter. Buckwheat honey is

gathered when the dew is upon the blossoms, and instead of being thick,

like white clover honey, is often quite thin; the bees sweat out a large

portion of its moisture, but still they do not exhaust the whole of it,

and in wet seasons especially, it is liable to sour in the cells. Honey

gathered in a dry season, is always thicker, and of course more valuable

than that gathered in a wet one, as it contains much less water.

Buckwheat is uncertain in its honey-bearing qualities; in some seasons,

it yields next to none, and hardly a bee will be seen upon a large

field, while in others, it furnishes an extraordinary supply. The most

practical and scientific agriculturists agree that so far from being an

impoverishing crop, it is on many soils, one of the most profitable that

can be raised. Every bee-keeper should have some in the vicinity of his

hives.

The raspberry, it is well known, is a great favorite with the bees; and

the honey supplied by it, is very delicious. Those parts of New England,

which are hilly and rough, are often covered with the wild raspberry,

and would furnish food for numerous colonies of bees.

It will be observed that thus far, I have said nothing about cultivating

flowers in the garden, to supply the bees with food. What can be done in

this way, is of scarcely any account; and it would be almost as

reasonable to expect to furnish food for a stock of cattle, from a small

grass plat, as honey for bees, from garden plants. The cultivation of

bee-flowers is more a matter of pleasure than profit, to those who like

to hear the happy hum of the busy bees, as they walk in their gardens.

It hardly seems expedient, at least for the present, to cultivate any

field crops except such as are profitable in themselves, without any

reference to the bees.

Mignonnette is excellent for bees, but of all flowers, none seems to

equal the Borage. It blossoms in June, and continues in bloom until

severe frost, and is always covered with bees, even in dull weather, as

its pendant blossoms keep the honey from the moisture; the honey yielded

by it, is of a very superior quality. If any plant which does not in

itself make a valuable crop, would justify cultivation, there is no

doubt that borage would. An acre of it would support a large number of

stocks. If in a village those who keep bees would unite together and

secure the sowing of an acre, in their immediate vicinity, each person

paying in proportion to the number of stocks kept, it might be found

profitable. The plants should have about two feet of space every way,

and after they covered the ground, would need no further attention. They

would come into full blossom, cultivated in this manner, about the time

that the white clover begins to fail, and would not only furnish rich

pasture for the bees, but would keep them from the groceries and shops

in which so many perish.

If those who are engaged in adorning our villages and country residences

with shade trees, would be careful to set out a liberal allowance of

such kinds as are not only beautiful to us, but attractive to the bees,

in process of time the honey resources of the country might be very

greatly increased.

OVERSTOCKING A DISTRICT WITH BEES.

I come now to a point of the very first importance to all interested in

the cultivation of bees. If the opinions which the great majority of

American bee-keepers entertain, are correct, then the keeping of bees

must, in our country, be always an insignificant pursuit. I confess that

I find it difficult to repress a smile, when the owner of a few hives,

in a district where as many hundreds might be made to prosper, gravely

imputes his ill success, to the fact that too many bees are kept in his

vicinity! The truth is, that as bees are frequently managed, they are of

but little value, even though in "a land flowing with milk and honey."

If in the Spring, a colony of bees is prosperous and healthy, (see p.

207) it will gather abundant stores, even if hundreds equally strong,

are in its immediate vicinity, while if it is feeble, it will be of

little or no value, even if there is not another swarm within a dozen

miles of it.

Success in bee-keeping requires that a man should be in some things, a

very close imitator of Napoleon, who always aimed to have an

overwhelming force, at the right time and in the right place; so the

bee-keeper must be sure that his colonies are numerous, just at the time

when their numbers can be turned to the best account. If the bees cannot

get up their numbers until the honey-harvest is well nigh gone, numbers

will then be of as little service as many of the famous armies against

which "the soldier of Europe" contended; which, after the fortunes of

the campaign were decided, only served to swell the triumphant spoils of

the mighty conqueror. A bee-keeper with feeble stocks in the Spring,

which become strong only when there is nothing to get, is like a farmer

who contrives to hire no hands to reap his harvests, but suffers the

crops to rot upon the ground, and then at great expense, hires a number

of stalworth laborers to idle about his premises and eat him out of

house and home!

I do not believe that there is a _single square mile_ in this whole

country, which is overstocked with bees, unless it is one so unsuitable

for bee-keeping as to make it unprofitable to attempt it at all. Such an

assertion will doubtless, appear to many, very unguarded; and yet it is

made advisedly, and I am happy to be able to confirm it, by reference to

the experience of the largest cultivators in Europe. The following

letter from Mr. Wagner, will I trust, do more than I can possibly do in

any other way, to show our bee-keepers how mistaken they are in their

opinion as to the danger of overstocking their districts, and also what

large results might be obtained from a more extensive cultivation of

bees.

YORK, March 16, 1853.

DEAR SIR:

In reply to your enquiry respecting the _overstocking_ of a district, I

would say that the present opinion of the correspondents of the

Bienenzeitung, appears to be that it _cannot readily be done_. Dzierzon

says, in practice at least, "_it never is done_;" and Dr. Radlkofer, of

Munich, the President of the second Apiarian Convention, declares that

his apprehensions on that score were dissipated by observations which he

had opportunity and occasion to make, when on his way home from the

Convention. I have numerous accounts of Apiaries in pretty close

proximity, containing from 200 to 300 colonies each. Ehrenfels had a

thousand hives, at three separate establishments indeed, but so close to

each other that he could visit them all in half an hour's ride; and he

says that in 1801, the average net yield of his Apiaries was $2 per

hive. In Russia and Hungary, Apiaries numbering from 2000 to 5000

colonies are said not to be unfrequent; and we know that as many as 4000

hives are oftentimes congregated, in Autumn, at one point on the heaths

of Germany. Hence I think we need not fear that any district of this

country, so distinguished for abundant natural vegetation and

diversified culture, will very speedily be overstocked, particularly

after the importance of having stocks populous early in the Spring,

comes to be duly appreciated. A week or ten days of favorable weather,

at that season, when pasturage abounds, will enable a _strong_ colony to

lay up an ample supply for the year, if its labor be properly directed.

Mr. Kaden, one of the ablest contributors to the Bienenzeitung, in the

number for December, 1852, noticing the communication from Dr.

Radlkofer, says: "I also concur in the opinion that a district of

country cannot be overstocked with bees; and that, however numerous the

colonies, all can procure sufficient sustenance if the surrounding

country contain honey-yielding plants and vegetables, in the usual

degree. Where utter barrenness prevails, the case is different, of

course, as well as rare."

The Fifteenth Annual Meeting of German Agriculturists was held in the

City of Hanover, on the 10th of September, 1852, and in compliance with

the suggestions of the Apiarian Convention, a distinct section devoted

to bee-culture was instituted. The programme propounded sixteen

questions for discussion, the fourth of which was as follows:--

"Can a district of country embracing meadows, arable land, orchards, and

woodlands or forests, be so overstocked with bees, that these may no

longer find adequate sustenance and yield a remunerating surplus of

their products?"

This question was debated with considerable animation. The Rev. Mr.

Kleine, (nine-tenths of the correspondents of the Bee-Journal are

clergyman,) President of the section, gave it as his opinion that "it

was hardly conceivable that such a country could be overstocked with

bees." Counsellor Herwig, and the Rev. Mr. Wilkens, on the contrary,

maintained that "it might be overstocked." In reply, Assessor Heyne

remarked that "whatever might be supposed possible as an extreme case,

it was certain that as regards the kingdom of Hanover, it could not be

even remotely apprehended that too many Apiaries would ever be

established; and that consequently the greatest possible multiplication

of colonies might safely be aimed at and encouraged." At the same time,

he advised a proper distribution of Apiaries.

I might easily furnish you with more matter of this sort, and designate

a considerable number of Apiaries in various parts of Germany,

containing from 25 to 500 colonies. But the question would still recur,

do not these Apiaries occupy comparatively isolated positions? and at

this distance from the scene, it would obviously be impossible to give a

perfectly satisfactory answer.

According to the statistical tables of the kingdom of Hannover, the

annual production of bees-wax in the province of Lunenburg, is 300,000

lbs., about one half of which is exported; and assuming one pound of wax

as the yield of each hive, we must suppose that 300,000 hives are

annually "_brimstoned_" in the province; and assuming further, in view

of casualties, local influences, unfavorable seasons, &c., that only

one-half of the whole number of colonies maintained, produce a swarm

each, every year, it would require a total of at least 600,000 colonies,

(141, to each square mile,) to secure the result given in the tables.

The number of square miles stocked even to this extent, in this country,

are, I suspect, "few and far between." The Shakers at Lebanon, have

about 600 colonies; but I doubt whether a dozen Apiaries equally large

can be found in the Union. It is very evident, that this country is far

from being overstocked; nor it is likely that it ever will be.

A German writer alleges that "the bees of Lunenburg, pay all the taxes

assessed on their proprietors, and leave a surplus besides." The

importance attached to bee-culture accounts in part for the remarkable

fact that the people of a district so barren that it has been called

"the Arabia of Germany," are almost without exception in easy and

comfortable circumstances. Could not still more favorable results be

obtained in this country under a rational system of management, availing

itself of the aid of science, art and skill?

But, I am digressing. My design was to furnish you with an account of

bee-culture as it exists _in an entire district of country_, in the

hands of _the common peasantry_. This I thought would be more

satisfactory, and convey a better idea of what may be done on a large

scale, than any number of instances which might be selected of splendid

success in isolated cases.

Very truly yours,

SAMUEL WAGNER.

REV. L. L. LANGSTROTH.

The question how far bees will fly in search of honey, has been very

differently answered by different Apiarians. I am satisfied that they

will fly over three miles in search of food, but I believe as a general

rule, that if their food is not within a circle of about two miles in

every direction from the Apiary, they will be able to store up but

little surplus honey. The nearer, the better. In all my arrangements,

(see p. 96.) I have made it a constant study to save _every step_ for

the bees that I possibly can, economizing to the very utmost, their

time, which will all be transmuted into honey; an inspection of the

Frontispiece of this treatise will exhibit the general aspect of the

alighting board of my hives, and will show the intelligent Apiarian,

with what ease bees will enter such a hive, even in very windy weather.

By such arrangements, they will be able to store up more honey, even if

they have to go a considerable distance in search of it, than they would

in many other hives, when the honey abounded in their more immediate

vicinity. Such considerations are entirely overlooked, by most

bee-keepers, and they seem to imagine that they are matters of no

importance. By the utter neglect of any kind of precautions to

facilitate the labors of their bees, you might suppose that they

imagined these delicate insects to be possessed of nerves of steel and

sinews of iron or adamant; or else that they took them for miniature

locomotives, always fired up and capable of an indefinite amount of

exertion. A bee _cannot_ put forth more than a certain amount of

physical exertion, and if a large portion of this is spent in absolutely

fighting against difficulties, from which it might easily be guarded, it

must be very obvious to any one who thinks on the subject at all, that a

great loss must be sustained by its owner.

If some of these thoughtless owners returning home with a heavy burden,

were compelled to fall down stairs half a dozen times before they could

get into the house, they might perhaps think it best to guard their

industrious workers against such discouraging accidents. If bees are

tossed violently about by the winds, as they attempt to enter their

hives, they are often fatally injured, and the whole colony so

_discouraged_, to say nothing more, that they do not gather near so much

as they otherwise would.

The arrangement of my Protector is such that the bees, if blown down,

fall upon a sloping bank of soft grass, and are able to enter the hives

without much inconvenience.

Just as soon as our cultivators can be convinced, by practical results,

that bee-keeping, for the capital invested, may be made a most

profitable branch of rural economy, they will see the importance of

putting their bees into suitable hives, and of doing all that they can,

to give them a fair chance; until then, the mass of them will follow the

beaten track, and attribute their ill success, not to their own

ignorance, carelessness or stupidity, but to their want of "luck," or to

the overstocking of the country with bees. I hope, before many years, to

see the price of good honey so reduced that the poor man can place it on

his table and feast upon it, as one of the cheapest luxuries within his

reach.

On page 20, a statement was given of Dzierzon's experience as to the

profits of bee-keeping. The section of country in which he resides, is

regarded by him as unfavorable to Apiarian pursuits. I shall now give

what I consider a safe estimate for almost any section in our country;

while in unusually favorable locations it will fall far below the

results which may be attained. It is based upon the supposition that the

bees are kept in properly constructed hives so as to be strong early in

the season, and that the increase of stocks is limited to one new one

from two old ones. Under proper management, one year with another,

about ten dollars worth of honey may be obtained for every two stocks

wintered over. The worth of the new colonies, I set off as an equivalent

for labor of superintendence, and interest on the money invested in

bees, hives, fixtures, &c.

A careful, prudent man who will enter into bee-keeping moderately at

first, and extend his operations only as his skill and experience

increase, will, by the use of my hives, find that the preceding estimate

is not too large. Even on the ordinary mode of bee-keeping, there are

many who will consider it rather below than above the mark. If

thoroughly careless persons are determined to "try their luck," as they

call it, with bees, I advise them by all means, in mercy to the bees, to

adopt the non-swarming plan. Improved methods of management with such

persons will be of little or no use, unless you could improve their

habits first, and very often their brains too! Every dollar that such

persons spend upon bees, unless with the slightest possible departure

from the old-fashioned plans, is a dollar worse than thrown away. In

those parts of Europe where bee-keeping is carried on upon the largest

scale, the mass adhere to the old system; this they understand, and by

this they secure a certainty, whereas in our country, thousands have

been induced to enter upon the wildest schemes, or at least to use hives

which could not furnish them the very information needed for their

successful management. A simple box furnished with my frames, will

enable the masses, without departing materially from the common system,

to increase largely the yield from their bees.

In addition to the information given in the Introduction, respecting the

success of Dzierzon's system of management, I have recently ascertained

that one of its ablest opponents in Germany, has become thoroughly

convinced of its superior value. The Government of Norway has

appropriated $300, per annum, for the ensuing three years, towards

diffusing a knowledge of Dzierzon's method, in that country; having

previously despatched Mr. Hanser, Collector of Customs, to Silesia to

visit Mr. Dzierzon, and acquire a practical knowledge of his system of

management. He is now employed in distributing model hives, in the

provinces, and imparting information on improved bee-culture.

NOTE.--The time has hardly come when the attention of any of our

State authorities can be attracted to the importance of bee-culture.

It is only of late that they have seemed to manifest any peculiar

interest in promoting the advancement of agricultural pursuits. A

Department of Agriculture ought to have been established, years ago,

by the National Government at Washington. Let us hope that the

Administration now in power, will establish a lasting claim to the

gratitude of posterity, by taking wise and efficient steps to

advance the agricultural interests of the country. A National

Society to promote these interests has recently been established,

and much may be hoped from its wisdom and energy. Until some

disinterested tribunal can be established, before which all

inventions and discoveries can be fairly tested, honest men will

suffer, and ignorance and imposture will continue to flourish. Lying

advertisements and the plausible misrepresentations of brazen-faced

impostors, will still drain the purses of the credulous, while

thousands, disgusted with the horde of impositions which are palmed

off upon the community, will settle down into a dogged determination

to try nothing new. A society before which every thing, claiming to

be an improvement in rural economy, could be fairly tested, would

undoubtedly be shunned by ignorant and unprincipled men, who now find

it an easy task to procure any number of certificates, but who dread

nothing so much as honest and intelligent investigation. The reports

of such a society after the most thorough trials and examinations,

would inspire confidence, save the community from severe losses, and

encourage the ablest minds to devote their best energies to the

improvement of agricultural implements.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE ANGER OF BEES. REMEDY FOR THEIR STING. BEE-DRESS. INSTINCTS OF BEES.

If the bee was disposed to use, without any provocation, the effective

weapon with which it has been provided, its domestication would be

entirely out of the question. The same remark however, is equally true

of the ox, the horse or the dog. If these faithful servants of man were

respectively determined to use, to the very utmost their horns, their

heels and their teeth, to his injury, he would never have been able to

subject them to his peaceful authority. The gentleness of the honey-bee,

when kindly treated, and managed by those who properly understand its

instincts, has in this treatise been frequently spoken of, and is truly

astonishing. They will, especially in swarming time, or whenever they

are gorged with honey, allow any amount of handling which does not hurt

them, without the slightest show of anger. For the gratification of

others, I have frequently taken them up, by handfuls, suffered them to

run over my face, and even smoothed down their glossy backs as they

rested on my person! Standing before the hives, I have, by a rapid sweep

of my hands, caught numbers of them at once, just as though they were so

many harmless flies, and allowed them, one by one, to crawl out, by the

smallest opening, to the light of day; and I have even gone so far as to

imitate many of the feats which the celebrated English Apiarian,

Wildman, was accustomed to perform; who having once secured the queen of

a hive, could make the bees cluster on his head, or hang, like a flowing

beard, in large festoons, from his chin. Wildman, for a long time, made

as great a mystery of his wonderful performances, as the spirit-rappers

of the present day, do of theirs; but at last, he was induced to explain

his whole mode of procedure; and the magic control which he possessed

over the bees, and which was, by the ignorant, ascribed to his having

bewitched them, was found to be owing entirely to his superior

acquaintance with their instincts, and his uncommon dexterity and

boldness.

"Such was the spell, which round a Wildman's arm

Twin'd in dark wreaths the fascinated swarm;

Bright o'er his breast the glittering legions led,

Or with a living garland bound his head.

His dextrous hand, with firm yet hurtless hold,

Could seize the chief, known by her scales of gold,

Prune 'mid the wondering train her filmy wing,

Or o'er her folds the silken fetter fling."

_Evans._

M. Lombard, a skillful French Apiarian narrates the following

interesting occurrence, which shows how peaceable bees are in swarming

time, and how easily managed by those who have both skill and

confidence.

"A young girl of my acquaintance," he says, "was greatly afraid of bees,

but was completely cured of her fear by the following incident. A swarm

having come off, I observed the queen alight by herself at a little

distance from the Apiary. I immediately called my little friend that I

might show her the queen; she wished to see her more nearly, so after

having caused her to put on her gloves, I gave the queen into her hand.

We were in an instant surrounded by the whole bees of the swarm. In this

emergency I encouraged the girl to be steady, bidding her be silent and

fear nothing, and remaining myself close by her; I then made her stretch

out her right hand, which held the queen, and covered her head and

shoulders with a very thin handkerchief. The swarm soon fixed on her

hand and hung from it, as from the branch of a tree. The little girl was

delighted above measure at the novel sight, and so entirely freed from

all fear, that she bade me uncover her face. The spectators were charmed

with the interesting spectacle. At length I brought a hive, and shaking

the swarm from the child's hand, it was lodged in safety, and without

inflicting a single wound."

The indisposition of bees to sting, when swarming, is a fact familiar to

every practical bee-keeper: but I have not in all my reading or

acquaintance with Apiarians, ever met with a single observation which

has convinced me that the philosophy of this strange fact was thoroughly

understood. As far as I know, I am the only person who has ever

ascertained that when bees are filled with honey, they lose all

disposition to volunteer an assault, and who has made this curious law

the foundation of an extensive and valuable system of practical

management. It was only after I had thoroughly tested its universality

and importance, that I began to feel the desirableness of obtaining a

perfect control over each comb in the hive; for it was only then that I

saw that such control might be made available, in the hands of any one

who could manage bees in the ordinary way. The result of my whole

system, is to make the bees unusually gentle, so that they are not only

peaceable when any necessary operation is being performed, but at all

other times. Even if I could open hives and safely manage at pleasure,

still if the result of such proceedings was to leave the bees in an

excited state, so as to make them unusually irritable, it would all

avail but very little.

There is, however, one difficulty in managing bees so as not to incur

the risk of being stung at all, which attaches to every system of

bee-culture. If an Apiary is approached when the bees are out in great

numbers, thousands and tens of thousands will continue their busy

pursuits without at all interfering with those who do not molest them.

Frequently, however, there will be a few cross bees which come buzzing

around our ears, and seem determined to sting without the very slightest

provocation. From such lawless bees no person without a bee-dress is

absolutely safe. By repeated examinations I have ascertained that

_disease_ is the cause of such unreasonable irritability. I am never

afraid that a healthy bee will attack me unless unusually provoked; and

am always sure as soon as I hear one singing about my ears that it is

incurably diseased. If such a bee is dissected it will be found to

exhibit the unmistakable evidence that a peculiar kind of dysentery has

already fastened upon its system. In the first stages of this complaint

the insect is very irritable, refuses to labor, and seems unable or

unwilling to distinguish friend from foe. As the disease progresses, it

becomes stupid, its body swells up, and is filled with a great mass of

yellow matter, and being unable to fly, it crawls on the ground, in

front of the hive, and speedily perishes. I have never been able to

ascertain the cause of this singular malady, nor can I suggest any

remedy for it. I hope that some scientific Apiarians will investigate it

closely, for if it could only be remedied, we might have hundreds of

colonies on our premises and in our gardens, and yet be perfectly safe.

A person thoroughly acquainted with the leading principles of

bee-culture as they are set forth in this Manual, will _never under any

circumstances_ find it necessary to provoke to fury a colony of bees.

Let it be remembered that nothing can be more terribly vindictive than

a family of bees when thoroughly aroused by gross abuse or unskillful

treatment. Let their hive be suddenly overthrown or violently jarred, or

let them be provoked by the presence of a sweaty horse, or any animal

offensive to them, so that the anger at first manifested by a few, is

extended to the whole community, and the most severe and sometimes

dangerous consequences may ensue. In the same way in the management of

the animals most useful to man, by ignorance or abuse, they may be

roused to a state of frantic desperation, and limbs may be broken, and

often lives destroyed; and yet no one possessed of common sense,

attributes such calamities, except in very rare instances, to any thing

else than carelessness or want of skill. Let it be remembered that even

the most peaceable stock of bees can, in a very few days, by abusive

treatment be taught to look on every living thing as an enemy, and to

sally forth with the most spiteful intentions, as soon as any one

approaches their domicile. How often does it happen that the vicious

beast, which its owner so passionately belabors, is far less to blame

for its obstinacy, than the equally vicious brute who so unmercifully

beats it!

A word now to those timid females who are almost ready to faint, or to

go into hysterics if a bee enters the house, or approaches them in the

garden or fields. Such alarm is entirely uncalled for. It is only in the

vicinity of their homes, and in resistance to what they consider an evil

design upon their very altars and firesides that these insects ever

volunteer an attack. Away from home, they are as peaceably inclined as

you could desire. If you attack them, they are much more eager to escape

than to offer you any annoyance, and they can be induced to sting, only

when they are compressed, either by accident or design.

Let not any of my readers think that they have even a slight

encouragement, from this conduct of the bee, to reserve all their sweet

smiles and honied words for the world abroad, while they give free vent,

in the sacred precincts of home, to ill-natured looks and ill-tempered

language; for towards the occupants of its honied dome, the bee is all

kindness and affection. In the experience of many years I never saw an

instance in which two bees, members of the same family, ever seemed to

be actuated by any but the very kindest feelings toward each other. In

their busy haste they often jostle against each other, but where every

thing is well meant, every thing is well received: tens of thousands all

live together in the sweetest harmony and peace, when very often if

there are only two or three children in a family, the whole household is

tormented by their constant bickerings and contention. Among the bees

the good mother is the honored queen of her happy family; they all wait

upon her steps with unbounded reverence and affection, make way for her

as she moves over the combs, smooth and brush her beautiful plumes,

offer her food from time to time, and in short do all that they possibly

can to make her perfectly happy; while too often children treat their

mothers with irreverence or neglect, and instead of striving with loving

zeal to lighten their labors and save their steps, they treat them more

as though they were servants hired only to wait upon every whim and to

humor every caprice.

Let us pause for a moment, and contemplate further the admirable

arrangement by which the instinct of the bee which disposes it to defend

its treasures, is made so perfectly compatible with the safety both of

man and the domestic animals under his care. Suppose that away from

home, bees were as easily provoked, as they are in the immediate

vicinity of their hives, what would become of our domestic animals among

the clover fields in the pastures? A tithe of the merry gambols they now

so safely indulge in, would speedily bring about them a swarm of these

infuriated insects. In all our rambles among the green fields, we should

constantly be in peril; and no jocund mower would ever whet his

glittering scythe, or swing his peaceful weapon, unless first clad in a

dress impervious to their stings. In short, the bee, instead of being

the friend of man, would be one of his most vexatious enemies, and as

has been the case with the wolves and the bears, every effort would be

made for their utter extermination.

The sting of a bee often produces very painful, and upon some persons,

very dangerous effects. I am persuaded, from the result of my own

observation, that the bee seldom stings those whose systems are not

sensitive to its venom, while it seems to take a special and malicious

pleasure in attacking those upon whom it produces the most painful

effects! It may be that something in the secretions of such persons both

provokes the attack, and causes its consequences to be more severe.

I should not advise persons upon whose system the sting of a bee

produces the most agonizing pain, and violent, if not dangerous

symptoms, to devote any attention to the practical part of an Apiary;

although I am acquainted with a lady who is thus severely affected, and

who yet, strange to say, is a great enthusiast in Apiarian pursuits! I

have met with individuals, upon whom a sting produced the singular

effect of causing their breath to smell like the venom of the enraged

insect! The smell of the poison resembles almost perfectly that of a

ripe banana. It produces a very irritating effect upon the bees

themselves; for if a minute drop of it is extended to them, on a stick,

they at once manifest the most decided anger.

It is well known that the bee is a lover of sweet odors, and that

unpleasant ones are very apt to excite its anger. And here I may as well

speak plainly, and say that bees have a special dislike to persons whose

habits are not cleanly, and particularly to those who bear about them, a

perfume not in the very least resembling those

"Sabean odors

From the spicy shores of Araby the blest,"

of which the poet so beautifully discourses. Those who belong to the

family of the "great unwashed," will find to their cost that bees are

decided foes to all of their tribe. The peculiar odor of some persons,

however cleanly, may account for the fact that the bees have such a

decided antipathy to their presence, in the vicinity of their hives. It

is related of an enthusiastic Apiarian, that after a long and severe

attack of fever, he was never able to take any more pleasure in his

bees; his secretions seem to have undergone some change, so that the

bees assailed him as soon as he ventured to approach their hives.

Nothing is more offensive to bees than the impure breath exhaled from

human lungs; it excites them at once to fury. Would that in their hatred

for impure air, human beings had only a tithe of the sagacity exercised

by bees! It would not be long before the thought of breathing air loaded

with all manner of impurities from human lungs, to say nothing of its

loss of oxygen, would excite unutterable loathing and disgust.

As the smell of a sweaty horse is very offensive to the bees, it is

never safe to allow these animals to go near a hive, as they are

sometimes attacked and killed by the furious insects. Those engaged in

bee-culture on a large scale, will do well to enclose their Apiaries

with a strong fence, so as to prevent cattle from molesting the hives.

If the Apiary is enclosed by a high fence, with sharp and strong

pickets, and the door is furnished with a strong lock, it will prevent

the losses which in some localities are so common from human pilferers.

Such losses may be guarded against, by fastening a wrought iron ring

into the top of each hive, well clinched on the inside; an iron rod may

run through these rings, and thus with two padlocks and fixtures, (one

at each end,) a dozen or more hives may be secured. I am happy to say

that in most localities such precautions are entirely unnecessary. A

place in which the stealing of honey and fruit is practiced by any

except those who are candidates for State's Prison, is in a fair way of

being soon considered as a very undesirable place of residence. If

owners of Apiaries, gardens and orchards, could be induced to pursue a

more liberal policy, and not be so meanly penurious as they often are, I

am persuaded that they would find it conduce very highly to their

interests. The honey and fruit expended with a cheerful, hearty

liberality, would be more than repaid to them in the good will secured,

and in the end would cost much less than bars and bolts. Reader! do not

imagine that I have the least idea that a thoroughly selfish man, can

ever be made to practice this or any other doctrine of benevolence.

Demonstrate it again and again, until even to his narrow and contracted

view it seems almost as clear as light, still he will never find the

heart to reduce it to practice. You might almost as well expect to

transform an incarnate fiend into an angel of light, by demonstrating

that "Wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness," while "the path of the

transgressor is hard," as to attempt to stamp upon a heart encrusted

with the adamant of selfishness, the noble impress of a liberal spirit.

Of all the senses, that of smell in the bee, seems to be the most

perfect. Huber has demonstrated its exceeding acuteness, by numerous

interesting experiments. If honey is placed in vessels from which the

odor can escape, but in which it cannot be seen, the bees will soon

alight upon them and eagerly attempt to find an entrance. It is by this

sense, unquestionably, that they recognize the members of their own

community, although it seems to us very singular that each colony should

have its own peculiar scent. Not only can two colonies be safely united

by giving them the same odor, but in the same way any number of colonies

may be made to live in perfect peace. If hundreds of hives are all

connected by gauze wire ventilators, so that the air passes freely from

one to another, the bees will all live in absolute harmony, and if any

bee attempts to enter the wrong hive, he will not be molested. The same

result can often be attained by feeding colonies from a common vessel. I

have seen literally hundreds of thousands of bees that after being

treated in this way so as to acquire the same odor, were always gentle

towards each other, while if a single bee from a strange Apiary, lit

upon the feeder, it was sure to be killed.

I have described, (p. 213,) the use which I make of peppermint, in order

to prevent bees from quarreling when they are united. The Rev. Mr.

Kleine, (see p. 359,) in a recent number of the Bienenzeitung, has

recommended the use of another article, which he finds to be very useful

in preventing robbing. His statement would have come in more

appropriately in the Chapter on Robbing, but was not received until too

late. He says that the most convenient and effectual mode of arresting

and repelling the attacks of robbers, is, to impart to the attacked hive

some intensely powerful and unaccustomed odor. He effects this most

readily, by placing a small portion of _musk_ in the attacked hive, late

in the evening, when all the robbers have retreated. On the following

morning, the bees, (provided they have a healthy queen,) will promptly

and boldly meet their assailants, and these in turn are non-plussed by

the unwonted odor, and if any of them enter the hive and carry off some

of the coveted booty, they will not be recognized nor received at home

on their return, on account of their strange smell, but will be at once

seized as strangers, and killed by their own household. Thus the robbing

is speedily brought to a close.

In combination with my blocks, this device might be made very effectual.

When the Apiarian perceives that a hive is being robbed, let him shut up

the entrance: before dusk he can open it and allow the robbers to go

home, and then: put in a small piece of musk: the entrance next day may

be kept so contracted that only a single bee can enter at once. In the

union of stocks the same substance might be used advantageously. A short

time before the process is attempted, each colony might have a small

dose of musk (a piece of musk tied up in a little bag,) and they would

then be sure to agree. I prefer, however, in most cases, the use of

scented sugar-water.

By using my double hives, and putting a small piece of gauze-wire on an

opening made in the partition, the two colonies having the same scent

will always agree; this will be very convenient where they are compelled

to live as such near neighbors, and enables the Apiarian at any time to

unite them and appropriate their surplus stores. These double hives are

admirably adapted to the wants of those who wish to make the smallest

possible departure from the old system, as they need make no change,

except to unite the stocks instead of killing the bees.

I have already remarked that no operation should ever be attempted upon

bees, by which a whole colony is liable to be excited to an ungovernable

pitch of fury. Such operations are _never_ necessary; and a skillful

Apiarian will, by availing himself of the principles laid down in this

Treatise, both easily and safely do everything that is at all desirable,

even to the driving of a powerful colony from an old box hive. When bees

are improperly dealt with, they will "compass" their assailant "about,"

with the most savage ferocity, and woe be to him if they can creep up

his clothes, or find on his person a single unprotected spot! On the

contrary, when not provoked by foolish management or wanton abuse, the

few who are bent on mischief, appear to retain still some touch of

grace, amid all their desperation. Like the thorough bred scold, who by

the elevated pitch of her voice, often gives timely warning to those who

would escape from the sharp sword of her tongue, a bee bent upon

mischief raises its note almost an octave above the peaceable pitch, and

usually gives us timely warning, that it means to sting, if it can. Even

then, it will seldom proceed to extremities, unless it can leave its

sting somewhere upon the face of its victim, and usually as near as

possible to the eye; for bees and all other members of the stinging

tribe, seem to have, as it were, an intuitive perception that this is

the most vulnerable spot upon the "human face divine." If the head is

quietly lowered, and the face covered with the hands, they will often

follow a person for some rods, all the time sounding their war note in

his ears, taunting him for his sneaking conduct, and daring him, just

for one single moment, to look up and allow them to catch but a glimpse

of his coward face!

If a person is suddenly attacked by angry bees, no matter how numerous

or vindictive they may be, not the slightest attempt should ever be made

to act on the offensive. If a single bee is violently struck at, a dozen

will soon be on hand to avenge the insult, and if the resistance is

still continued, hundreds and at last thousands will join in the

attack. The assailed party should quickly retreat from the vicinity of

the hives, to the protection of a building, or if none is near, he

should hide himself in a clump of bushes, and lie perfectly still, with

his head covered, until the bees leave him.

REMEDIES FOR THE STING OF A BEE.

If only a few of the host of remedies, so zealously advocated, could be

made effectual, few persons would have much reason to dread being stung.

Most of them, however, are of no manner of use whatever. Like the

prescriptions of the quack, they are absolutely worse than doing nothing

at all.

The first thing to be done after being stung, is to pull the sting out

of the wound _as quickly as possible_. Even after it is torn from the

body of the bee, (see p. 60,) the muscles which control it, are in

active operation, and it penetrates deeper and deeper into the flesh,

injecting continually more and more of its poison into the wound. Every

Apiarian should have about his person, or close at hand, a small piece

of looking-glass, so that he may be able with the least possible delay

to find and remove a sting. In most cases if it is at once removed, it

will produce no serious consequences; whereas if suffered to empty all

its vials of wrath, it may cause great inflammation and severe

suffering. After the sting is removed, the utmost possible care should

be taken, not to irritate the wound by the very _slightest rubbing_.

However intense the smarting, and of course the disposition to apply

friction to the wound, it should never be done, as the poison will at

once be carried through the circulating system, and severe consequences

may ensue. As most of the popular remedies are rubbed in, they are of

course worse than nothing. Be careful not to _suck_ the wound as so many

persons do; this produces irritation in the same way with rubbing. Who

does not know that a musquito bite, even after the lapse of several

days, may be brought to life again, by violent rubbing or sucking? The

moment that the blood is put into a violent and unnatural circulation,

the poison is quickly diffused over a considerable part of the system.

If the mouth is applied to the wound, other unpleasant consequences may

ensue. While the poison of most snakes and many other noxious animals

affects only the circulating system, and may therefore be swallowed with

impunity, the poison of the bee acts powerfully, not only upon the

circulating system, but upon the organs of digestion. The most

distressing head-aches are often produced by it.

From my own experience, I recommend _cold water_ as the very best remedy

with which I am acquainted, for the sting of a bee. It is often applied

in the shape of a plaster of mud, but may be better used by wetting

cloths and holding them gently to the wound. Cold water seems to act in

two ways. The poison of the bee being very volatile, is quickly

dissolved in water; and the coldness of the water has also a powerful

tendency to check inflammation and to prevent the virus from being taken

up by the absorbents and carried through the system. The leaves of the

plantain, crushed and applied to the wound, will answer as a very good

substitute when water cannot at once be procured. The broad-leafed

plantain, or as some call it, "the toad plantain," is regarded by many

as possessing a very great efficacy. Bevan recommends the use of spirits

of hartshorn, applied to the wound, and says that in cases of severe

stinging its internal use is beneficial. Whatever remedy is applied,

should be used if possible, without a moment's delay. The immediate

extraction of the sting, will be found, even if nothing more is done,

much more efficacious than any remedy that can be applied, after it has

been allowed to remain and discharge all its venom into the wound.

It may be some comfort to those who are anxious to cultivate bees, to

know that after a while the poison will produce less and less effect

upon their system. When I first became interested in bees, a sting was

quite a formidable thing, the pain often being very intense, and the

wound swelling so as sometimes to obstruct my sight. At present, the

pain is usually slight, and if I can only succeed in quickly extracting

the sting, no unpleasant consequences ensue, even if no remedies are

used. Huish speaks of seeing the bald head of Bonner, a celebrated

practical Apiarian, lined with bee stings which seemed to produce upon

him no unpleasant effects. Like Mithridates, king of Pontus, he seemed

almost to thrive upon poison itself!

I have met with a highly amusing remedy very gravely propounded by an

old English Apiarian. I mention it more as a matter of curiosity, than

because I imagine that any of my readers will be likely to make trial of

it. He says, let the person who has been stung, catch as speedily as

possible, another bee, and make it sting on the same spot! It requires

some courage even in an enthusiastic disciple of Huber, to venture upon

such a singular homeopathic remedy; but as this old writer had

previously stated that the oftener a person was stung, the less he

suffered from the venom, and as I had proved, in my own experience, the

truth of this assertion, I determined to make trial of his remedy. I

allowed a bee to sting me upon the finger and suffered the sting to

remain until it had discharged all its venom. I then compelled another

bee to insert its sting as near as possible in the same spot. I used no

remedies of any kind, and had the satisfaction, in my zeal for new

discoveries, of suffering more from the pain and swelling, than I had

previously experienced for years.

An old writer recommends a powder of dried bees, for distressing cases

of stoppages; and some of the highest medical authorities have recently

recommended a tea made by pouring boiling water upon bees, for the same

complaint, while the homeopathic physicians employ the poison of the

bee, which they call _apis_, for a great variety of maladies. That it is

capable of producing intense head-aches any one who has been stung, or

who has tasted the poison, very well knows.

BEE-DRESS.

Timid Apiarians, and all who are liable to suffer severely from the

sting of a bee, should by all means furnish themselves with the

protection of a bee-dress. The great objection to gauze-wire veils or

other materials of which such a dress has been usually made, is that

they obstruct clear vision, so highly important in all operations,

besides producing such excessive heat and perspiration, as to make the

Apiarian peculiarly offensive to the bees. I prefer to use what I shall

call a _bee-hat_, of entirely novel construction. It is made of wire

cloth, the meshes of which are too fine to admit a bee, and yet coarse

enough to allow a free circulation of air, and to permit distinct sight.

The wire cloth should first be fastened together in a circular shape,

like a hat, and large enough to go very easily over the head; its top

may be of cotton cloth, and it should have the same material fastened

around its lower edge, and furnished with strings to draw it so closely

around the neck and shoulders that a bee cannot creep under it. Woolen

stockings may then be drawn over the hands, or better still, India

Rubber gloves, such as are now in very common use, may be worn; these

gloves are impenetrable to the sting of a bee, and yet are so soft and

pliant as scarcely in the least to interfere with the operations of the

Apiarian.

If it were not for the diseased bees of which I have several times

spoken, such precautions would be entirely unnecessary. The best

Apiarians as it is, dispense with them, even at the cost of a sting now

and then.

INSTINCTS OF BEES.

This treatise has already grown to such a length, that I must be

exceedingly brief on a point peculiarly interesting to all who delight

in investigating the wonders of the insect world. In the preceding parts

of the work, numerous proofs have been given of the refined instincts of

the bee. It is impossible always to draw the line between instinct and

reason, and very often some of the actions of animals and insects appear

to be the result of a process of reasoning apparently almost the same

with the exercise of the reasoning faculty in man. "There is this

difference" says Mr. Spence, "between intellect in man, and the rest of

the animal creation. Their intellect teaches them to follow the lead of

their senses, and to make such use of the external world as their

appetites or instincts incline them to,--and _this is their wisdom_:

while the intellect of man, being associated with an immortal principle,

and connected with a world above that which his senses reveal to him,

can, by aid derived from Heaven, control those senses, and render them

obedient to the governing power of his nature; and _this is his

wisdom_."

This subject has seldom been more happily expressed than by Mr. Spence.

The line of distinction between man and the lower orders of creation, is

not the mere fact that he reasons and they do not, but that he has a

moral and accountable nature, while they have nothing of the kind.

"It will be evident," says Bevan, "that though I make a distinction

between the instinct and the reason of bees, I do not confound their

reason with the reason of man. But to obviate all possibility of

misconception, I will at once define my meaning, when I use the terms

insect reason and instinct."

"By _reason_, I mean the power of making deductions from previous

experience or observation, and thereby of adapting means to ends.

_Instinct_ I regard as a disposition and power to perform certain

actions in the same uniform manner, depending upon nice mechanism and

having no reference either to observation or experience; operating on

the means, without anticipation of the end, incited by no hope,

controlled by no foreboding. Those who have attended to this subject,

will be aware that _insect reason_, as above defined, is more restricted

in its functions than _the reason of man_; to which is superadded the

power of distinguishing between the true and the false, and, according

to some metaphysicians, between right and wrong. Reason, in man, has a

regular growth and a slow progression; all the arts he practices evince

skill and dexterity, proportioned to the pains which have been taken in

acquiring them. In the lower links of creation, but little of this

gradual improvement is observable; their powers carry them almost

directly to their object. They are perfect, as Bacon says, in all their

members and organs from the very beginning."

"Far different Man, to higher fates assign'd,

Unfolds with tardier step his Proteus mind,

With numerous Instincts fraught, that lose their force

Like shallow streams, divided in their course;

Long weak, and helpless, on the fostering breast,

In fond dependence leans the infant guest,

Till reason ripens what young impulse taught,

And builds, on sense, the lofty pile of thought;

From earth, sea, air, the quick perceptions rise,

And swell the mental fabric to the skies."

_Evans._

I shall here narrate a very remarkable instance of sagacity which seems

to approach as near to human reason, as any thing in the bee which has

ever fallen under my notice. In the year 1851, I had a small model hive

constructed, into which I temporarily placed a swarm of bees. The

particular object which I had in view, was to test the feasibility of

some plans which I had recently devised, for facilitating the storing of

honey in small tumblers. The bees, in a short time, filled the hive and

stored about a dozen glasses with honey. I was called away from them,

for a few days, and was much surprised, on my return, to find that the

honey which had been stored up in the hive and sealed over for Winter

use, was all gone, and the cells filled with eggs and young worms! The

hive stood in a covered bee house, and the bees had built a large

quantity of comb on the _outside_ of the hive, into which they had

transferred the honey taken from the interior. The object of this

unusual procedure was, beyond all question, to give the poor queen a

place within the hive for laying her eggs: for this purpose they

uncapped and emptied all the cells so carefully sealed over, instead of

using the new comb on the outside for the brood.

Those who wish to study the Natural History of the honey-bee, to the

best advantage, will derive great aid in their investigations, from the

use of my _Observing Hives_. Each comb in these hives is attached to a

movable frame, and they all admit of easy removal. In this respect the

construction of the hive is entirely new, and while it greatly

facilitates the business of observation, it enables the Apiarian, on

the approach of cool weather, to transfer his bees from a hive in which

they cannot winter, to one of the common construction. As soon as the

weather in the Spring is sufficiently warm, they may again be placed in

the observing hive, in which, (as both sides of every comb admit of

inspection,) every bee can be seen, and all the wonders of the hive are

exposed to the full light of day; (see p. 24.) In the common observing

hives experiments are often conducted with great difficulty, by cutting

away parts of the comb, whereas in mine, they can all be performed by

the simple removal of one of the frames, and if the colony becomes

reduced in numbers, it may, in a few moments, be strengthened by helping

it to maturing brood from one of the other hives. A very intelligent

writer in a description of the different hives exhibited at the World's

Fair, in London, lamented that no method had yet been devised of

enabling bees to cluster, in cool weather, in an observing hive, and

that it was found next to impossible to preserve them in such hives over

Winter. By the use of the movable frames, this difficulty is entirely

obviated.

I cannot allow this work to come to a close, without acknowledging my

great obligations to Mr. Samuel Wagner, of York, Pennsylvania. To him I

am indebted for a knowledge of Dzierzon's discoveries, and for many

valuable suggestions scattered throughout the Treatise.