CHAPTER VI.

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION.

§ I. STINGS: THEIR PREVENTION AND CURE.

SOME of our readers may deem us neglectful in having,

as it were, left them to struggle through their bee-keeping novitiate

without informing them how to avoid the annoyance of stinging from

their docile but well-armed flock. Of course, having described the bee

dress, we have supposed that the apiarian was clad, if not "in complete

steel," at least in the head-gear and gloves, which will render him

invulnerable. The best safeguard from the anger of bees--as, indeed,

from the malice of men--is a quiet and peaceable spirit. Never strike

at a single one. The apiarian will learn to handle his bees not only

as "if he loved them"--as the quaint angler says--but as if he fully

believes that the bees love _him_. This they will do whenever he

approaches and treats them gently. There are some cases of exception

to this generally peaceable disposition of the bee; perchance a few

bees are dyspeptic, and refuse to be pacified, let their master seek

to bribe them never so wisely. Then, too, sometimes the bee-master

himself may be dyspeptic, which the unerring olfactory sense of the

bees speedily detects, and their anger is immediately aroused. Some

few persons, owing to constitutional peculiarities in their breath

or insensible perspiration, are objects of constant animosity with

bees, who, by driving them from the apiary, are giving a physician's

advice without charge for a fee. Some of the choicest perfumes used

by ladies are offensive to bees; and one may feel very certain that

the "fine puss gentleman," who disgusted the brave Hotspur with his

"pouncet-box" and praise of "'parmaceti for an inward bruise," would

have been speedily driven from an apiary in ignominious flight. For

the same reason they will ferociously, and perhaps fatally, attack a

sweaty horse, while they appear to have an equal antipathy to dogs. The

hand should not be waved near them in sprinkling, as has already been

remarked; nor should they so much as be pointed at when disposed to

be out of temper. "Above all," says Mr. Cotton, "never blow at them;

they will try to sting directly if you do." The distinguished success

of Burnens in his examinations was attributed in part by Huber to his

power of repressing his respiration. Confidence is another important

specific: if a person covers his face with his hands the bees will

attack and worry him at once and persistently; while a bee that is

inclined to sting will often prefer a person who is watching at a

supposed safe distance, judging such person afraid, and probably also

seeing him better.

Again, when once a bee has stung, the scent of the poison has an

infuriating effect upon others; therefore, says Butler, "you had best

be packing as fast as you can." Höfler, who lived in the same century,

gives the advice, "Never approach the bees with your hat off; for a bee

which may chance to have settled upon the head becomes easily entangled

in the hair, grows angry, stings, and moreover calls others to its

aid by its hissing passionate note." They have a dislike for woollen

gloves, also to some kinds of leather ones. If used to attendants in

light clothes it is said they will attack a visitor whose dress is

dark. Electricity in the air appears also to ruffle them; and when kept

at home by rain, or at night or early morning, they will resent any

interference. In very hot weather, too, those inside the hive are sure

to be in a bad humour. Von Berlepsch states that to disturb the combs

at such a time may perhaps, by breaking them, even cause a civil war in

the hive, as once happened to himself when exhibiting an Italian queen

and brood to some over-curious tyros, and when, out of some seventy or

eighty thousand bees, one-half were slain in the course of an hour.

Lastly, they are in a stinging mood when they are queenless and before

they have got over the agitation; also when in excitement during her

majesty's nuptial excursion. The best time to choose for operations is

when, with the hive in a normal condition and the weather agreeable,

the great mass of the older bees are out upon the wing. It is these

that there is the principal occasion to fear.

Occasionally even a skilful aparian may inadvertently, crush a single

bee; such a mischance is detected by the whole community with much

more facility than by any "crowner's quest," and their prompt verdict

decrees the summary punishment of the offender. There would be much

less fear of stings if it were always remembered that bees are never

aggressive. "Defence, not defiance," is their motto. They scarcely ever

attempt to sting when away from the hive, and very seldom indeed at the

time of swarming, for then they are gorged with honey. When molested

by angry bees, do not attempt to beat them off; the safest and best

retreat is a green bush. Thrust your head into this, or, if no such

refuge is near, in an emergency throw yourself on the ground, and, with

face downwards, the bees will soon leave you.

Yet some people appear to think they must inevitably be stung if they,

meddle with bees, and for their sakes it is needful to explain why it

is that a sting is painful, and how the wound inflicted by the bee may

be cured. The weapon, as we see it with our naked eye--finer than a

needle's point--is only the sheath, which lengthens or contracts like

the tubes of a telescope (see page 104). The dart, as before said, is

barbed on each side, so that the bee, when _very_ angry, is scarcely

ever able to withdraw it, but--

"Deems life itself to vengeance well resigned,

Dies on the wound, and leaves the sting behind."

There are, indeed, some happy mortals whose "blood such

an even tenour keeps" that a bee-sting is to them simply a puncture,

and nothing more. But unfortunately, as Langstroth puts it, "they seem

to take a mischievous pleasure in stinging those upon whom the poison

produces the most virulent effect." Dr. Bevan has suggested that lovers

should subject themselves to the ordeal of a bee-sting, in order to

prove, we suppose, that their temper is proof against "the _stings_ and

arrows" of any "outrageous fortune" that matrimony can bring.

It is the infinitesimally minute tincture of poison injected by the

bee which causes inflammation. The first thing to do is to remove

the sting, which, even when detached from the bee, will continue to

penetrate still further into the wound. Next press the hollow point

of a watch-key exactly over the place stung; this will express a

considerable portion of the virus. Then dip the hand into, or bathe

the part with, cold or tepid water, for the poison is volatile, and

will thereby be dissipated, to a great extent. On no account whatever

should the part affected be rubbed; to do that will diffuse the poison

and increase the inflammation. The specific remedy for a bee-sting is

taught us by chemistry: the venom is an acid, which an alkali will

immediately neutralise when brought into contact with it. Spirits of

hartshorn will generally be found efficacious, and should therefore

always be kept in an apiary. There are also several other remedies

more or less effectual, according to the special constitution of the

patient. A strong infusion of tobacco-water applied to the wound after

the sting has been extracted is a specific for many persons; others

find relief from the application of a sliced onion, while Frau Lieb,

of Jassy, declares nothing so efficacious as one's own saliva. Two

preparations may be named as made especially for the purpose--the

"Ledum Palustre," and Dr. Pine's "Bee-keeper's Lotion."

We have heard the remark from several who have kept bees for years,

that the poison from a sting has little or no effect on them; after

receiving many inflictions their flesh appears to become so little

affected that the swelling and pain at one time experienced no longer

trouble them. Herr Kleine recommends bee-keepers to subject themselves

intentionally to stinging, in order that in two years their system

may become insusceptible to the poison. No doubt those who are, so

stoically inclined will duly appreciate and gratefully acknowledge the

advice.

Boiling water poured on to bees makes a bee tea which has been highly

recommended in bad cases of strangury. Bee poison itself is a specific

with homœopathists, but one bee-sting is _not_ cured by a second, as

Mr. Langstroth satisfactorily demonstrated at the cost of much personal

pain.

§ II. POSITION OF HIVES.

Some writers on bee-culture attach much importance to the particular

position in which an apiary stands and the aspect towards which it

faces. A southern, or rather a south-eastern aspect, is the one which

we recommend. Our reason for this preference is that we deem it very

important for the bees to have the first of the morning sun. Bees are

early risers, and should have every inducement given them for the

maintenance of so excellent a practice. A few years since, many strong

opinions were expressed in favour of a northern aspect for hives. The

chief reason given for those opinions, though very plausible, appears

to us to be a very partial and inadequate one. It was said that, when

the hives face the south, the bees may, like the incautious swallow in

the fable, be tempted to fly abroad in the transient winter sunshine,

and then perish in the freezing atmosphere when a passing cloud

intervenes. But it is a very easy matter, if considered needful, to

screen the entrance by fixing up matting so as to intercept the rays of

the sun. At our own apiary we make no alteration in winter, under the

belief that the bees will take care of themselves and that they seldom

venture out when the weather is unsuitable.

Columella gave a number of directions on this point, the essence of

which may be stated as follows. If in a valley it will be easier for

the loaded bees to return home than if on a hill; it must not be

"exposed to noisome smells, nor to the din of men or cattle;" it should

be near a shallow running stream with pebbles for the bees to alight

on, but not near deep water with steep banks'; and the trees near

should be low, and convenient for manipulation in swarming.

The vicinity of sugar warehouses, or other places of temptation of

the kind, is certain to prove prejudicial if not fatal to an apiary.

The beeish instinctive love for sweets, like all other good things,

has its bad side, and here we see it developed into a propensity to

acquire on the shortest and easiest though most suicidal method. Mr.

Langstroth tells us that he once furnished a sweet-shop will gauze

windows and doors, when the bees "alighted on the wire by thousands,

fairly squealing with vexation," and in desperation they descended the

chimney, which had to be stopped in like manner.

§ III. PASTURAGE FOR BEES.

"Bees work for man; and yet they never bruise

Their master's flower, but leave it, having done,

As fair as ever, and as fit for use."

Apiarians generally agree in the opinion that very little can be done

in the way of providing any special forage for bees. Yet bee-fanciers

are always interested in observing which are the flowers that the

bees prefer; and there are certain well-established conclusions as to

the kind of districts and seasons which are the likeliest to produce

a good honey harvest. There is an old saying, that a country which

produces the finest wool also yields the best honey; and a pastoral

district is decidedly better than one under tillage. The principle of

the matter is, that the bees are best suited with a long dry season--an

early spring, a hot summer, and a late autumn. As not one of these

blessings can be commanded by the apiarian, his art must be applied

to providing some mitigation of the injury suffered by the bees when

the season is short or wet. For early springs the crocus, the blue

hepatica, and the violet all afford good supplies of pollen and honey,

and, if cultivated near the apiary, will be of great service when the

wild flowers are backward. All varieties of the willow and poplar

furnish early supplies of honey, as well as of the propolis to be

presently described; the blossoms of the gooseberry and currant are

very useful for the bees in May. Wet, when it enters flowers of any

kind, prevents, the tongue of the bee from reaching the secret source

of honey. On this account it is well to know, as does the bee, that the

drooping blossoms of the raspberry escape the effect of the showers,

and honey is gathered from them when other flowers are drenched within

as well as without. For a similar reason borage (_Borago officinalis_)

is valuable for bees, and also because that plant continues to flower

until the frosts set in. The honey both from raspberry blossoms and

borage is very superior. Mr. Langstroth says, that "the precipitous

and rocky lands of New England, which abound with the wild red

raspberry, might be made almost as valuable as some of the vine-clad

terraces of the mountain districts of Europe." The golden rod and also

asters afford superior honey for autumn gathering. Dzierzon strongly

recommends buckwheat being sown in the winter stubbles on behalf of

the bees, and he tries hard to persuade farmers that it is to their

interest to cultivate it. It should be named that all the ordinary

fruit blossoms, especially that of the apple, supply abundant store for

bees.

It is, however, to wild or field flowers that the bee-master must

chiefly look for the raw material on which his myriad artisans shall

exert their skill. The white clover of the pasture,[32] the wild thyme

on the hill, the heather on the moors, the furze and the broom on the

sandy waste, offer exhaustless stores for a greater number of bees

than can ever be located near them. Lime trees, when in blossom, and

mignonette are also most valuable resources; and there are two or three

peculiar sources of honey which one would not have suspected, as, for

instance, the blossoms of the onion plant, of turnips, and, in still

greater degree, the flower of the mustard plant.

[Footnote 32: It is a good practice to induce the owners of adjacent

fields to sow clover seed.]

In those districts of England where mustard seed is cultivated so

extensively, it would be well worth while for the farmers to keep large

colonies of bees. Another, but a very uncertain, source of honey is

the "honey-dew," which in some seasons appears in large quantities on

the leaves of the oak, the lime, and some other trees (see below).

§ IV. HONEY.

All that need be said in this place is a few observations upon honey

considered in itself. Practically, but not absolutely, it is destitute

of nitrogen, which is the flesh-forming principle in food. It has

been much contended whether or not it undergoes any transformation by

being swallowed by the bee. Dzierzon and others have maintained that

it does; Gundelach and Dr. Dönhoff have taken the contrary view, and

Von Berlepsch has come round to the same, which it will be seen is

also held by Schmid and Kleine, from whom we translate the following

description of this article:--

"Honey may be of diverse origin: it is either nectar or bud honey, or

leaf honey (the so-called honey-dew), or aphis honey [another form of

honey-dew], or fruit honey. The sources of honey unfortunately do not

flow with the same strength everywhere and at all times.

"For collecting the honey, bees are provided with tongues

and honey-stomachs.... In the stomach the honey undergoes no

transformation; only by evaporation in the cells does it receive its

subsequent distinctive character. After sufficient evaporation the

cells that contain it are sealed over with flat wax lids.

"Between different honeys there exists an essential difference in

respect of aroma, taste, colour, and composition. Whether there is

such a thing as poisonous honey is a question upon which opinions are

divided.

"In trade honey is often adulterated with starch, syrup, sugar, and

more pernicious ingredients, which can easily be detected by chemical

and microscopical analysis. The crystallisation of honey differs

essentially from that of sugar or of a mixture of honey and sugar."

On this matter of adulteration we have been favoured with some remarks

from a well-known apiarian who writes under the name of "A Lanarkshire

Bee-keeper." He recommends the purchaser to take a common test-tube,

nearly fill it with water, and add about one-twelfth as much of the

honey; when dissolved it will be turbid if the honey was pure, but

clear if sugar had been mixed with it. Those who wish to proceed

further may add a few drops of concentrated nitric acid, and then let

the tube stand for a week, at the end of which time the honey will be

precipitated, but the sugar remain in solution, and then by filtration

the quantities may be found.

Honey, like most vegetable products, should be fresh every year. It

may easily be kept from one season to the next; but after that, unless

carefully stored in a warm temperature, it will crystallise in the

comb, or perhaps ferment if separated therefrom.

Bees will often gather honey from the laurel, ivy, or other sources

more agreeable to themselves than to us, in which case there is little

choice but to leave the benefit of it to its producers (see page 97).

Again, the fact related by Xenophon in the retreat of the Ten Thousand,

that bees in Asia Minor extracted honey from plants which had not only

a disagreeable but a poisonous tendency to man, shows that it is quite

possible, where such noxious plants abound, for the bees to extract the

juices without any injury to themselves.

§. V. POLLEN, OR BEE-BREAD.

Bees, when fully grown, feed almost wholly on honey; but the larvæ

require for their development a more substantial kind of nourishment.

Such solid fare is found by the bees in the pollen of flowers, a

farina which contains the nitrogenous element of which honey is nearly

destitute. The body of a worker bee is covered with hairs, to which the

pollen adheres when, by contact with the bee, it is rubbed from the

anthers of flowers (see page 88). Dewy mornings or humid bowers suit

the bees for the gathering of the pollen. If the atmosphere be too dry

for kneading it into pellets, they roll themselves in the blossoms,

and on their return, with assistance from others, brush off the farina

into the cells intended for it. A portion of this "bee-bread" is taken

at once by the "nursing bees," who are supposed to subject it to some

change before offering it to the larvæ; but the greater part of the

pollen is stored away and reversed in the cells for future use. In

April and May the bees are frequently busy "all the day" in gathering

pollen, and often one community of bees will collect about twenty

pounds weight of "bee-bread" in one season.

One of the objects of the apiarian is to assist the bees in providing

for the nurslings of the hive. Dr. Dzierzon first suggested the plan

of providing the bees with "unbolted rye meal" as a substitute for

the farina of flowers. He had observed that, in early spring, before

the flowers were open, his bees had entered a neighbouring cornmill,

from whence they returned laden with rye flour. Since his discovery,

some keepers, in early spring, have placed rye or wheat meal near the

apiaries; to this artificial store the bees repair by thousands, and

seek to rollick in the enjoyment of such plenty, many of them returning

to the hive as dusty as millers. The object in thus supplying them

is that the brood may be rapidly brought forward, and early swarming

induced. In this way a few pounds of rye meal, at one penny per pound,

may tend to the production of very many pounds of honey of twelve times

the price.

In the _British Bee Journal_ there is a recommendation to sprinkle

pea flour amongst deal shavings in any open vessel, and place this

near the hives so that bees have access to it. We can endorse this

recommendation, for we know that it is freely taken by the bees.

If the bee-keeper ascertains that for some interval no pollen has been

conveyed into any particular hive he may regard it as a sure sign that

no young bees are there hatching, and consequently that the hive is

without a queen. Mr. Mahan, of Philadelphia, once met with a hive which

no pollen had been seen to enter for twenty-eight days; he put a queen

into it, took out his watch, and observed in three and a half minutes a

bee come in with pollen on its legs--many more speedily following!

Some remarks on the services which bees render to flowers will be found

in the section upon "Faculties and Functions" (page 55).

§. VI. PROPOLIS, OR BEES' CEMENT.

"Propolis" is a Greek word which originally signified "the outskirts

of a city," but was adopted by Latin writers on bees to denote the

sticky substance with which these city-rearing insects _protect_

their outskirts. It is "a resinous substance, very tenacious and

semi-transparent," which is indispensable for the bees as a cement

wherewith to fix their combs and fortify their hives against

intruders.[33] The bees, in working the propolis, often soften it by

blending it with a portion of wax; but they have to extract it in

its natural state directly from the bark and buds of certain trees.

The bark of the willow, the leaf-buds of the poplar and alder, and

the unopened blossoms of the hollyhock are very usual sources of

propolis. In the case of a new swarm, as bees must have this glue

before they can begin to build their combs, they will resort to most

unlikely places to obtain it. Sometimes they will enter a paint-shop

and attack the varnish, and it is said they have been seen to obtain

propolis from the pitch and rigging of a ship. These circumstances

afford intelligible hints to the apiarian, who, if his bees have not

easy access to firs, poplars, or willows, will provide some glutinous

or resinous matter which may serve for a substitute. The extraction of

propolis costs the bees very considerable labour, which they should be

relieved of as much as possible in order to facilitate their great work

of honey-gathering. Bees choose the warmer part of the day during which

to gather propolis, as then it does not so rapidly stiffen. Frequently

when they arrive at the hive it has become so hard that the other bees

are scarcely able to gnaw it from their thighs.

[Footnote 33: Egyptian bees, however, substitute wax, as stated on page

50.]

With propolis bees fasten down their hives, stop up crevices, to

exclude moths and ants, and sometimes use it to narrow their doorways

against the invasion of wasps. Extraordinary anecdotes are told of the

prompt and ingenious use they make of this substance. Réaumur relates

that, a snail having been observed by the bees on the window of the

hive, they proceeded to glue the shell to the glass, and there sealed

down the intruder in hopeless durance. In another case, that of a slug,

the bees, having slain it with their stings, were quite unable to

remove it from the hive. With wonderful foresight they then proceeded

to secure their community from the noxious effects likely to arise from

the decay of the carcase; and this they did by completely enveloping

it with a coating of impervious varnish. Huish relates a similar

occurrence in the case of a mouse caught in a hive by bees. Propolis

yields benzoic acid, and contains some aromatic properties.

§ VII. SECRETION OF WAX.

We have already made some remarks upon wax in the Chapter on "Anatomy

and Physiology." The subject is one that even yet has not been

thoroughly cleared up, though the discoveries of Hornbostel and Huber

have demonstrated that instead of being a vegetable product extracted

from pollen it is a fatty secretion of the bees themselves. But later

observers have come to the conclusion that though not obtained direct

from pollen, that food is essential to their power of secreting it.

Cases are certainly recorded in which combs have been built when the

bees had for several days been deprived of the means of procuring

this food, but it has not been shown that bees which have _never_ had

access thereto have still the power of secreting wax; Langstroth on

the contrary asserts that some pollen is _always_ found in the stomach

of wax-producers. So Dzierzon: "Even if wax, as a fat, is [like honey]

a substance destitute of nitrogen, and even if feeding upon honey or

sugar is alone sufficient to enable the bees to prepare it, it does

not therefore follow that pollen is not necessary for its continued

production. For, as already remarked, the bees can prepare food for

their young for a considerable time without pollen, yet no one would

assert that this is unnecessary for the nourishment of the brood. In

the one case as the other the bees are sustained by a certain store

taken into themselves, but which by degrees becomes exhausted." To

yield one pound of wax they require to consume from thirteen to twenty

pounds of honey; so that it would seem as if honey was the food-forming

principle of the wax, and pollen the stimulant that imparted to their

own organs the capacity for effecting the transformation.

The bees, it need hardly be stated, elaborate this secretion by

clustering themselves in festoons and curtains, in which they remain,

the fore legs of one clasping the hind ones of another, perfectly still

for some twenty-four hours, at the end of which time the scales are

found exuding around them, as mentioned in our earlier reference.

The little plates of wax are withdrawn by the bee itself with its hind

feet, and carried to the mouth with its fore feet, where the wax is

made soft and ductile; vigorous shakes of the body assist in detaching

the plates, and the floor-board is afterwards found covered with the

pieces that have fallen. One by one some of them then leave the cluster

and deposit their burdens in rough masses, which are subsequently

wrought by others into the hexagonal form. But it seems feasible that

the lower bees pass their secretions up the living ladder to the

uppermost ones to undergo this double process. The rapidity with which

comb-building progresses at such times would lead to the supposition

that there is a division of labour of this kind among them, just as

our labourers convey building material to the artisans on the scaffold

above. This work of comb-building is carried forward in warm weather,

for a cold temperature interferes with the secretion of wax. Von

Berlepsch declares that he has known cases in which a hive has built

three hundred square inches of comb in a single night!

The secretion of wax, and the method of its adaptation by the bees, are

thus admirably described by Evans:--

"So, filtered through yon flutterer's folded mail,

Clings the cooled wax, and hardens to a scale.

Swift, at her well-known call, the ready train

(For not a buzz boon Nature breathes in vain)

Spring to each falling flake, and bear along

Their glossy burdens to the builder throng.

* * * * *

These in firm phalanx ply their twinkling feet,

Stretch out the ductile mass, and form the street,

With many a cross-way path and postern gate,

That shorten to their range the spreading state.

Those with sharp sickle, or with sharper tooth,

Pare each excrescence, and each angle smooth,

Till now, in finished pride, two radiant rows

Of snow-white cells one mutual base disclose.

Six shining panels gird each polished round,

The door's fine rim with waxen fillet bound,

While walls so thin, with sister walls combined,

Weak in themselves, a sure dependence find."

§ VIII. ROBBING.

We have had many times to allude to the truly sad character which

our little favourites bear in this particular. Directions as to the

precautions necessitated thereby have been given pretty generally in

connection with operations in which it is to be feared, so that one

or two general remarks are all that need be added here. Von Berlepsch

stoutly maintains that there are no professional robbers amongst the

bees, but that all are ready to lend a hand in a job of the kind when

it is to be had. This is probably true in great part, but not to the

extent that there exist no individual differences in the strength of

the propensity, and the remark quoted from Dzierzon on "black" bees

(page 72) may be taken as expressive of the other side of the truth.

It is queenless stocks, nucleus hives, and weak colonies in general

that have most need for protection against enemies of their own kind.

By keeping the entrances narrowed, and feeding carefully without

leaving a trace of food about, the enticements to plunder may be kept

down as much as possible. It has been recently recommended in extreme

cases to saturate a rag with carbolic acid diluted with water (fully

half); this will effectually repel all except those who have no other

home to which to betake themselves. But it will be obnoxious to these

latter as well, so should not be lightly resorted to.

Mr. Langstroth has a capital little bit about a highhanded piece

of audacity that has been occasionally observed in our insect.

House-robbing, it seems, is not bad enough for them, but they will even

go the length of acting as highwaymen and garotters. For thus runs the

story of their waylaying and despoiling the humble bee: "Seizing the

honest fellow they give him to understand that they want his honey. If

they killed him they would never be able to extract his spoils from

their deep recesses; they therefore bite and tease him, after their

most approved fashion, all the time singing in his ears, 'Your honey

or your life,' until he empties his capacious receptacle, when they

release him and lick up his sweets."

§ IX. DISEASES OF BEES.

Dysentery is a disease produced either by long confinement, by

dampness, or by feeding in the winter. The first thing bees do when

disturbed is to fill themselves with food, so that in winter weather,

when they cannot get out to void their fæces, hives should not be

meddled with, otherwise the complaint may be brought on. It is also

engendered in many instances by the state of the weather in winter

months, and is indicated by the yellow colour of the excrement,

and by its being voided upon the floors and at the entrance of the

hives, which bees in a healthy state generally keep clean. All that

can be done for them when affected is to see that there is plenty

of wholesome food in the hive, and to well clean or to change the

floor-board, and so produce cleanliness.

The more formidable, but happily less common, malady of "foul brood"

does not attack the bees themselves, but affects the larvæ, by causing

them to putrefy in the cells, thus destroying all hope of the rising

generation. Bees are exceedingly fond of their young, and are greatly

dispirited when their hives are in this plight. In common with most

pestilential disorders, no satisfactory cause is assigned for its

first appearance. Some apiarians contend that "foul brood" is another

name for chilled brood; others, that the queen, by a freak of nature,

deposits some of her eggs the wrong way upwards, and that these putrefy

in the cells, and contaminate the others. Whatever may be the origin,

one thing is very certain--"it is catching:" there is, however, in

the circumstance of the adult bees and of those about emerging from

the cells not being injuriously affected thereby, a great help to its

eradication, as will presently be shown.

There are two kinds of foul brood--one of which is dry and not

contagious, the brood merely drying up in the cells; from which partial

character it is probably within the power of the bees themselves to

overcome. In the other kind, instead of drying up, the brood remains

dark and slimy in the cells, and emits a most unpleasant odour,

perceptible at some distance from the hive.

In the year 1848 Pastor Dzierzon lost a large number of stocks from

this disease; he however was enabled to banish it from his apiary,

and communicated to a German bee-journal very wholesome advice, which

Mr. Langstroth quotes, and from, which we make an extract; "When the

malady makes its appearance in only two or three of the colonies, and

is discovered early (which may readily be done in hives having movable

combs), it can be arrested and cured without damage or diminution of

profit. _To prevent the disease from spreading in a colony there is

no more reliable and efficient process_ than to stop the production

of brood; for where no brood exists none can perish or putrefy. The

disease is thus deprived both of its aliment and its subjects. The

healthy brood will mature and emerge in due time, and the putrid matter

remaining in a few cells will dry up, and be removed by the workers.

All this will certainly result _from a well-timed removal of the queen_

from such colonies. If such removal becomes necessary in the spring or

early part of the summer, a supernumerary queen is thereby obtained,

by means of which an artificial colony may be started, which will

certainly be healthy if the bees and brood used be taken from healthy

colonies. Should the removal be made in the latter part of summer, the

useless production of brood will at once be stopped and an unnecessary

consumption of honey prevented. Thus, in either case, we are gainers by

the operation."

In cases where the disease assumes a more malignant character--in

other words, "has got ahead," through "not being nipped in the bud"--it

will be well to take notice of another quotation from Mr. Langstroth's

book: "In the spring or summer, when the weather is fine and pasturage

abounds, the following cure is recommended by a German apiarian: 'Drive

out the bees into any clean hive, and shut them up in a dark place

without food for twenty-four hours; prepare for them a clean hive,

properly fitted up with comb from healthy colonies; transfer the bees

into it, and confine them two days longer, feeding them with pure

honey.'"

The late Mr. Woodbury's apiary was severely attacked by this disease

in the spring and summer of 1863. The writer happened to be on a visit

to him at this juncture, and witnessed him withdrawing infected combs

from hives that were literally masses of corruption, the brood-cells

of which, on being opened with a pointed instrument, revealed the

dark brown slimy matter before alluded to, and from which arose a

most unpleasant smell. Mr. Woodbury communicated to the _Journal

of Horticulture_, of July 21, 1863, an exact and graphic account

of his misfortunes, headed "A Dwindling Apiary." Finding that the

removal of the putrid matter must be simultaneously effected and the

bees driven out and placed in hives that had undergone a complete

purification, he set about endeavouring to accomplish his object, and

was so far successful that he was able to furnish an article to the

before-named journal of August 4, same year, under the more cheerful

title of "Convalescent," in which he says: "First, let me endorse the

opinions both of Dzierzon and Rothe, that, except under very especial

circumstances, it is unadvisable to attempt the cure of a foul-breeding

stock: better, far better, to consign its inhabitants to the brimstone

pit; the hive itself, if a straw one, to the flames; the comb to the

melting-pot; and appropriate the honey to any purpose, except that of

feeding bees."

Mr. Woodbury further says: "Before starting, it was requisite to ensure

the transfer of the bees to unpolluted hives; and here I found that

Dzierzon declares that every hive that has contained a foul-breeding

colony should be exposed to the sun and air for two years before

being re-stocked. In my own case this was simply impossible, and I

therefore adopted the practice of another German writer on the subject,

viz., to scrape out the hive very carefully, wash it all over with a

saturated solution of chloride of lime, keeping it closely shut up

for twenty-four hours, and then, after thoroughly washing it with

clean water, exposing it to the sun and air until the smell of the

disinfectant had passed off. This method has the advantage of enabling

one to use a wooden hive again after a lapse of a couple of days, and

is, I believe, thoroughly effectual."

Mr. Woodbury then captured the queen, secured her in a cage, and placed

her in a clean empty hive; all her bees were brushed from their combs

into it as rapidly as possible, in order to prevent their carrying

much of the infected honey with them; whilst the combs themselves

were set draining out of the bees' reach, and consigned as quickly

as possible to the melting-pot. After the lapse of three or four

days, the queen (still imprisoned) and bees were again transferred

to another clean hive, furnished with a few pure combs, and in this

they were suffered to remain, their queen being released in a day or

two, as soon as they appeared contentedly settled. Mr. Woodbury gives

another important hint, that operations of this kind with tainted

combs should be performed out of reach of robber bees from adjacent

hives, lest they should carry the infection to their respective

houses. By the before-mentioned process, he succeeded in completely

extirpating foul brood from his apiary in 1863, and had no return of it

afterwards. English apiarian writers have made so little allusion to

this disorder, that some of our older bee-keepers contend that modern

hives and foreign bees have something to do with bringing it about. To

show that the disease made its appearance in former days, there is a

chapter on this subject in Bonner's "Bee-Keeper's Companion," published

at Berwick in 1798, entitled "An Uncommon Disaster which sometimes,

though rarely, happens to Bees." Bonner, after recounting therein his

observations of the dwindling state of his own apiary, for which he

could not account, says: "He saw plainly that the young were all going

backward in the cells, and that he looked down between the combs, but

was unable to proceed for the stench that the rotten maggots produced."

Mr. Langstroth writes that "Aristotle speaks of a disease which was

accompanied with a disgusting smell, so that there is reason to believe

that foul brood was known two-thousand years ago."

Our own observation leads us to the belief that foul brood is caused

in many instances by feeding stocks with fermented honey or with syrup

likely to ferment. All liquid food should _be boiled before it is

given_ to the bees, to destroy any impurity and to make it wholesome,

for in several cases we have found stocks to be infected that have thus

been incautiously fed.

Suspicion may be aroused of the existence of foul brood in any kind

of hive, firstly, by the unproductiveness of the bees, also by the

diminishing number at the entrance; and if very far advanced the odour

will be very noticeable a few feet from the hive. But in bar-frame

hives an experienced eye will on examination readily detect the malady

if present by the dark unwholesome appearance of the comb, and by the

caps covering the diseased brood being sunken rather than raised. Small

perforations are noticeable in some, and in others the grubs may be

seen rotting in unsealed cells. We know of no cure, but some foreign

apiarians of experience recommend injecting a solution of salycilic

acid into every diseased cell; others say that carbolic-acid will

effect a cure; we know that the latter is very distasteful to the

bees and therefore should not be disposed, to advise its use. The best

thing to do is to break the hive up at once. The bees may be saved by

being put in quarantine a short time, and the hive cleansed as before

mentioned; but if the hive be a valuable straw one, after cleansing

and scraping, the interior should be coated with shellac dissolved in

spirits of wine. If a frame hive it will be best to have new frames

rather than to attempt to cleanse the old ones. To allow a hive to die

out is very dangerous, because the bees from other hives will rob and

carry the infected honey to their combs, and thus every colony within

bee-flight is liable to be polluted.

It may be well to give a hint about using old combs. Any that is very

black should be rejected, because the disease is sometimes present

in old hives, and also because each maggot leaves behind a silken

film which lines the top, sides, and base of the cell, also a slight

deposit of excrement which the bees do not clear away; thus the cells

grow smaller and the bees reared in them are also diminished in size,

although the bees do add a little to the mouth of the cell. On this

account we would recommend all when purchasing stocks to see that they

are not very old. The combs of a hive may be said to be the furniture

and storehouse of the bees, which in long service wear out and to some

extent become after a lapse of years unfit tenements for use. To remedy

this, Nature, always true to her laws and careful to make provision

for the perpetuation of the species, may have ordered that swarming

should be the means of establishing fresh colonies freed from the

disadvantages and contamination of the old. The late Mr. J. H. Payne,

of Bury St. Edmunds, had a straw skep that had had bees in it without

intermission for twenty years, but it is not advisable to keep them so

long, although, with a little judicious pruning, much may be done to

remedy the defects of old combs. Our own experience for keeping a stock

does not extend beyond ten years.

When we take into consideration how sorely our farmers are perplexed

by the cattle plague, known as the rinderpest, concerning which

so many conflicting opinions exist (and the same may be said of

the recommendations for its cure), can we wonder that our little

favourites should occasionally be liable to disorders of this sort

which puzzle even experienced bee-keepers? In the hope of allaying

unnecessary alarm, we would just add that foul brood is not a very

general complaint, and, so far as our observation extends, has been

most fatal in large experimental apiaries, where extensive propagation

has necessarily had to be pushed forward. With the experience and

advice already gained, this disorder may now be said to be considerably

deprived of its terrors.

We find several other complaints described at more or less length by

Von Berlepsch, but to which a very brief allusion will here suffice.

One he speaks of under the self-explaining title of "thirst-need,"

as to which he rightly remarks that it will be the bee-keeper's own

fault or inexperience if his bees are ever allowed to suffer from it.

Then there is "mad sickness," which consists in tumbling about as if

intoxicated, and which Dzierzon says he meets with nearly every year,

and conjectures to arise from partaking of poisoned honey--he suspects

the honey to be _naturally_ poisonous, since he observes this complaint

almost regularly at the time when the mountain ash is in bloom. The

next is "wing lameness," which the Baron' conjectures may be the

real disorder just spoken of as madness. Lastly we have the "thread

fungus," which is a growth found by Leuckart and Dönhoff in the stomach

and intestines of several bees, and which they pronounce contagious.

Our author does also include among the "sicknesses" of bees such

irregularities as rising against and murdering their queen; but one

would think that this was rather a political disorder, or else a case

for a commission of lunacy.

The apparent fungus growths seen occasionally on the heads and bodies

of bees have been found to be nothing more than the effect of smearing

with the gummy pollen of orchids, or with other glutinous vegetable

juices, on which afterwards ordinary pollen has collected and thus

caused the appearance of tufts or patches.

§ X. BEE ENEMIES.

Bees have few worse enemies than wasps in autumn. The most effectual

method of checking their invasion of hives is to have as narrow an

entrance as the bees can do with. If a stock is not very weak in

numbers the bees will be well able to guard a small aperture, and can

repel the attacks of these insidious and merciless robbers. On this

account the entrance to our cottage hive, as described at page 114, may

be used.

The bee-keeper is interested in preventing the increase of wasps; it is

therefore a good practice for him to set a price on queen wasps in the

spring, the death of one of them at that time being equivalent to the

destruction of a whole nest.

Should nests be found in the neighbourhood of an apiary, their

annihilation must be accomplished either by blowing them up with

gunpowder--an operation well understood by most country lads--or any

other effectual method. The late Mr. Payne recommended that a small

quantity of gas tar should be put into the mouth of a wasps' nest, and

if then covered with earth, the total destruction of the wasps will

be accomplished without further trouble. But to use blazing straw for

the purpose is always dangerous in country districts. We have lately

heard of a very ingenious and successful mode of entrapping and killing

wasps. Place some sugar or strongly sweetened compound on the ground in

a garden, and place over it a square hand-glass, wedged up an inch or

so all round. On this glass, which should have an opening at the apex,

lodge another, but a sound one. The wasps, attracted by the sweets,

will soon crowd under the lower glass, and, when they have well

feasted, will ascend into the upper, one; there, between the two, they

soon become scorched and perish by the heat of the sun shining on the

outer glass.

Some seasons are very productive for the increase of these prime pests

of the apiary, and when this is the case many hives severely suffer

by their depredations. When once wasps in any number have gained an

entrance into a hive, the bees can seldom eject them, and the invaders

generally remain until they have freely regaled themselves from the

luscious store. They not only consume the honey, but cause a good deal

of worry to the legitimate inhabitants of the hive, as well as killing

the foremost defenders of it. Wasps being much superior in strength, it

requires at least three bees to master one of them.

Having suffered loss in our own apiary from the attacks of wasps, we

feel it desirable to give a detailed account of our troubles from that

cause. An Italian stock was besieged and worried by wasps to such an

extent that in September the bees deserted it in a body. Fortunately

it happened that they chose a time for their departure just as we

visited the apiary. An unusual turmoil was heard in the hive, such as

is experienced at the time of swarming, and on immediately examining

the entrance we observed that the bees were quitting in tumultuous

haste. The usual methods that induce bees to settle were tried--amongst

others that of throwing sand up into the air, so that it should

fall down amongst the bees on the wing; but they were dispersed in

disorder, and their flight extended over three adjacent gardens. We

only discovered the clustered bees by diligent search, as the sequel

will show. Permission being asked of our next-door neighbour, we

searched his garden to see if our bees had alighted there; but found

that they had passed over. Making a similar application to the owner

of the garden adjoining, we entered, having a straw hive in hand, but

no bees were there. After looking diligently all round, and climbing

the wall, thereby gaining a view of the third garden, we perceived

in it unmistakable signs of an unwonted commotion. The occupiers of

the house were intently looking at a particular part of the garden,

and there was a dust-pan and a key, with which the master had been

"tanging the bees," to induce them to settle. We quickly made for

the proper entrance to the garden, and soon discovered our little

wanderers clustered to a large flower-vase. After brushing them into

the hive, and leaving it propped up with a stick, in order that the

stray ones might join, we returned home for an hour or so, to give

them time to settle. Judge of our vexation when, on returning to fetch

the hive home, we found that the refractory creatures had again taken

flight, and that all the work was to do over again. The wasps were

not to blame for this second flight of the Italians; we judged that

the swarm had been disturbed by visits from a colony of bees that

we discovered were living the life of outlaws under the roof of an

adjoining house. Although much disheartened and perplexed, we at once

renewed our search, and, upon enquiry, found that the missing bees

had taken a southerly course across the turnpike road, and it was

therefore necessary to ask permission to search the gardens of the

houses opposite. From one of these we observed, on looking through the

hedge, that the inhabitants of the next house were on the _qui vive_.

On enquiring whether they had seen a colony of bees, the wary old dame

replied that she "had no bees but her own," but added that "they were

very much excited." Having asked permission to go through the hedge to

look at her bees, we soon discovered our Italians on the top of the

old lady's bee-house. There was no difficulty in identifying our own

bees; their yellow rings were as good as a private mark. Quickly hiving

the swarm, we took them home, and replaced them in the hive they had

quitted. It was almost destitute of honey; but by liberal feeding,

and lessening the entrance so that only one bee at a time could find

ingress or egress, we succeeded in inducing them to rest in their old

home. Thus nearly half a day's exertion was needed to save a fine

colony, which would otherwise have been utterly lost by the power of

the relentless wasps.

Much watchfulness is needed to prevent the loss of swarms, and the

foregoing incident may serve to suggest the necessity of having

hives so located as to be constantly within view, either from the

dining-room, or of those whose duties oblige them to be near the

apiary. If we had not happened to be at hand at the moment this colony

started, it would have been irretrievably lost to us, as is the case

with many swarms and colonies simply because the departure takes place

without any one to witness.

In the season of 1865 wasps were as few as they were numerous the

preceding year; their paucity was attributable either to frosts in May

or to heavy rains in June, which destroyed them in their nests. In

general wasps are great depredators of wall-fruit, but in the autumn

before mentioned the bees occupied the wasps' foraging-ground. Perhaps

never in the memory of bee-keepers did bees feast upon fruit in the

same manner. Various reasons have been assigned for this unusual

occurrence; some thought that as there were so few wasps the bees were

unmolested, and enjoyed the saccharine matter in the fruit without let

or hindrance--for bees are about as partial to the company of wasps

as mice are to that of rats. Other bee-keepers remarked the sudden

and early termination of the honey-gathering, and conjectured that

the bees, being anxious to make up their winter store, endeavoured to

bring home nectar from the fruit because the weather was unusually

fine. There was one feature which is worth remarking: as far as our

observation extended, the bees did not, like the wasps, break the skin

of sound fruit, but were satisfied with lapping the juice of the ripe

fruit that had the skin already broken.

There are some birds that are given to preying around beehives, and if

their visits become too systematically troublesome, it may be worth

while to take active measures for making their presence scarce in

order to prevent these devourers from taking up a position near the

alighting-board and pouncing upon each bee as it makes its exit. The

toad is a less formidable enemy, but if one of these creatures is found

beneath a hive-stand it may fairly be concluded that he is on the watch

for such bees as may drop to the ground under their loads. Mice, again,

will make their abode in a hive for the winter, and devour the stores

when the bees are too inactive to interfere. Spiders, ants, and other

insects will also have to be guarded against.

Other formidable enemies of bees are moths. These insects are creatures

of the night, as the wasps are of the day, and they make their way

into the hives under cover of darkness, in spite of the bee sentinels.

They deposit their eggs in any crevices in or near the hive that they

can find. There the warmth of the hive, or of the sheltered situation,

causes the eggs speedily to hatch, and then the maggots soon work their

way to the comb and larvæ food, which they greedily devour, thereby

often bringing about the gradual but certain destruction of the whole

community of bees. The best method of keeping moths outside the hives

is to lessen the entrance, as before alluded to. Also, in the early

spring, the hives should be lifted from their floor-boards, which must

then be made thoroughly clean; and all crevices and corners about the

hive and stand should be scraped, so as to get rid of all eggs of moths

and other insects before the warm weather hatches them or enables them

to do mischief The bee-moth is not so troublesome in England as it

is in America and some parts of Germany; but still its encroachments

should be carefully guarded against in this country, for if not it may

easily increase to a very serious extent.

§ XI. BEE-KEEPING IN LONDON.

There are many persons, now in this noisy city pent, who frequently

remember the days of childhood when, among pastures of clover or amidst

flowery heath and woodlands, they listened to the cheerful hum of bees.

Partly from a desire to revive these old associations, and also from a

natural liking for the tendance of living creatures, such persons would

be glad to keep bees if they thought it possible to do so in London

or its suburbs with any chance of success. We do not wonder that many

should doubt even the possibility of bees feeding themselves amidst

such an "endless meal of brick;" but we can easily prove that bees,

if not placed too near to smoky chimneys, are able to produce honey,

both for themselves and for their masters. To make this plain we will

mention some special instances of metropolitan bee-keeping.

About a century ago a Mr. Wildman kept a bee-house and honey warehouse

in Holborn, near to where Middle Row lately stood. He was not only

a tradesman, but was also the apiarian of his day. He kept hives of

thriving bees on the roof of his house in Holborn, and many of the

nobility and gentry used to mount thither in order to inspect the

apiary. At that period St. Pancras was a "village two miles north-west

of London," and what is now the Regent's Park was open country. It

was then much easier for London bees to find their favourite forage,

but Mr. Wildman believed that his hives were filled with stores from

a considerable distance. Whilst enjoying his country rambles on

Hampstead Heath, he had a shrewd suspicion that many of the bees he

there observed gathering honey were labourers from his own apiary. In

order to identify his own flock amongst the rest he hit upon a homely

but very effective expedient. Having borrowed Mrs. Wildman's "dredging

box," he stationed himself near the entrance of his hives, and gently

dusted his bees with flour as they issued forth. He then betook himself

to Hampstead, where he found his previous surmise confirmed, for there

were numbers of his bees in their livery of white.

Wildman became noted for the remarkable control he obtained over his

bees, many instances of which he exhibited before the public. Several

of his operations with them were regarded as feats of legerdemain by

the uninitiated, as when he appeared before King George III., with

a swarm of bees hanging in festoons from his chin, or suspended in

a cluster at arms' length. The _Journal of Horticulture_ recently,

in alluding to Wildman, gives the following particulars as to his

performances:--

"Near the 'Three Hats,' Islington, was a place of popular

entertainment called 'Dobney's Tea Gardens,' kept by Mrs. Ann

Dobney. These gardens occupied the ground between White Lion Street

and Winchester Place, and were established as far back as 1728. In

1771 the house was taken for a short time as a boarding school;

but it was soon changed to its original purpose as a place of

amusement, for in 1772 Daniel Wildman exhibited bees here. This is

a copy of the advertisement:--

"'June 20, 1772. Exhibition of bees on horseback! at the Jubilee

Gardens, Islington (late Dobney's), this and every evening, until

further notice (wet evenings excepted).

"'The celebrated Daniel Wildman will exhibit several new and

amazing experiments, never attempted by any man in this or any

other kingdom before. The rider standing upright, one foot on

the saddle and one on the neck, with a mask of bees on his head

and face. He also rides standing upright on the saddle with the

bridle in his mouth, and, by firing a pistol, makes one part of

the bees march over the table, and the other swarm in the air and

return to their hive again, with other performances too tedious to

insert. The doors open at six; to begin at a quarter before seven.

Admittance--Box and gallery, 2s.; the other seats. 1s.'"

The secret of Wildman's skilful manipulation is well understood now; it

consisted in a careful holding and disposal of the queen, together with

confidence in the generally inoffensive disposition of bees. Dr. Evans,

whom we have often quoted for his correct information in apiarian

matters, thus speaks of his feats:--

"Such was the spell which round a Wildman's arm

Twined 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,

Amidst the wondering train prune her thin wing.

Or o'er her folds the silken fetter fling."

To recur to our subject. After the days of Wildman our own

establishment in Holborn became widely known for beehives and honey.

Although we never attempted to start a London apiary at all approaching

in extent that of our predecessor, we have occasionally kept bees on

the house-top, both in Holborn and Regent Street. At each of those

situations we have noticed that the bees bring pollen as well as

honey into their hives. One summer there was brought under our notice

an illustration of the acuteness of the scent of bees and of their

diligent search for food, proving, too, that if sweets can be obtained,

even from unusual sources, the bees will find them out. A poor woman,

who, at the corner of an adjacent street, vends "brandy balls,"

"toffee," "rock," and other saccharine compounds--all well known to

most juveniles--used to receive frequent visits from our bees. Their

visits to the old dame's domain were at first rather interesting, and

if the few pioneers who had the sagacity to find such a store had

kept the secret only to themselves, their company would not have been

objected to. Such selfish policy does not, however, accord with the

social instinct of bees, and these soon informed their companions of

the good fortune provided for them in an archipelago of sugar islands.

Day by day the swarms of these uninvited visitors increased, until all

legitimate customers were beaten off; and the old dame had to see, not

only her hope of gain destroyed, but her stock of "goodies" sensibly

diminishing by the thefts of these brigands of the air. She could not,

or dared not attempt to, drive the intruders away, so made diligent

enquiry as to where the robbers were harboured. Having traced them

to our establishment in Regent Street, she came to implore of us to

move the bees if possible, or she would have to move her stall, and so

lose her "connection" in the "toffee" and "rock" trade. Wishing not to

hinder the poor woman in gaining her livelihood, we decided on removing

our bees into the country.

Another special instance of bees being profitably kept in proximity

to the busy thoroughfares of London is now before us. Two years ago

we supplied a stock of English bees to a gentleman residing in the

Strand, the back windows of whose house open on the Thames Embankment

and the river. Thus the bees have a fine open flight, as their hive is

placed against the sash on a third floor (an opening is cut to match

the entrance, so that the bees have a covered way to their hive); from

this they are seen taking their flight across the river Thames, to what

may be thought the unattractive locality of Lambeth. However, they

seem to reach some "green fields and pastures new," probably in the

gardens of the archbishop's palace, for they return laden with pollen

from flowers, and during the two summers that the hive has been so

located, have yielded nice glasses of honeycomb as well as afforded

a considerable amount of pleasure to the owner and his friends, with

every prospect of going on flourishing.

It is difficult to assign an exact limit to the distance that bees

will go in search of honey-yielding blossoms. It has been proved by

various experiments that they will fly, say, five or six miles, if the

supplies are scanty within a shorter radius; but bees well understand

that first of all economies, the saving of time, and if they can find

forage near at hand they prefer it. Hence, other things being equal,

the quantity of honey stored will be in proportion to the contiguity of

good pasturage. In this way it is that the systematic removal of hives,

as practised in many districts, has such a notable effect on the honey

harvest.

A novel sight for Londoners to witness occurred in June 1865. A swarm,

having been ordered to be sent into the country the following morning,

was temporarily placed on the leads at the back of our house, 149,

Regent Street. The sun shining hot on the hive, or some other cause,

induced the inmates to decamp. After a time a passer-by called in

to inform us that some bees had arrested the progress of a cab. We

at once conjectured that they were our missing swarm, the absence

of which had previously puzzled us not a little; so we sent our man

with a straw hive to bring the truants back, which he succeeded in

doing, followed to the door by a crowd, who were amazed at the sight

of the "'oney-bees," as the Cockney lads called them. Cabby had to be

compensated for the loss of his fare, for the affrighted passengers

had left him in a hurry, so that, altogether, no little commotion was

caused--a crowd so soon collects in London streets.

During several years we kept bees in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's

Park, and have there frequently taken full and handsome glasses of

honey. The position of our apiary was on the site now occupied by

the new monkey house. The visitors to the gardens found considerable

interest in watching the bees in our glass hives, and were afterwards

much disappointed at the absence of so entertaining an exhibition. The

writer had the honour of showing and explaining the working of these

hives to some of the juvenile members of our Royal Family who had

come to the gardens on one of their accustomed early morning visits

with their French governess. Their conversation was in French; and on

entering the bee-room, "Regardez les abeilles! Voyez done la reine!"

was soon on their lips. The young princesses took special care that

their brother Arthur, as they affectionately called him (now known

by the title of H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught), should observe the

attention paid by the working bees to their queen, as well as to other

points of interest connected with the busy scene before them, with

which they all expressed themselves much delighted. A collection of

these hives were also exhibited by the Acclimatisation Society of Great

Britain, with living bees in them, at the Fish Department of the Royal

Horticultural Gardens, South Kensington, and prospered satisfactorily

until removed, the space being required for other objects.

A gentleman residing in St. James's Place has, for some considerable

time past, kept bees in his garden there. He uses our improved cottage

hives, and his bee-keeping is decidedly successful, as he generally

takes some fine glasses of honey each season, besides leaving

sufficient as winter store for the bees. For a London situation, St.

James's Place is a very favourable one; the gardens behind the houses

pleasantly face the Green Park, so that the bees have an uninterrupted

flight to start with. They are also within easy range of the richly

flowered gardens of Buckingham Palace and those of the nobility and

gentry who reside around the Parks. To those gardens the bees of St.

James's Place resort, without waiting for any licence or certificate

from the royal and noble owners of the honey-yielding preserves. Being

within a short distance of our establishment, when this gentleman's

bees swarm he generally sends to us for assistance in hiving them.

The neighbourhood of St. John's Wood, and, indeed, almost all the

suburbs of London, are favourable for the production of honey. We

mention St. John's Wood because, from the fact of having kept bees

there ourselves, we are able to prove by experience that they do well

in that locality. We know of several bee-keepers on nearly all sides

of the town who have each had a considerable surplus of honey in their

supers, after leaving sufficient for the bees themselves in the lower

or stock hives. Whilst referring to this part of the environs of the

metropolis we take the opportunity of explaining that our own apiary (a

coloured view of which forms the frontispiece of this work) is situated

near Hampstead. The spot is not so easy of access as might be desired,

being somewhat remote from the road, in a portion of a meadow between

West End and Kilburn.

On looking at the picture, it will be seen that there are a large

numbed of hives on separate stands, mostly bar-frame hives, at some

little distance from each other, in order to prevent confusion when

manipulating. At the back, near the hedge we have some hives on rails,

which like the others are well protected from the weather, every one

having its own covering. Besides these there are three bee-houses,

which are so suitable for preserving from the weather hives with fixed

combs, and where there is less need for manipulation, such as our straw

cottage hives. One house will contain six hives, another three, and a

third two. These houses are explained at page 166.

At the back, about the centre of the drawing, is the operating house,

also forming a storehouse or magazine where apiarian appendages are

kept, together with feeding syrup and combs, etc., so essential for

use, and which yet must be secured from the thievish propensities of

the bees, and access to which, if possible to gain, demoralises them so

much that they make war and attempt to pillage each other's hives, as

elsewhere referred to.

The shallow pans in front (earthen milk pans) have water in them, and

are so placed that the bees may have access to moisture, which is so

essential for them in spring for comb-building and breeding. Straight

straws are floated on the water so as to admit of the bees imbibing

without the liability of their being drowned.

On this ground we largely cultivate Italian bees, and unite imported

queens to colonies of English bees, to be ready to supply swarms and

stocks therefrom as pure and genuine as possible.

The district is not so good for bees as if it were farther in the

country and more removed from London smoke; nevertheless we have had

fine supers worked here, and find it a great convenience to have

a bee-farm at so moderate a distance from' town to carry on this

department of our trade.

Some time ago we exhibited in our window a super of fine honey from

the apiary of Mr. Shirley Hibberd, the proprietor and editor of the

_Gardener's Weekly Magazine_. It consisted of a box containing twenty

pounds nett weight of honey, and was produced at Stoke Newington, only

three and a quarter miles from the General Post Office.

The _Times_ "Bee-Master," whose letters from Tunbridge Wells awakened

so much interest in this pleasing pursuit, also commissioned us to

exhibit a super produced under his own management in that locality. Mr.

S. B. Fox, at Exeter, had upwards of four hundred pounds of honey, of

excellent quality, though one of his apiaries is quite within the city.

§ XII. GENERAL REMARKS.

Book-Keeping.

Every bee-keeper should be a book-keeper, that is so far as to have a

permanent record of the events of the apiary and the fortunes of his

bees. A book similar to a tradesman's journal would be very suitable

for the purpose. In it he should note down the date of the first swarm

of the season especially, and those of other swarms also; and in autumn

the quantity of honey taken from each hive should be entered, with

remarks on the probable size and weight of the various stocks. These

particulars will not only be interesting for the bee-keeper to turn to

in winter, but will be of practical service in enabling him to know

the exact age and probable strength of each stock. The bee-book may

also be contrived to show the total amount of honey that the bees have

produced for their owner, and the nett profits of the apiary. A simple

and clear account like this--provided, by the bye, that it does show a

satisfactory balance--will be very useful for inducing cottagers and

farm-labourers to start bee-keeping. Nothing like ocular demonstration

for this class. The "humane" apiarian will reason with them in vain

until he shows them a monster skep of honey and mentions the price that

it will fetch in the market. When convinced that the depriving system

will pay, the cottager will gladly adopt it.

Advice for Cottagers, etc.

A writer in the _Quarterly Review_ (whose article has since been

published by Mr. Murray as a shilling handbook, "The Honey Bee") gives

the following good advice: "Don't bore the cottager with long lectures;

don't heap upon him many little books; but give him a hive of the best

construction, show him the management, and then _buy his honey_; _buy_

all he brings, even though you should have to give the surplus to some

gardenless widow. But only buy such as comes from an improved hive--and

you cannot easily be deceived in this--one which preserves the bees and

betters the honey. Then, _when you pay him_, you may read to him, if

you will, the wise rules of old Butler, _exempli gratia_:--

"'If thou wilt have the favour of thy bees that they sting thee

not, thou must not be unchaste or uncleanly; thou must not come

among them with a stinking breath, caused either through eating of

leeks, onions, or garlic, or by any other means, the noisomeness

whereof is corrected by a cup of beer; thou must not be given to

surfeiting or drunkenness; thou must not come puffing or blowing

unto them, neither hastily stir among them, nor violently defend

thyself when they seem to threaten thee; but, softly moving by, thy

hand before thy face, gently put them by; and, lastly, thou must

be no stranger to them. In a word (or rather in five words), be

chaste, sweet, sober, quiet, familiar; so they will love thee and

know thee from all others.'"

These "wise rules of old Butler" are, however, in the

main taken from Columella.

Allusion having been made to the profit that may be gained by the

judicious management of bees, we will illustrate that point by relating

an anecdote of a certain French _curé_.[34] It is one which may be

suggestive to some of the rural clergy in this country, who might

almost as easily keep an apiary as they do a garden or an orchard.

[Footnote 34: This story, in a disguised form, or, as the writer would

say, an improved form, was quoted in the _Cornhill Magazine_ some time

ago. In transforming the bee-keeping _curé_ into an English clergyman

the effect was cleverly enhanced, especially as to the dismay of the

decorous English prelate in hearing that his poor brother in the Church

had turned "manufacturer;" but then the _vraisemblance_ of the story,

as we have it, was destroyed.]

A good French bishop, in paying his annual visit to his clergy, was

very much afflicted by the representations they made to him of their

extreme poverty, which, indeed, the appearance of their houses and

families corroborated. Deploring the sad state of things which had

reduced them to such a condition, he arrived at the house of a curate,

who, living amongst a poorer set of parishioners than any he had yet

visited, would, he feared, be in a still more woful plight than the

rest. Contrary, however, to his expectations, he found the appearance

of this remote parsonage to be superior to those he had already

visited. Everything about the house wore the aspect of comfort and

plenty. The good bishop was amazed. "How is this, my friend?" said he;

"you are the first pastor I have met with having a cheerful face and a

plentiful board! Have you any income independent of your cure?" "Yes,

sire," said the pastor, "I have: my family would starve on the pittance

I receive from the poor people that I instruct. If you will walk into

the garden, I will show you the stock that yields me such excellent

interest." On going into the garden he showed the bishop a long range

of beehives. "There," said he, "is the bank from which I draw an annual

dividend, and it is one that never stops payment." His harvest of

honey enabled him almost to dispense with the use of sugar, leaving

him a considerable quantity for disposal in the market; of the coarser

portions he made a tolerable substitute for wine, and the sale of the

wax nearly paid his shoemaker's bill. Ever afterwards, when any of the

clergy complained to the bishop of poverty, he would say to them, "Keep

bees! keep bees!" In this succinct advice--extending it to laity as

well as clergy in rural districts--we heartily join, believing that in

this country a tenfold greater number of hives might be successfully

kept than are now established.

In a very practical sense the oft-repeated lines of Gray are strictly

true:--

"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,

And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

An apiary in the garden of every village clergyman would

afford the means of economising this unclaimed bounty of Providence.

An Old Anecdote.

An amusing instance of the fondness of bears for honey is related by a

Muscovite ambassador to Rome, in the "Feminine Monarchie; written out

of Experience by Charles Butler. Printed in the Year 1609"--a quaint,

but sensible work:--

"A neighbour of mine (saith he), in searching in the woods for

honey, slipped down into a great hollow tree, and there sunk into a

lake of honey up to the breast; where--when he had stuck fast two

days, calling and crying out in vain for help, because nobody in

the meanwhile came nigh that solitary place--at length, when he was

out of all hope of life, he was strangely delivered by the means of

a great bear, which, coming thither about the same business that he

did, and smelling the honey, stirred with his striving, clambered

up to the top of the tree, and then began to lower himself down

backwards into it. The man bethinking himself, and knowing that the

worst was but death--which in that place he was sure of--beclipt

the bear fast with both his hands about the loins, and withal

made an outcry as loud as he could. The bear being thus suddenly

affrighted, what with the handling and what with the noise, made up

again with all speed possible. The man held, and the bear pulled,

until, with main force, he had drawn him out of the mire; and then

being let go, away he trots, more afeared than hurt, leaving the

smeared swain in joyful fear."

Instructions for New Bee-Keepers.

Bees may be very inexpensively and profitably kept in the cottager's

hive (see page 110), which will be found a very productive one. It is

true that it has not the appliances of windows and bell glasses; for

the cottager is not supposed so much to care for his hives as a source

of amusement; his object in bee-keeping is simply the profit it may

bring. For those of our readers who wish to have united the facility

of observing the bees with that of the plentiful production of honey,

we would especially recommend the improved cottager's hive, described

at page 112. If inclined to go to a little further expense, the

hives described at pages 113, 120, 139, and 143, all afford constant

opportunity for inspection of the bees, and allow of their working

freely in the most natural manner. The Stewarton hive (page 146) is

also a favourite with those who give the preference to honey stored in

boxes, although the opportunities for observation are not so great as

with some others.

Renfrewshire Bee-Keeper's Hints on Supering and Prevention of Swarming.

The mention again of the Stewarton hive affords us an opportunity of

which we avail ourselves to put before our readers an extract from a

private letter received whilst the foregoing pages are in type, from

that successful and accomplished apiarian already alluded to, "The

Renfrewshire Bee-keeper," which seems to us to contain a useful hint

or two as regards putting on supers and the prevention of swarming,

which, although practised with our friend's _favourite hive_, can be

advantageously adopted with other hives. He says, "In working Stewarton

colonies, I am seldom troubled with swarms, the secret being, in giving

super space at the nick of time, before swarming mania seizes them;

and when once they have taken to supers, I keep an ample supply of

space in advance of their wants.

"However hot the weather may become, they somehow retire upstairs to

this vacant room, and comb-building there affords them employment, and

they do not readily think of swarming. For instance, in the beginning

of summer last year (1876), the season was so bad that at first I gave

them little room; suddenly the weather became hot and favourable,

and one strong colony swarmed right off. I excised the royal cells,

and returned the bees; no use--off they came again in eight or ten

days' time; took the hive to pieces, cut out all royal cells, and in

addition, the thought having occurred to me that maturing drone brood

was an accessory to swarming condition, I excised every portion of that

also. With seven supers (each four inches deep) they rested content and

kept to work most vigorously, never attempting to swarm again."

From this extract the practical bee-keeper may learn much; particularly

as regards depriving the bees of the inclination to swarm by cutting

away the drone brood.

Perhaps we may here be allowed to advise the filling up of vacancies

where excision of drone comb is made (whether with brood or without),

by the insertion of clean worker comb, in order to prevent the

construction of the former.

Bees Working in Supers.

There is a little matter here with regard to bees working in supers

that should be noticed, and that is that when the ascending hole is

round and in the centre of the stock hives, the bees sometimes start

wrong and carry the comb upwards. This has two objections: the first

is that the bees do not work so quickly as when they begin from the

roof of the super, and the other is that the queen gains an easy ascent

and deposits eggs in cells where honey is wanted. When this style of

comb-building is observed, it is best to take the super off, cut the

comb down, and endeavour to make it adhere to the crown of the super by

using a little melted wax (page 261, or if a glass, as recommended at

page 262), so that the bees may continue the work, as is their wont,

downwards.

There are few hobbies which cost so little outlay as the keeping of

bees. Once the "plant" of hives is purchased, there is little, if any,

additional expense, and always a probability of a fair return. If honey

be obtainable the bees will find it; they work for nothing, and provide

themselves with sustenance, requiring only a very little labour from

their keepers, and that labour of a pleasing and instructive kind.

To the advanced and skilful apiarian we would especially commend the

use of the frame hives. With these, as we have attempted to show, the

bee-keeper has a full command over his hives and bees. Many mistakes,

it is true, have been made by uninitiated bee-keepers in using the

more elaborate hives. Being struck with the remarkable facilities

afforded by these superior hives for the extraction of any one comb,

and, perhaps, fascinated with their easy sway over so highly organised

a community, these new-fangled bee-keepers have acquired a habit of

perpetually and incautiously meddling with the bees. The inevitable

results in such cases are, distress to the bees, impoverishment of

the stocks, and loss and vexation to the over-zealous apiarian. All

these things may be avoided if it is remembered that there are first

steps in bee-keeping, as well as in chemistry, croquet, or cricket. In

bee-keeping, as in floriculture, it is a great point to know when to

"let well alone." There is no florist, however anxious for a prize,

who would be continually pulling up his plants to see how their roots

were growing. Doubtless the full control which the bars and frames

afford over the inmost recesses of the hives is a great temptation to

the bee-keeper; but if he yields too readily to it he will imperil

his chance of profit and deprive himself of that continuous source of

interest which a judicious apiarian always enjoys.

Ignorance Concerning Bees.

Many persons who are well-informed on most subjects are profoundly

ignorant on all points of the natural history of bees; and as with old

so with young. As an amusing illustration of this, we may transcribe

an order we received a few years back from a seminary in the north

of England: "Master presents his compliments to Messrs. Neighbour,

and begs they will send him a swarm of bees; he encloses _six postage

stamps_, and hopes they will send him a _good_ swarm." This embryo

naturalist was evidently of a mercantile turn, and had a mind to buy

in the cheapest market, for in a postscript he adds: "Please let

it be fourpence, if you can!" We need scarcely say that, in reply,

we endeavoured to enlighten our juvenile correspondent as to what

constituted a swarm of bees, and returned the stamps, with our thanks.

Superstition Respecting Bees.

Much superstition has existed, and, in some quarters, still exists,

among the poor respecting bees. If a death occurs in the family of the

bee-owner, these superstitious folk consider it needful to make the

bees aware of the bereavement by "waking" them; that is, by giving a

few raps at the entrance, and audibly announcing the circumstance.

If this be not done, "no luck," say they, will come of the bees the

following season. One summer, even near the metropolis, we heard a

cottager bemoaning to his neighbour "his bad luck with his bees," when

the other replied, "Ah! no wonder; you never 'waked' your bees when

your wife died; what can you expect if you omit such needful duty?"

In many parts of France, as well as here, it is a custom on such

occasions to put the bees into mourning, by placing black crape or

some such material round the hives. Bees also receive intelligence when

a marriage or a christening takes place: in these cases the hives are

draped with red cloth. In fact it is considered an essential element

of "good luck" to inform the bees of any remarkable circumstance that

occurs in the family of the bee-keeper. How would these good people

manage with the newly imported foreign bees, for they can hardly be

expected to have learned our "lingo"? This difficulty is, however, not

likely to be experienced, for the keeping of superior sorts implies

an intelligence that would be above any such pitiable nonsense.

Fancy a man in this nineteenth century haranguing his bees after the

above-mentioned fashion! Mr. Langstroth says that "some superstitious

folk in America assert that the bees sometimes take the loss of their

master so much to heart as to alight upon the coffin whenever it is

exposed." A clergyman told him that he attended a funeral where, as

soon as the coffin was brought from the house, the bees gathered on

it so much as to excite alarm. Some years after this occurrence,

being engaged in varnishing a table, the bees alighted upon it in

such numbers as to convince the clergyman that love of the varnish

on the outside, rather than any respect for the deceased within,

was the occasion of their conduct at the funeral. Mr. Langstroth

adds: "How many superstitions, believed even by intelligent persons,

might be as easily explained, if it were possible to ascertain as

fully all the facts connected with them!" Only a short time since an

English clergyman informed us of a severe contest going on in his

garden between Church and Dissent, for he had a hive of bees from a

Nonconformist in his parish, and these dissenting bees persistently

attacked his hives to such an extent that he really must get rid of

them, and thus liberate his episcopal apiary from such discordant

disturbers of the peace.[35] Another infatuation is, that you should

on no account part with your bees for _silver_ money--only for _gold_.

This is so far sensible that it ensures a respectable price. Certain

credulous bee-keepers cannot, on any account, be induced to part with

their bees for money; they will _barter_, but not _sell_--to sell bees

is, in their view, to lay themselves open to evil fortune. If these

apprehensions are correct, our punishment will be a severe one, for we

have been great offenders in that way, and seem likely to go on sinning.

[Footnote 35: The explanation may probably be that a strong hive was

brought close to weak or queenless ones.]

The culture of bees would be greatly promoted if a knowledge of it

were considered necessary as one of the regular qualifications of a

gardener. So little time is needed to gain the skill requisite for

the tendance of an apiary, that it seems only reasonable to expect

it of a well-taught gardener, and he should feel a pleasure in the

circumstance of its forming a part of his duties. In Germany, where a

country gentleman's table is kept constantly supplied with fresh honey,

the gardeners are expected to understand the management of hives; and

in Bavaria modern bee-culture is taught in the colleges to all the

horticultural students. Travellers in Switzerland will call to mind the

almost invariable practice of placing new honey on the breakfast tables

at hotels in that country. We are told that some of this new honey so

highly approved of is only golden syrup with a portion of the colour

extracted, and possibly otherwise made up to be palatable; also that

there is a factory in Switzerland doing a profitable business in this

way. If such be the case, tourists are often taken in. Treacle will do

no one any harm, but it is not pleasant to be gulled except for the

reason that "ignorance is bliss."

Caution Respecting Flight Hole.

Fine colonies are sometimes destroyed by the entrance-way becoming

stopped by some impediment or other, and care is requisite to keep a

watch, that so fatal a catastrophe does not happen, because the bees

(_unless where very simple ventilation is given_), excited by their

imprisonment, make matters worse, by raising the temperature of their

hive to such a pitch that the combs melt from their foundations, and

the bees themselves are suffocated, presenting, alas! a most woful

spectacle to witness.

We give this hint because of having ourselves suffered from a similar

cause when workmen have been employed in the vicinity of hives; these

gentlemen, thoughtless of the welfare of the bees, but most careful of

their own convenience, have placed a piece of wood across, or otherwise

stopped the entrances, to prevent the bees coming out. In _summer

weather_ a very short time of confinement in a close hive suffices to

complete the work of desolation; but should the bee-keeper's attention

be drawn to such a state of things, he must immediately raise the hive

from the floor-board and let the poor bees, have all the air possible,

leaving them thus exposed for the purpose of affording them a chance

of revival. When bees are likely to incommode those whose duties

temporarily oblige them to be near the entrances, it is better to cover

the hive over night with net in the form of an inverted bag tied at the

base, so that, the bees may be able to get air within the net and not

be too closely confined. The objection to this is that you stop all

labour, which of course harasses the bees for the time, but there will

be no other bad results. The foregoing remarks more particularly apply

to the summer season. In winter or in the spring, when the weather is

cool and the bees are not so numerous, hives may be shut up even for a

day or so without much _ventilation_, and but little harm will arise

therefrom.

Hive for Swarming Needful.

There is another little matter of detail that should be named here;

that is, the necessity of the bee-keeper always having a common hive in

readiness near the bees, so as to be able to secure any swarm which may

unexpectedly start.

CONCLUSION.

Here our pleasant task must close. We trust that all information has

been given that is needful to enable the practical bee-keeper to begin

business and the scientific apiarian to extend his observations. In

conclusion, we would remind all bee-keepers who earnestly desire

success, and who hope to draw pecuniary profit from their pursuit,

of the golden rule in bee-keeping--"Keep your stocks strong." In

exercising the assiduous attention and persevering effort which that

maxim enjoins, they will not only be regarded as _bee-keepers_,

but, as Mr. Langstroth says, will acquire a right to the title of

_bee-masters_.

[Illustration]

APPENDIX.

BEES AT THE EXHIBITION OF 1862.

The annexed figure represents our stand in the Agricultural Department

of the International Exhibition of 1862. The space granted us in the

World's Great Fair was somewhat limited; but we were able to exhibit

a tolerably complete stock of apiarian apparatus, and all the more

important beehives. Amongst these was a unicomb hive stocked with

Italian bees. This was an object of great attention, and daily hundreds

of visitors flocked round our stand in order to watch the movements of

the Italian queen with her gay and busy subjects. The entrance-way for

the bees being in the "Open Court," to which all visitors had access,

it was necessary to place the hive in an elevated position, so that it

should be beyond the reach of incautious passers-by, and to obviate any

chance of annoyance to the vast crowds of people continually around.

[Illustration: STAND AT THE EXHIBITION OF 1862.]

CASES OF ACCLIMATISING BEES.

Among others who took a deep interest in the exhibition just described

was Mr. Edward Wilson, President of the Acclimatisation Society of

Victoria. This gentleman requested us to pack four stocks of the

Italian bees for conveyance to Melbourne. With the assistance of Mr.

Woodbury--whose aid was, indeed, essential--these stocks were sent off

on the 25th of September, 1862, by the steamship "Alhambra," so as to

arrive at the colony during the Austral summer. The hives were Woodbury

frame-hives, having ample space and ventilation, as well as the means

of supplying water to their inmates during the voyage; there was also a

sufficient store of honey to last until the following March. The bees

arrived at Melbourne, where they were released after an imprisonment of

seventy-nine days, and have since rapidly multiplied, the climate and

pasturage of Australia greatly favouring the increase of this superior

variety of the bee.

Mr. Wilson was so well pleased with the careful manner in which these

stocks were fitted out for their voyage across the seas, that he

subsequently instructed us to prepare him three more hives, which were

sent out in a sailing vessel. Owing to the mismanagement of the water

supply during the voyage, only one stock survived in this instance. Mr.

Wilson informs us that one of these hives contained 136lb. of honey on

the 25th of December, 1864 (Midsummer in Australia).

Upwards of twenty years ago we sent a Nutt's hive stocked with bees

to New Zealand. We then adopted the plan of fixing the hive in a meat

safe, so that the bees could fly about a little, and also cleanse

the hive of their dead, they being always very attentive to sanitary

arrangements.

Several more recent exportations of Italian bees have been made by

us. We have sent two stocks to Madras, which arrived safely, and we

hear are doing well, also a stock to South Africa under the care of

the lady who ordered them, and who was herself going out. We had the

satisfaction of receiving the following note:--

"Grahamstown, Nov. 3, 1875.

"Mrs. Mullens is very pleased to inform Messrs. Neighbour and

Sons that the stock of Ligurian bees supplied to her on board the

'Nyanza' at Southampton on July 23rd have arrived quite safely.

Mrs. Mullens thinks they were exceedingly well packed; they had a

trying journey by bullock waggon two days after leaving the sea.

They were released from the hive on September 3rd, and appeared

weak at first, but began to work in less than an hour. A large

number of dead bees were found at the bottom of the hive on

opening--most likely caused by the boat in which the bees were

having water in it."

This report we consider very favourable. There would naturally be a

great mortality during such long confinement, and for the reasons also

which Mrs. Mullens mentions.

PHILADELPHIA EXHIBITION OF 1876.

_Dated Dec. 12th._

Award of Prize Medal to G. Neighbour and Sons,

For a large and varied collection of economical beehives so arranged

that the honey can be taken without the destruction of the bees.

Special attention is directed to the Unicomb Hives with Venetian blinds

to allow the bees to be exposed to light, whilst the sun's rays are

excluded. Also to a Honey Extractor by centrifugal force, which removes

the honey from the combs without injuring the latter, which can be

returned to the hives.

(Signed,) John Coleman,

On behalf of the Judges.

Approved of group of Judges.

[5 names.]

CALEDONIAN APIARIAN SOCIETY.

The head-quarters of this Society are at Glasgow; and, taking example

from the British Bee Keepers' Association, shows are held and prizes

given for beehives and their produce; also living bees at work in glass

hives are exhibited. In addition to which, manipulations connected with

bee economy, such as transferring, handling bees in bar-frame and other

hives, are demonstrated to beholders.

The exhibition of this year (1877) was held at Edinburgh, in connection

with the annual gathering of the Highland and Agricultural Society, and

which was very successful.

There was a separate charge for admission to the bee and honey

department, which was visited by great numbers of people. In

consequence of the poor honey harvest, but a small quantity of

honeycomb was sent for competition.

With other beehive makers, we exhibited a large collection of our

hives, also living bees, with all the appliances needed in bee-culture.

The first prize was awarded us for the best and largest display. This

prize consists of a handsome silver cup and 40s.

Amongst our interesting collection were a dozen or so of Italian Alp

queens in small boxes, each within a separate box, with a few worker

bees. These had been sent over expressly for this show, and would

therefore take no harm by being kept a few days, until purchased by

some of the enterprising Scotch bee-keepers, and substituted for

ordinary queens in the manner explained in the body of this work.

One of the transparent single-comb hives brought from the neighbourhood

of Glasgow and exhibit ed by the indefatigable honorary secretary of

the Society, Mr. Bennett, was thought to possess no queen, as no brood

was to be seen, and there were so many drones present in the hive. In

order to supply what we considered the deficiency, we appropriated one

of the boxes containing a foreign queen, and in the evening allowed her

majesty quietly to pass into the hive through an opening on top, taking

the precaution to cover up the hive.

[Illustration: Exterior of Apiary.

As originally erected in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park.]

[Illustration: Interior of Apiary.]

On making an inspection next morning we were surprised to find a very

dark Italian queen, as we thought. A few hours later we witnessed

an interesting scene, no less than a single combat between the real

Italian queen and the queen of the hive; for although we had judged

the hive to be queenless there was one in the hive all the time, but

she was a virgin. At the moment of our observation the two queens were

engaged in mortal conflict, and we were able to summon our worthy

secretary and a few apiarian friends to witness the battle. After some

few minutes (each being curled round against the other) the English

or rather the Scotch queen dropped dead to the bottom of the hive

and was seen no more. It would have been interesting to have gained

possession of the dead queen for examination under the microscope, but

the construction of the hive and the position it was in did not allow

of searching for her. The Italian mother, who was for some time after

greatly excited and evidently much discomposed, reigned supreme, the

monarch of the hive; and being already fertilised, the worker bees

paid her due attention, but began worrying and tormenting the drones,

because they were now not wanted.

These assaults of the little active working bees on the burley drones

very much interested the spectators. The queen proceeded with her

duties of egg-laying, and the bees having exit through the hording,

the usual work of the hives was carried on fully exposed to view. Not

the least gratifying feature was the sight of these little labourers

travelling in and out under the glazed covered way.

More active manipulation, such as driving bees from one hive to

another, gaining possession of the queen, and exhibiting her in the

hand, was carried on in another portion of the shed, and became a

source of wonderment to spectators.

Many of the local newspapers had paragraphs descriptive of this new

exhibition in connection with a Scotch agricultural show.

INDEX.

Abbott, C. N., Frame-hives, 146

Abdomen of bees, 102

Accident at Stafford House, 164

Acclimatising Bees (Appendix), 349

Advice by Butler, 333

American Bee Journal, 190

Anatomy of bees, Plates I. and II., facing pages 34 and 86

Anecdote from Butler, 336

" of French clergyman, 334

" showing provision made for swarming, 78

Antennæ of bees, 94

Apiary, Geo. Neighbour & Sons, (frontispiece)

" description of, 330

Applying supers, 264

Artificial swarming, 233

Asiatic bees, 49

Austrian ditto (Lower), 46

Bar-frame holder, 192

Bar Supers, 183

Bath and West of England Agricultural Association, 42

Bee as an insect, 7

" dress, 208

" feeders, Nutt's, 126

" bottle, 203

" can, 204,

" round, 205; wood, 206

" houses, 166-179

" traps, 201

" veil, 210

Beehives, various, 108 to 165

Bee-keeping in London, 322

" Zoological Gardens, 328

" Horticultural Gardens, 329

" St. John's Wood, 329

" Hampstead, 330

Bees, do they go to sleep? 31

" increase of, 82

" head of, 88

" eye of, 90

" mouth, 91

" tongue, 92

" mandibles, 93

" sense of hearing, 95

" " smell, 96

" antennæ. 96

" thorax and organs of motion, 97

" breathing, 100

" stomach, 102

" honey bag, 102

" produce of wax, 103

" sting, 104

" dislike to hive, 221

" enemies of, 315

" profitably kept, 336

Bell glasses, see glasses

Berlepsch, Baron von, 4, 6, 10, 36, 42, 49, 75, 211

" theory of drone-breeding, 69

" on swarming, 77

" breeding superfluous princesses, 81

Bevan, Dr., 3, 18, 66

Black Bees, 71

Book-keeping recommended, 332

Box Fumigator, 206

British Bee-keepers' Association, 6, 48

Caledonian Apiarian Society (Appendix), 354

Carbolic acid, use of, 208, 220, 305

Carniolan bees, 45, 46, 53, 78

Change of frame-hives beneficial in spring, 223

Cheshire's (F.) frame-hive, 145

" nucleus hive 197

" transferring board, 192

" wax guide-maker, 191

Comb-building in supers, 338

" fixing in ditto, 262

" foundations (American), 190

Combs, placing in frame-hives, 223

Common cottager's hive, 108

Corri, Herr, 47, 78

Cottage hive, improved, 114

Cottager's hive, no

" improved ditto, 112

" improved frame-hive, 142

Cotton, Rev. W. C., 5, 45, 78

Covers, zinc, for hives, 171, 172

" wood, 172, 174, 175, 177, 179

Cowan's (Mr.) plan of working frame-hives, 255

Crystal Palace skep, 109

Cyprian bees, 47

Darwin, Dr. 56, 57

Dathe, 53

" plan of fertilizing queens with Italian drones, 253

Diseases of bees, 306

Dönhoff, Dr. 5, 65, 96

Driving, 226

" best condition for, 228

" useful for taking honey, 229

Drone bee, 19, 62

" " has no father, 64

" eggs, theory of production, 62, 252

" trap, 201

" comb, to be used sparingly, 224

Drone comb, building of, sometimes to be avoided, 238

Dummy frame, 140, 143

Dzierzon, Dr., 4, 10, 36, 42, 44

" description of the round of the bees' concerns, 32

" on swarming, 77

" not a smoker, 210

Egg-laying, 10, 67

Eggs and transformations, 59

Ekes, description of, 186

Epitaph on brimstoned bees, 85

Evans' (Dr.) poem on bees, 3,

quotations from, 59, 75, 76, 107, 165

Extracting honey from comb, 274

Extractor, honey, 193

Eyes of bees, 89

Faculties, and functions, 54

Feeder, Nutt's, 126

Feeders, (various), 202

Feeding, 279

Fertile workers, 62, 67

Fittings and apparatus (outside), 166

Flat-topped glasses, 182

Foul brood, 307

" Langstroth, Woodbury, and Dzierzon on, 308, 312

Fox, Mr. George, 278

" Mr. S. Bevan, 278, 332

Frame-hive, putting swarm into, 219

" facility for placing combs, 223,

" with cover and stand, 175, 177, 179

Frames, removing, 268

French exhibition, 165

Fumigators, 206

Fumigating, description of, 231

General hints on frame-hives, 254

" remarks, 332

Gerstäcker, 54

Glass hives, ladies' observatory, 120

" frame, 138

" with cover and super, 177, 178

Glasses for supers, 180, 181, 182

Guide comb, 188, 261-264

" maker (Cheshire's), description of, 191

Hawkins, Mr. Waterhouse, 50

Head of bee, 88

Hearing of bees, 95

Heath bees, 46

Hints, general, on frame-hives, 254

Hives, modern, 108 to 165

" sometimes destroyed by entrance being stopped, 343

Hiving swarms, 212

Honey bag of bees, 102

" cutters, 193

" description of, 296

" extractor, 193

" test when adulterated, 297

Houses for hives, 166

Hruschka, Von, 193

Huber, 62

Hunter's, Mr., support for hive when driving, 229

Impressed wax sheets, 187

Improved cottage hive, 113

" cottager's hive, 112

" ditto, no windows, 119

Increase of bees, 82

Insects necessary for existence of flowers, 59

Italian bee, 34, 35, 41

Italianising hives, 251

Kerner, 58

Kleine, Herr, 5, 35, 244

Klipstein, Von, anecdotes of queens, 22, 66

Knowledge of bee-keeping necessary for a gardener, 343

Ladies' Observatory Hive, 120

Lanarkshire bee-keeper, 297

Lanarkshire hive, 155

Langstroth, Rev. L. L., 3, 5, 10, 43. 83. 85, 129, 346

Langstroth, Rev. L. L., on transferring swarms, 220

Lee's supers, 145, 146

Legs of bees, 98

Leuckart, Professor, 64, 66

Ligurian bee, 7, 34

London apiaries, 325

Lower Austrian bees, 46

Lubbock, Sir John, 6, 57, 59

Mahan, Mr., 9

Mandibles of bees, 91

Manipulation with bees, 212

" " frame-hives, 269

Mel-extractor, 196

Melting down combs, 275

Mouth of bees, 91

Munn, Major, 129

Nadirs, description of, 186

Neighbours' improved cottager's hive, 113

Neighbours' improved cottage-hive, 114

Neighbours' new frame-hive, 139

New cover and stand for frame-hives, 175, 176, 179

New wood feeder, 206

Nucleus hive, 197

Nutt's hive, 123

Orchard, good place for an apiary, 56

Organs of sensation, 88

" motion, 97

" reproduction, 62

Parthenogenesis, 64

Pasturage for bees, 293

Payne's (I. H.) glass, 182

Perforated zinc adapter, 141, 143, 144, 200

Philadelphia Exhibition, 160;

and Appendix, 350

Philadelphia hive, 143

Pollen basket, 98

" preservation from incursions of ants, 58

" description of, 298

" substitute for, 299

Position of hives, 292

Propolis, 300

Queen, 8

Queen, power of egg-laying, 10

" homage paid to fertile, 12

" no attention bestowed on virgins, 13

" two queens in a hive, 15

" sting of used for depositing eggs, 15

" some queens will not fight, 15

" consternation at loss of, 16

" life of, 19

" fertilisation of, 11, 20, 22, 24

" in relation to sexes, 63

" at swarming time, 73

" and drone preventers, 200

" rearing, 17, 27, 77, 243

" cells, 17, 244

" securing, 228, 240

" introducing stranger, 247

" cages, 198, 244

Quilts, 180

Rationale of swarming, 72

Relation of sex to cells, 67

" plants to insects, 56, 57

Removing bees, 259

" supers, 266

" frames, 268

Reproductive economy, 62

Renfrewshire bee-keeper, 24, 41, 154

" queen cage, 199

" instructions on supering, 337

Robbing, 225, 305

Rorl's (Mr.) way to get quit of fertile workers, 67

Round feeder, 205

Royal cells, 17, 244

" " transferring, 198

" duels, 15, and Appendix

Salt obtained by bees, 30, 97

Samuelson's work,. The Honey Bee, 5, 91, 96

Siebold, Von, on Parthenogenesis, 64

Skep, Crystal Palace, 109

" (old), transferring combs from, 223

Slow feeding, 204

Smelling, sense of, largely possessed by bees, 96

Smith, Mr. J., 48

Smyrnæan bees, 47

Society of Arts, 57

Stands for hives, 118, 170

Stewarton hive, 146 to 155, 337

Sting, 104

" prevention and cure, 286

Stocks (old) transferring, 222

Stomach of bees, 102

Straw frame-hive, 136, 141

" hives, round, 108 to 120

Stupefying bees, 207

Supers, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185

Superstitions about bees, 341

Supplying natural comb, 261

Swammerdam, 63

Swarm, number of bees composing, 79

" second flight disastrous, 214

" often mix, 214

" taking, 214

" sending to a distance, 217

" conveyance of, 217

" transferring, 218

" returning, 218

" brought from a distance, 219

" should be fed, 221

" truant, 78, 317

" artificial, 233

Swarming, rationale of, 72

" provision made for, 74, 78

" signs of, 80

" a provision of Nature, 212

Taylor, the late Mr. H., 37

Taylor's glasses, 181

Thorax of bee, 97

Tongue of bee, 92

Transferring board, 192

" swarms, 218

" old stocks, 222

Tristram, Rev. H. B., extract from his book, 51

Tube fumigator, 207

Unicomb observatory hive, outdoor, 157

Unicomb observatory hive, directions for, 160

Unicomb observatory hive, indoor, 162

Uniting weak colonies, 229

Ventilation performed by bees, 30, 285

Ventilators, 124

Vulcanite for feeding-stage, 203

Wasps, 315

Warder, Dr., experiment with swarm, 77

Water for bees, 30, 331

Wax, how produced, 103

" impressed sheets of, 187

" secretion of, 302

Weighing hives, 276

Wildman's bees, 322

Wings for bees, 97

Winter precautions, 283

Wood cover, 172

" feeder, 206

Woodbury, T. W., 37, 42, 49, 50

" frame-hive, 134

" mode of hiving swarm, 216

" mode of transferring swarm, 220

" hive cover, 174

Xenophon's army poisoned with honey, 298

Zinc covers, ornamental, 171

" " plain, 172

" rests, 140

" adapters, perforated, 141, 143, 144, 200

Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury.

PRICE LIST

OF

_NEIGHBOUR & SONS'_

IMPROVED BEE-HIVES

_For taking Honey without the Destruction

of the Bees._

[Illustration]

EXHIBITORS AT THE

Great Exhibition, 1851. Dublin Exhibition, 1853.

Exposition Universelle, 1855.

International Exhibition, 1862. Dublin Exhibition, 1866.

Paris Exposition Universelle, 1867.

Annual International Exhibition, 1873.

British Bee-Keepers' Shows, Crystal Palace, 1874, 1875.

Alexandra Palace, 1876.

International Philadelphia Exhibition, 1876.

Caledonian Apiarian Show at Edinburgh, 1877.

List of Prices.

_No._ £ s. d.

1. Nutt's Collateral Bee-Hive 5 5 0

Stand for ditto 0 16 0

2. Single Box Hive 3 3 3

3. Neighbours' New Frame Stock Hive 1 5 0

Super 1 5 0

Cover for ditto 27s. and 2 0 0

4. Carr's Bar and Frame Hive 0 19 6

Super for ditto 0 19 6

5. Neighbours' Improved Cottage Hive 1 15 0

Stand for ditto 0 10 6

6. Ditto, without Windows 1 5 0

7. Ladies' Observatory Hive 2 5 0

8. The Cottager's Hive 0 10 6

9 and 10. Bee Feeders each 5s. and 0 4 0

11. and 12, Fumigators " 2s. " 0 2 6

13. Honey Cutters per pair 0 5 0

14. Improved Cottager's Hive 1 1 0

15. Honey Extractor for hand use 15s. and 0 17 6

16. Woodbury Bar Super 0 10 6

17. Neighbours' New Supers, Wood and Glass 1 1 0

Ditto ditto Straw and Wood 1 5 0

18. Taylor's Glass, to contain about 8 lb. 0 3 6

19. Payne's Glass, with hole in centre, to afford additional

space to supers partly filled 0 3 0

20. Neighbours' Revolving Indoor Unicomb Hive 3 10 0

21. New Can Feeder, on the principle of a fountain,

adapted for slow, stimulating feeding (3 pints) 0 5 0

22. New Frame Stand, to be used when manipulating

with movable combs 0 5 6

23. American Sectional Supers per set of 14 0 3 6

24. Taylor's Super Glass

25. Bell Glass, to contain about 9 lb 0 4 0

26. Ditto ditto 5 lb 0 2 0

27. Ditto ditto 3 lb 0 1 0

28. New Shape Flat-top Glass, with lid to place on

table inverted 0 3 6

30. Shallow Glasses, 9½ in. wide by 4 in.-deep 0 3 0

Ditto " 13½ in. " 4½ in. " 0 5 6

31. Bee Dress, with Sleeves (post free, 3d. extra) 0 6 0

32. India-rubber Gloves (by post, 2d. extra) per pair 0 6 0

33. Common Straw Hives 0 2 6

34. Small Straw Super Hives 0 2 0

36. Floor Boards, according to description, 2s., 2s. 6d. 0 3 0

37. Zinc Cover for Improved Cottage Hive 0 15 6

38. Ornamental Zinc Cover 2 2 0

39. Bee House, to contain two Improved Cottage' Hives 4 4 0

42. Woodbury Bar and Frame Hive 0 18 0

Ditto ditto with Window 1 1 0

Cover 1 1 0

Stand 0 10 6

44. The Bottle Feeder 0 2 6

45. Woodbury Straw Bar and Frame Hive, 18s. 6d. and 1 2 0

46. Outdoor Unicomb Hive, to take Woodbury Frames 5 10 0

Stand 0 11 6

47. Common Cottage Hive, 5s. 6d. each. Six for 1 10 0

49. Glass Frame Hive 1 10 0

51. Improved Wax Sheets per doz. 0 6 0

52. Lee's Octagon Straw Hive 1 0 3

Super 0 11 6

Cover and Stand 1 12 6

53. Lee's Octagon Hive, in Mahoghany 0 17 6

54. Ditto ditto Pine 0 6 0

55. Ditto ditto Glass Sides 0 9 0

56. Ditto ditto smaller, in Mahoghany 0 12 6

57. Ditto ditto Wooden Sides, Glass Top 0 5 6

58. Stewarton Hive (3 Stock Boxes, 1 Honey Box) 1 1 0

59. New Wood Bee Feeder 0 5 0

60. Neighbours' Cottage Frame Hive 0 7 6

61. Neighbours' Divisional Super, 3s. 6d. per pair 0 6 6

62. Cover for Neighbours' Frame Hive 0 8 6

63. Cottage Frame Hive, Woodbury Frames 0 7 6

64. Cheshire's Frame Hive, complete--Stand, Super, and

Cover, the latter painted 1 17 6

65. Abbott's ditto ditto 1 17 6

66. Lanarkshire Stock Hive 0 16 6

Super 0 6 6

Roof 0 7 0

67. Neighbours' New Bee Veil (by post, 2d. extra) 0 2 6

68. Flat-top Glass with 3 inch hole in centre (similar to

Payne's), for adding space to Supers 0 3 6

69. Same construction as above, 6½ in. wide, 3 in. deep 0 2 0

70. Lee's Double Super per pair 0 5 6

71. Cheshire's Nucleus Hive, for Queen Rearing 0 12 6

72. Cheshire's Transferring Board 0 10 6

73. Cheshire's Prize Smoker 0 2 0

74. Cheshire's Drone Trap 0 4 6

75. Syrup Can and Shovel 0 6 6

76. Vulcanite Feeding Plates each 6d. and 0 0 9

(Less by the dozen)

77. Bligh Bee Quieter each 0 2 6

78. Queen and Drone Preventers 1s. and 0 1 6

79. Crystal Palace Skep 0 4 6

Floor Board 0 3 0

Super 0 2 6

80. Neighbours' Straw Frame Hive, with New-shaped

Cover and Stand, grained and varnished 3 11 6

81. New Cottage Frame Stock Hive, with Window 0 12 6

82. New Cover and Stand for the above (painted) 1 7 0

83. Neighbours' Cylindrical Honey Extractor 2 10 0

Two Wire Cases 0 12 0

84. Bee House for One Hive 2 10 0

85. Renfrewshire Stewarton Movable Comb Hive, consisting

of 3 Stock Boxes and 1 Honey Box 1 8 0

86. Bee Traps, for clearing Bees from Supers 0 2 6

87. Philadelphia Hive, with Super, Stand, and Cover 2 2 0

88. Sectional Supers the set 0 4 6

89. New Cover for Cottage Frame Hive (carries its

own Stand) 1 7 0

90. Quinby Smoker 0 6 6

* * * * *

PUBLICATIONS ON BEES.

"The Apiary;" or, Bees, Beehives, and Bee Culture,

by Alfred Neighbour. 0 5 0

Hive and Honey Bee, by Rev. L. L. Langstroth (American).

A New Edition 0 9 6

Quinby's Bee-Keeping (American) 0 8 6

Italian Alp Bee, by Hermann 0 1 0

* * * * *

[Illustration] PRIZE MEDALS AWARDED AT THE [Illustration]

PHILADELPHIA

AND OTHER EXHIBITIONS.

GEO. NEIGHBOUR & SONS'

PRICE CURRENT OF

Genuine Italian Alp or Ligurian Bees.

An Italian Queen in a small Box, accompanied by a few Worker Bees, with

full directions for uniting to English Stocks, each from April and May,

12s.; June, 11s.; July, 10s.; August, 9s.; September, 8s.; October, 7s.

Orders should be given in advance.

For parcels of Six Queens at one time, 1s. each less.

A Stock, with genuine Italian Queen, packed so as to travel by rail

with comparatively no risk of damage, including the Straw Frame Hive

with window, £4; or if in New Cheap Frame Hive, No. 60 or 63, which has

no window, £3 5s.

_Swarms and Stocks of English Bees can be obtained._

* * * * *

Transcriber Note

Minor typos corrected. Hyphenation was standardized to the most

frequently used version with the exception of beehive which was used by

the author and bee-hive in quotations from other works.