QUANTITY OF HONEY NECESSARY
TO MAINTAIN A HIVE.
The quantity varies according to the climate. In southern countries,
where there is scarcely any winter, the bees gather food till towards
the end of autumn, and the flowers offer them pasture again very early
in the spring. In these countries, therefore, they require a smaller
winter store than in colder climates. The directions I am about to
give, are only applicable to Switzerland, or to those countries which
nearly resemble it in point of temperature. Every hive ought to have
at least three pots of honey to nourish it during the winter; and,
as the pot of honey, Neuchatel measure, weighs rather more than five
pounds, of seventeen ounces to the pound, there should be fully fifteen
pounds of honey allowed to each hive. Whether the swarm be strong or
weak, large or small, is of no consequence, as the smallest swarm will
consume as much as a large one. If they have less than that allowance,
they may linger through the winter, but will be sure to die if the
spring happens to be a late one, and the weather cold and rainy. If a
hive is expected to swarm, it should be allowed a quarter more in the
autumn, that is, twenty pounds of honey: or it may be supplied after
another manner, which I shall point out. But let there be no higgling
with bees; better that they have too much than too little: more prudent
than man, they never waste or abuse their superfluity.
In estimating the quantity of provisions that a hive contains, its
age should be considered; and it is to be taken into account, that
the black combs of old hives weigh ten times more than the white
combs of a young one. It becomes, therefore, a matter of importance
to know the weight of the empty hive, without which the quantity of
provision cannot be estimated, and to weigh it again at the end of
the honey season. When a swarm of the present year, at the end of
autumn, weighs fifteen or sixteen pounds more than its original weight,
I take nothing from it, and I give it nothing, being certain that
it can maintain itself, if not plundered. If it has twenty-five, or
even thirty pounds, neither do I touch it, as it will prosper so much
the better next year. As to old hives, they ought, at the beginning
of winter, to weigh twenty-five pounds above their original weight.
I willingly leave them thirty or thirty-six pounds. The remainder I
consider my own, and of course take it away.
Some people will wonder at the quantity of provisions which I leave to
my hives; but it is the true means, I may say the true secret, by which
to insure swarms, for a starved one never produces. To this I have seen
only one exception. I lavished honey upon a hive in spring, when it was
crowded with bees, which were in want; this enabled it to give out a
late swarm, but it never prospered. What surplus I bestow upon them,
I consider as not lost, and that, sooner or later, it will return to
me. Besides, the consumption is prodigious during the great _hatching_
in the months of March, April, and May. It requires an incredible
quantity to nourish the young in the state of _larvæ_ or worms. The
larvæ are involved in a kind of pap, which its nurses lavish upon it,
and which is chiefly composed of honey. If, at this time, there should
happen to be whole weeks of cold rainy weather, and high winds, which
is sometimes the case at that season, the poor bees, unable to get
to the fields, will suffer severely if they have not honey in store;
the hatching is interrupted till the return of fine weather; and the
population makes no progress: while, in well provisioned hives, it goes
on without intermission. Bees are very saving; but it is to our profit.
Let us not deal grudgingly with them.
Nevertheless, it is not advantageous to leave them greatly too much
honey,--excessive super-abundance annoys them. In plentiful seasons,
I have seen middling sized straw-hives in which the combs were filled
with honey down to the very boards. This happens especially when the
bees have enriched themselves with plunder in the autumn; and there
are two inconveniences attending it; first, the bees have not room to
deposit their brood, which, by the time the swarms are ready to go
off, fills the hive almost entirely; secondly, the old honey candies,
and, in that state, it is of no use to the bees. When hives are to be
renewed by the cutting out of old combs, it is this kind that should,
above all, be taken away. It is always to be found in old hives; and if
it has been left several winters in the hive, it sours and contracts
a disagreeable taste. The best use that can then be made of it is to
dissolve it with more or less wine, and feed the bees with it on the
approach of the swarming season; above all, when the weather is cold
and rainy. Their activity is then increased by it.
These succours will not be found superfluous even when the trees are
in flower. In fine weather they find honey in abundance on them; but,
should a few rainy days interrupt their labours, and throw them upon
their own resources, the progress of the hatching is stopped, and
injury is done to all.