MANNER OF UNITING
OLD HIVES IN AUTUMN.
When old hives are weakened by giving out too many swarms, and have not
amassed a sufficient provision for the winter, many proprietors place
them one above another, simply making an opening in the board, to serve
as a communication between them, and closing the entrance to the upper
one, with a little clay, for the purpose of making the bees go out and
in through the lower one by the only opening that is left them. Several
authors advise it; I have done it also, but shall do so no more, having
found it attended by two serious inconveniences.
The first is, that the two colonies do not always agree; indeed they
fight sometimes to extremity, and thus the one is destroyed and the
other is weakened. The reason is, that the bees of the upper hive,
descending one by one, or only few at a time, are examined at leisure
by those in the lower one, and, not having the same signal, are
mistaken for robbers, and killed without mercy. This occurred to me the
first time I attempted to unite them in this way; but it never happens
in the tumultuous union of two swarms, when the one has been sprinkled
and almost glued with honey, in consequence of which it is not in a fit
state to commence an attack on those that are hastily displaced.
A second inconvenience is, that, even supposing there should be no
warfare, the habitation is much too large for those that are henceforth
intended to be but one family. Whether they unite in the upper or the
under hive, one of them must be left empty, into which thieves can
find easier access; and although they should not be plundered, they
would suffer from the cold of a severe winter. The population, indeed,
is doubled, but so is the size of the lodging, and in that case there
will be no swarms. Very large hives seldom swarm, it requires so much
more time to fill them. My method has not these disadvantages, for two
families living together in the same hive are warmer, and better able
to resist any hostile attack.
It is to avoid these two inconveniences that, in autumn, I empty an old
hive which has not sufficient provision, and, in the evening of the
same day, I introduce the bees into one of its neighbours on the right
hand or on the left, proceeding in the same manner as with the swarms;
with this single difference, that the sprinkling of honey should be
more liberal to the old hive than to the swarm.
If the hive of which I have doubled the population is well enough
furnished with provision for the winter, I give it nothing. And if
there is not enough, I give it before winter as much as it requires, in
the manner hereafter to be detailed.