moth, is, to suspend the bottom board so far below the lower edge of the
hive as to give the bees free entrance and egress all around the same
during the moth season, or to raise the common hive, by placing under it
little blocks at each corner, which produces nearly the same effect. But I
know of but one rule, which is an infallible one, to prevent their
depredations, and that is this: keep the combs well guarded by bees. See
Rule 10.
Large hives, that never swarm, are never destroyed by the moth, unless
they lose their Queen, melt down, or meet with some casualty, out of the
ordinary course of managing them. They are not often in the least annoyed
by them, unless there are bad joints, cracks, or shakes, so as to afford
some lurking places for the worms. The reason for their prosperous
condition is obvious. The stock of bees are so numerous that their combs
are all kept well guarded during the moth season, so that no miller can
enter and deposit her eggs.
Hives made so small as to swarm, are liable to reduce their colonies so
small as to leave combs unguarded, especially when they swarm three or
four times the same season. All swarms, after the first, sally forth to
avoid the battle of the Queens; constantly making a greater draft, in
proportion to the number left, until the combs are partly exposed, which
gives the miller free access to their edges.--The seeds of rapine and
plunder are thus quickly sown, and soon vegetate, and fortify themselves
by their silken fortress, before the bees are aware that their frontiers
are invaded. While the moths are thus engaged in establishing their posts
on the frontiers of the bees, the latter are constantly and indefatigably
engaged in providing themselves with another Queen, to supply the place of
the old one, which has departed with a swarm, and raising young bees to
replenish their reduced colony. Now as the moths have got possession of
the ground on their frontiers, it requires a tremendous effort on the part
of the bees to save their little colony from a complete overthrow.
If late, or second and third swarms are always returned immediately,
according to the rule, the combs are kept so guarded that the moths are
compelled to keep their distance, or be stung to death before they can
accomplish their purposes.
Hives made so large as not to swarm may lose their Queen, and then they
will abandon their habitation and emigrate into the adjoining hive,
leaving all their stores to their owner, which, unless immediately taken
care of, the moths will not fail to destroy.
The moths are often complained of when they are not guilty. Hives are
frequently abandoned by their occupants, in consequence of the loss of
their Queen, unnoticed by any observer, and before any thing is known of
their fate, the hive is destitute of bees, and filled with moths.
In the summer of 1834, one of my neighbors had a very large hive that
never swarmed, which lost their Queen; and in the course of a few days the
bees entirely vacated their tenement, and emigrated into an adjoining
hive, leaving the whole of their stores, which amounted to 215 lbs. of
honey in the comb.
No young bees or moths were discovered in the hive. Instances of this kind
frequently occur, and the true cause is unknown, from inattention.
The Queen may be superannuated, or may become diseased in the breeding
season, so as to render her unfruitful; or she may die of old age. In
either case, the colony will be lost, unless supplied with another Queen,
as explained in remarks on Rule 8; for when the Queen becomes unfruitful
by either of the foregoing causes, the bees are not apprized of the loss
which will in future be sustained by them, until after the means of
repairing the same are gone beyond their reach. All the grubs may have
passed the various stages of their transformation, or at least advanced so
far towards the perfect insect, that their nature cannot be changed to a
Queen.
The Queen is much more tenacious of life than any other bee, and may live
to a great age. But one Queen exists in the same hive any great length of
time. When there are more than one, the peculiar sound of each, as
explained in remarks on Rule 2, is heard by the other, which always
results in a battle between them, or the issue of a swarm in the course of
a day or two.
Bees, when placed in a dark room in the upper part of the house, or some
out-house, are easily cultivated a short time with little trouble, and are
sometimes made profitable to their owner; but as they are liable to some
of the same casualties as those kept in swarming hives, they cannot be as
profitable.
Large colonies never increase their stock in proportion to the swarming
colonies. There is but one female in a large colony, and they can do but
little more in raising young bees than to keep their stock good by
replenishing them as fast as they die off or are destroyed by the birds,
reptiles and insects, which are great admirers of them, and sometimes
swallow them by dozens. Now if it requires five swarming colonies to be
equal in number to the one first described, it is not difficult to imagine
that five times as many bees may be raised by the swarming colonies: for
one Queen will probably lay as many eggs as another.
The swarming hives are no more liable to be destroyed by the moth during
the swarming season, than others, if the hives are kept well replenished
with bees according to Rule 10.
RULE XI.
ON FEEDING BEES.
If it is found that a swarm need feeding, hitch on the feeder, well stored
with good honey, while the weather is warm in October.
The apiarian should use the same precaution in feeding, as directed in
Rule 4, to prevent robberies.
REMARKS.
The best time to feed is in the fall, before cold weather commences. All
hives should be weighed, and the weight marked on the hive before bees are
hived in them. Then, by weighing a stock as soon as frost has killed the
blossoms in the fall, the apiarian will be able to form a just estimate of
their necessities.
When bees are fed in the fall, they will carry up and deposit their food
in such a manner as will be convenient for them in the winter. If feeding
is neglected until cold weather the bees must be removed to a warm room,
or dry cellar, and then they will carry up their food, generally, no
faster than they consume it.
A feeder should be made like a box with five sides closed, leaving a part
of the sixth side open, to admit the bees from their common entrance with
its floor level, when hitched on the front of the hive. It should be of
sufficient depth to lay in broad comb, filled with honey. If strained
honey without combs is used for feeding, a float, perforated with many
holes, should be laid over the whole of the honey in the box, or feeder,
so as to prevent any of the bees from drowning; and at the same time, this
float should be so thin as to enable them to reach the honey. It should be
made so small that it will settle down as fast as the honey is removed by
the bees. As soon as warm weather commences in the spring, the feeder may
be used. Small drawers cannot be depended on as feeders, except in the
spring and summer, unless they are kept so warm that the vapor of the bees
will not freeze in them. It would be extremely hazardous for the bees to
enter a frosty drawer. They will sooner starve than attempt the
experiment. Drawers may be used without danger from robbers, but when the
feeder is used, robbers must be guarded against as directed in Rule 4.
Care should be exercised, in fall-feeding, to supply them with good honey,
otherwise the colony may be lost before spring by disease. Poor honey may
be given them in the spring, at the time when they can obtain and provide
themselves with medicine, which they only best understand.
Sugar dissolved, or molasses, may be used in the spring to some advantage,
but ought not to be substituted for honey, when it can be obtained.
Bees sometimes die of starvation, with plenty of honey in the hive at the
same time. In cold weather they crowd together in a small compass in order
to keep warm; and then their breath and vapor collect in frost, in all
parts of the hive, except in the region they occupy. Now, unless the
weather moderates, so as to thaw the ice, the bees will be compelled to
remain where they are located until their stores are all consumed that are
within their reach. One winter we had cold weather ninety-four days in
succession, during which time the bees could not move from one part of the
hive to another. I examined all my hives on the eighty-third day, and on
the ninetieth day I found four swarms dead. I immediately examined for the
cause, which was as already stated. I then carried all my hives into a
warm room and thawed them, so that the bees could move. Some hives that I
supposed were dead, revived; some few swarms I found nearly destitute of
stores, which I carried into the cellar, turned them bottom up, cut out a
few of the combs, so as to make room to lay in combs filled with honey,
which served as good feeders.
RULE XII.
ON WINTERING BEES.
On the near approach of winter, as soon as the bees have receded from the
drawers and gone below, insert a slide, take out the drawers, and supply
their places with empty ones, bottom up. Suspend the bottom board at least
one eighth of an inch below the lower edge of the hive, and open the
ventilator.--Clean off the bottom board as often as the weather changes
from cold to warm. Close no doors upon them, unless they are kept in a
spacious room, and in such a place that the breath and steam of the bees
will not freeze.
REMARKS.
Various methods have been practised by different individuals. Some have
buried them in the ground, others kept them in the cellar, chamber, &c.
One course only will be observed in this place.
RULE XIII.
ON TRANSFERRING SWARMS.
This operation should never be effected by compulsion.
FIRST METHOD. Insert drawer No. 1 into the chamber of the hive, to be
transferred as early as the first of May. If the bees fill the drawer,
they will recede from the lower apartment and winter in the drawer. As
early in the spring as the bees carry in bread plentifully on their legs,
remove the drawer, which will contain the principal part of the bees, to
an empty hive. Now remove the old hive a few feet in front, and place the
new one containing the drawer where the old one stood. Now turn the old
hive bottom up. If there are any bees left in the old hive, they will soon
return and take possession of their new habitation.
SECOND METHOD. Take drawer No. 1, well filled by any hive the same season,
insert the same into the chamber of the hive, to be transferred in
September, (August would be better.) If the bees need transferring, they
will repair to the drawer and make the same their winter quarters. Then
proceed in the spring as directed in the first method.
REMARKS.
This management should excite a deep interest in every cultivator, both in
a temporal and moral point of view. Temporal, because the lives of all the
bees are preserved; moral, because we are accountable to God for all our
acts. We are not to be justified in taking the lives of animals or
insects, which are but lent blessings, unless some benefit to the owner
can be derived from their death, which will outweigh the evils resulting
from such a sacrifice. Duty compels me to protest in the strongest terms
and feelings, against the inhuman practice of taking the lives of the most
industrious and comforting insects to the wants of the human family by
fire and brimstone.
When bees have occupied one tenement for several years, the combs become
thick and filthy, by being filled up with old bread and cocoons, made by
the young bees when transformed from a larva to the perfect fly.
Bees always wind themselves in their cells, in a silken cocoon, or shroud,
to pass their torpid and defenceless (chrysalis) state.--These cocoons are
very thin, and are never removed by the bees. They are always cleaned
immediately after the escape of the young bees, and others are raised in
the same cells. Thus a number of bees are raised, which leaves an
additional cocoon as often as the transformation of one succeeds that of
another, which often occurs in the course of the season. Now in the course
of a few years the cells become so contracted, in consequence of being
thus filled up, that the bees come forth but mere dwarfs and sometimes
cease to swarm. Combs are rendered useless by being filled up with old
bread, which is never used except for feeding young bees. A greater
quantity of this bread is stored up yearly than is used by them, and in a
few years they have but little room to perform their ordinary
labors.--Hence the necessity of transferring them, or the inhuman sentence
of death must be passed upon them, not by being hung by the neck until
they are dead, but by being tortured to death by fire and brimstone.
It is obvious to every cultivator that old stocks should be transferred. I
have repeatedly transferred them in the most approved manner, by means of
an apparatus constructed for that purpose; but the operation always
resulted in the loss of the colony afterwards, or a swarm which would have
come from them. When it is necessary to transfer a swarm, insert drawer
No. 1 into their chamber in the spring, say the first of May. If they till
the drawer, let it remain there; if they need to be changed to a new hive,
they will recede from the lower apartment and make the drawer their winter
quarters, which should remain until warm weather has so far advanced as to
afford them bread. Then they may be removed to an empty hive, as directed
in the Rule. Now the drawer contains no bread, and should remain in the
old stock until the bees can provide themselves with a sufficient quantity
of that article to feed their young bees with; for bread is not collected
early enough and in sufficient quantities to feed their young as much as
nature requires. If the bees fail in filling the drawer, one should be
used that is filled by another swarm.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
The reader might have expected many things demonstrated in this work,
which are omitted by design.
The structure of the worker is too well understood by every owner of bees
to need a particular description. So also of the drone; and the Queen has
already been sufficiently described to enable any one to select her out
from among her subjects. If any further description is desired, the
observer can easily satisfy himself by the use of a microscope.--Every
swarm of bees is composed of three classes or sorts, to wit: one Queen or
female, drones or males, and neuters or workers. The Queen is the only
female in the hive, and lays all the eggs from which all the young bees
are raised to replenish their colony. She possesses no authority over
them, other than that of influence, which is derived from the fact that
she is the mother of all the bees; and they, being endowed with knowledge
of the fact that they are wholly dependent on her to propagate their
species, treat her with the greatest kindness, tenderness and reverence,
and manifest at all times the most sincere attachment to her by feeding
and guarding her from all danger.
The government of a hive is nearer republican than any other, because it
is administered in exact accordance with their nature. It is their
peculiar natural instinct, which prompts them in all their actions. The
Queen has no more to do with the government of the hive than the other
bees, unless influence may be called government. If she finds empty cells
in the hive, during the breeding season, she will deposit eggs there,
because it is her nature to do so; and the nature of the workers prompts
them so take care and nurse all the young larvae, labor and collect food
for their sustenance, guard and protect their habitations, and do and
perform all things, in due obedience, not to the commands of the Queen,
but to their own peculiar instinct.
The drone is probably the male bee, notwithstanding the sexual union has
never been witnessed by any man; yet so many experiments have been tried,
and observations made, that but little doubt can be entertained of its
truth. That the sexual intercourse takes place high in the air, is highly
probable from the fact, that other insects of the fly tribe do copulate in
the air, when on the wing, as I have repeatedly seen. That the drone is
the male bee, is probable from the fact that the drones are not all killed
at once; but at least one in each hive is permitted to live several months
after the general massacre.
I examined four swarms, whose colonies were strong and numerous, three
months after the general massacre of the drones, and in three hives I
found one drone each; the other was probably overlooked, as the bees were
thrown into the fire as fast as they were examined. But there are many
mysterious things concerning them, and much might be written to little
purpose; and as it is designed to go no further in illustrations than is
necessary to aid the apiarian in good management, many little speculations
have been entirely omitted in the work, and the reader is referred to the
writings of Thatcher, Bonner, and Huber, who are the most voluminous and
extensive writers on bees within my knowledge.
Bees are creatures of habit, and the exercise of caution in managing them
is required. A stock of bees should be placed where they are to stand
through the season before they form habits of location, which will take
place soon after they commence their labors in the spring. They learn
their home by the objects surrounding them in the immediate vicinity of
the hive. Moving them, (unless they are carried beyond their knowledge,)
is often fatal to them. The old bees forget their new location, and on
their return, when collecting stores, they haze about where they formerly
stood, sad perish. I have known some fine stocks ruined by moving them six
feet and from that to a mile and a half. It is better to move them before
swarming than afterwards. The old bees only will be lost. As the young
ones are constantly hatching, their habits will be formed at the new
stand, and the combs will not be as likely to become vacated, so as to
afford opportunity to the moths to occupy any part of their ground.
Swarms, when first hived, may be moved at pleasure without loss of bees,
admitting they are all in the hive; their habits will be formed in exact
proportion to their labors.--The first bee that empties his sack and goes
forth in search of food, is the one whose habits are first established. I
have observed many bees to cluster near the place where the hive stood,
but a few hours after hiving, and perish. Now if the swarm had been placed
in the apiary, immediately after they were hived, the number of bees found
there would have been less.
Bees may be moved at pleasure at any season of the year, if they are
carried several miles, so as to be beyond their knowledge of country. They
may be carried long journeys by travelling nights only, and affording them
opportunity to labor and collect food in the day time.
The importance of this part of bee-management is the only apology I can
make for dwelling so long on this point. I have known many to suffer
serious losses in consequence of moving their bees after they were well
settled in their labors.
Bees should never be irritated, under any pretence whatever. They should
be treated with attention and kindness. They should be kept undisturbed by
cattle and all other annoyances, so that they may be approached at any
time with safety.
An apiary should be so situated, that swarming may be observed, and at the
same time where the bees can obtain food easily, and in the greatest
abundance.
It has been a general practice to front bee-houses either to the east or
south. This doctrine should be exploded with all other whims. Apiaries
should be so situated as to be convenient to their owner, as much as any
other buildings.
I have them front towards all the cardinal points, but can distinguish no
difference in their prosperity.
Young swarms should be scattered as much as convenient during the summer
season, at least eight feet apart. They should be set in a frame and so
covered as to exclude the sun and weather from the hive.
It is not surprising that this branch of rural economy, in consequence of
the depredations of the moth, is so much neglected.--Notwithstanding, in
some parts of our country, the business of managing bees has been entirely
abandoned for years, I am confident they may be cultivated in such a
manner as to render them more profitable to their owners, than any branch
of agriculture, in proportion to the capital necessary to be invested in
their stock. They are not taxable property, neither does it require a
large land investment, nor fences; neither does it require the owner to
labor through the summer to support them through the winter.--Care is,
indeed, necessary, but a child, or a superannuated person can perform most
of the duties of an apiarian. The cobwebs must be kept away from the
immediate vicinity of the hive, and all other annoyances removed.
The management of bees is a delightful employment, and may be pursued with
the best success in cities and villages, as well as towns and country. It
is a source of great amusement, as well as comfort and profit. They
collect honey and bread from most kinds of forest trees, as well as garden
flowers, orchards, forests, and fields; all contribute to their wants, and
their owner is gratified with a taste of the whole. Sweet mignonette
cannot be too highly recommended.--This plant is easily cultivated by
drills in the garden, and is one of the finest and richest flowers in the
world from which the honey-bee can extract its food.
The Vermont hive is the only one I can use to much advantage or profit,
and yet there are some other improvements, which are far superior to the
old box. In the summer of 1834, I received in swarms and extra honey from
my best stock, thirty dollars; and from my poorest, fifteen dollars. My
early swarms afforded extra honey which was sold, amounting to from five
to ten dollars each hive; and all ray late swarms which were doubled,
stored a sufficient quantity of food to supply them through the following
winter.
The rules in the foregoing work, perhaps, may be deemed, in some
instances, too particular; yet, in all cases, they will be found to be
safe and unfailing in their application, though liable to exceptions, such
as are incident to all specific rules.
SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS.
ON RULE FIRST.--The underside of the chamber floor should be planed
smooth; then scratched with a sharp scratch, so as to enable the bees to
hold fast; otherwise they may fall suddenly upon the bottom board, which
may induce them to leave the hive and flee to the woods. That the inside
of the hive should be made smooth, is evident from the fact, that comb
adheres much more firmly to a smooth board than it doss to the small
fibres or splinters which are left by the saw, and is less likely to drop.
These remarks were omitted in the work by mistake.
RULE SECOND--ON SWARMING AND HIVING,--The Drawers should be turned, so as
to let the bees into them at the time of hiving; unless the swarm is so
small that they can locate in a drawer.
REMARKS.--Bees commence making comb, where the whole colony have room to
work. Now if the bees can all get into the drawer, they will begin there;
of course they will raise young bees and deposit bread in the drawer. If
the swarm is so large as to be unable to work in the drawer, there is no
danger of letting them in. At the same time there may be danger if they
are prevented from entering, because they sometimes go off for want of
room in the lower apartment. I therefore, recommend letting the bees into
the drawers at the time of hiving them, in all cases, except when the
swarms are small, then the rule should be strictly adhered to.
Notwithstanding I have hived hundreds of swarms in eight years last past,
and have not lost a single swarm by flight to the woods, yet I frequently
hear of losses of this kind, which appears to render these remarks
necessary. My practice in hiving, is to get the bees into the hive as quick
as possible, hang on the bottom board, fasten the same forward by means of
the button so as to prevent the escape of any of the bees, except through
the mouth of the hive; place the hive immediately where I intend it shall
stand through the season. Let the bottom board down 3/8ths of an inch, on
the third day after swarming.