Produced by Tom Cosmas
Transcriber Note
Text emphasis denoted by _Italics_. Whole and fractional parts of numbers
as 123-4/5.
[Illustration: Principio sedes Apibus statioque petenda, ---- Virgil.]
HUMANITY TO HONEY-BEES:
OR,
_PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS_
FOR
THE MANAGEMENT OF HONEY-BEES
UPON AN IMPROVED AND HUMANE PLAN,
BY WHICH THE
LIVES OF BEES MAY BE PRESERVED, AND ABUNDANCE OF HONEY
OF A SUPERIOR QUALITY MAY BE OBTAINED,
BY THOMAS NUTT.
---- Vos non vobis mellificatis Apes:
Sic ---------------------------------
Virgil.
SECOND EDITION.
WISBECH:
PRINTED BY H. AND J. LEACH, FOR THE AUTHOR,
OF WHOM IT MAY BE HAD AT MOULTON-CHAPEL,
OR AT 131, HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON.
SOLD ALSO BY LONGMAN AND CO. PATERNOSTER-ROW, LONDON.
_Price Ten Shillings,_
1834.
ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.
Also may be had on application to my agent, Mr. G. Neighbour, 131, High
Holborn, near Southampton Street, London, honey taken on the principles
here specified, with hives stocked with bees, or unstocked. All letters
must be post paid to the author.
DEDICATION,
BY PERMISSION,
TO HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY,
QUEEN ADELAIDE
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY,
To pen a dedication skilfully is generally the most difficult part of
an Author's task; but a dedication to ROYALTY is so delicate a matter,
that I almost tremble for the success of my undertaking--tremble lest I
should fail to express myself dutifully, gratefully, properly; though I
am not without hope that your Majesty's goodness will graciously extend
to the Author that degree of indulgence of which he is sensible he stands
so much in need, especially as nothing unbecoming a dutiful subject to
write, or improper for a gracious Sovereign to read, is intended to be
here expressed.
As, however, every colony of Bees, wherever domiciled, whether in a
box, or in a cottage-hive, in the roof of a house, or in the trunk of
a hollow-tree, is under an admirable government, the presiding head
and Sovereign of which is a QUEEN,--as no colony of Bees, deprived of
its QUEEN, ever prospers, or long survives such loss,--as this insect
government, or government of insects, exhibits to man the most perfect
pattern of devoted attachment, and of true allegiance on the part of the
subject Bees to their Sovereign, and of industry, ingenuity, prosperity,
and apparently of general happiness in their well-ordered state,--and
as these most curious and valuable little creatures have hitherto been
most cruelly treated--have been, and still are, annually sacrificed by
millions, for the sake of their sweet treasure; I do feel a pleasure,
and think there is a sort of analogical propriety, in dedicating to your
Gracious Majesty this work, the leading feature of which is--Humanity to
Honey-Bees. Under your Majesty's fostering and influential Patronage,
I cannot but anticipate that this object will be essentially promoted,
and that the management of Bees, in this country at least, will not
hereafter reflect disgrace upon their owners.
In this pleasing hope, I humbly beg to subscribe myself,
YOUR MAJESTY'S
most dutiful
and
most grateful
Subject and Servant,
THOMAS NUTT.
Moulton-Chapel, Lincolnshire,
Nov. 27th, 1832.
PREFACE.
Could I disarm criticism as easily as I can deprive Bees of their power
to sting, this would be the proper place to do so; though I am doubtful
whether it would be well-judged in me, or to my advantage, to stay the
critics' pen. But, possessing no such talismanic power, I shall adventure
my little book into the world, without any attempt to conciliate the
critics' good-will, or to provoke their animosity, conscious that from
_fair_ criticism I have nothing to fear. That I shall be attacked by
those apiarians who are wedded to their own theories and systems, however
faulty, is no more than I expect: of them, I trust, I have nowhere spoken
disparagingly; towards none of them do I entertain unkindly feelings--far
otherwise. Their number, I am led to believe, is not formidable; and as
gentlemen, and fellow-labourers in the same work of humanity, their more
extensive learning will hardly be brought to bear against me with rancour
and violence. Should any one of them, or of any other class of writers,
so far degrade himself, I shall have the advantage of the following
preliminary observation, viz. that one set of my collateral-boxes, placed
in a favourable situation, and _duly and properly attended to_, for
one season only, will outweigh all the learning and arguments that can
be adduced against my Bee-practice,--will be proof positive, visible,
tangible, that there is in my pretensions something more than empty
boast. Luckily for me, there are plenty of those proofs to be met with in
the country, and there are some--several, not far from town; they are at
Blackheath, at Kensington, at Clapham, and at other places. As hundreds
of the Nobility and Gentry of this country will recollect, there was
one of these incontrovertible proofs of the truth of what I am stating,
exhibited for several weeks at the National Repository last autumn, where
it was seen, examined, admired, and, I may without any exaggeration add,
_universally approved_. Practice, which has resulted from more than ten
years' experience in the management of an apiary, and from innumerable
experiments, carried on, and a hundred times repeated, during that
period, is what I ground the utility of my discoveries upon. To theory I
lay no claim. Born and brought up in the fens of Lincolnshire, where I
have spent the greater part of my life amidst difficulties, misfortunes,
and hardships, of which I will not here complain, though I am still
smarting under the effects of some of them, my pretensions to learning
are but small: for, though sent to the respectable Grammar School at
Horncastle in my boyhood, my education was not extended beyond writing,
arithmetic, and merchants' accompts. As soon as it was thought that I had
acquired a competent knowledge of these useful branches of education,
it was my lot to be bound apprentice to learn the trades and mysteries
of grocer, draper, and tallow-chandler. Whilst endeavouring to gain an
honest livelihood as a grocer and draper, at Moulton-Chapel, in 1822,
I was afflicted with a severe illness, which, after long-protracted
suffering, left me as helpless as a child, the natural use and strength
of my limbs being gone; and, though supported by and tottering between my
crutches, it was a long time before I was able to crawl into my garden.
Fatigued and exhausted with the exercise of journeying the length of a
garden-walk of no great extent, it was my custom to rest my wearied limbs
upon a bench placed near my Bees. Seated on that bench, I used to while
away the lingering hours as best I could, ruminating now on this subject,
now on that, just as my fancy chanced to fix. Among other things my Bees
one day caught my attention: I watched their busy movements,--their
activity pleased me,--their humming noise long-listened to became music
to my ears, and I often fancied that I heard it afterwards when I was
away from them. In short, I became fond of them and of their company,
and visited them as often as the weather and my feebleness would permit.
When kept from them a day or two, I felt uneasy, and less comfortable
than when I could get to them. The swarming season arrived; and with
it ideas took possession of my mind which had not until then possessed
it:--I conceived that swarming was an act more of necessity than of
choice,--that as such it was an evil; but how to provide a remedy for
it--how to prevent it--was a problem that then puzzled me. I studied
it for a long time, and to very little purpose. The old-fashioned
method of eking did not by any means satisfy my mind; it might answer
the purpose for one season, but how to proceed the next did not appear.
Then the time for taking honey was approaching: to get at that treasure
without destroying my little friends that had collected it, and that had,
moreover, so often soothed me in my sorrow and my sufferings, was another
problem that long engaged my mind. After some years' unremitted attention
to my Bees, for I had formed a sort of attachment to them during the
first stage of my convalescence, which never left me, an accident aided
my studies by directing my attention to the effects of ventilation, as
will be found related in the body of this work, and I began to make
experiments, which being repeated, varied, improved, and then gone
through again, have gradually led to the development of my improved mode
of Bee-management, attempted to be explained in the following pages.
At the time I have been speaking of, I had not read one single book on
Bees; nor had I then one in my possession. Whatever my practice may be,
it has resulted from my own unaided experience and discoveries. To books
I am not indebted for any part of it: nay, had I begun to attempt to
improve the system of Bee-management by books, I verily believe, I never
should have improved it at all, nor have made one useful discovery. _The
Bees themselves have been my instructors._ After I had so far succeeded
as to have from my apiary glasses and boxes of honey of a superior
quality, to exhibit at the National Repository, where, with grateful
thanks to the Managers of that Institution for their kindness to me, I
was encouraged to persevere, Bee-books in profusion were presented to
me, some of them by friends with names, some by friends whose names I
have yet to learn. I have read them all: but nowhere find, in any of
them, clear, practical directions, how honey of the very purest quality,
and in more considerable quantity than by any of the plans heretofore
proposed, may be taken from Bees, without recourse to any suffocation
whatever, or any other violent means;--how all the Bees may be preserved
uninjured;--and how swarming may be prevented. These are the grand
features in my plan; and minute directions for the accomplishment of
these most desirable objects are laid down in this book.
I by no means maintain that my system of Bee-management is incapable
of improvement; but I do think that the principles upon which it is
founded _are right_,--that the foundation is here properly laid,--and
that every apiarian, who may hereafter conform to, or improve upon, my
practice, will be instrumental in contributing a part towards raising the
superstructure--namely--an asylum or sanctuary for Honey-Bees.
I cannot close this preface without acknowledging myself to be under
the greatest obligations to the Rev. T. Clark, of Gedney-Hill. But for
his assistance the following work would not have made its appearance
in its present form; if indeed it had appeared at all. He has revised,
corrected, connected, and arranged the materials of which it is composed;
and he has, moreover, gratuitously added much that is original and
valuable from his own rich stores of knowledge. To him I am indebted for
the selection of the Latin mottos. As an apiarian he is one of my most
improved and skilful pupils, and bids fair to become an ornament to the
science of Bee-management. As a mechanic he is ingenious enough to make
his own Bee-boxes, and has actually made some of the very best I have
yet seen. To his knowledge of mechanics it is owing that the description
and explanation of each of the different boxes, of all the other parts
of my Bee-machinery, and of my observatory-hive, in particular, are more
detailed, clearer, and more intelligible than they would have been in my
hands. As a scholar there are passages in the following work that afford
no mean specimen of his abilities. I have only to regret that the reward
for the pains he has taken with it must be my thanks--that it is not in
my power to remunerate him for his kind labours more substantially than
by this public acknowledgement of the obligations I am under, and of my
sense of the debt of gratitude that is due to him.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
"Out of print," though a somewhat laconic, might be a not inappropriate
preface to this second edition, and of itself a quaint apology for
its appearance. _Out of print_ is certainly exhilarating news to the
author anxious for the success of a work inculcating a new system of
Bee-management, in which not only is his reputation as an apiarian
involved and evolved, but, it may be, the very means of his subsistence
are _bound up_ in it; the oftener therefore he hears the bibliopolist
expression--_out of print_--the more animating and welcome it becomes;
because its reiteration can hardly fail to be considered by him an
indication that the demand for his book continues.--that his system is
progressing,--or, at any rate, that either curiosity respecting it, or
some higher and more laudable motive, is still existent in the public
mind. Thus cheered on, thus, as it were, _encored_, it has become his
duty to the public no less than to himself to proceed forthwith to the
publication of a new edition.
Previously, however, to stating what alterations, emendations, &c. have
been introduced in order to render the work, as far as I am yet able to
render it, worthy a continuance of public patronage, I consider it to be
my duty to record my grateful thanks for the success and encouragement I
have already received.
To the scientific and literary press, and to the several gentlemen of
scientific attainments connected therewith, who, by their influence
and kind professional assistance, and promptitude in the furtherance
of my interest, have greatly contributed to my success, my best thanks
are due, _and are hereby respectfully tendered:_ amongst these I
have sincere pleasure in particularizing Dr. BIRKBECK--the talented
President of the London Mechanics' Institution,--Dr. HANCOCK--Fellow
of the Medico-Botanical Society--a veteran of high and esteemed
attainments,--and Mr. BOOTH--the popular Lecturer on Chemistry--a young
man of first-rate abilities.
To J. C. London--the erudite editor of the Gardeners' Magazine,--to E.
J. Robertson, Esq.--the able and ingenious editor of the Mechanics'
Magazine,--to Richard Newcomb--the editor and publisher of the Stamford
Mercury,--and to the several editors of the Metropolitan and Provincial
Press, who have made favourable mention of my labours, my public thanks
are justly due,--and particularly to the editor of the Cambridge
Quarterly Review, for a highly commendatory notice of my work, evidently
written by a practical apiarian, and with competent knowledge of his
subject, which appeared in No. 3 of that Review, published in March
1834. Also to my long-tried, worthy _Friend_--George Neighbour--it is
gratifying to me to have this opportunity of offering my sincere thanks
for his valuable services in my behalf;--and to the conductors of those
excellent and useful institutions--the National Gallery of Practical
Science, Adelaide Street,--and the Museum of National Manufactures,
Leicester Square, London, I gratefully acknowledge myself to be under no
slight obligations for the advantageous opportunities which I have there
possessed of extending the knowledge of my system, and of exhibiting,
year after year, to thousands of visitors, the products of my apiary.
With the view of making "The Humane Management of Honey-Bees" more
interesting, the dialogue, which formed the introductory chapter in the
first edition, has been withdrawn, and in its place have been substituted
some valuable remarks of Dr. Birkbeck, Dr. Hancock, and Mr. Booth,
respecting Bees, honey, wax, &c. of course _the first chapter is new_;
as is chapter X. giving an account of the apiary of the Most Noble the
Marquess of Blandford, at Delabere Park, which can hardly fail of being
interesting to every reader: it is principally from the able pen of Mr.
Booth. Chapter XVIII. on Apiarian Societies, is new also. And, besides
these three entire chapters, not short paragraphs merely, but whole pages
of new matter have been introduced interspersedly by my most respected
friend--the Rev. T. Clark, of Gedney-Hill, who has revised, corrected,
and re-arranged the whole; and who has not only bestowed much time and
pains upon the improvement of my work, but in the kindest and most
disinterested manner has, in superintending this and the former edition
through the press, actually travelled upwards of _eight hundred_ miles.
The friendly performer of services so generous, so laborious, and so
perseveringly attended to, without any stipulation for fee or reward,
merits from me, and has from me, every expression of my gratitude, and,
were it in my power, should have _one expression more_.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Chapter Page
I. _Introductory Matters_ 1
II. _Bee-Boxes and Management of Bees in them_ 14
III. _Ventilation_ 49
IV. _Thermometer_ 58
V. _On Driving Bees_ 90
VI. _Inverted-Hive_ 96
VII. _Observatory-Hive_ 107
---- _Mode of Stocking an Observatory-Hive_ 119
VIII. _Fumigation_ 121
IX. _Objections against Piling Boxes_ 135
X. _Apiary at Delabere Park_ 149
XI. _Honey-Bees_ 156
---- _For the Sting of a Bee_ 171
XII. _Impregnation of the Queen-Bee_ 175
XIII. _Supernumerary Queens_ 181
XIV. _Bee-Feeding_ 190
---- _Bee-Food_ 200
XV. _Catalogue of Bee-Flowers, &c._ 206
XVI. _Honey-Comb_ 211
---- _Bees' Wax_ 232
XVII. _Winter Situation for Bees_ 237
XVIII. _Apiarian Societies_ 246
XIX. _Miscellaneous Directions_ 253
INDEX TO THE ENGRAVINGS.
Frontispiece, to face title. Page
Octagonal-Cover for the Pavilion 16
Collateral-Boxes apart 17
Ditto closed. 29
Inverted-Hive 100
Observatory-Hive 109
Ditto with additions 118
Fumigator 123
Tower at Delabere to face 149
The Three Bees 157
Honey-Comb 213
MANAGEMENT OF BEES.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY MATTERS.
The object of the generality of persons who keep Bees, is--profit: and
that profit might be indefinitely augmented were Bees properly managed,
and their lives preserved--were the still extensively-practised, cruel,
and destructive system superseded by a conservative one. Some few there
may be in the higher ranks of life, who cultivate bees from motives
of curiosity--for the gratification of witnessing and examining the
formation and progress of their ingenious and most beautiful works, and
with a view to study the instinct, habits, propensities, peculiarities,
or, in one word, the nature, of these wonderful, little insects, in
order to improve their condition, and to gain additional knowledge
respecting their natural history, hitherto, it must be confessed,
enveloped in much uncertainty, and very imperfectly understood. To this
class of Bee-masters and _Bee-friends_ the system of management to be
explained in the following pages, will, it is hoped, unfold discoveries
and impart facilities and improvements hitherto unknown in apiarian
science. And they, whose sole object in keeping Bees is _profit_, may
derive incalculable advantage from conforming to the mode of management,
and strictly attending to the _practical directions_ hereinafter to be
detailed: because as their profits are expected to arise principally
from honey and wax, it evidently must be for their interest to know how
to obtain those valuable Bee-productions in their purest state and in
the greatest quantity. The quantity obtained in a good honey-year (viz.
1826) from a well-stocked and exceedingly prosperous colony--still in
existence, and still flourishing, (i. e. in 1834) was so considerable,
and so far beyond anything ever realized from a common straw-hive
colony, that my statements respecting it have been doubted by some, and
totally discredited by others, unacquainted with my (I trust I may say)
_improved_ system of Bee-management. With respect to the purity of the
honey taken according to my plan, and the general properties and medical
virtues, and, of course, _value of honey when pure_, I have much pleasure
in being enabled to submit to the reader the opinions of my scientific
friends--Dr. Birkbeck, Mr. Abraham Booth, Lecturer on Chemistry, and Dr.
Hancock; because their opinions may safely be considered as unimpeachable
authority on this subject, viz. the uses and medical virtues of _pure
honey_.
In some observations on the effect of the temperature of Bee-hives on
the quality of honey, published in a scientific journal, Mr. Booth
observes--"notwithstanding the adequate justice which has been done to
Mr. Nutt's improved and admirable system of Bee-management, there is
one point which does not appear to have elicited much attention--the
superiority in quality both of the honey and the wax. It does not appear
to me that the whole of this superiority consists in freedom from
extraneous animal or vegetable matters, a point of very great importance,
however, as its dietetic purposes are concerned; but that it greatly
depends upon the modified degree of temperature at which the Bees effect
their labours, and which is insufficient to produce any chemical changes
in the constitution of these substances; whereas under the old system,
the continued high temperature of the hive is sufficient to induce those
changes which impart the colour that so materially deteriorates the
quality as well as the value of the products. _From Mr. Nutt's hives we
obtain pure honey, as it is actually secreted by the Bee_, which cannot
be ensured by any other mode of management."
To my very intelligent friend and patron, Dr. Birkbeck, whose uniform
liberality and kindness, from the infancy of my pursuits, I have
reason to appreciate, I am indebted for introducing this subject in a
Lecture[A] at the London Institution, Moorfields, on the application
of the oxy-hydrogen light to illustrate the economy and structure of
the insect world. In the course of his observations, on referring to
the tongue of the Bee, the learned Doctor made copious allusions to my
system, and the advantages which would in his view result from its
general extension. He observed that "so small is the supply that we
derive from the labours of Bees in this country, that the production of
wax does not even more than equal its consumption in the simple article
of lip-salve. Under this improved system, we may however hope that the
advantages of Bee-management may be more generally diffused throughout
the kingdom,--that Bee-hives will be multiplied, and that the choicest
flowers of the field and forest will no longer 'waste their sweetness in
the desert air.' In a dietetic point of view, it is of great importance
that a saccharine, secreted by one of the most beautiful processes of
nature, should be substituted for one produced by the most imperfect and
complicated process of art, whilst the more salutary properties of the
former would recommend it as far more eligible for use. He could not but
hope that, in this view the system would soon receive that extension in
practice to which its merits fitted it."[B]
[Footnote A: Delivered April 23d 1334.]
[Footnote B: Dr. Birkbeck related the following instance of the power
of recognition possessed by Bees to myself and Mr. Booth, which I
cannot suffer to pass unnoticed. When a boy, he was accustomed to cover
his hand with honey, and go to the front of one of the hives in his
father's garden. His hand was soon covered by the Bees, banquetting on
the proffered sweets, and the whole of it was speedily removed. The Bees
appeared to recognize the learned Doctor ever afterwards when he appeared
in the garden, his hand being always surrounded by them in expectation of
there finding their accustomed boon.]
Some very important observations on honey, in a medical point of view,
are those which were contained in a paper written by my very learned and
valued friend, Dr. Hancock, and read before the Medico-Botanical Society
at their sitting November 26th 1833.[C]
[Footnote C: For a copy of the first edition of this work, with specimens
of honey, &c. the author received the thanks of the Society; and he has
since been honoured with a diploma, which constitutes him a corresponding
member thereof.]
An abstract of this important paper[D] I shall communicate for the
information of my readers.
[Footnote D: An abstract of the paper was published in the Lancet and
several other journals.]
"The great objects which recommend Mr. Nutt's plan, consist in the
great improvement in quality and augmentation of honey produced, and
that without destroying the Bees--a discovery equally creditable to Mr.
Nutt, as a man of benevolent mind, and to his industry and indefatigable
research.
"The cultivation of Honey-bees is of remote antiquity. The Bee was
regarded as the emblem of royalty with the ancient Egyptians, and Bees
have been held in the highest esteem by all nations, whether barbarous
or civilized; yet the united experience of ancients and moderns has
never hitherto led to the happy results, which, by a connected series
of experiments, patient research, and logical induction, have in twelve
years been achieved by Mr. Nutt. In the course of his observation he saw,
not only that the destruction of the Bees was barbarous in the extreme,
but that this cruelty was equally subversive of the crops of honey; his
inquiries were hence directed to find how this destructive system could
be exchanged for a conservative one. In this he has completely succeeded,
and by preserving the Bees has been enabled to increase their produce
many-fold, and that too, in a far more salutary and improved quality. It
is equal even to the samples usually obtained from young hives called
virgin honey, which is scarce, dear, and seldom to be had genuine.
"Owing to the want of knowledge on the subject, the consequent
impurities, and the great price of foreign honey, together with the
adulterations practised, the use of this valuable article has been nearly
abandoned in this country, whether as an article of the materia medica or
of domestic economy; and for the reasons just stated, the preparations
of honey have even been expunged from the Edinburgh Pharmacopeia. From
the recent improvement, however, by the gentleman just mentioned, we have
reason to hope its use will be restored in a condition vastly improved,
and that at a great reduction in price, the facilities of production
being greatly enhanced, and such as to render it in time available to all
classes of society.
"Pure honey was justly considered by the ancients to possess the most
valuable balsamic and pectoral properties--as a lenitive, ecoprotic, and
detergent; and it is well-known to dissolve viscid phlegm and promote
expectoration. As a medium for other remedies, it is in its pure state
far superior to sirups, as being less liable to run into the acetous
fermentation. It appears that honey procured on Mr. Nutt's plan is not
excelled by the finest and most costly samples from the continent, as
that of Minorca, Narbonne, or Montpelier. The various impurities and
extraneous matter usually contained in honey, cause it in many cases to
produce griping pains, or uneasy sensations in the stomach and bowels;
this however has no such effect, unless it be taken to an imprudent
extent.
"Pure honey, though in its ultimate elements similar to refined sugar,
yet differs considerably in its physiological effects on the body, being
a _lenitive_, _aperient_ or gentle laxative, and hence incomparably more
beneficial in costive habits. It has in a dietetic or medicinal point of
view been recommended in gravel or calculous complaints; of this however
I have no knowledge, but its utility in asthma I have experienced in
my own person as well as in others;--as also as an efficacious remedy
in hooping cough, taken with antimonial wine, camphor, arid opium. For
sedentary persons and those troubled with constipation of the bowels,
there is no dietetic or medicinal substance so useful as pure honey,
whether taken in drink or with bread and butter, &c. It is well-known
as a detergent of foul sores, and I have often found it to succeed in
healing deep-seated sinuous or fistulous ulcers, and thus to obviate the
necessity of surgical operations.
"In South America and amongst the Spaniards, honey is considered as
one of the best detergents for sloughing sores and foul ulcerations;
so it was formerly in Europe. Its uses in a surgical point of view
have in this country long been lost sight of. Its detergent power is
such, that it was formerly denominated a _vegetable soap_, as we may
see in the older writers. It is still made the basis of _cosmetics_,
and this empirical practice goes to prove its efficacy--to those at
least who have experienced its effects in cleansing and healing sinuous
ulcers, its stimulating property producing withal the sanitary adhesive
inflammation. A species of wine made from honey, called metheglin and
mead--the _mulsum_ of the ancients--was formerly much in use in this
country, and most deservedly so from its pleasant taste and salutary
properties. By the perfection of honey, this may now be obtained no doubt
of equal excellence here, and a rich mellifluous species of wine of the
most wholesome kind will be acquired, and open a new source of national
industry.
"It has been said, that where the air is clear and hot, honey is better
than where it is variable and cold, and this seems to have served as
an apology for the inferiority of much of the honey contained in this
country. It is a position, which I am persuaded is not well founded;
for the honey in hot climates, notwithstanding the fragrance of the
flowers, is mostly inferior to the commonest samples produced here. This
inferiority, however, may be entirely owing to the difference in the
Bees--for I speak here of the wild or native honey--and it is probable
that the _apis mellifica_ might, in South America, on Mr. Nutt's plan,
produce the best of honey, and in very great abundance, because it would
there work all the year, and the product therefore would be greatly
increased.
"I have seen honey taken in the forests of South America from several
different species of Bees; they were always destitute of a sting,
although entomologists consider it as one of the generic characters of
_apis_. It is also singular that their wax is always _black_, or dark
brown, although the pollen of the flowers, which is said to give colour,
is equally yellow as in this country. Bees obtain honey from most kinds
of flowers, but appear in general to prefer the labiati or lip flowers,
as those of sage, marjoram, mint, thyme, lavender, &c.
"Mr. Nutt, in the course of his observation, has noticed the curious
fact, that the nectar or honey obtained from different plants is
carefully deposited by the Bees in separate cells, or at least that the
nectar from different _genera_ of plants is kept distinct. It appears
indeed, that the produce of the flowers is classed by them, and arranged
with a precision not inferior to that of the most accurate botanist.
What but a hand Divine could guide these little insects thus to mock the
boasted power of human reason! This consideration too, coupled with our
own interests, should operate as a powerful argument in favour of Mr.
Nutt's new conservative system of management, and against the reckless
destruction of the Bees. Mr. Nutt has already been patronised by the
Royal Family and several of the nobility, and no doubt his plan will
be adopted by all persons of intelligence, who engage in this pursuit,
whether for profit or the most rational amusement."
When I first entered into my apiarian pursuits, I felt convinced of the
great and profitable extent to which they might be carried; and of this I
have been all along since confirmed as success has crowned my efforts. If
I could demonstrate--and I have repeatedly demonstrated--how much honey
might be increased in quantity, its superior quality also struck me as
a point of no less importance; and in this I am now most satisfactorily
confirmed by the sanction of those scientific friends whose valuable
opinions have been above quoted. With alacrity and pleasure I will
therefore proceed, without further introduction, to give a description
of my Bee-boxes, and other hives, and of all my Bee-machinery,--and
directions for the proper construction of them,--and also for the proper
ordering and management of Bees in them.