"Water carriage, when procurable, is the best, as it shakes the hives
least, but when land carriage must be resorted to, the hives should
be carried on poles slung on men's shoulders. The journey should be
pursued at night only, and the bees suffered to go forth and feed
during the day. Such is their instinct, that they will readily find
their way back; but they should not be suffered to go forth until at
the distance of upwards of ten or eleven miles from their original
home, otherwise they will be lost in endeavouring to regain it--a
moderate distance induces them to abandon the idea, and to become
reconciled to their new quarters. If travelling by canal, the hives
should be removed from the boat, and placed on stands at some distance
from the bank, ere the insects are let out, otherwise they will be
lost in thousands by falling into the water on their return. The
charge made by shepherds for taking care of the hives during a season
is from one shilling to eighteen-pence each. It is better to pay a
trifle over and above the usual fee, in order to prevent your hives
being placed too near to each other, or to those of other parties;
for if your weak stocks happen to be placed near the strong ones of
some one else, you will stand a fair chance of having them all killed
in encounters with their more powerful neighbours. It would be well
also to see that your hives are placed in a situation where they will
be safe from the attacks of cattle or other foes. Before fetching the
hives home again from the heath, it will not be amiss to ascertain
their condition and weight, and to take from them what honey they can
spare. I must here inform you how to ascertain the state or wealth of
a hive."
On the subject of removing bees to the heather in August, Mr. Briggs makes
the following useful and practical remarks:--
"In the vicinity of extensive heaths, the bees are removed to them
about the beginning or middle of August, according to the season. The
usual practice is to raise each hive with small wedges in the evening,
to induce the bees to congregate together at the top of the hive.
The hives are then firmly fixed to the bottom boards, or tied up in
cloths, and conveyed in the night, or very early in the morning, to
the garden of a shepherd or other person whose residence adjoins the
heath. All hives and swarms are taken, including old and young ones,
and the persons who receive them usually charge a shilling for each
hive during the season. The hives are thus very frequently crammed
together as close as they can stand, and the consequences are that
much fighting and loss of life is often caused, and the weak stocks of
one person are frequently partly destroyed and robbed of their stores
and killed by the stronger ones belonging to other persons. When
the blooming of the heath is over, the old stocks are, in general,
suffocated on the spot, to obtain possession of the fruits of their
labours, and those intended for winter stocks are conveyed home by
their respective owners.
"The above system of managing bees at the heather is susceptible
of material alterations and improvements. I would suggest that it
would be of great advantage to the owners of bees residing within
twenty miles' distance, if the proprietors or occupiers of residences
adjoining the heath were to extend the accommodation by enclosing a
larger extent of ground which is suitable for the purposes desired. It
might be cheaply and expeditiously performed by hiring a few dozen of
stout stakes, &c., from the neighbouring farmers for the season, and
having the bars of them full of coarse thorns, briars, furze, or other
convenient or suitable materials, to prevent the inroads of cattle and
other depredators.
"I would recommend that none but strong stocks be taken to the heath,
until arrangements are made for their convenience and accommodation;
and that the collateral system of side hives, &c., be practised with
them whilst they are at the heath, as well as on other occasions."
Where there is no water conveyance, a hive may be suspended from each end
of a long pole, which may be carried on the shoulder to the neighbourhood
of a common, in August, not less than four miles from your garden, and put
in charge of a reliable cottager.
"In Yorkshire," says the Rev. Mr. Cotton, that prince of bee-masters,
"it is the regular custom of the country to send the stocks to the
moors for change of pasture in August and September. Cotters, who have
a little garden by the moorside, take in dozens every year, and get a
shilling a stock for their trouble. The trouble is a mere nothing--at
least not one shilling's worth in all--and the pleasure is surely very
great; for what can be a greater pleasure than to have ten additional
stocks of bees on a visit to your own, and to cheer you with their
glad music whenever you are walking in your garden? To say nothing of
the pleasure you must feel at their honied stores, by playing the
part of a kind host to these busy bees; and then, what is more, you
may have the still greater pleasure of showing your friend (for all
bee-masters are, or ought to be, friendly) how to take up his bees
who have been your guests so long, as I trust you do your own, that
is, without killing them. You and he may do so, if you try; and I, a
bee-master like yourself, beg you most earnestly to try. What I have
found a very good way with my bees you cannot find a very bad one. The
stocks are taken up in the old way as soon as the heather goes out of
flower. I hope many a man will learn by my letter to take them up by
the fingers, instead of the sulphur match, that ready instrument of
bee-murder. In France they put their hives into a boat, some hundreds
together, which floats down the stream by night, and stops by day. The
bees go out in the morning, return in the evening, and when they are
all back and quiet, on the boat floats. I have heard they come home
to the ringing of a bell; but I believe they would come home just the
same whether the bell rings or no. I should like to see this tried on
the Thames, for no river has more bee food near its banks: willows,
the best bee food in spring; meadows, clover, beans, and lime-trees,
in different places and times, for summer. A handy man, who could
make his own boxes, though not up to hard work, might, I am pretty
sure, gather _through the mouths of his many thousand bees enough to
fill his own one mouth_, though it be somewhat larger. He might float
softly _down_ the river, as the flowers go off at one place and come
on at another; and any bargeman would be glad, for the small price of
one pound of Thames honey, to give him a tow _up_ when he wishes to go
back. I should like to see it tried."
But all this is supererogatory at present, and temporary removals are
undesirable, unless where surrounding pastures entirely fail in August. It
is, at best, supplemental.