The inveterate use of the common straw hive, with its fire and sulphur
application in autumn to its unhappy inmates, is deeply to be deplored.
No humane man can look on the straw hive, rotting on a stand, wasted and
worn by wind and rain, covered with a brown earthenware basin, under which
vermin breed and multiply, and doomed to brimstone and bee-cide, without
feeling it is a penal settlement, or cell of doom, for subjects unworthy
of it. There is nothing picturesque or pleasant about it, and the moss of
age and usage even of a thousand years fail to beautify it.
A bee-shed is an absolute necessity; it may be rough and coarse, and badly
put together, but it cannot and must not be dispensed with. I will assume,
in the first instance, that the cheapness of a common straw hive--a
rough one costing sixpence, a better a shilling, and a very excellent
one eighteen-pence--brings it within the reach of a very poor cottager.
On this assumption I proceed to show how he can make the best of a bad
house. Placed in his shed with a good swarm in May, it is likely in a
good year to be full by the end of June. He must then have ready a good
thick board--say three-quarters of an inch or an inch in thickness and
twelve inches square, with a round hole in the centre about three inches
diameter, perfectly smooth and bevelled in the lower edge of the hole. On
this he must have ready a small straw hive with a piece of glass, four
inches by three, fastened into the side, in order to see inside; but if he
can afford it, still better, a bell-glass or garden-glass, with a woollen
nightcap drawn over it, to keep out the light and keep in the warmth. Let
this stand ready by him behind the bee-house, about twelve o'clock at
noon. He must then take a sharp table-knife, and quietly and fearlessly
cut a hole in the top of the hive, about three inches in diameter, and
having removed the top by taking hold of its straw loop, he is to place
the board with its super over his hive. The smoother he makes the cutting
the less trouble will the bees have, and the sooner they will ascend.
If the weather still proves friendly, he may have five or six pounds of
beautiful honey before the middle of August, and there will be abundance
for his bees in the stock hive during winter. The way to remove the super
is this:--Get a zinc plate, with sharp edges, some fourteen inches square,
press it quietly between the super and the board, laying the left hand
on the super and pressing with the right, taking care not to disturb the
board on the hive, which the bees will have fastened down. Carry off
the super with its bees and honey, laying another board over the hole.
Place your super, with the zinc plate below it, at fifty or a hundred
yards' distance from your bee-shed; edge up the super about two inches
from the plate after it has stood still an hour. The bees will fly out in
succession and make their way straight home, and not one will turn on you
to sting you. It seems then and there, and in so new circumstances, to
dawn on their minds for various reasons, that their proprietor is merely
taking his portion in consideration of the care he has bestowed; or, like
a mob without a head, they lose all sense of order, self-possession, and
organisation, but, unlike a Belfast mob, they rush home out of harm's way.
[Illustration: The Common Straw Hive.]
[Illustration: The same hive, with central hole and perforated board, and
small straw super or cap.]
[Illustration: A small straw super, with glass window, to be placed on the
common straw hive.]
[Illustration: Common straw hive, with top cut off for board and
bell-glass.]
From Mr. Pettitt's catalogue--a very sensible one--I take the following
models and prices of bell-glasses for supers.
[Illustration: Bell-shaped Glasses, for working on the top of any of the
hives. Price, 10 in. 4_s._; 7 in. 2_s._ 6_d._; 6 in. 1_s._ 6_d._; 4 in.
1_s._]
Neighbour's are still better.
[Illustration]