"Some persons may conceive it to be a difficult matter to come
at the queen. When fumigation is resorted to, she is, of course,
easily discovered; but even when it is dispensed with, and the
practice adopted which I have yet to describe, she is not so very
difficult to come at; for, on a hive being turned up and _tapped_,
the queen is among the first, if not indeed the very first, who
makes her appearance, as if to discover the occasion of the unwonted
disturbance; and recollect, that although the _dusk_ of an _autumnal
evening_ answers best for this purpose, I say nothing indicative of
my disapprobation of the use of a _lantern_. The queen usually lodges
near the crown of the hive, and is, when fumigation is resorted to,
one of the last to fall; she will consequently, in this case, be found
amongst the uppermost bees. In practising fumigation (with a view to
the union of weak stocks), two persons should act in concert, each
taking a hive and operating upon it, in order that both stocks should
be simultaneously in a similar condition as to _intoxication_. I may
add, that in fumigation the hive must be well covered with a cloth, to
prevent the escape of the smoke. When you have united the two stocks
in the manner I have described, it is advisable to confine the insects
to their hive for that night and the following day. Do not, however,
wholly deprive them of air in doing so, or you may smother them."
Taylor, who is always judicious, proposes what I regard as a preferable
plan of uniting weak swarms:--
"Like most other operations on bees, the mode of uniting swarms admits
of variety, according to choice and circumstance; and some apiarians
prefer to drive them, in the way for which general directions have
already been given; a plan that may be resorted to almost at any
time. Another mode of junction can be effected by the aid of a sheet
of perforated zinc, inserted between the two hives about to be united.
There is little reason to doubt that the members of each colony of
bees are distinguishable amongst themselves by a certain peculiarity
of odour, which, if assimilated, appears to have the effect of
preventing mutual dissension. When the construction, therefore, of the
hives admits of their being brought into juxtaposition, the perforated
zinc allows a free circulation of scent between them, without
permitting actual contact of the bees. After leaving matters in this
position for two or three days, I have usually found, on withdrawing
the zinc divider, that no disturbance has ensued."
But may it not be preferable still to follow the course indicated by the
bees? When pastures fail and turnips perish, from an extreme dry season,
we feed cattle with artificial food. Why not try an analogous system with
bees? Barley-sugar, I admit, is expensive. But I venture to assert, that
if the caste issue not later than June, four pounds of barley-sugar,
costing about five shillings, will supplement its own industrious
gatherings sufficiently to carry it over the winter into spring, and a
pound in spring will start it into vigorous work. If you take from it a
super next June or July, weighing ten or twelve pounds, you receive good
interest, and your outlay for barley-sugar is returned, and you escape the
troublesome and disagreeable process of fumigation. Barley-sugar, I admit,
is more costly than cottagers prefer. If you have no arrangement in your
hives for feeding, you may boil a pound of common brown sugar--which may
be had for fourpence a pound--in a pint of ale; pour it when cool into a
soup-plate. Take a circular thin board, the size of the inner bottom of
the soup-plate, pierce it with a good-sized gimlet in every direction till
it is covered with holes, each through and through. Let it float on the
plate. Set the plate opposite your weak swarm day after day for a week.
The other bees, strong and busy in June, will rarely touch it, and your
destitute family will gladly visit it. The weight of the float will make
the sugared ale ascend by the holes, and the bees will sip _ad libitum_,
without the risk of clogging their wings or being drowned. But if, what
is more to be desired, you have one of Pettitt's single-box hives, you
have only to fill one of his wood feeders, in which there are grooves and
parallel edges of wood for the bees to walk on; place it in the drawer
beneath the stock, draw out the zinc slide, and the bees will descend and
feed with profit and pleasure.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
If you have one of Neighbours' hives, already referred to, fill the
following zinc pan with the ale and sugar. Put over it the plate of glass,
and fix it on the top of the hive. The bees will ascend by the orifice A,
the plate-glass cover on the top preventing their escape, while it is so
constructed that without moving it you can replenish it by the entrance B.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]