THE HONEY-BEE. 



weather be such as to permit of their gathering it. 

 Should a succession of coarse bad weather occur, 

 however, at the beginning of summer, and particu- 

 larly after a swarm has entered a new hive, most 

 apiarians think it essentially necessary to give 

 honey, or a sirup of sugar and water, to the newly 

 hived stock. If no proper brook or fount be at 

 hand, water should always form a part of the 

 summer provision. The bees being at full work 

 in this season, the door of the hive should be 

 opened to its whole extent. In hives . formed 

 upon improved plans, ventilators are used, but 

 they are not essential. Where artificial ventilation 

 can be effected, it is recommended that the tem- 

 perature should be maintained at from 65 to 80 

 degrees Fahrenheit. 



Autumnal Management. 



The autumnal period has long been the most 

 calamitous for bees, not through the injuries of 

 enemies or weather, but from the improper man- 

 agement of bee-keepers. After the carcases of 

 the drones, strewn in multitudes before the hive, 

 have indicated that, with the beginning of August, 

 has come the close of the rich honey season, the 

 bee-keeper deems it time to take from the hive the 

 reward of his care and attention. The use of 

 storied hives or extra boxes renders it easy to take 

 away a portion of honey early in the season, and 

 this is called virgin honey. Even with a common 

 straw hive, it has been found possible to take away 

 the honey, and retain the bees in the hive. Wild- 

 man, the famous experimenter on bees, recom- 

 mended that the hive should be taken into a dark 

 room, and there struck repeatedly till the bees are 

 forced to ascend into an empty hive. The combs 

 are then cut out with a thin knife, and the bees 

 finally returned to the old hive. But this plan is 

 seldom pursued, being at once dangerous and 

 destructive to the brood combs. 



It is generally reckoned advantageous to change 

 the pasturage for a week or two before taking the 

 honey-harvest. About mid-autumn, the ordinary 

 food of bees begins to fail, and their stock of honey 

 to decrease daily. By a removal of three weeks to 

 a heathy district, a hive not only loses nothing, 

 but frequently gains as much as ten or twelve 

 pounds of honey in ordinarily favourable circum- 

 stances. So well is this known by bee-keepers 

 near Edinburgh, that one shepherd on the heathy 

 Pentland Hills receives in charge several scores 

 of hives annually, for the heath-feeding. 



Bees are transported from place to place in 

 vessels on the Rhine, the Nile, and some other 

 rivers, in order that advantage may be taken of 

 the succession of flowers in different districts. 

 The transporting of bees from one pasture to 

 another was also anciently practised in Greece. 



Honey-harvest 



After the autumnal accession of honey has been 

 obtained, and the bees have been brought home 

 again, the question comes to be, in what manner 

 the harvest should be reaped. By partially depriv- 

 ing each of a portion of comb, and leaving some 

 for food ? By suffocating one half the commun- 

 ities, taking their entire honey, and leaving the 

 other hives with their honey untouched, to serve 

 as stock ? Or finally, by removing the bees from 

 one half the hives to the other half, forming united 

 stocks, and acquiring all the honey of the evacuated 



ones? The cultivator who uses box hives, may 

 easily, immediately after the swarming season is 

 over, add another story or box to his hive, placing 

 it undermost The brood combs contained in the 

 uppermost story will, as the young bees are 

 hatched, be quickly filled with honey, and may be 

 removed about the beginning of August The top 

 cover is then replaced on the next story in position, 

 which was originally the lower, and is now the 

 upper. In ordinary seasons, the bees will have 

 ample time to lay in sufficient food for winter and 

 spring use, after the abstraction of this portion of 

 their stores. As the combs of the upper box are 

 frequently found adhering by their lower extremi- 

 ties to the bars of the next, it will be necessary 

 before removal to separate them by means of a 

 very thin long-bladed knife, or a fine wire drawn 

 through the hive at the point of junction. The 

 operator will next expel the bees from this box or 

 story, by lifting the top cover, and blowing in a 

 little smoke, which will cause the inhabitants to 

 retreat quickly to the lower regions. The box 

 may be then taken away, without the operator 

 running the risk of the slightest annoyance. The 

 honey found in this removed box will not be all 

 honey of the current season, and consequently is 

 not so delicately fine. It is also sometimes found 

 mixed with, or rather deposited above a layer of 

 farina. Should it be wished, therefore, to obtain 

 a supply free from these impurities, the empty 

 story which is added may be placed above, instead 

 of below the original stock, and the honey will 

 thus be of a superior kind. Large quantities 

 of the purest honey may be obtained from com- 

 mon straw hives, by placing on the top of the 

 hive, when the swarming season is over, a small 

 hive of the same form and material called 

 in Scotland an eke or top-eke and opening 

 a way of access to it by a hole in the top of 

 the hive. If the season is favourable, it is soon 

 filled. This practice is now very general in Scot- 

 land. 



One argument employed by advocates of the 

 plan of suffocation by introducing the fumes of 

 brimstone or other noxious effluvia is, that by the 

 union of stocks you have an immense number of 

 mouths to feed, of which the killing plan relieves 

 you. Only inexperienced bee-keepers, however, 

 could use this reasoning, De Gelieu having dis- 

 covered the remarkable fact, that the increase of 

 numbers in the winter hives is far from producing 

 a proportionate increase of consumption. From 

 fifteen to twenty pounds of honey, or from three to 

 four pots, are requisite for the winter maintenance 

 of a single hive of ordinary strength, with which 

 the plan of union has not been practised. De 

 Gelieu placed such a hive, with such a store, 

 beside one into which three full communities, had 

 been introduced ; and he found, on weighing the 

 latter in the spring, that its inhabitants had scarcely 

 used one pound of honey more than those of the 

 single-stocked hive. The experimenter even went 

 further. To a hive already amply stocked, he 

 added the swarms of four other hives, and found, 

 on weighing it in the spring, that 'the total dimi- 

 nution of honey did not exceed three pounds more 

 than took place in ordinary single hives.' Had 

 they not been thus united, he says, each of these 

 stocks would have cost him much more honey than 

 they were worth, and indeed the most of them 

 1 would to a certainty have perished.' 



The cause 



