284 



REE. 



hut at that period of the year, there is often much 

 damage done to the remaining honeycomb, and also 

 ctm-iilcrable loss both ot honey and bees. 



Although the system of "driving" is pretty gen- 

 eral amongst bee-keepers, of lute years many per- 

 sons have resorted to another plan, anil, in some 

 instances, with considerable success. The plan 

 is invariably to keep the bees in open sheds ; and 

 in>tcad of permitting the hives to throw off swarms 

 annually, to compel them to take possession of new 

 hives as often as may appear necessary. When a 

 hive gives indications of throwing off a swarm it 

 is Bidden back upon the platform where it stands, 

 and a new hive, with openings or passages behind, 

 corresponding exactly with those in the old one, 

 is pushed close up against it ; so that the bees are 

 under the necessity of passing through the new 

 one whenever they go abroad ; and in this new 

 apartment the colony, which would have soon been 

 thrown off as a new swarm, commences operations. 

 An improvement upon compelling the occupants of 

 the old hive to pass through the new one, consists 

 in having an opening, in the rear of the old one, 

 which has been kept closed until the new hive ha 

 been added to the other, but which may now be 

 opened at pleasure by the withdrawal of a slide, 

 by which means the bees will find an easy egress 

 at the rear; for since the honeycomb is placed in 

 rows parallel with the sides of the hive, there will 

 be nothing to prevent a free passage to the rear 

 after the front outlet has been closed. Where this 

 plan is acted upon, the bee-houses should be open 

 both in front and rear, so that it would be imma- 

 terial on which side the entrance was placed, al- 

 though there is apparently some objection to the 

 bees entering the hive on the contrary side to that 

 which they have been accustomed to. Where the 

 new hive has the appearance of being full of bees 

 another empty hive may be added precisely in the 

 same manner as the last, and where the platform 

 is sufficiently capacious, a considerable number of 

 hives may be joined to each other in the manner 

 aforesaid, should it be deemed advisable to do so. 

 When it becomes desirable to take away some 

 honey, the process is easily effected. The hives 

 being all exactly of the same dimensions, and the 

 doors or openings of each hive having suitable 

 slides, so as to close them when necessary, any 

 hive which may be selected can be withdrawn in a 

 moment after the bees having been "drummed out," 

 and an empty one introduced in its place. In all 

 the various processes of abstracting honey, where 

 it is intended that the lives of the bees should be 

 spared, care ought to be taken to perform it early 

 in the season ; since it is better to be rather too 

 early than a little too late, for in the latter case the 

 consequence is the almost certain loss of the hive. ! 



In some of the forests of America, wild bees of I 

 the domestic or honey-bee species are so abundant 

 that many persons make a livelihood by "bee-hunt- 

 ing," that is, by traversing the woods in search of 

 the natural hives of the honey-bee. Bee-hunting 

 requires a quick and practised eye, and some ac- 

 quaintance with the habits of these useful and in- 

 du.trious insects; for where the trees are lofty, 

 the foliage thick, and the surface of the ground 

 rough and encumbered with fallen timber, the bee- 

 hunter of long experience finds it difficult to keep 

 up a successful cl.ace with the honey-laden bees 

 on the'ir way to their storehouses in the hollow 

 limbs of some decaying monarch of the forest. 

 V> hen he believes that lie has discovered the retreat 



of the little wanderers, he deals upon the bole ot 

 the tree a few * rokes, anxiously watching the cre- 

 vice he observed the home-bound insects enter ; 

 and should there be a hive or family in some cavity 

 far above him, the noise and concussion produced 

 by the bee-hunter's blows will most probably create 

 such a disturbance, that many of the inhabitants 

 may be seen issuing from their suspected retreat. 

 He next proceeds to hew down the tree; which 

 having done, he lights a fire in order to smoke out 

 or suffocate his victims. Sometimes a bn 

 will contain a large quantity of honey and honey- 

 comb ; but as the tree has to be hewn in pieces in 

 order to get at the treasure (a portion of the honey 

 is usually very old), together with the effect of the 

 concussion when the tree falls, a large proportion 

 of the prize is lost, or rendered useless, since much 

 of the comb gets broken to pieces and mixed with 

 the decayed and rotten wood. The honeycomb is 

 commonly of greater value than the honey ; for 

 where bees are tolerably abundant, honey is scarcely 

 saleable at any price ; while bees'-wax is at all 

 times a marketable article, either at the country 

 stores or in any of the towns and cities. It is not 

 unusual to find three or four hundred weight of 

 honey and honeycomb in one of those bee-trees ; 

 but judging from the very dark colour of the comb, 

 and the peculiar flavour of the honey, a portion of 

 it appears to have been stored up during several 

 years. 



Besides the common bee, there are several other 

 bees in Britain, which also produce honey, but 

 which have never been domesticated. There is the 

 common humble bee, black, with the hinder part of 

 its abdomen white ; the black and red bee ; the 

 brown or foggy bee, somewhat resembling the carder 

 in its habits ; and the black bee, noted for the 

 fierce defence of its nest, which, after all, is not 

 much worth plundering. In the habits of all these 

 bees, there are circumstances which render their 

 domestication almost impossible. The course of 

 their life through the summer is as follows: One 

 bee alone having survived the rigours of winter, 

 generally sets to work, about the early part of June, 

 to construct a nest for herself and her future pro- 

 geny : these nests are of different kinds, according 

 to the habits of the insect ; some of them, as the 

 humble bee, going deep into the eartli in dry banks ; 

 others preferring heaps of stone or gravel; and the 

 brown, foggy, or moss bee, choosing always some 

 bed of dry moss, generally of the long interwoven 

 kinds called hypnum. The nest, as first construct- 

 ed, is of small dimensions within : but when the 

 bee has deposited her eggs, and young begin to be 

 hatched, they all labour in common, and soon pro- 

 duce much more ample accommodations. The cells 

 which we find in these nests are not the work of the 

 old bee, but are formed by the young insects in the 

 same manner as the cocoons of silk-worms ; and 

 when the perfect insect is released from them by 

 the old bee, which the latter does by gnawing off 

 their tops, they are then employed as honey-cups. 

 The honey which is here deposited is not, however, 

 intended as a store for winter : it is collected solely 

 to meet the wants of the growing colony in rear- 

 ing its young bees, which are fed on a mixed food 

 of honey and pollen (dust from the flowers of 

 plants) while they are in the caterpillar state. The 

 wants of the young go on increasing fora great part 

 of the summer, and the quantity of honey they 

 consume is very large : towards the middle or latter 

 part of September, however, the energies of the 



