THE BEE. 



521 



through life. The toil of man is irksome to 

 him, and he earns his subsistence with pain ; 

 but this little animal seems happy in its 

 pursuits, and finds delight in all its employ- 

 ments. 



When just freed from the cell, and pro- 

 perly equipped by its fellow-bees for duty, it 

 at once issues from the hive, and instructed 

 only by Nature, goes in quest of flowers, 

 chooses only those that yield it a supply, 

 rejects such as are barren of honey, or have 

 been already drained by other adventurers ; 

 and when loaded, is never at a loss to find its 

 way back to the common habitation. After 

 this first sally, it begins to gather the mealy 

 powder that lies on every flower, which is 

 afterwards converted into wax ; and with this, 

 the very first day, it returns with two large 

 balls stuck to its thighs. 



When bees first begin to break their prisons, 

 there are generally above a hundred excluded 

 in one day. Thus, in the space of a few weeks, 

 the number of the inhabitants in one hive, of 

 moderate size, becomes so great, that there is 

 no place to contain the new comers ; and they 

 are scarcely excluded from the cell, when they 

 are obliged, by the old bees, to sally forth in 

 quest of new habitations. In other words, the 

 hive begins to swarm, and the new progeny 

 prepares for exile. 1 



1 Those not experienced in the nature of bees, may be 

 greatly deceived in the purchasing of hives for stock. It 

 can only be by a minute examination of the interior of 

 the hive, that a just estimate of its value may be gained ; 

 this, however, is attended with much difficulty, and some 

 danger; but by the outward appearance and weight of 

 the hive he may perhaps arrive at nearly a correct con- 

 jecture. The best season for purchasing is either in 

 February or at the swarming season ; in February it has 

 survived the rigour of winter, and the purchaser has 

 then only to attend to the population of the hive, or its 

 apparent age. Let the purchaser observe with attention 

 the number of bees which enter the hive loaded with the 

 fruits of their industry ; and if an apparently equal num- 

 ber departs in great bustle and hurry, he may then con- 

 jecture the hive to be in good health and well populated ; 

 and if a loud humming noise is heard within the hive, it 

 is a certain sign of its strength and prosperity. The 

 weight of a hive in February should never be under fifteen 

 pounds, nor in autumn under thirty ; and care should be 

 taken that the hive is new, for in old hives a quantity of 

 farina or bee-head accumulates, which adds considerably 

 to its weight ; the purchaser should also reject a hive 

 when he observes its straw decayed and rotten, the 

 ligaments loose, and frequent blotches over it, for it will 

 cost him incessant trouble and vexation to keep it in a 

 sufficient state of preservation, so as to maintain the 

 health of his bees. 



The apiary, or place where the bee-hives are placed, 

 should in very warm situations be made to face the east, 

 and incolder districts the south-east. It should bewell pro- 

 tected from high winds, which not only prevent the bees 

 from leaving the hive in quest of honey, but they also 

 surprise them in the fields, and often kill them by dashing 

 them against the trees and rocks or into rivers. The 

 hives in an apiary should always be placed in a right 

 line ; but should the number of the hives be great, and 

 the situation not capacious enough to admit of flieir being 



VOL. II. 



While there is room enough in the hive, 

 the bees remain quietly together ; it is neces- 

 sity alone that compels the separation. Some- 

 times, indeed, the young brood, with grace- 



placed longitudinally it is more advisable to place them 

 over one another on shelves than in double rows on the 

 ground. A bee, on leaving the hive, generally forms an 

 angle of about forty-five with the horizon ; the elevation 

 of the hive should therefore be about two feet from the 

 ground, in order to protect it from humidity. The greater 

 the elevation of the hive, the longer is the flight of the 

 swarm ; and when they are at a certain point of eleva- 

 tion, the swarms are lost for ever to the proprietor. If 

 the hives are to be placed in a double row, the hinder 

 ones should alternate with, and be placed at such a dis- 

 tance from, the front ones, that when the bees take their 

 flight no obstruction is offered to their ascent. Huish 

 recommends placing every hive upon a single pedestal, 

 and at two or three feet distance from each other. By this 

 means, when any thing happens to one hive, the others 

 are less likely to be disturbed than when placed on a 

 shelf in a bee-house ; and the hive may be chained down 

 and locked. It is usual to have three or four legs or 

 supports to the bee-boards ; but those who have tried one 

 will never resort to more, as one is a much better pro- 

 tection from vermin and insects. The space in front of 

 the apiary should be kept clear of high plants for two or 

 three yards. 



The variety of bees employed is a matter of some con- 

 sequence. To the common observer all working bees, 

 as to external appearance, are nearly the same ; but to 

 those who examine them with attention, the difference 

 in size is very distinguishable ; and they are, in their 

 vicious and gentle, indolent and active natures, essen- 

 tially different. Of the stock which Howison had in 

 1810, it required 250 to weigh an ounce ; but they were 

 so vicious and lazy that he changed it for a smaller 

 variety, which possessed much better dispositions, and of 

 which it required 296, on an average, to weigh an ounce. 

 Whether size and disposition are invariably connected, 

 is not determined. 



The best material and form for hives is a straw thimble 

 or flower-pot placed in an inverted position. Hives 

 made of straw, as now in use, have a great advantage 

 over those made of wood and other materials, from the 

 effectual defence they afford against the extremes of heat 

 in summer and cold in winter. 



The size of hives should correspond as nearly as pos- 

 sible with that of the swarms. This has not had that 

 attention paid to it which the subject demands, as much 

 of the success in the management of the bees depends on 

 that circumstance. From blind instinct bees endeavour 

 to fill with combs whatever hive they are put into, before 

 they begin to gather honey. Owing to this, when the 

 hive is too large for its inhabitants, the time for collect- 

 ing their winter store is spent in unprofitable labour ; and 

 starvation is the consequence. This evil also extends to 

 occasioning late swarming the next summer; it being 

 long before the hive becomes so filled with young bees as 

 to produce a necessity for emigration, from which cause 

 the season is too far advanced for the young colonies to 

 procure a winter stock. A full-sized straw hive will 

 hold three pecks ; a small-sized from one and a half to 

 two pecks. 



The Polish hive appears to be the second in merit to 

 that described, and perhaps it may deserve the prefer- 

 ence, if the mode of using it were generally known. It 

 is simply the trunk of a tree, of a foot or fourteen inches 

 in diameter, and about nine feet long. It is scooped out 

 (boring in this country would be better) for about six feet 

 from one end, so as to form a hollow cylinder of that 

 length, and of six or eight inches in diameter within. 

 Part of the circumference of this cylinder is cut out dur- 

 ing the greater part of its length, about four inches wide 

 3 u 



