THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



C9 



Bee Culture in Cottage Hives. 



No. 4. 



The particular method or system to be adopted 

 and pursued in practical beeculture, depends 

 in part on the honey resources of the district, 

 and in part on the pecuniary resources of the 

 apiarian. In a poor honey district it is not ad- 

 visable to begin operations on a large scale, 

 especially if other bee keepers are already en- 

 gaged there in the business. And as the estab- 

 lishment of an apiary, even on a moderate scale, 

 involves the investment of some capital, who- 

 ever would engage in the enterprise should be 

 well assured that he possesses the means requi- 

 site for its due prosecution to the extent he con- 

 templates. We would advise every beginner 

 to s'art with a small number of stocks, espe- 

 cially if he is yet a novice, who must of course 

 expect to pay tuition fees, in the form of dissp- 

 pointments and losses, before he can hope to 

 become an expert. If he begins with a small 

 stock, his losses can in no event be heavy, and 

 will be amply recompensed by the experience 

 acquired. He should also, at the outset, fix on 

 a definite number of stocks, in his own mind, 

 to which he will limit his proposed apiary, that 

 he may have a precise object in view to the at- 

 tainment of which his eff'orts may be directed. 

 As he proceeds in increasing his stocks, he 

 should determine that the greater portion of 

 them shall always be devoted to the accumula- 

 tion of stores, and the smaller onlj^ to the mul- 

 tiplication of colonies — the latter being intended 

 as the reserve from which the former are to be 

 re-enforced or increased, as occasion demands 

 or his own purposes require. He may, from 

 the first, aim at a larger or smaller number in 

 the aggregate, extending or reducing his stock, 

 as time and experience shall justify. But it 

 must ever be a fundamental maxim with him, 

 that beeculture is not to be prosecuted at hap- 

 hazard, but conducted on a Avell-digested and 

 systematized plan. He will thus seek to re- 

 strict and repress natural swarming, so as to 

 make it subservient to his own views and in- 

 terest's — suppressing after-swarms altogether, 

 when feasible, or reuniting them with their pa- 

 rent stocks. It is only by controlling and regu- 

 lating the natural impulses of the bees, that he 

 can turn their labors properly to account. Yet 

 he must at all times be prepared and willing to 

 make some seeming sacrifices to secure the ulti- 

 mate prosperity of his apiar)'. He must not 

 expect to increase the number of his colonies 

 largely and reap a bountiful supplj' of honey in 

 the same season. Honey must remain a second- 

 ary object with him till his apiary contains the 

 desired number of strong stocks; and a very 

 rapid multiplicatien of stocks can only be at- 

 tempted by one who is able and willing to incur 

 the expense of liberal and prolonged feeding — 

 Avhich is always attended with trouble and ex- 

 pense. 



We propose now to give the needed instruc- 

 tions to enable a beginner who proposes to cul- 

 tivate bees on a moderate scale, in cottage 

 hivss, to manage them successfully, and estab- 



lish an apiary of a dozen hives in the shortest 

 time. 



He who wishes to become an intelligent, prac- 

 tical beekeeper must, in the first place, acquaint 

 himself thoroughly with the natural history of 

 the insect — not as it is hitherto tauglit in trea- 

 tises on entomology, but as it is presented in 

 the works of scientific apiarians. Without such 

 knowledge, well digested, he will be continu- 

 ally liable to make mistakes — doing what he 

 should not do, omitting to do what he ought to 

 do, or doing it at the wrong time. Let this be 

 his preparatorj' study, and having thus quali- 

 fied himself for work, let him in the following 

 spring, say the month of April, purchase two 

 good .stocks of bees, such as are well stored 

 with honey and contain much brood. They 

 should be procured from an apiarj^ at legst a 

 mile distant from l\is residence, and should be- 

 fore purchasing, be subjected to an examina- 

 tion on some mild day when the bees are flyin"- 

 briskly*. Stocks whose bees are flying in and 

 out freely, carrying in pollen plentifully, and 

 showing not only life, but spirit and energy, 

 should be picked out for further scrutiny. Turn 

 up such a hive gently, and wiiile doing so judge 

 by its weight whether it is still well supplied 

 with honey; puff" a few whiff's of smoke among 

 the bees to drive them back, and see whether 

 there is brood in the worker combs, and ascer- 

 tain whether there are bees enough remaining 

 to fill the passages between at least four of the 

 combs. If no brood can be seen in the worker 

 combs, or if what is seen is capped with protu- 

 berant convex covers, the stock should be re- 

 jected, as either having no queen or one pro- 

 ducing drone brood onfy. But if brood sealed 

 with flat covers is seen in the worker combs, 

 and the hive is populous, with plenty of honey, 

 or the seller will guarantee that there is enough 

 of the latter in store to carry the stock safely to 

 the middle of May, there can scarcely be any 

 risk in purchasing it, at such price as is current 

 in the neighborhood. It will be much cheaper, 

 in the end, to pay a very liberal price for stocks 

 that bear rigid examination, than take feeble 

 or ill-provided ones as a gift. 



When the purchased hives are to be removed, 

 they should be inverti-d in the evening, aftei 

 the bees have ceased to fly, and a piece of coarse 

 muslin or liuen drawn tightly over the opening 

 so as to confine the bees, and' secured by fasten 

 ing it to the sides all round with small tacks, so 

 that not a bee can escape during the transpor- 

 tation; and the hives, remaining thus inverted, 

 may be carried at night, in a light spring wa- 

 gon, without injury to the bees, to the place de- 

 signed lor them. When arrived at their new 

 home, the bees must remain confined till the 

 hives have been turned again and each set tem- 

 porarily on three triangular blocks placed equi- 

 distanv on the bottom boards designed to re- 

 ceive them — thus elevating the hives about one 

 inch above these. The tacks in the Irout must 

 then be drawn, and the cloth drawn doAvn on 

 that side, to give the bees a free passage. If 

 this is done gently, few bees will come out, and 

 the entire mass will soon become quiet, and the 

 cloth, with the supporting blocks can be taken 



