1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



545 



some irritating qualiiy, for if bellows be used, the 

 bees are more disposed to escape than to sting. 

 Another advantage attends the leaf hive, whicli 

 consists in the power of the operator to make the 

 bees worii in wax, or, wliich is tiie same tlnng, to 

 construct new comlis. All that is here required is 

 to separate those already built so fiir asunder as to 

 leave an interval in which additional ones may be 

 constructed. Suppose that a swarm be lodged in 

 a leaf liive consisting of six divisions, each con- 

 taining a comb. If the young queen be as fertile 

 as she ought, the bees will be very active in their 

 labors, and disposed to make great collections in 

 wax. To induce them towards it, an empty 

 fl-ame, or division, should be placed between two 

 others, each containing a comb. From the neces- 

 sity which nature has imposed on these insects of 

 never leaving more than lour lines between their 

 combs, they will soon begin to build a new one in 

 the empty space, which will be parallel to the 

 others. The number of vacancies lefi; may be 

 proportioned to the strength of the swarm, and 

 the goodness of the season ; but they should not 

 be forced too much to work in wax. M. Febu- 

 rier, the most recent observer on this subject, and 

 who, we believe, is just about to publish a work 

 regarding it in Paris, has recommended a hive to 

 the National Institute of a quadrangular pyrami- 

 dal figure, with moveable sides, its principles 

 are said to be founded on those of M. Schirach 

 and Huber ; but, as yet, they are not sufficiently 

 detailed to enable us to to explain them. If wood 

 be used, it must be extremely weil seasoned, and 

 perhaps covered with some thin varnish on the 

 outside, else it is apt to decay. Sir Torbern Berg- 

 man ascribes the scarcity of bees in Sweden prin- 

 cipally to employing wooden hives. 



Those who arc anxious to view the various and 

 progressive operations of bees, may gratify them- 

 selves, by procuring hives with glass sides. This 

 can hardly be denominated a modern invention, 

 as Pliny records, that a Roman senator had some- 

 thing of the same kind, made of the thinnest and 

 most transparent horn. But those entirely made 

 of glass were not known on the continent belbre 

 the year 1680, though they were made with panes 

 in England early in the same century; and hives 

 made completely of glass are cpoken of in 1655. 

 Glass hives ought not to be round, like the com- 

 mon shape, as The bees are concealed among the 

 combs ; they should be square boxes, whose sides 

 consist of lour panes. Reaumur used them so 

 thin as to admit of no more than two combs being 

 constructed, that he might the better witness the 

 procedure of the inhabitants. A pane on each 

 side of liuber's hollow frames exposes both sides 

 of the comb. Such hives must be covered u'ith a 

 wooden box, or an opaque substance, as light dis- 

 turbs the operations of bees. 



►Some authors think that tiiere is greater hazard 

 in giving bees too much than too little room to 

 work, when first lodged in a hive, as their animal 

 heat will not be sufficiently confined. However 

 this may be, they ought afterwards to enjoy enough 

 of space ; lor we are satisfied that many sv/arms 

 are injured from wanting it. 



Nothing is of greater importance than the size 

 of the swarm lodged in a hive. We repeatedly 

 see large swarms succeed, while small ones, espe- 

 cially towards the end of the season, fail. The 

 bees, therefore, in each swarm should be extremely 

 Vol. YH~69 



numerous ; and we may confidently affirm, that 

 the cultivator will find much ol'his success depend 

 on the number of workers contained in a single 

 hive. It appears, that bees are discouraged by 

 the smallness of their own numbers; that, when 

 greatly reauced, their instinct is uirecled, they la- 

 bor with less activity, they cease to keep guard at 

 the entrance of their hive, and testily more indif- 

 ference for their own fiite and that of their young. 

 Whether the advantage lies in a numerous swarm 

 m.aking greater collections in a shorier time ; in 

 augmenting the temperature of the hive ; or in 

 the different internal functions having larger classes 

 of workers to perform them, we shall not attempt 

 to decide. We therefore recommend the junction 

 of two or more swarms into one, particularly 

 when the period of collection draws towards a 

 close, and the sacrifice of their supernumerary 

 queens. By this expedient it will be seen, that 

 while each could hardly subsist itselfj and lay up 

 provision for winter, they will be enabled to sur- 

 vive during its most rigorous cold ; and, if the ope- 

 ration be performed- earlier in summer, they will 

 gather ar;)ple stores. Practical directions have 

 been given for the exact weight which a good 

 swarm should amount to. Bonner says, a swarm 

 is very good if it weigh four pounds; and Butler 

 maintams, that "the goodness or greatness of a 

 swarm you may most certainly know by the 

 weight: it being a good one that weigheth five 

 pounds; a reasonable good one that weigheth four; 

 and a very good one that weigheth six." But 

 the number of bees in a pound is very far from be- 

 ing ascertained, which must restrain us fiom pro- 

 nouncing on the exact weight that should consti- 

 tute a good swarm. Thorley, whose work on 

 bees participates of many of those absurdities in 

 which most authors on this subject have allowed 

 themselves to indulge, observes, "In October 1743, 

 when putting the bees of a small late swarm into 

 an empty hive, and afterwards upon a table, I 

 took a particular account of their measure, weight, 

 and number: in measure a quart ; in weight one 

 pound and a quarter; in number two thousand." 

 And he concludes, that the number of bees in a 

 swarm weighing four or five pounds would be 

 8000, or upwards ; whence a suitable hive for 

 8000 or 10,000 bees should be equivalent to two 

 pecks and a hallj or three pecks, in capacity. 

 The calculations of M. de Reaumur produce a 

 very different result. A very fine swarm which 

 left one of his hives he estimated to consist of 

 43,000 bees, and v/eighed eiuht ])ounds. Thus 

 there are, according to him, 5376 in a pound of 16 

 ounces; and Butler, who, in spite of ail the ex- 

 travagancies of his work, certainly made some ac> 

 curate observations, estimates the number of bees 

 in a pound at four thousand four hundred and filiy. 

 We suspect, that both he and Reaumur have over- 

 rated the number. 



The situation and arrangement of the apiary, 

 claim the cultivator's attention. Each hive should 

 stand on a wooden sole, or rest, supported on a 

 single wooden post driven into the ground, or on 

 three close together, near the centre of" the board, 

 that the enemies of the colony may have difficulty 

 in crawling up from below. It should be fixed se- 

 curely, so as to escape being overiurned by the 

 wind ; but the common cusiom of" laying a turf 

 on the top must be avoided, on account of the 

 harbor it affords to noxious insects, iiivea should 



