552 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. § 



tlie other?, enlai-freJ ihe circle. There they vi- 

 brated their vviiigrf, and buzzed as if experiencing 

 some very agreeable sensation. In a quarter of 

 an hour the queen began to move from lier origi- 

 nal [)osilion, when the bees, so far from opposing 

 her, o|)ened the circle at that part towards wliich 

 she turned, and Ibrmed a guard around. VVIiile 

 such incidents occurred on the t-uriiice of the comb 

 where ihe queen stood, all was quiet on the oiher 

 side. Here ihe workers apparently were ignorant 

 of the queen's arrival in the hive. They labored 

 with great activity at the royal cells, as if still ig- 

 norant ihat ihey no longer stood in need of them ; 

 they watched over the royal larvo", supplied them 

 with jelly, and the like. "Rut Ihe queen having at 

 leniiih repaired to this side, she was received wilh 

 the'same respect by the bees as she had expe- 

 rienced lirom their companions on the other side of 

 the comb. They encompassed her, gave her ho- 

 ney, and touched her with their antenna'; and 

 what proved better that they treated her as a mo- 

 ther, was their immediately desisting from work 

 at the royal cells ; they removed the worms, and 

 devoured the food collected around them. "From 

 that moment the queen was recognized by all her 

 people, and conducted herself in this new habita- 

 tion as if it had been her native hive." Thus 

 when bees have had time to Ibrget their own 

 queen, they receive one substituted lor her with 

 greater interest, or, perhaps, with more conspicu- 

 ous demonstrations ol" it. The cultivator must, 

 therelore, carefully [jractisc one of two things when 

 a queen is wanting in any of his hives; he has 

 either to procure a new one by supplying the bees 

 wilh brood comb, whereby the loss will be repaired 

 in about iourteen or Iifteen days, or he must sub- 

 stitute some supernumerary queen, in which case 

 the impending evils will be completely averted in 

 twenty-four hours. 



If two clusters of bees form in swarming, and 

 remain quite separate and distinct from each other, 

 it shows that two queens have left the hive at the 

 same time. But no single swarm being too large, 

 it is necessary, tor the welfare of the comnmniiy, 

 that one of the queens be sought lor, and sacri- 

 ficed, on which the whole bees will unite. There 

 are other situations when it is also beneficial to 

 join two or more swarms together; such as when 

 they are weak on leaving their hives in the sum- 

 mer season, or are sparingly provisioned or peopled 

 towards winter. Numbers, we repeat, indepen- 

 dent of affording a better security against externa! 

 enemies, and in promoting the general activity, 

 are more calculated in society to resist the incle- 

 mency of the weather. Those persons, therelore, 

 who cultivate bees solely for the sake of profit, es- 

 timate according to the weight of a hive whether 

 it be sulficiently strong. Hives under l()ur pounds, 

 being supposed to contain about 20,000 bees, are 

 rejected ; but Bonner atitirms, that one consisting 

 of 15,000 will do well, providing the season be not 

 far advanced. The reader will not forget what 

 we have observed of the discrepancies among na- 

 turalists concerning the number of bees in a given 

 weight. The last mentioned author, who was a 

 practical operator in uniting swarms, directs, that 

 the mouths of two hives, the lower one full and 

 the higher empty, are to be applied to each other, 

 and a sheet, or large cloth, put round them. "The 

 undermost hive nmst then be rapped with both 

 hands, in the manner a drum is beat ; rapping 



chiefly on those parts of the hive to which the 

 edges of the comb are fixed, and avoiding the 

 parts opposite to ihe sides of the combs, lest they 

 should be loosened, and, by falling together, crush 

 the bees between them, as well as the young in 

 the cells. The more bees there are, the sooner 

 will they run into the new hive ; for the concussion 

 of ihe hive by rapping alarms them as an earth- 

 (juake alarms mankind, and they run to the upper 

 hive in search of a saliir habitation. When the 

 bees are thus removed into the new hive, it may 

 be placed where ihe old one stood, which will col- 

 lect all the bees together, and within ten minutes 

 the bees will begui working as leisurely as any 

 natural swarm." By this means the under hive 

 will he lelt quite empty, and another may be sub- 

 stituted, in order that three swarms shall be united. 

 Clusters of bees may also be introduced into a 

 hive to strengthen it, and they are generally re- 

 ceived without fighting. While the bees are 

 very active, ihe places of a strong and a weak 

 swarn) may he interchanged ; the number of the 

 former which are out being much greater, will re- 

 turn to the latter as their own dwelling, and thus 

 strengilien it. There is likewise an easy and 

 simple method of uniling swarms, which consists 

 in spreading a cloth at night on the ground, close 

 to a hive where two new swarms are to be joined. 

 One of them is to be brought, and put on a stick 

 laid across the cloth, when, giving their hive a 

 smart blow, they will drop down in a cluster. 

 This done, and the empty liive thrown aside, the 

 other should be expeditiously taken from its board, 

 and set over the bees, which will speedily ascend 

 into it, and unile with its inhabitants. By the 

 means here described, a swarm may be increased 

 to any given extent. Bonner assures us, that his 

 mode may be practised in the middle ol' the day 

 with little danger, and that he has taken off four 

 swarms in one forenoon without a single sting. 



It is ungrateful to reflect, that, after all our care 

 in watching the progress of bees, in screening 

 them from injury, added to our admiration of their 

 singular industry, we must at once sacrifice so 

 many thousand lives in order to come at their 

 stores. Yet such is the general, though perni- 

 cious practice ; and whole colonies, which, in an- 

 other year, would send forth tens of thousands 

 equally industrious as themselves, are utterly ex- 

 tirpated. The mode of doing so is well known. 

 When the hives cease to increase in weight, or, 

 rather, when they begin to grow lighter, a hole is 

 dug in the ground, and some rags dipped in melted 

 brimstone being inserted in the clefts of twigs 

 stuck into the earth, the matches are kindleil, and 

 putting the hive above them, the bees arc quickly 

 sufiocatcd, and fall down in a heap. Some au- 

 thors strenuously defend this practice, contending, 

 that all expedients to save the bees are both diffi- 

 cult and precarious, and that they do not produce 

 the same advantages. We conceive that its fa- 

 cility, combined with inveterate adherence to es- 

 tablished customs, has proved a strong recommen- 

 dalion. But the majority of modern cultivators 

 are disposed to preserve the bees, while they share 

 their collections. Towards the end of September, 

 when all the Mowers have faded, when there is lit- 

 tle brood in the combs, and the bees are beginning 

 to consume the honey lliey have laid up, they 

 may he frightened out of the liive by beating on 

 it, and the combs then safely taken away. This, 



