BEE. 



425 



Be* 



Separation 

 of honey 

 and wax. 



be frightened out of the hive by beating on it, and 

 the combs then safely taken away. This, however, 

 would reduce th owner to the necessity of feeding 

 them during winter, whence an earlier season is gene- 

 rally chose for it, that the bees may still have time to 

 lay in winter provender. The highest part of a hive 

 being always filled first, and with honey of the finest 

 quality, it may be taken iu the midst of summer 

 if the bees are kept in boxes, simply by removing the 

 upper one, and substituting another below, if that 

 be required. As every comb is seen in the leaf hive, 

 any one of the whole can be removed at will, and 

 new divisions inserted. The stores of the bees should 

 be moderately partitioned with them, and due regard 

 always paid to the advancement of the season, and 

 the state of the atmosphere. We cannot tell how 

 much they will produce. Thorley declares, that, in 

 some summers, he has taken two boxes from one hive, 

 each containing thirty pounds of honey. We hear of 

 hives weighing seventy, eighty, or even an hundred 

 pounds ; but these bear no comparison with what M. 

 Duhamel relates. A clergyman in France, who had 

 placed a well-stocked hive over an inverted tub with 

 a hole in the bottom, obtained no less than 420 

 pounds of honey and six of wax from it. The cul- 

 tivator should know the exact weight of his hives, 

 and mark their gradual increase or diminution, which 

 will enable him to ascertain the proper time of taking 

 the honey. Bonner judiciously observes, that " the 

 harvest of honey, like that of corn, is earlier or later, 

 more plentiful or scarce in different years, according 

 to the weather and the climate, and the variety of 

 the seasons and situations." Sometimes he has known 

 a hive become gradually lighter after the first week 

 of August ; at other times, in favourable weather, 

 hive6 situated near heath have continued working 

 actively during the whole of August, and the greater 

 part of September, and daily become heavier. 



Of the practical separation of honey and wax we need 

 say little, as it is universally understood by those who 

 cultivate bees for profit. That honey which is most 

 fluid, and runs most easily from the comb, is consider- 

 ed the best and finest. To promote the separation of 

 the rt'6t, the combs should be cut into very small 

 portions, and exposed before a fire, to render the ho- 

 ney more liquid ; the product will be honey of the 

 second degree of fineness ; and the remainder should 

 be heated still more in a vessel over a fire, and then 

 squeezed through a canvas bag, which will produce 

 a coarjer kind, well adapted for feeding bees. It fa- 

 cilitates the operation, to erect a stage of three or 

 four sieves, one always finer than the other from the 

 top, and in a short time the separation is effected. 

 Honey comb, wrapped in paper, and kept in a cool 

 place, may be preserved entire during a whole winter 

 or longer. To purify the wax, nothing more is ne- 

 cessary than boiling the empty combs, and those de- 

 prived of the honey, in water, and removing the scum 

 which will rise in the successive meltings. The Abbe 

 della Rocca proposes to put a quantity of comb, 

 tied up in a linen or woollen bag, into a cauldron of 

 water ; as the heat increases, the wax liquefies, and, 

 escaping through the interstices of the bag, rises 

 to the surface, while the refuse is retained behind. 



VOL. Ml. J'AHT III. 



This i3 a simple, and, as we conceive, very effectual 

 method. s 



We apprehend that very few precautions are ne- 

 cessary for preserving bees in winter. They are not 

 torpid in that season provided they be numerous,, 

 and then they cluster together towards the top of 

 the hive.- But, like other insects, they are liable to 

 torpidity when single, or where there are few collect- 

 ed together, and that torpidity, by an extraordinary 

 increase of cold, will end in death. With the view of 

 saving their provision, it has been proposed to keep 

 bees torpid, or in an ice-house all winter. It is un- 

 doubted that in a certain degree of cold they cease to 

 consume honey, and animals may live an indefinite 

 time in a state of torpidity. The hives ought not to 

 be exposed to sunshine in the depth of winter, for 

 the bees are induced to go out, and the sudden cold 

 that follows deprives them of the power of return- 



The cultivation of bees forms one considerable 

 branch of rural economy, and we could wish to see it 

 much farther extended. This country is capable of 

 supporting at least four or five times the number of 

 hives now Kept in it ; and, without indulging in the 

 speculations of extravagant profit, which are ge- 

 nerally entertained by the authors who write on the 

 subject, we will confidently affirm, that every one 

 who attempts keeping bees on a moderate scale, and 

 pays them some attention, will find it advantageous. 

 There are repeated instances of bees swarming natu- 

 rally three times during a season ; and in the present 

 year, 1810, we have known five swarms come from a 

 single hive. Bonner calculates, that 20 stock hives in 

 each parish of Scotland, or 16,000 in all, would, in se- 

 ven years, by each merely producing one swarm, aug- 

 ment to above two millions and forty-eight thousand. 

 He allows a deduction of forty-eight thousand for 

 losses, which leaves two millions of stock hives. The 

 loss, however, would be much more considerable ; but 

 from the parishes being about a fifth above what he 

 supposes, the difference will not be proportionally 

 great. Such an increase could hardly follow, and some 

 unfavourable years might be destructive of most of the 

 stock ; yet, on the whole, the hives would be numerous 

 compared with what they were in the outset. By 

 another calculation, he supposes an individual pur- 

 chasing five hives at 1 each, will obtain, in ten 

 years, 2560 swarms, which, valued at 10 s. each, 

 makes a profit of 1280. He supposes that each 

 hive gives one swarm annually ( if they give more, 

 that the latter are to be allotted for expenses and in- 

 cidental losses. But in similar calculations we should 

 hardly look further than three years ; and it is quite 

 moderate enough to say, that each hive will give one 

 swarm, which may be preserved until the end of the 

 third year. Therefore, as the price of hives in this 

 year, 1810, is 2, 2s., supposing a stock of ten is 

 obtained, it is lar from improbable, that, at the end 

 of the third year, it will be found to have increased 

 to eighty ; and it is likely, also, that other thirty or 

 forty swarms have left the stock hives, or that first 

 swarms have sent out a colony. The reasons we have 

 already given shew why an excessive number of bees 

 cannot be maintained in one place ; and speculations 

 3 ii 



Bee. 





