BEES. 



BEES. 



it should be internally clean, smooth and free 

 from cracks or flaws. All these properties 

 seem best united in the section-hive, which is 

 constituted of two, three, four, or more square 

 boxes of similar size as to width, placed over 

 each other. Such hives are cheap, and so 

 simple that almost any one can construct 

 them. (See Fig. 1.) 



The boxes A, B, C, D, may be made from 

 ten to fourteen inches square and about five 

 inches in depth, inside measure. Every bee- 

 keeper should have his boxes made of the 

 same size, so as to fit on to each other. 

 Every hive must have a common top-board, 

 <z, which should project over the sides of the 

 hive. The top-board of each section should 

 have about sixteen holes bored through at equal 

 distances from each other, and not larger than 

 or smaller than of an inch. Or, instead of 

 such holes, chinks of proper size may be cut 

 through to allow the bees to pass up and down. 

 At the lower part of each box or section, in front, 

 there must be an aperture or little door, c, c,c,cf, 

 just high enough to K-t the bees pass, and about 

 an inch and a half wide. The lowermost aper- 

 ture, rf, is to be left open at first, and when the 

 hive is filled the upper ones may be succes- 

 sively opened. By placing over the holes in the 

 top of the upper section, glass globes, jars, 

 tumblers, or boxes, the bees will rise into and 

 fill them with honey. These may be removed 

 at any time after being filled. The holes in 

 the tops of the hive which do not open into the 

 glasses or boxes should of course be plugged 

 up. These glass jars, &c. must be covered 

 over with a box so as to keep them in the dark. 

 Every box or section, on the side opposite the 

 little door, should have a narrow piece of glass 

 inserted, with a sliding shutter, by drawing 

 out which the condition of the hive can always 

 be inspected. To make the bees place their 

 combs in parallel lines, five or six sticks or bars 

 may be placed at the top of every section, 

 running from front to rear. The bees will at- 

 tach their combs to these 

 bars, and the intermediate 

 space will afford suffi- 

 cient light to see them 

 work. The slides cover- 

 ing the glasses should 

 never be left open longer 

 than is just necessary 

 for purposes of inspec- 

 2. tion. 



When one section is removed from the top, 

 a wire or long thin knife must be previously 

 run between this and the one immediately be- 

 low, so as to destroy the attachments. Then 

 remove the upper section, placing the top upon 

 the one below, which is now the highest divi- 

 sion of the hive. Another section is to be 

 placed beneath, lifting up the whole hive for 

 the purpose. Sometimes a second section has 

 to be put under during a good season. If the 

 swarm is not very large three or even two 

 boxes will be sufficient for its accommodation. 

 The boxes or sections may be secured upon 

 each other by buttons, b, 6, or rabbits, and the 

 joints closed with cement 



A good swarm of bees should weigh five or 

 six pounds, and one weighing eight pounds is 



considered large. The weight diminishes to 

 one pound. Such as are less than four pounds 

 weight should be strengthened by a small ad- 

 ditional swarm. The hives ought not to be too 

 large, as bees are apt to lose time in filling up 

 vacancies with wax instead of making honey. 



Honey collected from flowers growing in 

 meadows, pasture lauds, trees, and cultivated 

 crops, is almost as limpid as the purest oil, and 

 the wax nearly as white as snow. Honey 

 collected from buckwheat has a harsh taste. 

 When taken once in two years, it is considered 

 richer and more solid, and will keep better 

 than what is taken every year. 



Some of the plants from which bees collect 

 their stores possess poisonous properties and 

 impart these to the honey. The late Dr. B. S. 

 Barton wrote an interesting and valuable pa- 

 per upon this subject, which is published in the 

 Transactions of the Amrrivm I'/i/fufinphical &>- 

 defy, volume 5th. The plants which, in the 

 United States, most frequently, afford poi- 

 sonous honey, are the dwarf laurel (Kalmia 

 MjgiMfi/bfia), and the great laurel ( Kalmia lati- 

 ///*), the mountain laun'l (Ithndodrrufmn nift.fi- 

 MM), wild honey-suckle (Azalia nudijiora}, 

 Jamestown weed, and broad-leaved mo<-r\vort 

 of the south (Andrutnrdn iiiuriiina'). Most of 

 these plants are known to produce poisonous 

 honey, whilst a few of them are only suspi- 

 cious. Of the trees and shrubs resorted to by 

 bees, some furnish them with the farina or 

 flower-dust which yields the spring food 

 for their young, some, the gummy or re- 

 sinous exudations or secretions from which 

 they derive the propolis or wax for sealing the 

 hives of fresh swarms, whilst others yield 

 them honey in greater or less purity. The 

 willow is much resorted to by bees for all the 

 objects mentioned, furnishing the farina, the 

 propolis, and honey-dew (the last from their 

 aphides), in regular succession. When swarms 

 are in the vicinity of the American sweet gum 

 or styrax, they make their propolis from its 

 fragrant gum. At other times they resort to 

 the Athenian poplar. The sweet box myrtle 

 blooms very early in the spring, and its flowers 

 are always thickly beset by bees. The Eu- 

 ropean, or sweet-flowered linden or lime tree, 

 is likewise greatly resorted to by bees when 

 in bloom, and also various kinds of fruit trees, 

 especially the cherry and apple. The sweet 

 juice exuded by the hickory is eagerly sought 

 after by bees, but there is no American 

 forest tree which affords them such ample 

 supplies of the most limpid honey as the tulip 

 poplar of the Middle States. This stupendous 

 tree sometimes rises, in fertile bottom-lands, 

 above one hundred feet in height, having a 

 trunk five or six feet in diameter. Such a 

 tree, with every branch from the ground to the 

 summit covered with splendid tulips is a 

 magnificent sight, and a most valuable acqui- 

 sition when within reach of the apiary. 



Among the very great variety of plans 

 which have been adopted by American inge- 

 nuity to improve the bee culture, there is one 

 which has acquired much celebrity from its 

 enabling the surplus honey to be taken with- 

 out destroying the bees, which most persons 

 prefer doing. The plan referred to, is that of 



165 



