BEES. 



Jfive through the winter, and ought to be united 

 10 each other, or to a weak hive. This is the 

 plan recommended by several writers; as 

 also returning a smart or cast to the parent 

 hive, if you have no hive weak enough to re- 

 quire an increase of numbers. In this last 

 case, Huish recommends the following plan 

 Place the back of a chair parallel with the 

 entrance of the hive, over which spread a 

 sheet; then holding the hive containing the 

 smart -.vcr it, give a few sharp knocks at the 

 top, ;i'id the bees will immediately fall down 

 on th cloth ; proceed then, either with your 

 fingyr or a stick, to guide a few of the bees to 

 the Antrance of the parent hive, and they wil 

 instantly crowd into it. The queen bee should 

 AM and secured as they proceed; if this 

 is pot done, they kill her, but in a less mercifu 



(To form a junction of two weak hives, or a 

 svann and a hive, Huish discovered the fol- 



\vin^ method: Smoke each hive, as if for 



kiiiir, only with a less destructive fume 

 Much will be mentioned presently. Spread 

 \\ the bees of one hive upon a table, and 

 /search carefully for the queen ; destroy her ; 

 sweep the bees of both hives together into one, 

 sprinkling them with some beer and sugar 

 mixed ; replace the hive. The fungus used 

 for smoking bees is that called frog's cheese, 

 found in damp meadows ; take the largest, and 

 put it into a bag; squeeze it to half its size, 

 then dry it in an oven or before the fire, but 

 not by a very quick heat. Take a piece of 

 this dried fungus, the size of two eggs, and put 

 it in a stick split at one end, and sharp at the 

 other, which is to be fixed into the bottom of an 

 empty hive turned upside down, to receive the 

 stupiiied bees as they fall. 



To prevent swarming, the "Oxford Bee 

 Keeper" recommends this treatment : 



" You see in the following figure a wooden 



b b 



bottom board, with the doorway a a cut in it. 

 It has another doorway, b 6, on the right side. 

 The ring is meant to show where a hive stands 

 on it. The other bottom board is just like it, 

 only the second doorway is on the left hand, so 

 as to fit exactly to the si'de entrance of the first 

 board, when pushed close together. As soon 

 as the bees begin to hang out, in May, push the 

 two boards c ose together. In the evening, 

 when they are all in, stop up the entrance a a, 

 and open the right hand one b b. Put an empty 

 hive on the new board, with a glass worked 

 into the back for observation. Each doorway 

 has a bit of tin laid over as much of it as juts 

 out beyond the hive. The bees must then find 

 their way out by the new doorway; rub it with 

 a little honey, and they will soon take to it. 

 When the second hive is full, remove it thus : 

 in the heat of the day, when many bees are out, 

 sMp a piece of tin or card between the two 

 doorways, shut up the doorway c c, and open 

 21 



BEES. 



the old doorway a a. If the bees go on \* orkir. g 

 quietly all day, you will be sure that the queen 

 is in the old hive, and all is right. About half 

 an hour before dusk, open again the doorway 

 c c, and the bees, frightened by their long im- 

 prisonment, will hurry from one doorway to 

 another to join the queen. As soon as they are 

 gone, take away the full hive for yourself. If 

 the old hive is very uneasy all day, you may 

 be sure the queen is shut up in the new hive ; 

 if so, draw out the card or tin to join them 

 again, and wait till another day." 



Never destroy a bee ; this is the first great 

 principle in their treatment. Bees only live 

 one year, therefore, by killing them in Septem- 

 ber, you destroy the young vigorous ones 

 ready to work the following spring : the year- 

 old bees die in August. When a hive is to be 

 taken, smoke the bees as directed for joining 

 hives ; replace them in a fresh hive, taking 

 care to ascertain that the queen is safe among 

 them, and feed them through the autumn and 

 spring; they will be ready to work with the 

 rest, and a hive is thus added to the general 

 stock. The queen is easily known from the 

 working bees, as the size is larger. 



By fumigating the bees with tobacco smoke 

 while operating upon a hive, they are rendered 

 perfectly harmless. It is well to protect the 

 face, neck, and hands, to prevent alarm or the 

 chance of accident. When stung, extract the 

 sting, and apply Goulard water immediately, 

 or laudanum, or sweet oij. In February bees 

 first begin their labours. May is their busiest 

 month. In November their labours end, and 

 they remain torpid for the winter. For more 

 particular instructions, see Huish on Bees,- The 

 Conservative Bee Keeper's Letter to Cottagers ; 

 Wildman's Treatise on Bees ; The Honey Bee, by 

 Dr. Bevan,- Penny Cyclo.; Quart. Journ. ofAgr. 

 vol. ii. p. 594 ; Baxter's Agr. Lib. pp. 4653. 



Several of these treatises have been repub- 

 lished in the Unite'' States, where, besides 

 separate works upon the subjects, the agricul- 

 tural periodicals and newspapers abound with 

 suggestions and instructions relative to the 

 management of bees, &c. 



Loudon, in his lately published Encycbpsedia 

 of Agriculture, says, that after all that has been 

 done in England, France, and Italy, the dee 

 is still more successfully managed and finer 

 honey produced in Poland, by persons who 

 never saw a work on the subject, or heard of 

 the mode of depriving bees of their honey 

 without taking their lives. Much as has been 

 written in France and England upon this sub- 

 ject, it is, he observes, still found the best 

 mode to destroy the bee in taking the honey, a 

 practice for which he thinks unanswerable 

 reasons are given by La Grenee, a French 

 apiarian, and which is allowed to be conclu- 

 sive as to profit even by Huish. 



" Suffocation is performed when the season 

 of flowers begins to decline, and generally in 

 October. The smoke of paper, or rag soaked 

 or smeared with melted sulphur, is introduced 

 to the hive, by placing it in a hole in the 

 ground where a few shreds of these articles 

 are undergoing a smothering combustion ; or 

 the full hive may be placed on an empty one, 

 inverted as in partial deprivation, and the sui 

 o 2 161 



