HONEY. 



HONEY 



rest, d, small slats fastened into the sides of ' 

 the hive by mortices. These serve to prevent 

 the doors from touching the honeycomb. Each 

 range of frames has one of these slats. 



e, c, e, are small frames in which the bees 

 work and deposit their honeycombs. These 

 frames are notched or scooped out circularly 

 upon^he lower side, as well as upon both edges 

 of the front end, as represented in fig. 2. The 

 opening left by the hollow in the lowermust 

 side serves for the bees to enter from beneath, 

 whilst the hollows on the two sides of the front 

 end of the frame admits the movements of the 

 bees to be observed. These frames are thin ; 

 their thickness, however, is not arbitrary, but 

 must be made to correspond to the size and 

 form which the bees give to their combs. 

 "When placed side by side the frames must not 

 touch, but a small space is to be left between 

 to allow a little play, and prevent them from 

 wedging together and becoming tight in warm 

 weather, when the wood swells. 



/,/,/, are three places of entrance for the 

 bees, furnished with slides. These are so ar- 

 ranged that the middle one comes exactly in 

 the middle of its compartment ; the upper one 

 is an inch higher than the upper slat; whilst 

 the lower opening is an inch lower than the 

 lowermost slat. 



h (fig. 3) is a grating to be used in autumn, 

 when it may be desired to separate the empty 

 parts from those filled with comb. This grating, 

 or uddpter, remains in contact with the bees, 

 g (fig. 4) represents a small board, which is to 

 be placed on top of the grating. 



Fig. 5 is a transverse section, in which may 

 be seen the places of entrance,/, the depth of 

 the frames, a, and at c, one of the combs. 



The various kinds of hives, constructed in 

 sections or compartments, may be divided into 

 two classes, namely, those in which the divi- 

 sions are made either horizontally or vertically. 

 The first are founded upon the well-known ne- 

 cessity for allowing space for the new combs ; 

 the second from the advantage derived from 

 separating the swarms artificially. To carry 

 out these plans, very complicated contrivances 

 have generally been employed, whilst the Rus- 

 sian hive effects every necessary object to be 

 gained from section or division hives. 



The leading principle of the Russian hive, 

 which, it will be seen, is quite plain in con- 

 struction, and economical as to first cost, 

 consists in its capacity to be reversed or turned 

 v}>sulc dawn, a very simple operation, which, 

 however, leads to the most important results in 

 the management of bees. 



Reversing the hive not only allows of the 

 perfect renewal of the wax, but furnishes an 

 opportunity of inspecting every thing passing 

 within, by means of the movable doors, and 

 at the same time, of conducting all the opera- 

 tions at pleasure, thus uniting all the advan- 

 tages of the two systems of horizontal and ver- 

 tical section hives, such as the separation of 

 swarms, &c. 



By means of the operation of reversing, the 

 jee-manager who introduces a swarm into the 

 Russian hive, will, during three years, be able 

 to withdraw each year one of the three divi- 

 sions alternately, or one-third of the whole 

 630 



mass of honey deposited ; at the end of the 

 period mentioned, he will have thus produced 

 a perfect renewal of the wax; that is to say, at 

 this time he will be obliged to reverse or turn 

 up the hive, the former bottom of which now 

 becomes the top. 



The mode in which M. Prokopovitsh ma- 

 nages to make his bees assort their honey 

 themselves, is effected by means of a very 

 simple contrivance. Many others have de- 

 vised modes very similar to those adopted by 

 the Russian apiarian, but it is asserted that 

 their objects had not the same end, since they 

 only sought to obtain the virgin honey. No 

 one has before believed it practicable to pro- 

 cure honey of a uniform quality and which at 

 the same time is virgin honey. The idea 

 therefore originally belongs to M. Prokopo- 

 vitsh, who, whilst pursuing his apiarian stu- 

 dies, had it suggested to him by a plan adopted 

 by Huber for the mere purpose of being able 

 to watch the habits of bees. 



The process of working the Russian hive is 

 as follows : In autumn, after having taken the 

 upper portion of the crop, when the amount of 

 honey admits this to be done, the part of the 

 hive thus left empty is separated from the rest 

 of the comb, by introducing the grating h, and 

 placing upon it the board g. In this state the 

 hive is conveyed to some suitable place to pass 

 the winter. The following summer, at the ar- 

 rival of the season when the plant from which 

 honey is to be collected is in flower, the board 

 is removed, and the frames e placed upon the 

 grating. These frames, which are made ot 

 very thin stuff, have a length equal to the 

 depth of the hive. Their height is about half 

 that of their length, and their width or thick- 

 ness ought not to exceed an inch and a half. 



Two sides of the frame, have, as already 

 described, two notches or hollows which re- 

 duce their width. One of these is the loug^ 

 side which comes in contact with the grating, 

 affording passage to the bees, whilst the other 

 is the end near the door which admits the 

 movements of the bees to be inspected. Be- 

 fore these frames are arranged in their places, 

 a little dry wax is to be stuck along the micP 

 die of the upper side of the frame, (the side 

 which is not scooped out). This is for the 

 purpose of directing the bees where they must 

 place their combs. 



By the arrangement described, the bees 

 finding above them a vacant space, commence 

 their work in it, and finding in the flowers in 

 bloom sufficient material, fill the cases with 

 honey, and this they do with the more rapidity 

 front the circumstance of the queen's being 

 separated by a space not yet occupied by the 

 combs, and her inability to reach these to lay 

 her eggs in them. The cases in which the 

 honey is deposited are sealed up immediately, 

 the comb is observed to have reached the 

 lower part of the box, and before the queen 

 has had an opportunity of depositing in it any 

 eggs. The honey thus obtained is of remark- 

 able purity, and may be taken to market in ihe 

 same frames in which it was originally made. 

 These may even be packed up together in cases, 

 and transported in wagons to great distances, 

 without doing the least injury to the honey. 



