108 



Hiving Bees. — State of Wheat for Reaping. 



Vol. YI. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Hiving: Bees. 



I AM glad that due attention is likely to be 

 paid to a very profitable and pleasing- branch of 

 husbandry — I mean Bee-keepine|-, and cannot 

 but approve many valuable articles that have 

 lately appeared in the Cabinet on that sub- 

 ject — the letter from a Bee-keeper in No. 2, 

 for September, in particular. But is it not 

 strange that so little has been said by any of 

 them on the best mode of securing the 

 swarms on leaving the hive, as also on offer- 

 ing them facilities of colonization by which 

 they might be induced to " pitch their tents" 

 nearer home, and thus prevent the loss of 

 hundreds of the finest and strongest of the 

 swarms, which are continually escaping into 

 the woods, or enriching our distant neigh- 

 bours with their treasures ? At best, all the 

 directions which I had seen or heard of, were 

 most clumsy and uncertain, until I happened 

 to meet in an eastern paper with the fol- 

 lowing, which are deserving record in your 

 pages, and will, I have no doubt, be practised 

 the next season with profit to many of your 

 readers. 



The author says: "As the season for 

 swarming approaches, I cut an evergreen, 

 such as fir or spruce, about 6 or 8 feet high, 

 and trim off" all the branches on one side close 

 to the tree, so that it may be laid flat on the 

 ground ; the lower end, or butt, is sharpened 

 like a stake, and set in a hole made by an 

 iron bar in the ground about 10 or 16 feet in 

 front of the hives. Swarms will very seldom 

 seek any other resting-place, when a bush 

 like this is at hand. When a swarm leaves 

 the hive I say nothing, but stand and look on, 

 until they become still and quiet on the bush. 

 I then carefully raise the bush from the hole, 

 and lay it flat on the ground, and place the 

 hive over them. If the limbs on the upper 

 side interfere, I press the hive down and lay 

 a stone or some heavy substance on to keep 

 it in its proper place, till the swarm takes 

 possession, which is generally in ten or fifteen 

 minutes. In this way I have never lost a 

 swarm, and have frequently hived a swarm 

 and removed them to the bee-house among 

 the old hives in one hour from tiie time of 

 their leaving the hive. 



"Another way is as simple, and, as far as 

 I have tried it, equally sure. I take a board 

 wide enough to set a hive on, and 2 or JJ feet 

 long; bore a hole in the centre, and drive in 

 a pin, 1 or 2 inches in diameter, and 8 or 10 

 inches long. I then take two small cords, 

 and fasten the end of each to tiie corners of 

 the board, so that they form a loop at each 

 end of the board, about 2 or 3 feet long. This 

 board, thus prepared, I suspend from two 

 stakes in front of the hives, with the pin 



pointing downwards; taking care that the 

 stakes slope towards each other, so that the 

 board may not touch at the end. Around tliis 

 pin the bees will cluster, and when they get 

 still, unhook the cord from the stakes, turn 

 the board over carefully, lay it on the ground, 

 and set the hive over it. In this way much 

 time and trouble may be saved ; for there is 

 no need of watching for swarms — only pro- 

 vide such resting-places, and there you will 

 find them. I have left a swarm suspended 

 under the board, as last mentioned, through 

 the day, and found them safe in the evening, 

 and hived them after the other labour of the 

 day was past. I think, on the whole, this 

 method the best, as they seem more content- 

 ed under cover of the board than when more 

 exposed, and not so likely to take wing be- 

 fore they are hived." B. 



English Experiments, to show the Pro- 

 per State of ^Vheat for Reaping. 



Observing that the prices which a certain 

 individual had obtained for wheat were nearly 

 always above those of the neighbouring mar- 

 kets at the same time, he informed me that 

 he was in the habit of commencing harvest 

 a week or ten days before the generality of 

 his neighbours, it being his practice to reap 

 his wheat before it became quite ripe. I 

 therefore determined to take the first oppor- 

 tunity to give the system a fair trial, and of 

 this trial the following are the details and 

 results. 



Having selected a field of red wheat, I cut 

 a sheaf on August 4th, 1840. At this time 

 it was quite green, that is, both straw and 

 ears were in full vigour and full of sap; and 

 although the grain appeared perfectly form- 

 ed, the chaff still adhered so firmly to it that 

 it was scarcely possible to separate them by 

 friction in the hands ; when separated, it was 

 large and plump, but so full of milk that the 

 slightest pressure reduced the whole to a 

 juicy pulp: this sheaf stood in the field for a 

 fortnight, when it was housed. 



August 18lh, I cut another sheaf; the 

 wheat was yet green, or not ripe, being, 

 what farmers commonly term raw — that is, 

 the straw, although appearing green at a dis- 

 tance, was of a hue fast approximating to 

 yellow, when examined clo:=ely, while, for a 

 foot upwards from the ground it was quite 

 yellow ; the ears, too, were more open, the 

 chaff tinged with various shades of yellow 

 and green, and tJie grain itself, when sepa- 

 rated, soft and pulpy, but not near so full of 

 fluid as before: tlie judgment of the farmer 

 will better tell him the condition of the 

 wheat, when I say, that in another fortnight 

 the whole field was ripe — therefore, at the 

 end of this fortnight, September 1st, I housed 



