92 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 



THE PLEASURES AND PROFITS 

 OF BEE DRIVING 



By A. H. Bowen 



The old straw bee-skep yields up 

 its harvest of honey but once a year, 

 and August and September are the 

 two months when the rivral s'keppist 

 "takes up" his surplus stocks which 

 have accumulated during the swarm- 

 ing season, and appropriates what he 

 feels to be his due. 



Knowing no better or quicker way 

 of honey taking than by killing the 

 bees, he places the heaviest hives at 

 dusk over a pit of lighted sulphur, 

 and very soon the bee population 

 tumble from their luscious combs 

 into the pit below. 



Happily, however, the number of 

 villager's bees sulphured each au- 

 tumn is growing fewer; for the skep- 

 pist nowadays is only too glad to rid 

 himself of this distasteful massacre, 

 by allowing the expert apiarist to 

 drive out and save the bees; taking 

 them away for the trouble of doing 

 it. 



The advantage of this practice is 

 mutual. The skeppist receives his 

 hives of honey free from bees, and 

 without the taint of sulphur to the 

 combs; whilst the apiarist can util- 

 ize the bees secured in a number of 

 useful ways. 



Given good weather, autumn bee- 

 driving excursions prove both pleas- 

 urable and interesting, but the api- 

 arist must first equip himself Avith 

 some suitable bee-gear to enable the 

 driving to be done rapidly, and with- 

 out causing robbing 'or commotion in 

 the cottager's bee-garden. To carry 

 the bees away, light skeps are fre- 

 quently used. My choice is for light 

 boxes with screened top and ven- 

 tilated sides, as these are compact 

 and easily handled. Half a dozen of 

 these, a pair of driving irons to 

 hinge the skeps together while driv- 

 ing, a couple of skewers, a large 

 skep with dome top, and some sul- 

 phur matches complete the outfit. 



Personally, I usually carry a few 

 queen mailing cages provisioned with 

 candv, as it is sonietinies cnnvenient 



to cage the queens when found there 

 and then, as then one knows where 

 to find them. 



\\'hcn the bees are to be sent away, 

 a little box of bee candy is screwed 

 to the bottom of each crate to give 

 extra food during confinement. 



Of the old stocks, current swarms, 

 and casts, the skeppist prefers to 

 "take up" his new casts and the old 

 hives because there is "virgin honey" 

 in the former, whilst the latter being 

 wrongly supposed to have an "old 

 queen," are not thought suitable for 

 stock. Thus the swarms with their 

 freshly-combed hives are retained 

 and being heavy are usually expected 

 to stand the winter, for the skeppist 

 abhors feeding of any kind. 



As soon as the skeps have been 

 marked for "taking," the bee driver 

 is ready to commence operations. 



Nothing is handier to stand the 

 seething upturned hive upon while 

 beating it than the stout cottage 

 "pig bench," and this is generally 

 pressed into service. 



By means of the driving irons and 

 skewer an empty skep is fixed above 

 the inverted hive, and the junction 

 made bee tight by winding round a 

 length of sacking. 



A vigorous tapping soon drives the 

 bees with their queen into the dome 

 above and in a few moments the 

 lower skep is deserted. The tough 

 nut sticks placed crosswise in each 

 hive when first the bees are put in, 

 act as do wires in a standard frame, 

 and prevent the coinbs being broken 

 or loosened. 



When the queen has been caged, a 

 sharp shake throws the bees into the 

 traveling crate, the queen dropped in 

 and the box is then placed back on 

 the stand for the flying bees to set- 

 tle. 



Bee driving is not all "beer and 

 skittles," however, owing to the curi- 

 ous kinds of beehives used. 



Circular butter boxes and square 

 cheese boxes are troublesome to deal 

 with. The bees are slower than ever 

 to run upwards. They collect in the 

 corners, and the queen, if young aiiu 



A Colswold bee garden in Kngland. 



shy, finds plenty of places in which 

 to hide herself. 



Lard buckets, cardboard hat boxes 

 and tin trunks are little better, 

 though if only half occupied by 

 combs they can be cut out, and the 

 bees brushed directly into a carrying 

 box. 



When a field of charlock is in 

 blossom over the hedge, much new 

 honey will drop from the combs, and 

 robbing then is only too easy to 

 start. 



A dull day, or a wet one has its ad- 

 vantages, for if shelter is near, un- 

 der which to work, there is no rob- 

 bing or stings; and the bees settle 

 early. 



As rapidly as emptied, each skep 

 is placed for a moment over a hole 

 containing a sulphur match, to stu- 

 pify the remaining half dozen bees, 

 which might*- have tormented' the 

 cottager's wife. 



After a cup of tea, in the cool par- 

 lor, while the bees settle, and as dusk 

 approaches, the boxes are closed up 

 and conveyed back to the apiary. 

 Dealing With the Bees 



Frequently two or three pounds of 

 bees are obtained from large, strong 

 skeps. 



Hived in the dark upon 6 drawn-out 

 combs and rapidly fed, they develop 

 into splendid oo'lonies for the follow- 

 ing season. 



Where heather abounds the bees 

 collect sufficient to keep themselves 

 without feeding. 



The surplus queens, after uniting 

 two or three smaller tots together, 

 can be utilized for re-queening pur- 

 poses. 



Many driven lots are distributed 

 each autumn to districts where these 

 cannot be obtained, and three to four 

 dollars each is the average price 

 which is paid. The true old English 

 black bee is not now so frequently 

 met with, hybrid bees being more 

 numerous. 



But in the more remote hamlets 'of 

 our country-side, native bees are still 

 found and preserved in the time- 

 honored way. 



Though the quaint owners permit 

 their bees to be driven in the autumn 

 time, they stoutly maintain tliat no 

 bee home is more healthy or better 

 than their own warm skep. Maybe 

 ihey are right. At any rate their 

 views and doings form an interesting 

 link with the past. 



England. 



This inte'resting article reminds 

 me that, in the Carolinas, there are 

 still tens of thousands of apiaries in 

 box-hives and gums, wliich ought to 

 to be transferred or driven in a sim- 

 ilar manner to that described above. 

 .\t Greenville, S. C, an old-timer 

 greeted me with: "Do you reckon 

 the kind of wood the gum is made of 

 has anylliing to do with the crop of 

 li'oney?" My daddy allowed that he 

 could get twice as muc'h hioney out of 

 the gum-tree hive as out of any other 

 kind." Likely (those old country 

 skeppists similarly consider the skep 

 as much better than any other hive. 

 —Editor.) 



