1106 



TRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part III. 



allowetl to be conclusive as to profit even by Huish. The honey produced l)y any hive 

 or apiary depends much more on tlie season, and the quantity and kind of flowers with 

 which the neighbourhood abounds, than on the i'orm of the hive or artificial management. 

 Viewing the subject in this light, we shall avoid noticing the mode of operating with 

 glass, storying, cellular, or other curious hives of recent invention, and treat only of the 

 simplest methods. The author we shall follow is Ilowison. 



7603. The apiary, or place where the bee-hives are placed, should in very warm situations be made to 

 face the east, and in colder districts the south-east It should be well protected from liigh winds, which 

 not only prevent the bees from leaving the hive in quest of honey, but they also surprise them in the fields, 

 and often kill them by dashing them against the trees and rocks or into rivers. The hives in an apiary 

 should always be placed in a right line ; but should the number of the hives be great, and the situation not 

 capacious enough to admit of their being placed longitudinally, it is more advisable to j)lace them over one 

 another on shelves (j?^. 417) than in double rows on the ground. A bee, on leaving the hive, generally 

 forms an angle of about forty-five with the horizon ; the elevation of the hive should therefore be about 

 960 two feet from the ground, in order to protect it from humidity. The greater the 



elevation of the hive, the longer is the flight of the swarm ; and when they are 

 at a certain point of elevation, the swarms are lost for ever to the proprietor. I. 

 the hives are to be placed in a double row, the hinder ones should alternate with, 

 and be placed at such a distance from, the front ones, that when the bees take 

 their flight no obstruction is offered to their ascent. Huish recommends placing 

 every hive upon a single pedestal, and at two or three feet distance from each other. 

 By this means, when any thing happens to one hive, the others are less likely to 

 be disturbed than when placed on a shelf in a bee-house; and the hive may be 

 chained down and locked. [Jig. IW.) It is usual to have three or four legs or 

 supports to the bee-boards ; but those who have tried one will never resort to 

 more, as one is a much better protection from vermin and insects. The space in 

 front of the apiary should be kept clear of high plants for two or three yards. 



7604. The variety of bees employed is a matter of some consequence. To the 

 common observer all working bees, as to external appearance, are nearly the 

 same ; but to those who examine them with attention, the difference in size is 

 very distinguishable; and they are, in their vicious and gentle, indolent and 

 active natures, essentially different. Of the stock which Howison had in 1810, it 

 required 250 to weigh an ounce; but they were so vicious and lazy that he changed it for a smaller varietv, 

 which possesses much better dispositions, and of which it requires 295, on an average, to weigh an ounce. 

 Whether size and disposition are invariably connected, he has not yet had sufficient experience to de- 

 termine. 



7605. The best material and form for hives is a straw thimble or flower-pot placed in an inverted position. 

 Hives made of straw, as now in use, have a great advantage over those made of wood and other material^, 

 from the efTectual defence they aflbrd against the extremes of heat in summer ar.d cold in winter. 



7606. The size of hives should correspond as nearly as possible with that of the swarms. This has not 

 had that attention paid to it which the subject demands, as much of the success in the management of the 

 bees depends on that circumstance. From blind instinct bees endeavour to fill with combs whatever hive 

 they are put into, before they begin to gather honey. Owing to this, when the hive is too large for its 

 inhabitants, the time for collecting their winter store is spent in unprofitable labour; and starvation is the 

 consequence. This evil also extends to occasioning late swarming the next summer; it being long before 

 the hive becomes so filled with young bees as to produce a necessity for emigration, from which cause the 

 season is too far advanced for the young colonies to procure a winter stock. A full-sized straw hive will 

 hold three pecks ; a small-sized from one and a half to two pecks. 



7607. T/ie Polish hive (Pasieka Pol., Jig. 961.) appears to us to be the second in merits to that described, 



961 and perhaps it may deserve the preference, if the mode of using it were gene- 



rally known. It is simply the trunk of a tree, of a foot or fourteen inches in 

 diameter, and about nine feet long. It is scooped out (boring in this country 

 would be better) for about six feet from one end, so as to form a hollow cylinder 

 of that length, and of six or eight inches diameter within. Part of the circum- 

 ference of this cylinder is cut out during the greater part of its length, about 

 four inches wide, and a slip of wood is made to fit the opening. On the sides 

 of this slip or segment {a) notches are made every two or three inches, of suffi- 

 cient size to allow a single bee to pass. This slip may be furnished with hinges, 

 and with a lock and key ; but in Poland it is merely fastened in by a wedge. 

 All that is wanting to ccu^'plete the hive is a cover at "top to throw off the rain ; 

 and then it requires only to be placed upright like a strong post in the garden, 

 so as the bottom of the hollow cylinder may be not nearer the ground than two 

 feet, and the opening slip look to the south. When a swarm is to be put in, the 

 tree, with the door or slip opened, is placed obliquely over it ; when the bees 

 enter the door is closed, and the holes stopped with clay till the hive is planted 

 or placed upright. When honey is wanted, the door is opened during the finest 

 part of a warm day, when most of the bees are out ; its entire state is seen from 

 top to bottom, and the operator, with a segar in his mouth, or with a lighted 

 rag, to keep off" the bees from his hands, cuts out with a crooked knife as much 

 comb as he thinks fit. In this way fresh honey is obtained during the summer, 

 the bees are never cramped for room, nor does it become necessary to kill them. 

 The old comb, however, is annually cut out, to prevent or lessen the tendency 

 to swarming, which, notwithstanding this and the size of their dwelling, they 

 generally do once a year ; for the laws of nature are not to be changed. 1 hough 

 it be a fact that a small swarm of bees will not do well in a large hive; yet, if the 

 hive extend in length and not in breadth, it is admitted both by Huber and 

 Huish that they will thrive in it. " If too great a diameter," says Huber, "be 

 not given to the abode of the bee, it may without danger be increased in the elevation ; their success in 

 the hollow trees, their natural domicile, incontestably proves the truth of this assertion." 



7608. The feeding of bees is generally deferred till winter or spring ; but this is a most erroneous prac- 

 tice. Hives should be examined in the course of the month of September, or about the time of killing the 

 drones and if a large hive does not weigh thirty pounds, it will be necessary to allow it half a pound of 

 honey, 'or the same quantity of soft sugar made into syrup, for every pound that is deficient of that 

 weight ; and in like proportion to smaller hives. This work must not be delayed, that time may be given 

 for the bees to make the deposit in their empty cells before they are rendered torpid by the cold. Sugar 

 simply dissolved in water (which is a common practice), and sugar boiled with v/ater into a syrup, form 

 compounds very diflerentlv suited for the winter store of bees. Wlien the former is wanted for their imme- 

 diate nourishment, as in spring, it will answer equally as a syrup ; but if to be laid up as store, the heat of 

 the hive quickly evaporating the water, leaves the sugar in dry crystals, not to be acted upon by the trunks 



