346 



SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 



Part II. 



voung compels them to part with what is not enough for their support, at the expense of their own lives. 

 To prevent such accidents, I make it a rule, that if, during the breeding season, it rain for two successive 

 days, to feed all the bees indiscriminately, as it would be difficult to ascertain those only who require it 



1752. SMarmin^. For several years past, my hives have uniformly sent forth their first swarms during 

 the second week m July, from which it appears, that early or late swarming, in the same situations, is not 

 so much regulated by good or bad seasons as might have been expected. Near the sea this will, of course, 

 take place some weeks earlier. 



1753. Signs of sivartnin^. The first swarming is preceded by the appearance of drones, and hanging 

 out of working bees, 'the signs of the second are more equivocal, the most certain being that of the 

 queen, a day or two before swarming, at intervals of a few minutes, giving out a sound a good deal re- 

 sembling that of a cricket. It frequently happens that the swarm will leave the old hive, and return 

 again several times, which is always owing to the queen not having accompanied them, or from having 

 dropt on the ground, being too young to fly to a distance. In such cases, I have seen her found near to 

 the old hive, and on being taken up and placed in the new one, the swarm instantly settled. 



1754. Late swa?-rns. When a hive yields more than two swarms, these should uniformly be joined to 

 others that are weak, as from the lateness of the season, and deficiency in number, they will otherwise 

 perisi.. This junction is easily formed, by inverting at night the hive in which they are, and placing 

 over it tlie one you intend them to enter. They soon ascend, and apparently with no opposition from the 

 former possessors, as I have never observed fighting to be a consequence. It being very universally be- 

 lieved that two queens cannot live together in the same hive, I have, for several daj-s after this forced 

 junction, searched for the murdered queen, but never with success. Should the weather, for some days 

 after swarming be imfavorable for the bees going out, they must be fed with care until it clears up, 

 otherwise the young swarm will run a great risk of dying. {Howison, in Met??. Calcd. Hort. Soc.) 



1755. Taking the honey. This may be effected, even with liives of the common 

 construction, by three modes, partial deprivation, total deprivation, and suffocation. 



175f). Partial deprivation is performed about the beginning of September. " Having ascertained the 

 weight of the hive, and consequently the quantity of honeycomb which is to be extracted, begin the oper- 

 ation as soon as evening sets in, by reverting the full hive, and placing an empty one over it; particu- 

 lar care must be taken that the two hives are of the same diameter, for if they ditter in their dimensions, 

 it will not be possible to effect the driving of the bees. The hives being placed on each other, a sheet or 

 large tablecloth must be tied round them at their point of junction, in order to prevent the bees from 

 molesting the operator. The hives being thus arranged, beat the sides gently with a stick or the hand, 

 but particular caution must be used to beat it on those parts to which the combs are attached, and which 

 will be found parallel with the entrance of the hive. The ascent of the bees into the upper hive wiU be 

 known by a loud humming noise, indicative of the pleasure in finding an asylum from their enemy ;~ in a 

 few minutes the whole' community will have ascended, and the hive with the bees in it may be placed 

 upon the pedestal from which the full hive was removed. The hive, from which the bees have been 

 driven, must then -be taken into the house, and the operation of cutting out the honeycomb commences. 

 Having extracted the requisite quantity of comb, this opportunity must be embraced of inspecting the 

 hive, and of cleaning it from any nor.ious matter. In cutting the combs, however, particular attention 

 should be paid not to cut into two or three combs at once, but having commenced the cutting of one, to 

 pursue it to the top of the hive ; and this caution is necessary for two reasons. If you begin the cutting 

 of two or three combs at one time, were you to extract the whole of them, you would perhaps take too 

 much ; and, secondly, to stop in the middle of a comb, would be attended" with very pernicious conse- 

 quences, as the honey would drop from the cells which have been cut in two, and then the bees on being 

 returned to their native hive, might be dromied in their own sweets. The bees, also, in their return to 

 their natural domicile, being still under the impression of fear, would not give so much attention to the 

 honey which flows from the divided cells ; and as it would fall on the board, and from that on the ground, 

 the bees belonging to the other hives would immediately scent the wasted treasure, and a general attack 

 upon the deprivated hive might be dreaded. The deprivation of the honeycomb being effected, the hive 

 may be returned to its former position, and reversing the hive which contains the bees, and placing the 

 deprivated hive over it, they may be left in that situation till the morning, when the bees will be found to 

 have taken possession of their native hive, and if the season proves fine may replenish what they have 

 lost." {Huish's Treatise on Bees.) 



1757. Total deprivation is effected in the same manner, but earlier in the season, immediately after the 

 first swarm ; and the bees, instead of being returned to a remnant of honey in their old hive, remain in 

 the new empty one, which they will sometimes, though rarely, fill with comb. By this mode, it is to be 

 observed, very little honey is obtained, the bees in June and July being occupied chiefly in breeding, and 

 one, if not two, swarms are lost. 



1758. Suffocation is performed when the season of flowers begins to decline, and generally in October. 

 The smoke of paper, or .linen rag soaked or smeared with melted sulphur, is introduced to the hive by 

 placing it on a hole in the ground, where a few shreds of these articles are undergoing a smothering com- 

 bustion ; or the full hive may be placed on an empty one, inverted as in partial deprivation, and the sul- 

 phureous smoke introduced by fumigating bellows, &c. The bees will fall from the upper to the lower 

 hive in a few minutes, when they may be removed and buried, to prevent resuscitation. Such a death 

 seems one of the easiest, both to the insects themselves and to human feelings. Indeed, the mere depri- 

 vation of life to animals not endowed with sentiment or reflection, is reduced to the precise pain of the 

 moment without reference to the past or the future ; and as each pulsation of this pain increases in effect 

 on the one hand, so on the other the susceptibility of feeling it diminishes. Civilised man is the only 

 animal to whom death has terrors. 



1 759. Estimate of the humanity of the three modes. Much has been said about the cruelty 

 of killing Ijees ; but if man is entitled to deprive them either totally or partially of their 

 food, he has an equal right (and in truth by that veiy act exercising it) of depriving 

 them of their lives. For of the hives that have been partially or wholly deprived of their 

 honey, it may be safely affimied, that there is not one in ten that does any good. If 

 they live till the succeeding spring they are commonly too weak to collect food or to 

 breed, and, being plundered by their neighbours, dwindle away, till at last the hive is 

 without inhabitants. A prompt death is surely preferable to one so protracted. — Some 

 judicious observations on this subject will be found in Huish's book, extracted from 

 the works of La Gren^e, a French apiarian. 



SuBSECT. 3. Of the Aviary, and of Menageries, Piscinai'ies, ^c. 



1760. The aviary was common to the country-houses of the Romans, but used princi- 

 pally, as it would appear from Pliny, for birds destined to be eaten. Singing-birds, how- 

 ever, were kept by the Persians, Greeks, and also the Romans in wicker-cages ; and these 

 utensils, no doubt, gave rise to the large and fixed cage called an aviary'; but in what 



