72 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[October 31. 
i 
lutea .—Resembling the preceding in form, size, and arrange¬ 
ment of colours, but of a uniform yellow on all parts which 
are coloured. 
To be continued. 
ON BEES AND THEIR MANAGEMENT IN 
FORMER TIMES. 
Although I am convinced that the management of bees 
has really less influence on the success attending them than 
the management or assistance we render to other things has 
on their final issue, yet as the matter has assumed an impor¬ 
tant feature in your pages, I beg to lay before 3 r ou the treat¬ 
ment a very aged acquaintance of mine had been in the 
habit of giving them many years ago; and probably some 
of your apiarian friends may learn that some of their inge¬ 
nious contrivances were, with trifling exceptions, known in 
an outlandish country village nearly a century ago, as the 
person above alluded to, long since departed, had followed 
tbe same course of treatment for something upwards of GO 
years. I have seen other plans, reflecting great credit on their 
inventors for the mechanical contrivances adopted, yet it must 
be allowed, that very little honey is made in these novel 
structures; and the poor cottager’s unassuming old straw 
hive, sheltered by a piece of turf or an old broken dish in¬ 
verted on its top, usually produces more honey than the rich 
man’s beautifully constructed apparatus fitted up with glass 
additional sitting rooms for the bees to retire into, and other 
seeming attractions, and the whole esconsed in a house erected 
on purpose, proof against mice and other intruders, and 
surrounded by Flora’s richest treasures; yet with all these 
seeming advantages it affords no small gratification for the 
poor cottager to hear that one of his own straw hives contains 
more honey than the whole colony inhabiting such gay 
quarters. 
My venerable friend lived and died at the same place, in 
one of our northern counties,—a situation of unpretending 
character; but at the distance of two or three miles are ex¬ 
tensive tracts of moor or heath, which formed the chief pasture 
for his numerous flock, and afforded the principal feature of 
lois plan. 
Notwithstanding that he had a great regard for the old 
straw hive, he did not use it much; it did not afford the 
same facilities as the wooden boxes for obtaining honey 
without destining the bees. His boxes were made of the 
best seasoned deal, as they had to endure the scorching 
effects of bright sunshine. They were uniform in size, and 
I think like a cube of 13 or II inches, inside measurement; 
that may appear large, but his object was to have them so—a 
small or confined swarm he used to say was useless ; at the 
back of these square boxes a small piece of glass was let in, 
more to indulge visitors with a peep into the interior than 
with any other purpose in view, as it was always covered up. 
On the top, were some holes corked-up; the aperture for en¬ 
trance was small, but the landing board or stand on which it 
rested was somewhat spacious. This may suffice to describe 
the first floor or story of the busy hive’s abode. Now, spacious 
as the above may seem, he did not think it sufficient at all 
times, and consequently had boxes similar to the above in 
size, but only half the depth, placed on the top of the first, 
the corks or plugs (five in number) being taken out, and very 
often a third box or even a fourth of the same size added, 
all ingress and egress being still confined to the small place 
at the bottom of all, and all interstices between the boxes 
where they might not fit close made as air tight as possible. 
Air, he said, was not so much required as heat to carry on 
operations inside; and he used to affirm, that it was the 
absence of heat, which a small body of bees could not pos¬ 
sibly be possessed of so much as a large quantity, that caused 
their failure, rather than any want of individual energy on 
their parts. But having now described the abode, let us now 
turn to tbeir treatment, &c. 
We shall presume that a swarm made its appearance early 
in the season, and I may here remark, that the first swarm 
does not always give such tokens of their intention beforehand 
as after swarms do, so we shall say it did come off and 
alighted on the branch of a tree where it was accessible; well, 
then, as soon as the busy throng had clustered themselves in 
the usual egg-shaped lump, and the quantity could be guessed 
| 
at, and it appeared small, it was doomed to be returned back 
to the hive again. So the swarm was shaken into an empty 
straw hive which was lighter to handle than the boxes, and 
the hive placed over a sheet in a sunny place, the bees gene¬ 
rally clustered into it in a few minutes, and when partially set¬ 
tled they were taken carefully up and the sheet spread level on 
the ground, and the swarm again shaken out of the hive into 
the middle of the sheet, and a search commenced for the 
queen bee, amongst the half-crawling, half-flying, yet good- 
natured insects ; and I never knew an instance of the queen 
not being caught in that way and secured. The remainder of 
the bees were allowed to settle themselves in the hive again,— 
which they will do,—and they' were finally carried to the 
hive from whence they came, and a temporary board of a 
good size placed level with the landing place or entrance; 
they were then emptied out, and readily found their way 
back to their paternal home. I guess this will appear ex¬ 
traordinary to our town friends, accustomed to look at bees 
with some alarm, even when a square of sheet glass separates 
them; but I assure them it is not more singular than true. 
Bees in swarming seldom sting, and even when they do it is 
seldom attended with the pain that follows the sting of an 
older insect. This may be easily accounted for, by the almost 
helpless state they present when first issuing from their abode 
—a seeming rush is made to the entrance, and generally they 
are pushed over the edge of the landing board and fall to the 
ground, only a few taking the wing on their descent; and so 
very docile are they usually at this time that I have seen one 
capriciously cluster on the top of a high beech tree, and I 
have, accompanied by another person, scrambled up after 
them, cut off the branch (which fortunately was a small one) 
and conveyed our living burden safe to the bottom, handing 
it from one to another as we descended. It is easy to 
guess that a rupture between parties at an elevation of some 
thirty or forty feet would have been highly in favour of our as¬ 
sailants—had they proved so; but tranquility was maintained, 
and the swarm housed without accident. I do not affirm 
that stings are uncommon on such occasions, on the contrary, 
swelled faces, one or both eyes (the neighbourhood of which 
is a very attractive place for their vengeance) nearly swelled 
up, and the hands similarly disabled, are the occasional mis¬ 
fortunes of those attending bees ; and more especially those 
of one unaccustomed to them, who, alarmed at their buzzing 
about his face, Ac., attempts to scare them away by striking 
at them with his hands. This is the worst thing that can be 
done, as their peaceful intentions being so rudely attacked, 
they are almost sure to return to the charge with a vengeance. 
Nevertheless they sometimes sting even without provocation; 
in crawling up the hands their further progress is arrested by 
the shirt wristband, or sleeve, under which they may have 
partially entered, and finding their onward movement arrested, 
and probably a slight movement of the hand may impede 
their retreat, a sting is not unusual at such times; the usual 
remedy at that period was a very simple one, but had to be 
applied immediately; it was only a little dirt wetted and 
applied to the spot, and held there a minute or two; it 
generally allayed the pain and prevented swelling. 
It is surprising what a degree off hardihood and courage 
extensive practice only can command; and where two or three 
are concerned, it sometimes assumes an almost fool-hardy 
piece of competition which can accomplish the most daring 
exploit, even when a more prudent course would have been 
attended with equal benefit. However, a certain degree of 
courage is absolutely necessary when, as I have before said, 
the queen bee has to be sought for amongst the buzzing 
throng in the sheet. She is known by being larger than the 
other bees, and I believe she has one more streak across the 
body; but of this my memory may be faulty; size is the 
usual characteristic, and the wings, which, however, she 
does not use so much as her subjects, are much shorter in 
proportion to her bulk. But, under favourable circumstances, 
so docile are bees in such cases, that I have absolutely seen 
a swarm emptied at the end of a sheet, and the empty hive, 
with the front propped up a little, placed at the other, and 
have seen the bees driven into it by gently rubbing over 
them a small bough ; of course, a considerable number of 
them took wing, but a great many crawled in the direction 
intended, and it is needless to say the scene afforded a good 
deal of amusement to us youngsters, besides giving us a 
more favourable chance to find the queen and make other 
