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TP NN EC SPA 
398 
be given them as food, introducing their allow- 
ance every afternoon in nutshells, or in a vessel 
with a grated covering, by an opening in the 
back of the hive. Unless the supply be daily ad- 
ministered, it is extremely difficult to preserve 
the bees ; nal by admitting of longer intervals, 
the eee skilful cultivators have failed. A prac- 
tical operator informs us, that he takes an oblong 
box, in one end of which is a reservoir contain- 
ing honey, that is allowed to flow from the bot- 
tom of the reservoir under a thin float buoyed 
up by cork. This float has many small perfora- 
tions, through which the bees standing on it 
supply themselves with the honey. There is one 
hole in the side of the box, which is to be applied 
to the entrance of the hive, for admitting the bees 
above the float, and another on the opposite side, 
which is opened at pleasure, to allow them to es- 
-eape, should the box be too much crowded. The 
lid of the box isa glass pane. On pouring honey 
into the reservoir, the float rises, whence there 
should not be gdh a quantity as to raise it close 
to the lid or pane above. The box is about ten 
inches long, four broad, two and a half deep, and 
| the reservoir isan inch wide When used, the hole 
in the side is to be placed close to the entrance 
of the hive, which must be gently rapped on if 
the bees do not immediately find the way down. 
It is entertaining to observe bees accustomed to 
be fed in this manner, watching the approach of 
the feeder ; when “he ordinary time draws near, 
they rush denn to the box the moment that it 
is put on the board, and after speedily filling 
themselves they return to the hive, from which 
they very soon come back for a second supply. 
| By throwing a little fine flour on those leaving 
the box, it will be seen that they can fill them- 
selves in three minutes, and are absent not above 
five. One convenience that attends feeding in 
such a box, is the exclusion of stranger bees ; as 
the sole communication with the interior is from 
the entrance of the hive. Several practical ope- 
rators recommend a mixture of sugar and small 
beer as food, which we should warn others to be 
cautious of adopting, as they will find honey or 
syrup quite adequate to their purpose. It is 
maintained that fruit may likewise be presented 
to bees for feeding them, 
Mode of taking Ge honey and wax.—lt is un- 
grateful to reflect, that, after all our care in 
watching the progress of bees, in screening them 
from injury, added to our admiration of their 
singular industry, we must at once sacrifice so 
many thousand lives in order to come at their 
stores. Yet such is the general, though perni- 
cious practice; and whole colonies, which, in an- 
| other year, would send forth tens of thousands 
| equally industrious as themselves, are utterly ex- 
tirpated. The mode of doing so is well known. 
When the hives cease to increase in weight, or, 
rather, when they begin to grow lighter, a hole 
is dug in the ground, and some rags dipped in 
melted brimstone being inserted in the clefts of 
BEE. 
twigs stuck into the earth, the matches are kin- 
dled, and, putting the hive above them, the bees 
are quickly suffocated, and fall down in a heap. 
Some authors strenuously defend this practice, 
contending, that all expedients to save the bees 
are both difficult and precarious, and that they 
do not produce the same advantages. We con- 
ceive that its facility, combined with inveterate 
adherence to established customs, has proved a 
strong recommendation. But the majority of 
modern cultivators are disposed to preserve the 
bees, while they share their collections. 
combs, and the bees are beginning to consume 
the honey they have laid up, they may be fright- 
ened out of the hive by beating on it, and the 
combs then safely taken away. This, however, 
would reduce the owner to the necessity of feed- 
ing them during winter, whence an earlier sea- 
son is generally chosen for it, that the bees may 
still have time to lay in winter provender. The 
highest part of a hive being always filled first, 
and with honey of the finest quality, it may be 
taken in the midst of summer if the bees are 
kept in boxes, simply by removing the upper one, 
and substituting another below, if that be re- 
quired. As every comb is seen in the leaf hive, 
any one of the whole can be removed at will, and 
new divisions inserted. The stores of the bees 
should be moderately partitioned with them, and 
due regard always paid to the advancement of 
the season, and the state of the atmosphere. We | 
cannot tell how much they will produce. Thor- 
ley declares that, in some summers, he has taken 
two boxes from one hive, each containing thirty 
pounds of honey. We hear of hives weighing 
seventy, eighty, or even an hundred pounds; | 
but these bear no comparison with what M. Du- 
hamel relates. A clergyman in France, who had 
placed a well-stocked hive over an inverted tub 
with a hole in the bottom, obtained no less than | 
420 pounds of honey and six of wax from it. The 
cultivator should know the exact weight of his 
hives, and mark their gradual increase or diminu- 
tion, which will enable him to ascertain the pro- 
per time of taking the honey. Bonner judiciously 
observes, that “the harvest of honey, like that of 
corn, is earlier or later, more plentiful or scarce 
in different years, according to the weather and 
the climate, and the variety of the seasons and 
situations.” Sometimes he has known a hive 
become gradually lighter after the first week of 
August; at other times, in favourable weather, 
hives situated near heath have continued work- 
ing actively during the whole of August, and 
the greater part of September, and daily become 
heavier. 
To- | 
wards the end of September, when all the flowers | 
have faded, when there is little brood in the | 
Separation of honey and wax.—Of the practical | 
separation of honey and wax we need say little, 
as it is universally understood by those who cul- 
tivate bees for profit. ‘That honey which is most 
fluid, and runs most easily from the comb, is con- 
