Chapter II: Part 2

If, however, you can invest a little in apiculture, as people do in agriculture or market-gardening, only on a very much smaller scale, I strongly recommend wooden hives or boxes. These, well made, are necessarily expensive. The objections commonly urged by those I have talked with are, first, that they split and twist, and get out of gear. This may occur in the best in a slight degree, but it arises generally from having unseasoned wood and bad workmanship. Green wood is utterly worthless. Bad workmanship is dearest, when done at the very lowest rate. The best workmanship and the most seasoned wood, I have invariably found in the workshop of Mr. Pettitt, Dover. They never cast, and are beautifully smooth, and all the fittings play easily. Such wood and workmanship, no doubt, may be had of any sensible and honest carpenter. My reference to Pettitt is merely the record of my own experience. In every case the entrance should be cut, not out of the hive, but out of the board on which it rests.

The second objection is, that wood is not sufficiently equable in temperature. I answer, if protected by a bee-shed, which I regard as an essential part of bee-furniture, this objection, so far as summer is concerned, is at once disposed of. Neither rain nor the direct rays of the sun can affect it. But in winter, I am persuaded from thorough experience, that in all hives under sheds additional shelter is required to keep out the searching north and east winds, and to keep in the vital warmth of the bees. For this purpose, I regard good brown paper, or a newspaper after you have read it, as the cleanest, neatest, and really warmest protection. Vermin gather less about paper than woollen material, and brown paper is less palatable to insect pests than any other. Let the back and ends of your bee-boxes inside the bee-shed be covered over in October--the front being left uncovered, unless by the bee-shed, and you will find every objection to wooden hives disposed of by facts.

The first illustration I will present is that of one by Pettitt, made of the best seasoned deal, unpainted, of course; for paint, however necessary to the shed, must on no account be suffered to pollute the hives.

On the top of this hive, of which I give a back view, are four apertures, each about three inches by two; zinc dividers, D D, being pushed in before receiving a swarm, shut off all egress, and on being withdrawn in May, allow the bees to ascend into the bell-glasses E E, of which there are four, each, of course, covered with its nightcap.

B is a glass window, with a thermometer inside. By the window you can examine progress, taking care when you leave to shut the lid.

In very dry, hot weather, when the thermometer rises to ninety-five, draw out the drawer A about two inches, and open the little door C, withdrawing at the same time also the zinc plate F, pushing in its place a perforated zinc plate, precisely the same in size as F, but perforated. A current of air is thus introduced, and in a short time the thermometer will fall five degrees.

Though I do not like the square shape as much as the octagonal or hexagonal, yet I regard this as a very valuable hive-box.

Instead of bell-glasses, Pettitt has substituted boxes for supers, about ten inches in height and seven inches in breadth; the front having glass instead of deal board, with a shutter ready to be put on.

It is in this way:--

Mr. Pettitt has provided, for those who can afford it, a very elegant and ornamental house, which he calls "The Temple Bee-hive." It forms a very suitable ornament on a lawn, and when three guineas can be spared, nothing can be better. It is, however, more adapted to the garden surrounding a gentleman's residence than to circumstances in which it is desirable to obtain large profits from little outlay. But as I wish proprietors of estates to take an interest in bee-keeping, I would try to tempt them by specimens of ornamental bee-furniture.

I give the drawing of it shut, with Mr. Pettitt's description.

"Temple Bee-hives, for the humane treatment of honey-bees, are got
up in a tasteful and substantial manner; and when placed upon a
lawn, in a flower-garden, or on a balcony, have a most picturesque
appearance. They need no shade or shelter from extreme solar heat
in summer, or from humidity and cold during winter, but afford of
themselves a sufficient protection to the industrious tenants. Each
hive is furnished with four bell-glasses, from which the drones are
effectually excluded, and the temperature of the interior can be
so regulated by the use of the ventilators and thermometers, as to
prevent the necessity of swarming."

I add also a drawing of the same Temple opened from behind, with his observations.

"This plate shows the interior of the Temple Hive on the preceding
page, with four glass supers upon the top. Owing to the difficulty
some persons have experienced in getting the bees to work in the
glasses, we have introduced small wooden boxes with glass windows;
and it is quite certain that the bees will collect a larger quantity
of honey in these small supers than they will in the glasses,
particularly in uncertain and unsettled seasons."

Pettitt also constructs a wooden hexagonal hive; but he uses the top as a mere cover to the glasses, and of course perforates the top with four holes, on which he places the glasses. If he will adopt my amendments, he will give us a hive in all respects perfect. First, he must use the top half purely as a super for the honey available to the master. Secondly, he must make half-a-dozen parallel slits from front to back, with corresponding removable slides, made by a rabbet-plane, to be withdrawn in May, when it is desirable that the bees should ascend, and to be reintroduced when the super is full and is to be removed. From this hive I would banish glasses entirely.

I have introduced six slides into this hive, the ends of which are shaped as shown in the following drawing. On removing the slides, very small ones, about an inch long, must be substituted, to prevent bees coming out at the apertures. On removing the super or top half in July, the little slides are removed in succession, and the long ones introduced, in order to shut off the connection between the upper hive, or bee-master's portion, and the lower, or the queen's. When you remove your portion, a zinc plate eighteen inches square is pressed in between the upper and lower boxes, and the upper carried away on it. But this is not always necessary, as I will subsequently show in describing the Ayrshire hive.

I prefer the hexagonal shape, not from any theory, but from practical experience; and if this hive can be constructed at less expense, it will prove alike popular and profitable. Its price maybe reduced by substituting a plain glass window in each section, with a slide shutter instead of door and hinges, retaining all its seasoned wood and thorough workmanship, while lessening its merely decorative features.

The hive-box I have found unfailing in results is the Scotch or Ayrshire hive. It is octagonal in shape; the lowest box is six inches high, and rather wider than a large common straw hive. There are three octagonal boxes in all, the top of each having parallel slits from back to front, with slides corresponding, and withdrawn when required. In May, you place your first super box on the top of the lowest or stock hive, fitting and corresponding in all respects; you withdraw backward each slide, introducing as you do so a little slide about an inch in length, to prevent the egress of the bees behind. There is no possibility of escape in front, from the end of each slide being filled up by the wood of the box.

As soon as this first super is filled, you place on it another, or third; withdraw the slides on the top of the second as you did from the top of the first, and let the bees ascend still higher. A small glass window in each, with a sliding shutter, enables you to report progress. At the honey harvest, you remove each super as I have previously directed; and it must be a very bad summer that does not end as the bee-master would prefer.

Of all straw hives. Neighbours' is the most beautiful and lasting. With the super hive lifted up, you see three bell-glasses on the flat top of the stock hive, the zinc slides being withdrawn. The cost is thirty shillings. Preferable to three glasses is one flat glass, about six or eight inches deep. Bees prefer united to separate action in treasuring up their stores. But either with three small glasses or one large one, it is a very elegant and serviceable hive.

The collateral system of bee-hives has, however, many able and enthusiastic advocates. Nutt is the great advocate, if not the inventor, of this bee-box. As a system for ventilation and facility of deprivation it is unrivalled. His collateral hive, suitable to be placed in a bee-shed, is as below.

A is the stock hive, into which the swarm is introduced and the queen resides; the glass window is open. B B are the side boxes, right and left, having, either in the sides nearest the central box or in the floor, extending right and left, a subterranean communication. C is the cover of a bell-glass: so far in deference to the storifying system. D D D D D are means of ventilation,--above by perforated zinc cupolas, and beneath by drawers, which may be opened or shut as required.

But for every excellence and capability of which the collateral hive is susceptible, Pettitt's is undeniably the happiest and best. I give his own description and woodcut:--

"A is a block front to open for ventilation, also for the egress
of the bees from the box F when filled. B Feeding apartment. C C
Ventilating slides. D D D Dividers. E 'Pavilion of Nature.' F Surplus
box. G G G Ventilators. H H H H Glass surplus hives. The finest
specimen of glass honey in the Great Exhibition was taken from one of
these hives. They are of such easy and safe access, that they can be
approached at the back at mid-day, when the bees are in full work,
without giving them any disturbance whatever. The parent hive is
provided with apertures for four glasses upon the top, through which
the drones cannot pass. These hives are intended for the inside of the
apiary, gentleman's library, or attic."

The apertures on the top, which is the retention of the storifying system grafted on the collateral, are all he describes, and a real and valuable device. The price, two guineas, is, for so excellent a bee-box, most reasonable. I can testify from experience that the material is thoroughly seasoned, and the workmanship perfect.

But I still retain my conviction that the collateral system is not productive. The objection to the storifying system, that the bees have more fatigue in climbing than in travelling on the same level, is not tenable. The bee prefers to ascend; it traverses the roof as easily as the floor; it begins its work on the roof, and evidently ignores the difficulty which Nutt and others have invented. The side boxes, also, are too cold; the heat of the pavilion, or stock hive, ascending more easily than radiating sideways. Comb-building requires a certain temperature, without which it is impracticable. Hence, in storifying and collateral hives both, when the weather is cold and ungenial, I cover up as much as possible with brown paper, in order to keep in all the heat generated by the bees. Taylor, the most sensible and practical of apiculturists, thus describes his experience of collateral hives:--

"Another point on which Nutt laid much stress may be mentioned, viz.,
the supposed advantage to the bees in working on one level, without
the necessity of _climbing_, as in storified hives. I long thought
this was indisputable. Further consideration led me more minutely to
examine the habits of the bee in this respect, and I became convinced
that nature had given it equal facilities for moving in every
direction. A scientific correspondent thus writes on this subject:--'I
once propounded the question to a very eminent mathematician, and his
reply was, that, if any, the difference was too minute to admit of
calculation between the horizontal and the perpendicular movement; it
was, in the language of the present day 'infinitesimal.' Although few
of Nutt's positions have been found to stand the test of practice, it
ought not to be said that his crude speculations and rash assertions
have been altogether without useful results, as they undoubtedly led
to farther investigation, and several modern improvements had thus
their origin."

I do not wish to take up space by explaining the nether or nadir system. The simplest description would be:--The common straw hive placed on a square box, six inches in depth and twelve inches square, having a window behind for observation. An aperture is in the floor of the box, having a movable zinc slide, to be withdrawn when the bees are required to descend. This they will do when room is denied above. But the nadir-box is apt to be cold, and the queen is apt to treat it as part of the stock hive when it becomes warm, and to lay her eggs and rear her young in it, and so spoil your harvest.

A is the nadir-box, on which the hive B--the common straw hive--stands; C is a pane of glass, and A is a moveable zinc slide for opening or shutting communication between the nadir and the hive. It is not a wise or useful plan.

VI.--HOW TO GET BEES.

The best and most effective plan is to buy a swarm as early in May as possible. The farther off from your bee-garden the swarm is brought the better. I have invariably found that a swarm from a hive a mile or two off is preferable to a swarm from one of your own hives.

Send your bee-box or hive to some cottager who keeps bees, about the end of April. Explain to her or him how the hive is to be adjusted on receiving the swarm, and request that it be carried by hand, if possible, the evening of the day on which the swarm was hived. Let a piece of gauze be placed over the entrance of your hive, in order that the bees while prisoners on the journey may have plenty of air; and when it arrives place it quietly on your bee-shed, remove without noise the gauze, and next morning, if it be fine, the bees will make themselves masters of the situation, and make up their minds and arrange themselves to work in that place in which their bee-master sets them.

Should the weather, the day after you have placed the hive containing your swarm in your bee-shed, turn out wet and cold, push into the hive through the entrance-hole a couple of sticks of barley-sugar, or more. Half-a-pound only costs sevenpence, and you will get it all back in due time; thereby the bees will start with renewed strength, as soon as the weather clears up, most grateful for a little help when help is most required. You need not fear lest by so doing you will encourage idleness or mendicancy. Bees are not like street beggars. They do not want to be dependent. All they ask is a little help at the beginning, to be able then to help themselves. As soon as the sun shines the swarm will work hard and without cessation, and by the middle of June you may find it right to open communication with a super, or at least with a bell-glass, and find yourself very soon rewarded with honey of exquisite flavour, in cells of unrivalled whiteness.

Richardson and Wildman thus teach how stocks are to be obtained:--

"A stock of bees is usually to be obtained by purchase, although it
may indeed chance that you get an opportunity of hiving a 'vagabond'
swarm which may have settled in your garden or orchard. In the latter
instance, indeed, I think your property in the stragglers somewhat
questionable, and perhaps scarcely more so than it would be in a stray
ox or sheep, which accident had driven into your premises.

"You may procure stock either in the spring or autumn. I should prefer
the former period, because that is the fitting time for removal of
stocks from the old-fashioned awkward hives to the more improved
modern receptacles; but it is more difficult to ascertain the exact
condition of the stock you are about purchasing in spring than it
is in autumn. I am sorry to say, that unless you purchase your
stock from a friend, or from some one, at all events, that you can
confidently depend on, you are very likely to be taken in, and must
therefore be upon your guard against imposition. As some writer (I
forget who) quaintly enough remarks, 'Let it be with the bees as with
a wife--never _take them on the recommendation of another party_'
If you would purchase a stock in early spring, just after the bees
have been removed from their winter quarters, you need not attempt it
unless from a person on whose honour you can positively depend. During
the months of May or June, you can form some judgment for yourself,
and, if you act cautiously, may perhaps bid defiance to trickery. In
this case, you should visit the garden or other locality in which the
hive stands that you intend purchasing, about mid-day; stand opposite
to it, and observe attentively the actions of its inhabitants. If they
crowd busily in and out of the hive, giving evidence of their industry
by the laden appearance of their legs, and altogether exhibiting a
busy _earnestness_ in their toils, you may safely buy the hive; and
if you obtain this hive before swarming has taken place, you may look
upon yourself as a fortunate man.

"If the object of your intentions be an autumnal hive, you had
better ascertain that the massacre of the drones has taken place: an
observation of the stand and of the ground around the hive will tell
this. Observe the actions of these bees--see that they are lively and
industrious; and if, on your too near approach, one or two bees dash
at your face, do not be alarmed, but rather regard their pugnacity
as a sign of vigour, and buy the hive. Some writers speak of the
necessity of purchasing only such stocks as are in nice new hives.
This is an advice very necessary to be attended to; but it would not
be so, were you sure that the interior of the hive were filled only
with honey-comb, and with no old worn-out comb, the accumulation of
years. If you are in doubt on the subject, you should _fumigate_ the
hive in the evening, in the manner hereafter to be described; then,
turning up the hive, you can readily ascertain the character of its
contents. If the comb be black, have nothing to do with the stock. The
genuine colour of the comb is white, and, consequently, the lighter it
is, the more the stock is to be esteemed.

"Never, unless you can depend on the party, _send_ your hive to
receive a swarm: for you may, if you do, have a _second_ swarm
imposed upon you for a _first_--a comparatively valueless stock for
just the very thing you desire. The first swarm begin the formation
of the combs at the _middle_ of the apex of the hive; the _second_
does so at the _side_. These are the only criteria I can furnish,
for neither weight nor bulk are to be depended upon. It is to the
obstinate use of the old-fashioned hive that these difficulties, and
these opportunities for fraud, are attributable. Were the improved
system once established, these cautions would be no longer called for.
For old Wildman I entertain a very high respect, although in some
instances I am compelled to differ from him; yet I always investigate
closely the point at issue between us ere doing so, and, if I doubt, I
suffer the weight of his authority to act as a 'casting vote.' Wildman
has given some good advice as to the purchase of stocks; and in this
advice he speaks like an oracle. Attend to him:--

"'The person who intends to erect an apiary should purchase a proper
number of hives at the latter end of the year, when they are cheapest.
The hives should be full of combs, and well stored with bees. The
purchaser should examine the combs, in order to know the age of the
hives. The combs of that season are _white_; those of a former year
are of a _darkish yellow_; and when the combs are _black_, the hives
should be rejected, because old hives are most liable to vermin and
other accidents.

"'If the number of hives wanted have not been purchased in the autumn,
it will be necessary to remedy this neglect, after the severity of
the cold is past, in the spring. At this season, bees which are
in good condition will get into the fields early in the morning,
return loaded, enter boldly, and do not come out of the hive in bad
weather, for when they do, this indicates that they are in great want
of provisions. They are alert on the least disturbance, and by the
loudness of their humming we judge of their strength. They preserve
their hives free from all filth, and are ready to defend it against
every enemy that approaches.

"'The summer is an improper time for buying bees, because the heat of
the weather softens the wax, and thereby renders the comb liable to
break, if they are not very well secured. The honey, too, being then
thinner than at other times, is more apt to run out at the cells,
which is attended with a double disadvantage--viz., the loss of the
honey, and the daubing of the bees--whereby many of them may be
destroyed. A _first_ and strong swarm may indeed be purchased: and, if
leave can be obtained, permitted to stand in the same garden until the
autumn; but, if leave is not obtained, it may be carried away in the
_night_ after it has been hived.

"'I suppose that, in the stocks purchased, the bees are in the hives
of the old construction. The only directions here necessary are, that
the first swami from these stocks should be put into one of my hives;
and that another of my hives should, in a few days, be put under the
old stock, in order to prevent its swarming again.'"

But perhaps you have a swarm from one of your own stock-hives,--not so desirable as the purchase of a swarm from a neighbour. A swarm will occasionally emerge from hives and bee-boxes, in spite of every plan of preventing it. The signs of swarming are some of them appreciable by the most expert bee-master only. A common sign of the emergence of a swarm is inactivity in work, and about the hive clusters hanging from the bee-board--arising, probably, from the old queen finding no princess ready to take her throne--and a high temperature within. If, in addition, the weather is moist and warm, the issue of a swarm may be expected. From ten o'clock to three has been stated as the period within which swarming occurs. Every swarm I have had for twelve years has issued between twelve and three.

A strong swarm will consist of from ten thousand to twenty thousand bees; a caste, or second swarm, of five thousand. Two thousand bees fill a pint measure. Scouts are generally sent out to select a residence for the young family. House-seeking is an arduous work for human tenants, and no doubt the pioneer bees find great difficulty in fixing on what seems to them suitable. I have seen them settle under the leaves of a standard rose, sometimes on the bough of an apple-tree, and at other times in a sheltered recess in a laurel-hedge. No sight is more exciting than that of a swarm of bees. The air is clouded with the circling bees--vocal with their united music, while the eyes of the bee-master quietly watch their descent. As soon as the queen settles, the bees cluster around her and hang from the branch on which she has settled. As soon as the great mass has settled, take your bee-box or hive, hold it with one hand, mouth or bottom upward, beneath the swarm, enclosing as many of the pendent bees as the situation will allow. With the other hand shake the bough from which they hang, and on the great mass tumbling into the hive, carry it away half-a-dozen yards; set it upright on the bottom board, or a white sheet previously spread on the grass; raise the edge of the hive with a piece of wood or stone a few inches from the ground, and cover the hive with a branch or two to keep off the direct rays of the sun.

If the queen be inside the hive, the bees that are already inside will remain, and you will find the bees that linger about the branch on which they first settled steadily enter, and by sunset they will all be within. If the queen has not been caught, and still remains on the bough or branch on which the swarm first settled, the bees will leave the hive and re-cluster as they were. You must then repeat the process. You need not be afraid of stings. But if your nerves do not respond to your convictions, begin by spreading a square of gauze over your hat, the brim of the hat keeping it from your face; push the ends and corners under your coat, buttoning it to the chin. This will protect your face, ears, and neck, and a pair of worsted gloves will protect your hands. But practice will dispel fear, and save you from the necessity of such defences. If this homely and cheap defence seem to you insufficient, you can purchase at Neighbours', in Regent-street, for five shillings, a perfect fit.

It is thus represented by its inventor in Messrs. Neighbours' list.

If you have more than one bee-shed, do net place the young colony in the shed in which its mother hive stands.

A few straggling bees often hang about the branch next day. Lay on it a few nettles, and they will speedily forsake it, and return to the hive from which they issued, where, of course, their labours are not lost to the bee-master.

Sometimes a caste, or second swarm, will issue from the same hive. These are occasionally feeble in comparison of the first swarm. Are we to preserve it, and make the most of it? or are we to unite the weaker and later caste to a stronger one? Almost all apiarians recommend the uniting of two weak castes, in order to make one strong family, or uniting the feeble swarm to an old stock. Mr. Cotton, the most affectionate of bee-masters while he lived, advocates the use of the usual anesthetic, fuzz-ball or puff-ball, or frog's-cheese; and while the bees are in a state of insensibility pouring the one family into the hive of the other. The instrument employed for this purpose is made of tin plate.

The ignited puff-ball, which may be gathered and dried, or purchased for a trifle from Neighbours' in London, or Pettitt in Dover, is placed in the box A. The part B is then fitted into A. The orifice D is introduced into the hive, a little rag or clay is packed round it to keep in the smoke. The mouth is to be applied to the end C, and thus the smoke is driven into the hive. The bees will soon become still as death. The queen had better be picked out and removed from the caste.

The tube of an ordinary bellows may be introduced for this fumigation, as perhaps more effective and less troublesome. It will then appear thus:--

Richardson describes another plan:--

"Some persons may conceive it to be a difficult matter to come
at the queen. When fumigation is resorted to, she is, of course,
easily discovered; but even when it is dispensed with, and the
practice adopted which I have yet to describe, she is not so very
difficult to come at; for, on a hive being turned up and _tapped_,
the queen is among the first, if not indeed the very first, who
makes her appearance, as if to discover the occasion of the unwonted
disturbance; and recollect, that although the _dusk_ of an _autumnal
evening_ answers best for this purpose, I say nothing indicative of
my disapprobation of the use of a _lantern_. The queen usually lodges
near the crown of the hive, and is, when fumigation is resorted to,
one of the last to fall; she will consequently, in this case, be found
amongst the uppermost bees. In practising fumigation (with a view to
the union of weak stocks), two persons should act in concert, each
taking a hive and operating upon it, in order that both stocks should
be simultaneously in a similar condition as to _intoxication_. I may
add, that in fumigation the hive must be well covered with a cloth, to
prevent the escape of the smoke. When you have united the two stocks
in the manner I have described, it is advisable to confine the insects
to their hive for that night and the following day. Do not, however,
wholly deprive them of air in doing so, or you may smother them."

Taylor, who is always judicious, proposes what I regard as a preferable plan of uniting weak swarms:--

"Like most other operations on bees, the mode of uniting swarms admits
of variety, according to choice and circumstance; and some apiarians
prefer to drive them, in the way for which general directions have
already been given; a plan that may be resorted to almost at any
time. Another mode of junction can be effected by the aid of a sheet
of perforated zinc, inserted between the two hives about to be united.
There is little reason to doubt that the members of each colony of
bees are distinguishable amongst themselves by a certain peculiarity
of odour, which, if assimilated, appears to have the effect of
preventing mutual dissension. When the construction, therefore, of the
hives admits of their being brought into juxtaposition, the perforated
zinc allows a free circulation of scent between them, without
permitting actual contact of the bees. After leaving matters in this
position for two or three days, I have usually found, on withdrawing
the zinc divider, that no disturbance has ensued."

But may it not be preferable still to follow the course indicated by the bees? When pastures fail and turnips perish, from an extreme dry season, we feed cattle with artificial food. Why not try an analogous system with bees? Barley-sugar, I admit, is expensive. But I venture to assert, that if the caste issue not later than June, four pounds of barley-sugar, costing about five shillings, will supplement its own industrious gatherings sufficiently to carry it over the winter into spring, and a pound in spring will start it into vigorous work. If you take from it a super next June or July, weighing ten or twelve pounds, you receive good interest, and your outlay for barley-sugar is returned, and you escape the troublesome and disagreeable process of fumigation. Barley-sugar, I admit, is more costly than cottagers prefer. If you have no arrangement in your hives for feeding, you may boil a pound of common brown sugar--which may be had for fourpence a pound--in a pint of ale; pour it when cool into a soup-plate. Take a circular thin board, the size of the inner bottom of the soup-plate, pierce it with a good-sized gimlet in every direction till it is covered with holes, each through and through. Let it float on the plate. Set the plate opposite your weak swarm day after day for a week. The other bees, strong and busy in June, will rarely touch it, and your destitute family will gladly visit it. The weight of the float will make the sugared ale ascend by the holes, and the bees will sip _ad libitum_, without the risk of clogging their wings or being drowned. But if, what is more to be desired, you have one of Pettitt's single-box hives, you have only to fill one of his wood feeders, in which there are grooves and parallel edges of wood for the bees to walk on; place it in the drawer beneath the stock, draw out the zinc slide, and the bees will descend and feed with profit and pleasure.

If you have one of Neighbours' hives, already referred to, fill the following zinc pan with the ale and sugar. Put over it the plate of glass, and fix it on the top of the hive. The bees will ascend by the orifice A, the plate-glass cover on the top preventing their escape, while it is so constructed that without moving it you can replenish it by the entrance B.

Taylor thus describes one of his feeding-pans:--

"When there is a hole in the centre of the top of the hive, a trough
may be used, made of tin or zinc, seven or eight inches square, and
one inch and a quarter deep; having a circular two-inch hole in the
middle of the bottom, with a rim round it, standing up half an inch,
through which the bees enter the pan from below. Another circular
rim or partition, as large in diameter as the square of the pan will
admit, is soldered down within it at the four points where it touches
the sides. It must not go down to the bottom, but a space should there
be left of nearly an eighth of an inch, as a passage for the food,
which is poured in at the four angles. A perforated thin wooden bottom
or float is fitted loosely into the pan, between the circles, removing
an objection sometimes made against the chilling effects of metal upon
bees. The float should be a little raised by means of two thin strips
of wood, appended below, to allow the liquid to flow beneath. A cover
is made by a piece of glass, resting on the larger circle, but cut
nearly octagonal in form, so as to leave the corners open. The circle
on which the glass rests should be an eighth of an inch lower than the
outer rim."

Ingenious bee-masters, who estimate the excellence of their treatment by its tortuous ingenuity, are sure to deride every such homely and easy treatment. But you must disregard their learned and, as they phrase it, scientific talk. In fact, the sulphur-and-match treatment is scarcely worse than the protracted torture of apiarian inquisitors, inflicted on bees by means of their ingenious hives. Experimental investigations are, of course, legitimate. But keeping up queer and twisted and zigzag bee-houses, as monuments of their talent and nothing else, is nothing less than vivisection of bees.

Should the weather prove fine, and the stock hive, as inspected by the glass window, show the honey-comb reaching downward to the floor, place a super on the top. A glass is by far the most elegant, and, of the shape recommended by Taylor, it is the most useful. It is about ten inches wide, six inches high, and straight on the sides, with or without a zinc circular perforated tube.

But it is essential to cover it with a fitting woollen nightcap, the neglect of which is the cause of the unpopularity of bee-glasses.

No additional room ought to be given after the middle of July, even in heath counties; but that supplied in the beginning of June, or toward the end of May, should be large. This is the safe side to err on. Either one good large glass, or, what is less useful, two or three middle-sized, should be used.

In the case of the Ayrshire hive, the rabbet-slides should be drawn out from the top of the bottom box, the super box being previously placed on the top.

During June and July frequently visit your bees. Stand in front of the bee-shed. Study them through your observatory windows. They are too busy to be annoyed. They love company. They are essentially social and friendly, and fond of visitors. Their music will charm your ear, and their industry delight your eye; and their wonderful work will give you many an illustration for sermon, essay, or speech.

The longest summer ends in autumn. The honey harvest comes on.

Pass your zinc plate under the full glass. Detach it, and lift it off the stock hive, of which close up the hole, or place on it a very small bell-glass, just sufficient to cover the aperture, not forgetting the nightcap. Take your glass to a little distance, let it rest for half an hour, then edge up one side, and the bees will rush home to their hive in the bee-shed. Cover the bottom of the glass, when the bees have left, with parchment or thick writing-paper.

Mr. Taylor's directions are as follow:--

"If the queen is not in the super (and she seldom is there after it
is filled), the silence that at first prevailed will be exchanged
for a murmuring hum, attended by a commotion among the bees; and they
shortly after begin to quit the super, without attempting any attack.
Should the queen be present, however, a very different scene would
ensue, and a hubbub would then commence in the stock hive; though the
loss of their queen is sometimes not discovered by the bees for a
considerable time. In such a case, the box must be reinstated in its
former position, and the communication reopened till some other day.
The process might happen to be complicated by the presence of brood,
for this the bees leave very reluctantly, and often not at all. In
an emergency of this kind, it is best to restore matters to their
previous state, and let the super remain till the brood is perfected.
A little patience is sometimes necessary; but all attempts at ejection
of the bees by tapping, smoking, or driving, usually do more harm than
good. So long as they continue to leave the super, it may remain where
it is, for on these occasions young bees are sometimes numerous; and
if the super is removed, though only to a short distance, these are in
part lost, not having become sufficiently acquainted with the position
of their home; or, if they enter a wrong hive, they pay the penalty
with their lives. This freedom from disturbance has the further good
effect of preventing in a great degree the intrusion of robber bees,
readily distinguishable from the others by their hovering about the
box, instead of flying from it. These are strangers from various
quarters, immediately attracted by the scent attending the removal of
a full box or glass. Should a few of these plunderers once obtain a
taste or sample of the honey, they speedily convey the good news to
their associates, when large reinforcements from every hive in the
neighbourhood will be at once on the alert, and quickly leave nothing
behind but empty combs. Let the separated super, therefore, not be
left or lost sight of, but if scented out by robbers, be conveyed
into some room or outbuilding, to prevent a general battle, and which
might extend itself to all the neighbouring hives. The remaining bees
may here be brushed out, escaping by the window or door. Mr. Golding
has sometimes found the advantage of using for the purpose a darkened
room, with the exception of a very small aperture, to which the bees
will fly and make their exit. Others like to remove a super at once to
a short distance from the stock hive, leaving it shut up in perfect
darkness for an hour or two. Its edge is then raised up, when the bees
will evacuate it."

A good plan is, to take the detached super into a room with a window that closes and opens on hinges. On edging up the glass, the bees will fly to the window. Open it for a minute, and they will escape. Shut it again, and repeat the opening. The advantage of this is that wasps and strange bees are excluded, such corsairs careering everywhere in autumn.

Honey is always best preserved in its own sealed and air-tight cells. It will keep throughout the winter. If you separate the honey from the wax, cut the combs into inch-wide pieces, and lay these in sieves over glazed earthenware vessels, and they will yield the choicest honey. It drops from the comb spontaneously.

Take the combs and squeeze them through a cloth. This will yield a second-class honey, admirable for feeding your bees. Carry the remainder, or refuse, in a dish, and place it before your bee-shed, and thousands of your bees will make a good meal from it. If you prefer to save the wax, bring back what the bees have licked clean. Put it into a vessel in which there is as much water as floats it. Place the vessel on a clear fire, stirring till the combs are thoroughly melted. Strain the whole through a fine canvas bag into cold water. Mr. Nutt says:--

"Have ready then a piece of smooth board of such a length that, when
one end of it is placed in the tub of cold water, the other end may
be conveniently rested against, and securely stayed by, your breast.
Upon this inclined plane lay your dripping, reeking strainer, and
keeping it from slipping into the cold water by bringing its upper
part over the top of the board, so as to be held firmly between it and
your breast. If the strainer be made with a broad hem round its top,
a piece of strong tape or cord passed through such hem will draw it
close, and should be long enough to form a stirrup for the foot, by
which an additional power will be gained of keeping the scalding-hot
strainer in its proper place on the board; then, by compressing the
bag, or rather its contents, with any convenient roller, the wax
will ooze through and run down the board into the cold water, on the
surface of which it will set in thin flakes. When this part of the
operation is finished, collect the wax, put it into a clean saucepan,
in which is a little water, to keep the wax from being burned to the
bottom; melt it _carefully_; for should it be neglected, and suffered
to boil over, serious mischief might ensue, liquid wax being of a
very inflammable nature; therefore, melt it _carefully_ over a _slow
fire_, and skim off the dross as it rises to the top; then pour it
into such moulds or shapes as your fancy may direct, having first well
rinsed them, in order that you may be able to get the wax, when cold
and solid, out of them, without breaking either the moulds or the wax;
place them, covered over with cloths or with pieces of board, where
the wax will cool slowly; because the more _slowly it cools_, the
_more solid if will be_, and free from flaws and cracks."

To those who have a taste for very ancient drinks, Richardson's instructions will prove valuable:--

"Mead.--Some persons may feel desirous of making for themselves this
once-famous drink, and I shall accordingly furnish them with simple
directions for so doing. Common mead is formed by mixing two parts of
water with one of honey, boiling them together, and taking off the
scum.

"_Fermented_ mead is formed of _three_ parts of water to one of honey,
boiled as before, skimmed, and casked. The cask is to be left unbunged
and exposed to the sun, or in a warm room, until it ceases to _work_.
It is then bunged, and in about three months it is fit for use. The
addition of a _ferment_ is of course necessary, taking care that it be
_sound_, _sweet_, and _good_.

"Hops are an improvement to mead, taking from its extreme sweetness;
and so is the addition of chopped raisins boiled with it, at the rate
of six pounds of honey to each half-pound of raisins; also some lemon
peel, a few glasses of brandy, &c.

"Metheglin is only another name for mead, altered by the addition of
various ingredients, according to the taste of its preparers. These
liquors may be _racked_, _fined_, &c., like other wines, and will, if
properly managed, keep for years."

I have never tasted these celebrated wines. I have no doubt they are pleasant and wholesome. But I prefer the honey in the honey-comb at breakfast, and mean to recommend it to others also.

VII.--THE INMATES OF THE HIVE.

In every hive there are three distinct inmates, very easily recognised--the Queen-Bee, the Working-Bee, and the Drone; each essential to the other, and all to the very existence and prosperity of the hive.

THE QUEEN.

The Queen is very elegant. Her symmetry of person, and relative proportions, and greater length of figure, distinguish her from the rest of the community. Her death is followed by a cessation of all labour till a princess ascends the throne. She is the creature of treatment. The egg from which she emerges seems in all respects identical with those from which her subjects issue. On the sides of the tier of comb from which drones and working-bees are developed, large vertical combs, from two to five, are constructed. Woodcuts representing these are found in every bee-book. Taylor gives the following accurate picture:--

The upper portion of the comb contains honey, with the exception of the dark cells, which contain pollen. The lower are drone cells; and the large cells, three in number on each side, are royal palaces. Her majesty is fed with royal jelly till she is ready to show herself; and everything that love and reverence and hope can supply, the bees delight to offer. But it is a curious entomological fact, first discovered by Schirach, an eminent apiarian of the last century, that the bees can supply the loss of their queen by an artificial process--a process confirmatory of the position that every working-bee egg has in it the component elements of royalty, and that development according to a definite treatment is all that is requisite to constitute a queen. On being deprived of their queen by death, the bees select a common grub, not above three days old, break down the wax partitions between it and at least three contiguous cells, forming a vertical pear-shaped chamber. They feed her with the daintiest food, called royal jelly. In five days the grub becomes a nymph, and in fifteen she emerges a royal princess, ascends the vacant throne, and receives the homage, loyalty, and love of fifteen or twenty thousand subjects. Kirby exclaims:--

"What! you will ask, can a larger and warmer house, a different and
more pungent food, and a vertical instead of an horizontal posture,
give a bee a different-shaped tongue and mandibles; render the surface
of its under-legs flat instead of concave; deprive them of the fringe
of hairs that forms the basket for carrying the masses of pollen,--of
the auricle and pecten which enable the workers to use these legs or
feet as pincers,--of the brush that lines the insides of the feet?
Can they lengthen its abdomen; alter its colour and clothing; give
a curvature to its sting; deprive it of its wax-pockets, and of the
vessels for secreting that substance; and render its ovaries more
conspicuous and capable of yielding worker and drone eggs?"

In spring, she moves among the combs laying her eggs. Ladies-in-waiting accompany her, who always turn their faces toward her majesty, clear the royal route, and clean out the cells in which she deposits her eggs.

Of this Lardner gives the following representation:--

The Reverend Charles Cotton, while he lived the prince of bee-masters, thus represents the queen and her attendant ladies:--

The queen is the central bee; the surrounding bees are her ladies-in-waiting, and the white specks the eggs she has deposited.

The queen-bee is a model keeper at home, rarely leaving the hive. Most apiarians are interested at present in the habits and acclimatisation of the Ligurian bee--the _Apis Ligustica_, or Italian bee. It is found easy to substitute an Italian for a British queen, in a British hive which has been deprived of its native sovereign. The bees refuse to constitute themselves into a republic, and therefore they will accept even a foreign queen, who, no doubt, takes the oaths and obligations of the realm over which she is to reign. There is a red tinge in the rings that surround the abdomen of this foreigner; and, contrary to what we should expect in an Italian temperament, the Ligurian bee is more gentle and conciliatory than our native queen. I speak from report, not from personal knowledge. But I hope one day to be present at a _levée_, and become better acquainted with the royal foreigner.

Lardner gives the following account of two queens, from Huber. Huber placed a piece of comb having three royal cells in a hive in which the queen was laying eggs. The moment she saw them she attacked them, laid them open, and commanded her attendants to destroy them. These instantly tore out the royal nymphs, and devoured the food destined for their use. He then introduced a stranger queen, pregnant with eggs, marking her so as to be able to identify her.

"Immediately on her appearance the workers collected in a crowd around
her, and formed as usual a circle of which she was the centre, the
heads of all the remaining crowd being directed towards her. This very
soon became so dense that she became an absolute prisoner within it.

"While this was going on, a similar ring was formed by another group
of workers round the queen-regnant, so that she was likewise for the
moment a prisoner.

"The two queens being thus in view of each other, if either evinced
a disposition to approach and attack the other, the two rings were
immediately opened, so as to give a free passage to the combatants;
but the moment they showed a disposition to fly from each other,
the rings were again closed, so as to retain them on the spot they
occupied.

"At length the queen-regnant resolved on the conflict, and the
surrounding crowd, seeming to be conscious of her decision,
immediately cleared a passage for her to the place where the stranger
stood perched on the comb. She threw herself with fury on the latter,
seized her by the root of the wing, and fixed her against the comb so
as to deprive her of all power of movement or resistance, and then
bending her abdomen, inflicted a mortal stab with her sting, and put
an end to the intruder.

"A fruitful queen full of eggs was next placed upon one of the combs
of a hive over which a virgin queen already reigned. She immediately
began to drop her eggs, but not in the cells; nor did the workers, by
a circle of whom she was closely surrounded, take charge of them; but,
since no trace of them could be discovered, it is probable that they
were devoured.

"The group, by which this intruding queen was surrounded, having
opened a way for her, she moved towards the edge of the comb, where
she found herself close to the place occupied by the legitimate virgin
queen. The moment they perceived each other, they rushed together with
ungovernable fury. The virgin, mounting on the back of the intruder,
stabbed her several times in the abdomen, but failed to penetrate the
scaly covering of the segments. The combatants then, exhausted for
the moment, disengaged themselves and retired. After an interval of
some minutes they returned to the charge, and this time the intruder
succeeded in mounting on the back of the virgin and giving her several
stabs with her sting, which, however, failed to penetrate the flesh.
The virgin queen, succeeding in disengaging herself, again retired.
Another round succeeded, with the like results, the virgin still
coming undermost, and, after disengaging herself, again retiring. The
combat appeared for some time doubtful, the rival queens being so
nearly equal in strength and power; when at last, by a lucky chance,
the virgin sovereign inflicted a mortal wound upon the intruder, who
fell dead on the spot.