BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
D. D. are neat mouldings, about an inch and a half wide, made of three-fourths-inch deal, and are so fastened to the middle-box in front, (i. e. the side not here shown) as well as at the back, that three fourths of an inch of each may project beyond each corner of that box, and form a cover and protection for the edges of the dividing-tins, and also for the seams, or joints, necessarily made by placing the end-boxes against the middle one.
E. E. are the frame-work and covers of the ventilation and thermometer.
F.F. are the block-fronts
G. is the feeding-drawer
H. is the octagon-cover
I. I. I. are the window-shutters, five inches by four, or larger or smaller, as fancy may direct: these shutters open as so many little doors by means of small brass-joints, and are kept fast, when closed, by a brass-button set on the box.
1, 2, 3, 4, are so many tin slides, to cut off, or to open, as the case may require, the communications between the position and the bell-glass ; between the position and the feeding drawer ; and between the end-boxes and their under-boxes.
For a bee-passage between the position and the bell-glass, is cut, in the centre of the top of the pavilion, a circular hole, an inch in diameter, and from the edge of that circular hole are cut four or six passages, just wide enough to allow the Beces space to pass and re-pass. These lineal cuts must of course terminate within the circumference of the circle formed by the edge of the bell-glass that is placed over then.
Perhaps it may be said,--in fact, it has been said--that these boxes are in reality nothing more than a common coutage-hive. Be it so: but it is an _inproved_ coutage-hive, made convenient by being divisible, and by having its parts well arranged. The middle-box, or department, marked A, is, however, square, and not round, like the common straw-hive. But beyond this one box the comparison cannot easily be carried; the common straw-hive possesses no such conveniences and accommodations as those afforded both to Bees and Bee-masters by the end-boxes of my hive.
When the glass is nearly filled, which in a good season will be in a very short space of time, the Bees will again want accommodation. Previously, however, to drawing up a tinslide to enlarge their crowded house, the manager should take off the empty end-box he intends to open to them, carefully and thoroughly cleanse it, and then smear or dress
* From the time of the Queen's laying an egg in a cell to its issuing therefrom a perfect Bee, a space of twenty-one days intervenes, during which time the embryo Bee undergoes several changes: from the fourth to the ninth day, or it may be a day earlier or a day later, according to the temperature of the stock, entomologists term the embryo Bees--_larve_; and it is during those five days that these _larve_ require to be fed with what is called Bee-bread. This is applicable to the case of the common Bee only: the developement of a Drone requires a longer space of time, and of a Queen a shorter by some days, as will be noticed more particularly in Chapter 11--Ep.
the inside of it with a little liquid honey. Thus prepared he must return the box to its proper situation, and then withdraw the sliding-in that hitherto has cut it off from the middle-box, and by so doing he will enlarge the Bees' store-house room, which will afford them the accommodation they then require, and apparently produce great satisfaction. The Bees will immediately commence their operations in this new apartment. This simple operation, _done at a proper time,_ generally prevents swarming; and by it the Queen gains a vast addition to her dominions, and consequently additional space for the increasing population of her domicil. There is now no want of store-house room, nor of employment, for our indefatigable labourers. And while the common Bees are employed in collecting, and manufacturing (if I may so say) their various materials, the Queen-bee will be employed in carrying on the great, first principle of nature--the propagation of her species. This she does in the department (A.) re-filling with her eggs the brood-cells which have been vacated by the young Bees. When, however, her next new progeny are about to be brought into life, the Be-master should draw out the other tin-slide, and thereby open a communication to the other empty apartment, and so make a further addition to the Queen's dominions**;** which the new, and even veteran labourers, will presently occupy, and set about improving and enriching as in the former case. When the Bees have advanced their operations in the several compartments of their box-hive, which may be ascertained by looking through the windows at the back and ends of the boxes, the Bee-master should gently put in the tin slide (1.) lift up the lid of the octagon-box or cover (H.) and take off the bell-glass, which will be, filled with the purest honey. Before, however, he endeavours to take off the glass, it is necessary that he should cut through between the bell-glass and the box, with a fine wire, or some sharp instrument, in order that the tin may the more easily pass under the full glass of honey; when this is done, he may take off the full glass and re-place it with an empty one. He must then draw out the tin-slide (1.) and so on through the honey-season as often as it may be necessary.
The operation of taking off a glass, or a box, of honey, may be best performed in the middle of a fine, sunny day; and in taking off a glass, the operator, having put in the tin-slide (1.) as already directed, should wait half an hour, or longer, if necessary, to see whether the Bees made prisoners in the glass manifest any symptoms of uneasiness; because, if they do not, it may be concluded the Queen-bee is amongst them; and in that case it will be advisable to withdraw the slide (1.) and to re-commence the operation on a future day. But if, as it generally happens, the prisoners in the glass should run about in confusion and restlessness, and manifest signs of great uneasiness, _then_ the operator may conclude that all is right; and, having taken off the octagon-cover, may envelope the glass in a silk handkerechief, or dark cloth, so as to exclude the light, remove it with a steady hand, and place it on one side, or so that the Bees may have egress from it, in some shady place, fifteen or twenty yards from the boxes; and the Bees that were imprisoned in it will in a short space of time effect their escape, and return with eagerness to the middle-box and their comrades.
And what may be done with B, may also be done with either of the C. C. boxes, as occasion requires. It may not, however, be amiss to be more explanatory of the mode of taking away the measures of the Bees in the side-boxes. It will be necessary to examine minutely the state of your boxes, particularly when the whole of them is full of the Bees and their works. When the tin is put down to divide an end-box from the mother-hive, you no doubt make many prisoners; to prevent which, the night before separating an end-box from a middle one, lay open the ventilator, which will not only lower the heat of the box, but will admit the cool, night air, which naturally causes the Bees to leave that apartment, and to draw themselves into the middle-box--their native climate; when this is done, you may put down the tin-slide (D.) as already directed, and let your Bees remain at the least twenty minutes in total darkness; then open the windows of the box you are about to take off; and if the Queen-bee is not within that box, the Bees that are in it will show a great desire to be liberated from their disagreeable confinement, by running about in the most hurried, agitated, and restless manner. But should the Queen-bee be there, you will then find the Bees show no desire to leave her;--the connotion will appear in the middle-box. Under such circumstances,which sometimes happen, you must act with caution; for were you to open the egress from the box, that is, the block (F.) and tin-slide (2. or 4. as the case may be) to permit their departure, very shortly would the whole of the working Bees join their Queen in the box you intended to take off; and this would be a great disappointment and complete puzzle to the Beemaster, not thoroughly acquainted with the proper mode of managing his valuable hive. To me such an occurrence would be a repetition only of a demonstration of facts--of pleasures unspeakable, in witnessing for the hundredth time the influence of her majesty --the Queen of the Bees, and the wonderful attachment, and, (if I may so express myself) the _Tory_ loyalty of _all_ her subjects.
When, however, you do find the Queen in the box you are about to take off, it is an easy matter to draw the tin-slide up again. Do so, then; and, that done, the Queen-bee will probably embrace the opportunity of leaving the place of her confinement; and then, having again put down the dividing-tin in the course of a day or two, you will be in a situation to accomplish your object. You will soon see the Bees running to and fro upon the windows in the box you are about to take off; and when you thus find them anxious to leave your box of honey, close the windows, and open an egress by withdrawing the tin, No. 2. or 4. as your box may require; the Bees finding an aperture, with light to direct their departure, will eagerly embrace the opportunity of regaining their liberty--will fly away from their prison, and join their fellow-labourers at the entrance of the middle-box. In a short time you will be in possession of a box of honey, and all your Bees will be in safety, humming plaintively with their parent and Queen. Take from them the box your humanity entitles you to, taking care that the tin-slide is close to the middle-box. You may then empty the full box, and return it when emptied to its former place; then draw up your tin, and you again enlarge the domicil, having gained a rich reward for your operation, at the expense of the labour of your Bees; but without the destruction of the lives of any of them, except by mere accident. A child of twelve years of age may be taught to do this without the least danger; there need be no Bee-dresses,--there needs no fumigation of any sort,--it is an easy movement, and promotes the welfare of these worthies, inasmuuch as it tends to prevent their swarming, and secures to the Queen her rightful throne. Reader, this declaration is founded on facts, gained by the practical experience of twenty years. And that you may adopt this principle, and node of managing HoneyBees, that is, of taking from them their superabundance of honey, and preserve your Bees uninjured, and, if you can contrive it, improve upon the instructions here given, and upon the example here set you, is my hearty wish, for my country's welfare, and for the welfare of my admired, nay, my _beloved_ BEES.
Should it, however, so happen, as it sometimes may, owing to a variety of causes, such, forinstance, as thenegligence, or uskillfulness, or unavoidable absence of the Bee-master at a critical time; or from any other cause, should it, I say, so happen that the Bees in the middle-box should swarm; take such swarm into one of the end-boxes, prepared for such an event, by merely making an entrance to it, at, or as near as possible to, the corner farthest from the entrance into the middle-box;and before this new entrance fix an alighting board. The swarm will thus become a family of itself, and as much a stock pro tempore, as if it were placed on a separate stand, provided the dividing-tin, which separates the middle-box from that into which the swarm is put, be carefully adjusted, and made perfectly tight and secure, so that a Bee cannot pass from one box to the other. To this material point the apiarian will necessarily attend when he first removes the end-box in order to put the swarm into it. In the evening place the box containing the swarm on its floor, just where and as it was before it was taken off. Let the Bees thus managed work two or three weeks, or as the nature of the season may require,--I mean--until the end-box appears to be about half-filled with combs. Then close up the exterior entrance of the collateral-box containing the swarm of Bees, and draw out the sliding-tin which hitherto has separated the two families or colonies, and the Bees will presently unite, and become one family. The apiarian will likewise witness with pleasure the effect of ventilation in the hive ; for as soon as the Bees have deposed one of the Queens, and the end-box has been cooled by meansof the cylindric-ventilator, he will discover that the combs will be presently emptied of every material necessary for the support of the brood or young larvae ; so that the combs, that had been so recently constructed for brood-combs, soon become receptacles for pure honey, and the numerous Bees become the united subjects of one sovereign in the middle-box.
This is a neat method of rc-uniting a swarm to its parent-stock ; and the operation is so easy that the most unpractised apiarian may perform it without subjecting himself to the slightest danger of being stung by the Bees. It can however only be practised with Bees in boxes. Another and a more prompt method of returning a swarm to its parent-stock, and which is practicable with swarms from coutage-hives, as well as with those from boxes, is the following.
After the swarm has been taken in the usual way into an empty box, or into a straw-hive, and suffered to settle and cluster therein for an hour or two, gently and with a steady hand take the box or hive, and, having a tub of clean water placed ready and conveniently for the purpose, with a sudden jerk dislodge the Bees from the box or hive and immerse them in the water. Let them remain therein two or three minutes: then drain it off through a sieve, or other strainer, and spread the now harmless Bees--harmless, because apparently half-drowned, upon a dry towel or table-cloth, and search for and _secure the Queen_. This done, and this may very easily be done, place a board or two in a slanting direction from the entrance of the parent-hive to the ground ; upon this lay the cloth on which are your immersed Bees, and spread them thinly over it, in order that they may the sooner become dry; and, as they become dry, you will with pleasure see them return to their native-hive, which they will be permitted to enter without the slightest opposition from the Bees already therein.
By this operation not only are the immersed Bees cooled, but their re-union with those already in the hive cools _them_ also, and considerably lowers the temperature of the whole stock. With a late swarm from any sort of hive, as well as with an accidental swarm from boxes, this is a good method to be adopted; and, if the apiarian possess sufficient coolness and dexterity to perform it clearly, it is a practice I would recommend whenever it is advisable to return a swarm to its native-hive. When a swarm has thus been returned to a cottage-hive, an eke should be added forthwith.
Besides these two methods of returning a swarm, there is another, and that by far the most masterly one, which, though it has been detailed in every edition of this work, in the chapter headed "THERMOMETER," I have hitherto forborn to recommend, lest I should subject myself to the imputation of directing a dangerous, if not an impracticable operation. As, however, it has been repeatedly performed, in the course of the last ten summers, at Gedney-Hill, and at other places, by some of my apiarian friends, and always with complete success, I may now venture to give a more particular account of it, and to recommend it as one of the cleverest and most skilful and pleasing operations that can be performed with a swarm of Bees. I would, however, premise that, until the operation alluded to has been witnessed, and until the apiarian who may wish to adopt it be so well-acquainted with the Queen-bee as to be able to desery her the moment she becomes visible,and confident of his courage to seize and secure her, I do not advise him to undertake it: but when he possesses these qualifications he will be in no danger of marring the operation.
Instead of a repetition of my own mode of proceeding, which will be again detailed in its proper place, I will here give as a proof and confirmation of its practicability an instance which I witnessed at Gedney-Hill on the 8th of June, 1835, because it was not done by myself, nor under my direction,--I having engaged not to interfere unless my friend should be at fault; because it was gone through in the coolest and most skilful manner, and because it alone will be sufficient both to explain and to recommend the practice to my apiarian readers.
Having taken a swarm into a common hive in the usual manner, and suffered the Bees to settle in it even longer than was necessary, (an houris generally long enough for that purpose), my respected friend--the Rev. T. Clark, spread three empty sacks on his garden-walk, about twelve or fourteen yards from and in front of the hive from which the swarm had issued. This done, he proceeded to take and gently turn up the hive containing the swarm, and to look for the Queen : but not being able to desery her, he carried it to the place where the sacks were spread out, and having suddenly shaken out a quantity of the Bees upon one of them, he placed the hive containing the residue upon the next to it : he then commenced his search for the Queen-bee, spreading and turning the Bees about with the top of a quill and frequently with his bare finger, so little was he apprehensive of being stung, or so well was he aware that those subdued Bees would not harm him. When satisfied that the Queen was not in that lot of Bees, they and the sack all over which they had been spread were taken and quietly laid upon a board, which had been previously placed in a slanting direction from the ground to the entrance of the mother-hive, into which the examined Bees returned as fast as they could run, to the great delight and astonishment of the bye-standers who had never before witnessed so novel a scene. Then a second examination of the Bees that had been left in the hive upon the second sack immediately took place, and no Queen appearing, a second quantity of Bees was instantaneously dis lodged, and upon the sack : among these the Queen was quickly espiel, and as quickly secured. The Bees on the sack, and those still in and clinging to the hive, were then carried and placed as conveniently as possible for their easy return to their parent-hive ; and in less than twenty minutes from the commencement of the operation, they were all at home again, and the business was completed. It is but justice to my worthy friend--the operator, to add that no Bees were killed ; and that, though there were several lookers-on, and hundreds of Bees soon on the wing, not one person was stung. The fact is that when Bees are under the influence of fear, their hostility is subdued, and they are as harmless as if they had no stings ; and here was a convincing proof of it.
Notwithstanding these directions respecting the several methods of dealing with swarms, I most strenuously maintain that _prevention is better than cure_,--and that by proper management of stocks in my boxes, _swarming may be prevented;_--at least so far prevented that it may, when by any accident it occurs, be considered as the exception, and not the general rule as heretofore. Out of fourteen stocks in my apiary at Moulton-Chapel, in 1835, _not one sacarmed;_ and the summer of 1835 was a remarkable one for swarming: and out of six stocks in the garden of my friend--Mr. Clark--in the year, 1836, _but one swarmed :_ and one stock he keeps in a single box, for the express purpose of swarming.
Before I further explain the advantages derivable from the adoption of my collateral Bee-boxes, I would briefly but earnostly express my desire that my readers will attend particularly to the discovery of the effects of ventilation. I have been asked--"Of what use is ventilation in the domicil of Bees!" I answer--one of its uses has already been described; and much more of its use, I may say, of its necessity, in the luminance management of Bees will be told presently. Many treatises on the management of Bees have appeared, but in none of them do I find any allusion to this important point--important in my practice at least, and essentially necessary in it. Therefore--
To works of nature join the works of man,
To show, by art improved, what Nature can.
Nature's great efforts can no further tend,
Here fix'd her pillars, all her labours end.
Dryden,Perhaps the divided labour of Honey-Bees was anticipated by the author of these lines : but, be that as it might, I in my turn, will ask--How can we preserve our Bees uninjured, divide their works, and take away their super-abundant treasures, without the influence of ventilation? I think it is impossible. A lesson, a true lesson from nature, has demonstrated this fact to me, and twenty years' constant practice and attention to this important subject have put into operation my plans for the welfare of that wonderful insect--the Queen of Bees. Well might Dr. Bevan say--
First of the throng, and foremost of the whole,
One stands confess'd the sovereign and the soul.
Curious facts respecting this extraordinary insect are before me, which have been ascertained and proved by means of my observatory-hive. This hive is unknown in any work hitherto published on the interesting subject of Bee-management : and with reference to it I may here first observe--that when a new principle is discovered by studying nature, such principle will seldom fail to produce effects beneficial in proportion to its being understood and skillfully applied. So simple and so rational (if I may so say) is my observatory-live, that it cannot but be approved, when it is once understood, by the followers of my aiparian practice. But to resume myinmediate subject:--be my humble theory what it may, it hath truth for its foundation ; and by perseverance and industry I flatter myself I shall materially improve, if not bring to perfection, the cultivation and management of Honey-Bees, merely by pointing out _how_ the produce of their labour may be divided, _how_ a part thereof may be taken away, _how_ a sufficiency may be reserved for the sustenance of the stock, and _how_ their lives may be preserved notwithstanding these novel operations.
Much has been said respecting the probable results of this practice: but facts are stubborn things ; and luckiily for me and for my mode of Bee-management, I have an abundance of the most incontrovertible facts to adduce in confirmation of the truth of my statements, which facts will, I think and hope, convince all those who have heretofore entertained doubts upon the subject.
The first movement in my aiparian practice commences with the Bces in the middle-box, or pavilion of nature, as by way of distinction that box may be designated. This pavilion, which is equivalent to a cottage-hive, is the subject of my presentobservationsandexplanation.
I say, then,--disturb not this box--this pavilion of nature : weaken not its population ; but support its influence, and extend to it those accommodations which no practice, except my own, has yet put into operation, or made any adequate provision for. The practice here advocated partakes not of the driving, nor of the fumigating, nor of the robbing system. It is a liberal method of Bee-cultivation founded on humanity. And it is by such practice that we must succeed, if we hope to be benefited by the culture of Honey-Bees. The destruction of Bees in order to get at their honey is ever to be deprecated as a species of murder and robbery of which it is a shame, if not a crime, to be guilty. Let us then preserve the lives of our Bees, and take from them only the honey they have to spare. From good stocks well managed we shall always get enough ; and with enough we ought to be content. Without the Bee we cannot get one drop ; and, be it always remembered--it is the _living Bee_ that collects the honey.
ventilation.