BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
As to the internal government of the bee-community, Mr. Grant states there are some bees that appear never to work themselves, but take regular rounds to ascertain whether all bees are performing their duties satisfactorily : but it is probable that these officers or magistrates of the hive, may also, like the sentinels, fulfil their high duties only in rotation. And sad enough these duties occasionally are--involving no less than penal judgments. Mr. Grant beheld " two bees brought out of the hive by other bees, assisted by one on each side as guards : they were evidently condemned criminals. They were thrown down in front of the hive, stung to death, and then the executioners returned to the hive as though conscious of having performed a highly praiseworthy duty." He supposes these unfortunate to have been either strangers or unruly members : but as this involves a serious point of the bee criminal jurisprudence, we had better suspend our judgments until the facts are made clearer. Perhaps the criminals were a pair of the corsairsrecently described. As to the bee-polic, we shall content ourselves with the illustration afforded by an anecdote. "A few pounds of honey had been taken from a live by its owner, and placed in a closet of a room of which the door was closed. The bee-polic, however, appear to have been following the stolen goods, and watching their opportunity, stole in through an open window into the room, and thence by means of a crevice into the closet itself. How the bees must have enjoyed the sport as they hurried to and fro until they had completely emptied the abstracted combs, and re-deposited the whole of the honey in the centre of the hive : their own once more!"
Bees appear to be decidedly backward in surgery and the medical art, and probably kill their sick and maimed, when the cases are too difficult; but then they take care to have few of such cases. They are your true sanitary labourers. See how carefully they clean the floor of the hive at every favourable opportunity; how they remove all decaying or dead exuvie. They take the greatest care that none of their own exuvie should fall upon the floor of the hive, and always discharge it outside. To such an extent is this practice kept up, that after the winter season, the bees may be seen leaving the live for that express purpose. It was necessary, some years ago, to destroy a live during the winter. I preserved a large number of the bees for dissection, and did not find one, where the intestine was not enormously swollen, and in some cases so much so that it appeared almost impossible that the insect could fly at all. Then they can also ventilate in hot weather. But that process deserves a few words of explanation--it is at once so interesting and unique. The ventilating bees take up their position in two bodies, one larger than the other, near the entrance, but so as to cause no interruption of the way. The small body near the door turn their heads inwards, the other and larger, standing farther within, look towards the entrance of the live. The bees then uniting their wings together by means of small marginal hooks, so as to increase the surface, move them to and fro with such velocity, that the wings almost cease to be distinguishable. This is hard work, and has to be continued incessantly at certain periods, so the ventilating corps is renewed all the more frequently, that is, at intervals of about twenty-five minutes.
Those who have been in India will easily recognise that their indispensable "punkal" is only a modification of the mode of ventilation, which has been used by the hive-bee for countless years. The exertion of fanning is so great that the bees are forced to support themselves very firmly by their feet and claws. Ventilation, although most frequent in hot weather, is carried on to a certain extent, even through the depths of winter, as the object of the bees appears to be not so much to reduce the temperature, as to change the air of the live.
These experiments among other things serve to show that we need not trouble ourselves very much about the temperature of the hive, either in summer or winter, as the bees can either raise it if they are too cold, or lower it if they are too hot; while, however, they can bear a rapid change from cold to heat as was above mentioned, they cannot bear a sudden change from heat to cold. If in the depth of winter, a hive is tapped, a bee comes out to see what is the matter, and if it is dragged into the cold air, it dies instantly.
The management of bees
Can be be_t understood by a careful study of the habits of the insect ; and therefore it is, that, independent of the interest we wished to inspire in the proceedings and modes of life of a most attractive little community, we considered it advisable to preface any necessary practical details, by dwelling at some length on the phenomena from which alone can be derived just principles of management. Study Nature, and she will herself show you where--and how--you may occasionally assist her when she requires assistance in the attainment of _your_ especial object ; but never attempt to conquer her, or to turn her completely aside from her own path. In other words, leave the bees as far as possible to their own instinets, by accommodating all your requisitions to their habits. This cannot be done by following implicitly mere dogmatic instructions, derived from other men's experience, capable with them, no doubt, of being adapted to changing or unexpected circumstances, precisely because based on experience that is ever ready to correct and inform the ideas it sent forth, but which to you, wanting that experience, may fail at your utmost need. We shall not, therefore, crowd these pages by very long, minute details of bee-management. Of course there are some points of practice easily explained, not liable to the danger we have pointed out, and indispensable to the young beginner in beekeeping. These we shall endeavour to state clearly and efficiently. But for the most part all the details of bee-management can be best learned from practice, and the study of the essential objects which details are intended to secure. It is also to be observed, that such details are unsettled to this hour, and vary among the best apiarists.
Almost the entire success of bee management depends upon the capabilities of the apiarian to take advantages of all the various changes which must take place according to the variations of temperature, locality, and seasons. While, therefore, it would display great presumption on the part of a beginner to dispense with the rules which the extensive ex perience of veteran bee-masters has enabled them to lay down, it would also be the mark of a mind very contracted and deficient in resources, were he slavishly to follow these rules without deviating from them, when circumstances would point out that a different course must be adopted Great caution must be observed in acting on new principles. Many treat their bees as if they were utterly insensible beings who cared not the least how they were lodged or fed, and who fancy that they can manoeuvre a hive of bees as easily as they can a flock of sheep. Bees _must_ be treated according to their instincts, and if constantly thwarted by the ignorance of their master, will never thrive properly. Indeed, a man who hopes to get a decent harvest from his hives, and at the same time to manage them on a wrong principle, will effect about as much success as a gardener might who strove to improve the quality of a peach by grafting it upon a strawberry. The principle of grafting here is right enough, but the application is wrong. So if a man learns any number of correct ideas from books, yet if at the same time he does not learn the application, he will do but little good.
So with regard to the much vexed question of theory and practice : a mere theorist will never succeed in securing any particular harvest, while the narrow-minded man who rests his whole hopes upon acting in precisely the same manner in which his fathers acted, will never advance the culture of bees one item. To make a perfect bee-master, then, practice and theory must be united--the theory sound, the practice decided. And this is a point that cannot be too closely attended to. When the apiarian has made up his mind to adopt any particular course, he must carry out that determination in a most decided manner. And here I may remark, that to learn by heart a number of instructions respecting any operation upon bees--say living a swarm--and acting upon those instructions, are two very different things. When, after carefully committing to memory certain rules, the young apiarian goes out, live in hand, to attack a swarm which has just settled on a branch of a tree, he naturally finds a slight misgiving steal over his mind as he approaches the living mass, and gets within range of the stragglers that are dashing about with a very ominously sharp hum, that appears to his mind very suggestive of stages, and causes him to assure himself of the exact locality of his bottle of hartshorn. However, he nerves himself for the attack, recollects that the hive is to be placed below the swarm, and then a smart tap is to be given to the branch. So he sprinkles sugar and beer in the hive, places it under the swarm, takes a very long stick, and standing at a respectful distance, administers a rather feeble tap to the fatal branch. No effect is produced, and he gives another tap rather more powerful than the last. The obstinate bees still remain fixed to their branch like a quicker's hat to his head, and no perceptible effect is produced excepting a kind of general movement in the swarm, which appears to indicate an intention on the part of the bees to hold together rather closer than before, Having now gained some courage, he once more uplifts the stick, and permits it to descend upon the branch with rather more violence than in either of the former assaults. Down go some hundred bees or so into the hive, where they are heard buzzing away in a most frantic manner, and filled with indignation at the unceremonious manner in which their wings are clogged with the sticky compound in the hive, while the remainder rise in a disturbed mass from their branch. The terrified bee-_keeper_, losing all the remainder of his presence of mind, throws the long stick at the swarm, and takes to his heels, too happy to find any place of refuge from his winged foes. In a few minutes he emerges just in time to see his swarm disappearing over his hedge, and in a few minutes the vigorous tinklings of keys and warming-pans assure him that others are engaged in the pursuit of the bees which he has permitted to escape. Next time he remembers that if the swarm be intended to fall into the hive, the branch must be struck very sharply indeed.
In this as in every other occupation, great decision is necessary, as the bees are very irascible creatures, and any fumbling about their dwellings or themselves irritates them marvellously, while a bold and rapid course of proceeding appears to astonish them out of the power of doing injury. Indeed it is said that a skilful operator can turn up a hive and cut out combs with impunity while the bees are hard at work within. One bee-writer remarks that single bees if boltsy caught in the hand will not sting. Before trying the experiment I would, from experience, recommend the experimentalist to have his bottle of hartshorn quite ready, as it will in all probability be placed in immediate requisition.
Perhaps the best course is to let a veteran apirain perform a few necessary operations on the hive while the novice looks on and discerns how the skilful operator, caring no more for the bees than for so many blue bottles, and treating the lives as unceremoniously as if they were milk-pails, by a few quick and decided operations effects more in half an hour than he himself would in a day. Only whatever instruction he receives from the veteran in question, let him never learn one thing of him--to destroy his bees with sulphur, or, as they laconically but too accurately term the butchery, to burn them. If he did, he would deserve to spend a few minutes in the agreeable subterranean passages in Dover Castle, with the brimstone shoots properly dressed with sulphur and lighted charcoal.
There is another caution which is necessary, and that is if you take up some particular hobby, as you certainly will if you are really enthusistic on the subject, do not ride it too fast. It is astonishing how people deceive themselves when their hobby is called in question. For instance, one celebrated bee-fancier made wooden lives his particular hobby, and utterly decried all varieties of straw, finishing his argument with a triumphant query as to whether bees when in a state of nature preferred a hollow tree, or a truss of hay for a residence--forgetting in the exuberance of his enthusiasm that trusses of hay are not generally found in those countries where bees hive in a state of nature, and that if they were, it is very seldom the case that a truss of hay contains a hollow large enough for a hive of bees to repose themselves in. It would, however, be an interesting experiment to place in those forests of America where the wild bee is found several straw lives, in order to see whether the bees would take to them, as wrens will take to an empty pumpkin or a little box with a hole in the side.
Having now detailed a few of the measures to be pursued in bee-management, we will proceed to a still more pleasing occupation, that of ascertaining what may be the
## Prefits of bee-keeping.
Before commencing this part of the subject, it will be as well to give a brief description of those technical terms which are in common use among apiarians, as many young bee-masters have been sadly puzzled to comprehend the instruction given in bee-books. By a "stock"' is meant a hive of bees at the end of the season, after all possibility of swarming is gone. A swarm that has taken possession of a hive, and in its turn sent forth another swarm, is called a stock, without reference to the length of time during which it has inhabited the hive, as being the stock from which the swarm was sent.
Hives that have been introduced into their habitations, and have not thrown out swarms, are themselves termed " swarms" until the end of the season at Michaelmas, when they are advanced to the rank of stocks. "Colonies" are those bees living in double or treble hives.
Sydserff supposes, in an estimate that we shall try to make clearer than he gives it, that every swarm or stock may produce another annually for sale, whilst the entire number of the stocks kept in hand shall be doubling yearly, which can only be accomplished thus :--
1st year--1 stock produces 2, making 3 in all;
from which 1 is sold, leaving 2; product...
2nd year--2 stocks produce 4, making 6 in all;
from which 2 are sold, leaving 4; product...
and so on. The expenses of the hives being defrayed by the honey obtained, what will be the result in fourteen years? Why that the last of the fourteen would produce 4,3007. 16s, from 8,192 hives! We wonder whether Sydserff ever asked himself how many apiaries could be doing this at the same time in England, and still obtaining 10s. 6d. for each live? A less amusing but much more useful calculation would be, to see what could be done by relying upon keeping your stocks yourself to produce honey, which can always be sold, and which would probably be much more largely consumed if it were cheaper. Here is a wide open field for skill and enterprise. All apiarians are agreed as to the profitable _nature_ of bee-keeping. Bees in good pasture, well managed, will give two swarms yearly; and, in favourableseasons, the first swarm will the same year give one or two glasses of honey. No noticeable capital is required to commence; no noticeable amount of time is _necessarily_ consumed in their management, and they may be kept almost anywhere, though not with equal profit. One apiarian, whose authority may be depended upon, gives the profits of eight stocks only as averaging about 20% in three successive years. Another, who was regularly engaged from six to six daily in other avocations, cleared nearly 100%, in one year by his bees. The quantity of honey that may be obtained from a hive is exceedingly variable, but offering, therefore, only the greater assurance of due rewards for able management. Fifty or sixty pounds have not unfrequently been obtained from a single hive in a season, and occasionally as much as 100 lbs,; whilst from a set of collateral boxes, 110 lbs, is mentioned; and Cotton states that as much as 210 lbs. have really been stored in a single season, by a single stock similarly situated in a roomy trebled habitation. The prices of honey in London are stated to be generally as follows:--
egin{tabular}{l l l l} Minorea, which is the best & & & & & \ Narbonne & & & & & \ Pure native honey in the comb & & & & \ Other native honey & & & & \ \end{tabular}
But pure native honey in the comb, obtained in glasses, is sought for the table, and therefore often sells for double the price above-mentioned. We shall only add, that Mr. Smart, a well-known apiarian, considers _hunicareds of stocks_ may be kept where only tens are now to be found, so far as regards the capabilities of support, the main point to be considered. To that subject, therefore, we now turn:--
bee-flowers.
Conspienous among all the plants loved by bees (for the best of reasons, that they get the most honey or other substances from them), are clover, wild-thyme, heath, and broom, forage, French buck-wheat, and _Melilotus leucantha_. This last may be usefully grown for the bees' especial gratification. It is easily cultivated, blooms from June to
**Bies.**
November, and is ornamental, in addition to its other good qualities. But the most important qualification of bee-pasturage is, that there shall be always something for the bees, from the very earliest spring to the very latest autumn. I: will be useful, therefore, to append a
**List of bee-flowers.**
_Spring._
Erica Carnea*
Turnip*
Vinter aconite*
Wallflower* (single)
Cabbage, &c.*
Rosemary*
Borage*
Laurusinus
Hazel*
Snow-drop
Gorse or furze
Crocus*
Pench
Willow*
Laburnum
Osier*
Gooseberry*
Berberry*
Currant*
Ribes Sanguineum
Dutch Clover*
_Symmer._
Springa
Mignionette*
Yellow vetch
Helianthemum
Annual poppy*
Sea-kale
French willow
Lime*
Viper's bugloss*
Sweet-briar
Raspberry*
Teazle
Symphora
Yellow lupine
Nasturtium
Racemosa
_Autumn._
Michaelmas daisy
French buekwheat,*
Heath*
Winter savory
sowed at Midsum-
Purple houseleek
Lemon thyme*
Spanish broom*
St. John's.wort
Hollyhoel*
Melilotus leucantha*
* Those marked with an asterisk are understood to be the flowers especially favoured by the bees. What a choice little garden for himself, as well as for his bees, the apiarian may make from the above list, if he does not choose to leave the bees dependent upon the stores of the neighbourhood at large!Should the surrounding neighbourhood not furnish a sufficiency of flowers, the practice of transportation, or shifting, is strongly recommended by many authors. It is not in the power of every bee-keeper, but as those whose home is placed by a river or canal, have a means at hand for transporting their hives, **I** have chosen to mention it here. In some countries, boats are built expressly for this purpose. They receive a very large number of lives in each boat, and by travelling for a few hours at night, the bees find themselves in a new country during their working hours, and the hives are rapidly filled with honey and wax of the best quality. The boatmen receive a small sum for each hive that they transport, but **I** rather fancy that their ingenuity does not rest until it has extracted some portion of the honey from the best filled hives. The Nile is much used for this purpose, and bees traverse the entire length of Egypt during the summer. In China ducks are subjected to the same migratory life, and thrive amazingly. Hives may easily be carried on men's shoulders, as that mode of conveyance shakes them less than carriage by waggon. Heaths are the best places that bees can possibly live in, and in Scotland there are people who make their living by taking care of hives during the time that the heath is in blossom, a period of about two months, for which time a rent of from one shilling to eighteen pence is paid by the propriator. It is always necessary while the bees are migrating, to take them at least ten miles during the nocturnal journey, as they are otherwise apt to fly back to the former position of their hive, and to lose themselves in searching for it. The distance to which bees can fly for food is shown in the following anecdotote, which has been recently published :--
"**A** man who kept bees in Holborn, and wishing to find out where they worked, sprinkled them all with a red powder as they came out of the hive in the morning. As the heath and thym were now in full bloom, he at once thought that Hampstead, being the nearest heath, would be the likeliest place to find his bees. As soon, therefore, as his bees were gone away, he hastened to the heights of Hampstead. The walk was a long and toilsome one, of at least four miles, in a July sun. But he trudged manually on, soon left behind him Cauden and Kentish Towns,and at last was refreshed with the soft summer breeze sweeping across the purple and golden bloom of the heath. After a few minutes' rest on the green sward, he began his search, and before long was delighted to find there, among thousands of other busy bees, his own little fellows in the dusty red couts, which he had given them in the morning." Many of the bees made the journey more than twice in each day, thus piloting themselves through sixteen miles of smoke and dust within the twelve hours.
If the hives are taken by water, they should always be placed on the shore at some distance from the bank, before opening the doors, as they will very probably when returning home wearied and laden with their burdens fall into the water, before they can reach the hive. If the hives are placed for the season, they should be kept at some little distance from other hives, as if they are weak, their more powerful neighbours will inevitably plunder them.
## commencement of operations.
And now, gentle reader, we will venture to suppose you, as an admirer of bees, or of the profit that may be derived from them, are determined to commence operations in a quiet careful way, that shall give you an opportunity of learning, by the management of a few, how to deal successfully with any number.
The first thing to be done in commencing operations, is of course to procure your bees. This can generally only be managed by purchase, and, in that case, follow the recommendation of Boswell :--" It is with a beehive as with a wife, never take one on the recommendation of another person." In order to enable the intending bee-keeper to effect this important point in a satisfactory manner, a few simple observations are here given. The best time for purchasing is in the spring, when the purchaser should carefully watch the proceedings of the bees belonging to the hives which he intends to purchase. He may be assured that things are going well, if the bees pass rapidly to and from the hive, many of them bearing their baskets of yellow pollen upon their legs. If the examination is made before swarming, particular attention should be paidto the number of drones, as if they muster strongly, the hive is sure to be a populous one.