BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
By furnishing ventilation independent of the entrance, we may improve upon the method which bees, in a state of nature, are often compelled to adopt, when the openings into their hollow trees are so small, that they must employ,in hot weather, a larger force in ventilation, than would otherwise be necessary. By the use of my movable blocks (Pl. V., Fig. 17), the entrance may be kept so small, that only a single bee can go in at once, or it may be entirely closed, without the bees suffering for want of air. While the ventilators afford a sufficient supply, they may be easily controlled, so as not to injure the brood by admitting too strong a current of chilly air. In the chapter on wintering bees, directions are given for ventilating the hives in cold weather, so as to carry off all superfluous moisture.
The construction of my hives allows of ventilation from above; and it should always be used, when bees are shut up for any length of time, to be moved, that the colony may not be sufficed, by the lower ventilators becoming clogged by dead bees. As the entrance of the hive, may in a moment, be enlarged to any desirable extent, without perplexing the bees, any quantity of air which the bees may require, can be admitted; the ventilator on the back allowing a free current to sweep through the hive. The entrance may be fourteen inches and upwards in length; but as a general rule, in a large colony, it need not, in Summer, exceed four inches; while, during the rest of the year, one or two inches will suffice. In very hot weather, especially if the hive stands in the sun, the bees cannot have too much air; and the ventilators in the upper part of the main hive should all be kept open.
Requisites of a complete hive.
In this chapter, I shall enumerate certain advantages which seem essential to the idea of a complete hive. Instead of disparaging other hives, I prefer inviting the attention of bee-keepers to the importance of these requisites; some of which, I believe, are contained in no hive but ray own. If, after careful scrutiny, they command themselves to the judgment of practical cultivators, they will serve to test the comparative merits of the various hives in common use.
1. A complete hive should give the Apiarian such perfect control of all the combs, that they may be easily taken out without cutting them, or enraging the bees.
2. It should permit all necessary operations to be performed without hurting or killing a single bee.
Most hives are so constructed, that they cannot be used without injuring or destroying some of the bees; and the destruction of even a few, materially increases the difficulty of managing them.
3. It should afford suitable protection against extremes of heat and cold, sudden changes of temperature, and the injurious effects of dampness.
The interior of a hive should be dry in Winter, and free in Summer from a pent and almost suffocating heat.
4. It should permit every desirable operation to be performed, without exciting the anger of the bees.
5. Not one unnecessary motion should be required of a single bee.
As the honey-harvest, in most locations, is of short continuance, all the arrangements of the hive should facilitate, to the utmost, the work of the busy gatherers. Hives which compel them to travel with their heavy burdens through densely crowded combs, are very objectionable. Bees instead of forcing their way through thick clusters, can easily pass into the top surplus honey-boxes of my lives, from any comb in the hive, and into every box, without traveling at all over the combs.
6. It should afford suitable facilities for inspecting, at all times, the condition of the bees.
7. It should be capable of being readily adjusted to the wants of either large or small colonies.
By means of a movable partition, my hive can be adjusted, in a few moments, to the wants of any colony however small; and with equal facility be enlarged, from time to time, or at once restored to its full dimensions.
8. It should allow the combs to be removed without any jarring.
Bees manifest the utmost aversion to any motion which tends to loosen or detach their combs. The movable frames, however firmly fastened, can all be loosened in a few moments, without injuring or exciting the bees.
9. It should allow every good piece of comb to be given to the bees, instead of melting it into wax;
10. It should induce the bees to build regular combs.
A hive containing too much comb suitable only for storing honey, or raising drones, cannot be expected to prosper.
11. It should furnish empty coin, to induce bees to occupy more readily the surplus honey-reeeptacles.
12. It should prevent the over-production of drones, by permitting the removal of drone-comb from the hive.
13. It should enable the Apiarian, if too many dronesFigure 23: Plate X.
Figure 73:
have been raised, to trap and destroy them, before they have largely consumed the honey of the hive.
This is effected, in my hives, by adjusting the blocks (Pl. III, Figs. 11, 12) which regulate the entrance.
14. It should enable the Apiarian to remove such combs as are too old.
The \(upper\) part of a comb, being generally used for storing honey, will last for many years.
15. It ought to furnish all needed security against the ravages of the bee-moth.
16. It should furnish to the Apiarian some accessible place, where the larvae of the bee-moth, when fully grown, may wind themselves in their cocoons.
17. It should enable the Apiarian, by removing the combs, to destroy the worms, if they get the advantage of the bees.
18. The bottom-board should be permanently attached to the hive, for convenience in moving it, and to prevent the depredations of moths and worms.
Sooner or later, there will be eervices between every movable bottom-board and the sides of the hive, through which moths will gain admission to lay their eggs, and under which worms, when fully grown, will retreat to spin their webs. In my hive, there is no place where the moth can get in, except at the entrance for the bees, which may be contracted or enlarged, to suit the strength of the colony; and which, from its peculiar shape, the bees are easily enabled to defend. If, however, any prefer movable bottom-boards, they can be used in my hive.
19. The bottom-board should slant toward the entrance, to facilitate the carrying out of dead bees, and other useless substances; to aid a colony in protecting itself against robbers; and to carry off moisture, and prevent rain from beating into the hive.
20. The bottom-board should admit of being easily cleared, in cold weather, of dead bees.
If suffered to remain, they often become mouldy, and injure the health of the colony. In dragging them out, when the weather moderates, the bees often fall with them on the snow, and are so chilled, that they never rise again ; for a bee, in flying away with the dead, frequently retains its hold, until both fall to the ground.
21. No part of the interior of the hive should be below the level of the place of exit.
If this principle is violated, the bees must, at great disadvantage, drag, _up hill_, their dead, and all the refuse of the hive.
22. It should afford facilities for feeding bees, both in warm and cold weather.
In this respect, the movable-comb hive has unusual advantages. In warm weather, sixty colonies may, in less than an hour, receive each a quart of food, without any feeder, and with no risk from robber-bees.
23. It should permit the easy hiving of a swarm, without injuring any bees, or risking the destruction of the queen.
24. It should admit of the safe transportation of the bees to any distance whatever.
The permanent bottom-board, the firm attachment of each comb to a separate frame, and the facility with which air can be given to confined bees, admirably adapt my hive to this purpose.
25. It should furnish bees with air, when the entrance, for any cause, must be entirely shut.
26. It should furnish facilities for enlarging, contracting, and closing the entrance, to protect the bees against robbers, and the bee-moth ; and when the entrance is altered,the bees ought not, as in most hives, to lose valuable time in searching for it.
27. It should give the requisite ventilation, without enlarging the entrance so much as to expose the bees to moths and robbers.
28. It should furnish fhesilities for admitting at once a large body of air, that the bees may be tempted to fly out and discharge their faeces, on warm days in Winter, or early Spring.
If such a free admission of air cannot be given, the bees, by losing a favorable opportunity of emptying themselves, may suffer from diseases resulting from too long confinement.
29. It should enable the Apiarian to remove the excess of bee-bread from old stocks. (See p. 82.)
30. It should enable the Apiarian to remove the combs, brood, and stores, from a common to an improved hive, so that the bees may be easily able to attach them again in their natural positions. A colony transferred to my hive will repair their combs, in a few days, so as to work as well as before their removal.
31. It should permit the safe and easy dislodgement of the bees from the hive.
This requisite is especially important, when it becomes necessary to break up weak stocks, to join them to others.
32. It should allow the bees, together with the heat and odor of the main hive, to pass in the freest manner, to the surplus honey-receptacles.
In this respect, all other hives with which I am acquainted are more or less deficient : the bees being forced to work in receptacles difficult of access, and in which, in cool nights, they find it impossible to maintain the requisite heat for comb-building. Bees cannot, in such hives,work to advantage in glass tumblers, or other small vessels. One of the most important arrangements of my hive, is that by which the heat passes into the upper receptacles for storing honey, as naturally as the warmest air ascends to the top of a heated room.
* 33. It should permit the surplus honey to be taken away, in the most convenient, beautiful, and salable forms, and without risk of annoyance from the bees.
In my hives, it may be made on frames in an upper chamber, in tumblers, glass boxes, wooden boxes, small or large, earthen jars, flower-pots, in short, in any kind of receptacle which may suit the fancy or convenience of the bee-keeper. Or these may all be dispensed with, and the honey taken from the interior of the main hive, by removing the full frames, and supplying their places with empty ones.
* 34. It should admit of the easy removal of good honey from the main hive, when its place can be supplied by the bees with an inferior article.
In districts where backwheat is raised, any vacancies made by removing the choice honey from the hive will be rapidly filled.
* 35. When quantity and not quality is the object sought, it should allow the greatest yield, that the surplus of strong colonies may be given, in the Fall, to those which have an insufficient supply.
By surmounting my hive with a box of the same dimensions, and transferring the combs to this box, the bees, when they build new comb, will deseend and fill the lower frames, using, as fast as the brood hatches, the upper box for storing honey. The combs in this box, containing a large-amount of bee-bread, and being of a size adapted to the breeding of workers, will be very suitable for aiding weak colonies.
36. It should be able to compel the force of a colony to be mainly directed to raising young bees; that brood may be on hand to form new colonies, and strengthen feeble
* 37. It ought to be so constructed that, while well protected from the weather, the sun may be allowed in early Spring to encourage breeding, by warming up the hive. 38. The hive should be equally well adapted to be used as a swarmer, or non-swarmer. In my hives, the bees may be allowed to swarm as in common hives, and be managed in the usual way. Even on this plan, the control of the combs will be found to afford unusual advantages. Non-swarming hives, managed in the ordinary way, are liable to swarm unexpectedly, in spite of all precautions. In my hives, the queen may be prevented from leaving, and a swarm will not depart without her. 39. It should enable the Apiarian to prevent a new swarm from forsaking its hive. This vexatious occurrence can always be prevented, by so adjusting the entrance, for a few days, that the queen cannot leave the hive. 40. It should enable the Apiarian, if he allows his bees to swarm, and wishes to secure surplus honey, to prevent their swarming more than once in a season. 41. It should enable the Apiarian, who relies on natural swarming, and wishes to multiply his colonies as fast as possible, to make vigorous stocks of all his small afterwards. Such swarms contain a young queen, and if they can be judiciously strengthened, usually make the best stockhives. My hives enable me to supply all such swarms at once with combs containing bee-bread, honey, and maturing brood.
42. It should enable the Aparian to multiply his colonies with a certainty and rapidity which are impossible if he depends upon natural swarming.
43. It should enable the Aparian to supply destitute colonies with the means of obtaining a new queen:
Every Aparian, for this reason alone, would find it to his advantage to possess, at least, one such live.
44. It should enable him to catch the queen, for any purpose ; especially to remove an old one whose fertility is impaired by age.
45. While a complete hive is adapted to the wants of those who desire to manage their colonies on the most improved plans, it ought to be suited to the wants of those who, from timidity, ignorance, or any other reason, prefer the common way.
46. It should enable a single bee-keeper to superintend the colonies of different individuals.
Many persons would keep bees, if an Apary, like a garden, could be superintended by a competent individual. No person can agree to do this with the common hives. If the bees are allowed to swarm, he may be called in a dozen different directions at once, and if any accident, such as the loss of a queen, happens to the colonies of his customers, he can usually apply no remedy.
On my plan, those who desire it, may witness the industry of this sngacious insect, and gratify their palates with its delicious stores harvested on their own premises, without incurring either trouble, or risk of annoyance.
47. All the joints of the hive should be water-tight, and there should be no doors or shutters liable to shrink, swell, or get out of order.
The importance of this requisite will be obvious to any one who has had the ordinary share of vexatious experience with such fixtures.
48. It should enable the bee-keeper entirely to dispense with sheds, or costly Apinaries; as the hive itself should alike defy heat or cold, rain or snow.
49. It ought not to be liable to be blown down in high winds.
My hives may be made so low, for very windy situations, that it would require almost a hurricane to upset them.
50. \(\Lambda\) complete hive should have its alighting-board so constructed, as to shelter the bees against wind and wet, thus facilitating to the utmost their entrance with heavy burdens.
If this precaution is neglected, the colony cannot be encouraged to use, to the best advantage, the unpromising days which often occur in the working season.
51. A complete hive should be protected against the destructive ravages of mice in Winter.
When cold weather approaches, all my lives may have their entrances contracted by the movable blocks, so that a mouse cannot gain admission.
52. It should permit the bees to pass over their combs in the freest manner, both in Summer and Winter.
While such easy intercommunication facilitates the Summer work of the hive, it is often, in cold Winters, indispensable to the life of the colony.
53. It should permit the honey, after the gathering season is over, to be concentrated where the bees will most need it.
If the latter part of the season has been unpropitious, the centre combs, in which a colony usually winters, may have very little honey, while the others are well supplied. In hives where this cannot be remedied, it often causes the loss of the bees.
54. It should permit a generous supply of honey to be left, in the Fall, in the hive, without detriment either to the bees, or to their owner.
If too much honey is taken, and the Winter prove very unfavorable, the bees may starve. In the common hives, if too much remains, it cannot be removed in the Spring, and it is thus worse than lost to the bee-keeper, by occupying the room needed for raising brood.
55. It should permit the Apiarian to remove such combs as cannot be protected by the bees, to a place of safety.
When a colony becomes greatly reduced in numbers, its empty combs may cause its destruction, by affording a harbor to the bee-moth ; or its rich stores of honey may tempt robbing bees to despoil it. In the common hives, often nothing can be effectually done to prevent such casualties.
56. It should permit the space for spare honey receptacles to be enlarged or contracted at will, without any alteration or destruction of existing parts of the hive.
Without the power to do this, the productive force of a colony is in some seasons greatly diminished.
57. It should be so compact as to economize, if possible, every inch of material used in its construction.
58. The hive, while presenting a neat appearance, should admit, if desired, of being made highly ornamental.
59. It should enable an Apiarian to lock up his hives in some cheap and convenient way.
As my bottom-boards are not movable, the contents of a hive, when it is locked, can only be reached by carrying it bodily away.
60. It should allow the contents of a hive, bees, combs, and all, to be taken out when it needs any repairs.
As movable-comb hives can, at any time, be thoroughly overhauled and repaired, they should last for generations.
* 01: A complete hive, while possessing _all_ these requisites, should, if possible, _combine_ them in a _cheap_ and _simple_ form, adapted to the wants of all who are competent to cultivate bees.
* Few would imagine, in reading this long list of desirables, that any hive can combine them all, without being exceedingly complicated and expensive. On the contrary, the cheapness and simplicity with which the movable-comb, hive effects this, is its most striking feature, and the one which has cost me more study than all the other points besides. Bees can work, in this hive, with even greater flexibility than in a simple box, as the frames being left rough by the saw, give them an admirable support while building their combs; and they can enter the spare honey-boxes with more ease than they could mount to an equal height in the upper part of a common box-hive. There are a few desirables to which my hive, even if it were perfect, could make no pretensions!
* It promises no splendid results to those who are too ignorant or too careless to be entrusted with the management of bees. In bee-keeping, as in all other pursuits, a man must first understand his business, and then proceed upon the good old maxim, that "the hand of the diligent maketh rich." It has no talismanie influence which can convert a bad situation for honey into a good one; or give the Apinarian an abundant harvest, whether the season is productive or otherwise. As well might a farmer seek for some kind of wheat which will yield an enormous crop, in any soil, and in every season. It cannot enable the cultivator, while rapidly multiplying his stoeks, to secure the largest yield of honey from his bees. As well might the breeder of poultry pretend, that in the same year, and from the same stock, he can both raise the greatest number of chickens, and sell the largest number of eggs.
Worse than all, it cannot furnish the many advantages enumerated, and yet be made in as little time, or quite as cheaply, as a hive which, in the end, proves to be a very clear bargain!
In the progress of my invention, while undoubtedly attaching undue importance to some points, I have steadily endeavored to avoid constructing a hive in accordance with crude theories, or mere conjectures. Having carefully studied the nature of the honey-bee, for many years, and compared my observations with those of writers and cultivators who have spent their lives in extending the sphere of Aparian knowledge, I have endeavored to remedy the many difficulties with which bee-culture is beset, by adapting my invention to the actual habits and wants of the insect. I have also tested the merits of this hive by long continued experiments, made on a large scale, so that I might not, by deceiving both myself and others, add another to the useless contrivances which have deluded and disgusted a too credulous public. I would, however, utterly repudiate all claims to having devised even a perfect bee-hive. Perfection belongs only to the works of Him, to whose omniscient eye were present all causes and effects, with all their relations, when he spake, and from nothing formed the Universe. For man to stamp the label of perfection upon any work of his own, is to show both his folly and presumption.
The culture of bees is confessedly at a low ebb in this country, when thousands can be induced to purchase hives which are in glaring opposition to the plainest dictates of common sense, as well as the simplest principles of Aparian knowledge. Such have been the losses of deluded purchasers, that it is no wonder they turn from everything offered in the shape of a patent bee-hive, as a worthless conceit, if not an outrageous swindle.
So deleterious has been the influence of the so-called "Improved Hives" that, as a general thing, only those who have used hives of the simplest form, have derived much profit from their bees. They have wasted neither time, money, nor bees, upon contrivances which can secure nothing in advance of a simple box-hive, with an upper chamber.
_A hive of the simplest possible construction_, is a close imitation of the abode of bees in a state of nature; being a mere hollow receptacle, where, protected from the weather, they can lay up their stores. _An improved hive_, is one which contains an additional, separate apartment, where bees can store their surplus honey for man. Most hives in common use are only modifications of this latter hive, and, as a general rule, are bad, exactly in proportion as they depart from it. While they tempt the common bee-keeper to ruinous departures from the beaten path, they furnish him no remedy for the loss of the queen, or the casualties to which bees are exposed. Such hives, therefore, form no reliable basis for any improved system of management; and hence, the cultivation of bees, in this country, has declined for the last fifty years, and the Aparian is as dependent as ever upon the aprices of an insect, which more than any of his domestic animals, may be completely subjected to his control.
I would respectfully submit, that no hive which does not furnish a thorough control over every comb, can give that substantial endurance over the simple improved or chamber hive, which the bee-keeper's necessities demand. Of such hives, the best are those which best unite _cheaperness_ and _simplicity_, with _protection in Winter_, and _ready access_ to the spare honey-boxes.
Having thus enumerated the tests to which all hives ought to be subjected, I submit them to the candid consideration of those, who, having the largest experience in the management of bees, are most conversant with the evils of the present system. If, on _full trial_, they find that the movable-comb hive can abide these tests, they may be willing to endorse the enthusistic language of an experienced Apiarian, who, on examining its practical workings, declared that " it introduced not simply an _improvement_, but a _complete revolution_ in bee-keeping."SWARMING AND HIVING.
natural swarming, and living of swarms.
The swarming of bees is one of the most beautiful aghts in the whole compass of rural economy. Although many who use movable-comb hives prefer the artificial multiplication of colonies, few would be willing entirely to dispense with the pleasing excitement of natural swarming.
"Up mounts the chief, and to the cheated eye
Ten thousand shuttles dart along the sky ;
As swift through other rise the rushing, swarms,
Gray dancing to the beam their sun-bright forms ;