Hive bee

“ For this reason, when people wish a swarm to settle, after it has left the hive, they hasten to cover it; because the shade induces them to rest, while a hot sun annoys them, and inclines them to take flight again. When we wish to disperse a cluster of bees off the front of a hive, we have only to expose it to the rays of the sun in the heat of the day. ”

“ We know that when a natural swarm issues forth, it has its impregnated queen, and, when located in a new abode, it commences building worker-combs, leaving the building of the few drone-combs to a later period; but if a division of the hive should be made, by putting half the combs in one hive and half in another, the hive that is either queenless or contains an embryo queen will busy itself with building only drone-comb; thus a number of receptacles for useless bees is provided, which tends to weakness, and eventually to loss of the hive. ”

“ The bees then retreat under the hive, on the side, or behind it. They thrive well in thick forests, and delight in them; because there they find a uniform temperature and a propitious shade. How often, during the dog-days, have we not seen the honey running down, and the combs melting, in those hives exposed to the heat of the sun. In one hour, sometimes, a whole apiary will be destroyed. It is also a mistake to suppose hives exposed to the sun produce the earliest and strongest swarms. I have oftener than once experienced the reverse. ”

“ When a number of hives are thus together, we colour the alighting-boards differently, so that the bees may - 127 - have a distinctive mark by which each may know its own home, and not wander into its neighbour's house. Bees readily enough receive a honey-laden labourer into a hive; but if the wanderer be poor and empty, he will be promptly repulsed, and may have to forfeit his life for his mistake. Queens returning from their wedding trip are liable to mistake their hive if all the entrances are so much alike that a noticeable difference is not easily apparent. ”

“ The bees of a hive have the means of recognition, and of distinguishing their companions from every stranger bee; without which they could not defend their honey. In vain would the Creator have armed each of them with a formidable sting, had they not been also given to know the enemies which that sting was to pierce. Strangers would have gone in and out without risk of detection or punishment, mingled with the workers, and deprived them of treasures industriously collected. ”

“ The antipathies of the bee are very curious. I have known one individual who was chased perpetually round the garden, and I have seen him obliged to rush through a hedge to escape his little tormentors. Their feuds were sometimes most violent, and I have had to remove a hive from one apiary to the other, a distance of half a mile, to preserve the bees. Your plan of the super-hives is excellent. Most of our hives were square, and all of wood. The straw hives proved a harbour for insects, and deprived us of the pleasure of watching the bees at work. ”

“ If however, from want of forethought or from any other causes, a swarm have been allowed, for a longer period, to occupy a hive from which it is desirable to dislodge it, in that case I would recommend the apiarian, towards night, to place the hive upon a middle board with a divider underneath it, to lute the junction with clay, so as to prevent the bees from escaping, and to invert the whole upon a stool that has had an opening made in it of sufficient size to allow the hive to sink about half-way through it. ”

“ The third hive, which should resemble the old one even in colour, is intended to be placed on the stand formerly occupied by the stock, so as to retain the few returning bees which had been absent in the fields. Care must be taken that all crevices through which it is possible for the bees to escape from the united hives should be effectually closed. ”

“ The best method is to watch the Swarm in silence, and after it has once collected, to lose no time in hiving it into a new, clean and dry Hive. Much time and trouble may be spared the Bees, if the loose straw be removed from the interior of the hive, the best method of effecting which, is to singe them off with a wax taper, and afterwards to remove them with a hard brush. ”

“ Is the hive to be cleaned? A general assessment is commanded, and the people instantly obey. A throng of labourers remove the dead, carry out the little bits of wax that are on the board, which would otherwise serve to feed the moths. Each of these crumbs costs them a journey; and that toil is spared them when care is taken to scrape and sweep the board from time to time.
Another scheme of agreement that indicates a language, is where a bee finds honey, whether in a room, where it may have been deposited without shutting the windows, or in a stranger hive, where it has gained entrance. ”

“ These diggers feed their larvæ on Hive-bees, whom they catch on the flowers while gathering pollen and honey. If the Philanthus who has made a capture feels that her Bee is swollen with honey, she never fails, before storing her, to squeeze her crop, either on the way or at the entrance of the dwelling, so as to make her disgorge the delicious syrup, which she drinks by licking the tongue which her unfortunate victim, in her death-agony, sticks out of her mouth at full length. ”

“ Let there be no sugared ale nor honey put inside the hive, but let it be as clean and dry as possible; and when it is fixed where it is to remain let there be no mortar or clay put round to fasten it to the floor-board—the Bees themselves will do this more effectually. Clay or mortar tends very much to decay the hives by retaining moisture, and is a harbour for moths and other insects. On the depriving system, a hive may be expected to stand for fifteen or even twenty years, if properly managed. ”

“ This remarkable uniformity in the hive-bee, wherever kept, may probably be accounted for by the great difficulty, or rather impossibility, of bringing selection into play by pairing particular queens and drones, for these insects unite only during flight. Nor is there any record, with a single partial exception, of any person having separated and bred from a hive in which the workers presented some appreciable difference. ”

“ Destroy them as much as possible; frighten not away the bats which fly about the hives, as they devour a great number of them." He says also, "I would always advise an Apiarian to fix his attention particularly on a hive, the Bees of which appear to be in inaction, whilst the Bees of other hives are in activity.—If this inaction continue for ten days, or a fortnight, not a moment then should - 64 - be lost in examining the hive, and the ravages of the moth will soon present themselves." ”

“ As if impatient for sport, the insect goes forth soon after its birth, and it is said that it may be seen returning to the hive, loaded with wax, the same day that it became a bee!
While the young bees are in the larva state, the utmost care is taken of them. If any member of the hive is rude or careless toward the egg, or worm, or the yet unhatched pupa, the nurses are very angry. But when the pupa has gnawed his way through his covering, he seems to be regarded as of age, and able to take care of himself. ”

“ The royal cells that are sure to have been commenced should now be cut away with a penknife, and then the new queen may be carefully released. If the hive is one that permits it, her reception should be watched. If the bees make way for her and caress her with their antennæ, all will be well, and the comb may be gently restored to its position and the hive shut up. But if they cluster in a ball around her, her death is intended ”

“ The young bees will many of them take to the upper hive—if not they must be enticed into it by food—and when there are sufficient of them, a brood comb with adhering bees must be inserted and the connection closed. After a few days this nucleus hive may be removed, a few steps at a time, and another, if desired, take its place and be raised in - 247 - the same way. Queen-rearing operations must be confined to warm weather and when drones are abundant.
Royal cells are often built so close together that it is difficult to remove one without injuring another. ”

“ The facility of hiving depends altogether upon the place chosen by the cluster for settling. From the end of a bough, or from a low shrub or bush, there is no difficulty in securing the swarm. Taking a clean skep in one hand, and holding it just under the mass of insects, a sharp shake is given with the other hand to the branch, and nearly the whole of the - 179 - bees will fall into the hive. Comparatively few will fly, the vastly larger proportion having clung too tightly to one another readily to disengage themselves. ”

“ Neighbour and Son, of Holborn and Regent-street, exhibit, amongst a collection of the most approved bee-hives and apparatus, a glass hive, stocked with a colony of Italian Alp bees; the hive is so constructed as to admit of easily seeing the queen, surrounded by the working bees. Contrary to the long established notion that the bees work only in the dark this hive is completely open to broad daylight. The bees do not manifest the least dislike to the exposure, and they are not discomfited when light is occasionally admitted for inspecting them. ”

“ A hive very similar to that of Huish is described in Wheeler’s Travels. He states it to be in use in the neighbourhood of Mount Hymettus. “The hives,” says he, “in which they keep their bees, are made of willow or osiers fashioned like our common dust-baskets, wide at top and narrow at bottom.” “These tops are covered with broad flat sticks, along which the bees fasten their combs, so that a comb may be taken out whole.” ”

“ From a hive that has been inhabited all the winter, we have not unfrequently lifted out the frames and removed the stock to a clean hive; and we believe that the change has always been useful The bees find a clean floor-board and a clean hive to breed in, free from insects that may have harboured in crevices about their former abode. When the change has been made, the old hive can be thoroughly cleaned and used in the same way for making the exchange with another stock. ”

“ It is necessary only to send the lower or stock hive to the party furnishing the swarm, taking the precaution to fix the slides at top with tacks, as the hive has to be inverted to receive the bees. They are shaken into it in the usual manner, as they cluster around the branch of the tree or shrub on which they may have chosen to alight. After the hiving is accomplished, the hive should be left near to catch any stragglers, for there will always be a few ”

“ At the same time, or as soon as possible, another empty hive, with a little syrup sprinkled on the interior, is put on the stand from which the stock has been brought, so that the bees, who were abroad when their home was removed, may be amused, or, at least, diverted from going to other hives, where they would be attacked and slain as robbers. Returning then to the hive from which the swarm is to be driven, it must be beaten smartly, but not sharply enough to shake down the combs. A tolerably stout stick in each hand, or the hands themselves, may be used for the purpose. ”

“ The heaviest and lightest hives are usually selected for the purpose, the former as yielding most profit, the latter as being unlikely to survive the winter.
If, after a hive of bees has been suffocated, the apiarian wish to search for the queen, the best mode of doing so is to lay the whole of the bees on white paper, or in water on a white shallow dish, and examine them singly; her colour upon the back is not so remarkably different from that of the workers as to be very striking ”

“ Huish has said, and with much truth, that old hives are generally so overrun with vermin of an obnoxious character to Bees, that, even should the swarm condescend to remain in them, the ensuing winter will place the hive in such a ruinous state, that the Bees will forsake it in search of a more salubrious domicile, or the contents of the hive will be destroyed by the insects. ”

“ This hive is well adapted for those persons who are desirous of having the opportunity of closely examining the workmanship of these industrious and interesting insects. It is particularly intended for a window recess or an indoor apiary; and will also be found an interesting addition to the green house. An aperture should be cut in the sash corresponding with the entrance to the hive, through which the bees may find egress and ingress, without being able to gain access to the apartment, as on the plan in the case of the Ladies' Observatory Hive. ”

“ An active person can examine twenty hives in a day with an assistant. This examination may be performed out of door at the stands, were it not for the fact that it is a season of the year when the robbers are most persistent. In performing these operations, it will be found advantageous to blow in a little smoke at the time of opening the hive.
We now have our bees in clean hives with plenty of honey—not too much—and without too much drone comb. But perhaps a few queens may have died a natural death during the winter, or there may be some drone layers. ”

“ One of the chief objects of my researches has been, to ascertain what shape of hive is the most profitable; and, with this view, I have tried all the different kinds in my apiary, and I have invariably remarked, that bees thrive better in low hives than in high ones; that, in general, those which are broad and flat, or extended horizontally, amass more honey, thrive better, and give out stronger and earlier swarms, than those which are high, and of several stories, and for the following reasons. ”