Humanity to Honey-Bees: or, Practical Directions for the Management of Honey-Bees Upon an Improved and Humane Plan, by Which the Lives of Bees May Be Preserved, and Abundance of Honey of a Superior Quality May Be Obtained — John Shaqi
Humanity to Honey-Bees: or, Practical Directions for the Management of Honey-Bees Upon an Improved and Humane Plan, by Which the Lives of Bees May Be Preserved, and Abundance of Honey of a Superior Quality May Be ObtainedNutt, Thomas
Science
Humanity to Honey-Bees: or, Practical Directions for the Management of Honey-Bees Upon an Improved and Humane Plan, by Which the Lives of Bees May Be Preserved, and Abundance of Honey of a Superior Quality May Be Obtained
safety might still be preserved for the Queen in the pavilion. She wants
a certain situation in which to carry on the work of propagating her
species. Like the fowls of the air, she will not, if she can avoid it,
propagate her young whilst under the observation and influence of man:
she, therefore, prefers the middle-box for her work of propagation;
as well on account of its privacy, as because the ventilation of the
end-boxes so cools their temperature, that they are not the situation
nature requires to bring the young larvæ to perfection; yet they can be
kept at such a temperature as to make them desirable store-rooms for the
Bees' treasures. By this mode of management we prevent the necessity of
swarming; and behold the grandest chemists in the world, and stores after
stores of their pure treasure, unadulterated by the necessary gathering
of immense quantities of farina for the young larvæ, which we see in the
piling system, as well as in the common cottage-hive; but this is all
carried into the immediate vicinity of the seat of nature, the place
where it is wanted.
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 the tin-slide to enlarge their crowded house,
the manager should take off the empty end-box he intends to open to
them, and smear or dress 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-tin between it and the pavilion, or middle-box, and
thereby enlarge the Bees' dominion, by opening an end-box to them, which
will produce the greatest harmony in the hive. The Bees will immediately
commence their operations in this new apartment. This simple operation,
_done at a proper time_, effectually prevents swarming; and by it the
Queen gains a vast addition to her dominions, and consequently additional
space for the population of her enlarged domicile. There is now no want
of store-house room, nor of employment, for our indefatigable labourers.
And while the subjects are employed in collecting, and manufacturing (if
I may so say) their various materials, the regina is engaged 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 cells
which have been vacated by the young larvæ. When, however, her next new
progeny are about to be brought into life, the Bee-master must 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 realm; which the
new, and even veteran labourers, will presently occupy, and set about
improving and enriching their again enlarged commonwealth. No sooner have
the Bees finished their operations in the several compartments of their
box-hive, which may be ascertained by looking through the little windows
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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