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
To effect this, I resolved at once to take off a fine top-glass filled
with honey. I did so: its weight was fourteen pounds. This operation
reduced the interior heat of the colony to 75. But looking at my grand
swarm, and intent as I was upon re-uniting it to the parent-stock, I
thought it impossible for the vacant space conveniently to hold all
the Bees. I had one, and only one, alternative left,--and that was to
take from my colony a collateral-box. I therefore took it; and a most
beautiful box it was: its weight was fifty pounds. I immediately placed
an empty box in the situation the full one had occupied. I then drew
from the side of the pavilion the dividing tin-slide, and the whole of
the colony was shortly at the desired temperature of 65, that being the
exterior heat of the evening. I was now fully convinced of the propriety
of returning the swarm. I commenced operations for accomplishing that
object at ten o'clock in the evening, by constructing a temporary stage
near the mouth of the parent-stock. I then procured a white sheet, and
laid it upon the table or temporary stage, and in a moment struck the
swarm from the hive into which the Bees had been taken from the bough
in the evening. My next difficulty was to imprison the sovereign of
the swarm: but with a little labour I succeeded in discovering her, and
made her my captive. No sooner was she my prisoner than the Bees seemed
to be acquainted with her absence. But so near were they placed to the
mouth of the parent-stock that they soon caught the odour of the hive,
and in the space of about fifteen minutes the whole swarm, save only her
majesty, were under the roof of their parent-home. The following morning
increased my anxiety about the welfare of my stock. Fearful lest my
carious anticipations should meet with a disappointment, at sun-rise in
the morning I released from her imprisonment the captive Queen. I placed
her on the front-board, near the entrance of her hive, to ascertain, if
possible, whether there was within the state one greater than herself.
But no visible sign of such being the case presented itself. The
influence of the cheery sun soon caused her to move her majestic body to
the entrance of her native domicil, where she was met, surrounded, and no
doubt welcomed, by thousands of her subjects, who soon conducted her into
the hive, and, it may be presumed, re-instated her on the throne, which a
few hours before she had been compelled to abdicate. The Bees afterwards
sallied forthwith extraordinary alacrity and regularity, and, beyond my
most sanguine expectations, filled a large glass with honey in the short
space of six days. That glass of honey was exhibited at the National
Repository, with a model of my apiary, and was much admired by many of
the members and visitors of that noble institution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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