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
Take a piece of this prepared fungus, as large as a hen's egg, (it is
better to have too much of it than too little to begin with) ignite one
end of it with a candle, and then put it into the fumigating-lamp,--next
fix the lamp in its socket over the Bee-receiver, and place the whole
inside the bag, as shown in the plate, and untie B--the fastening round
the middle. In a very short space of time the Bees in the hive placed
upon the top-board (which is necessarily the first thing to be attended
to in every operation of this kind) will be totally under your control.
The operator should be particularly careful to close every vacancy,
however small, that there may happen to be between the top-board and the
edge of the hive, by tying a cloth round it--the hive--as soon as ever it
is placed upon the board. This precaution will prevent the escape of any
of the fume, and will also prevent the Bees from annoying the operator
during the time he is making the arrangements necessary previously to
every fumigating process.
In the course of a minute or very little more you will hear the Bees
dropping like hail into their receiver, at the bottom of the fumigating
apparatus.
When the major part of them are down, and you hear but few fall, gently
beat the top of the hive with your hands, in order to get as many down
as you can. Then, having loosened the cloth, lift the hive off and set
it upon a table, or upon a broad board, prepared for the purpose, and
knocking the hive against it several times, many more Bees will fall
down, and perhaps the Queen amongst the rest; for, as she generally
lodges near the crown of the hive, or is driven thither by the fume, and
surrounded and protected there by the other Bees to the very last, and
as long ever they have the power loyally to cling round her, she often
falls one of the last. If the Queen is not among the Bees on the table,
search for her among the main body in the Bee-receiver; first, however,
putting them upon the table, if you discover her not before lying among
the uppermost Bees therein.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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