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
At length the time arrives when the three piled-boxes are, or are
supposed to be, well stored,--and when a part of the Bees' treasure is to
be taken as a remuneration for the _care_ and trouble of the proprietor.
Let him then put on his grotesque Bee-dress, and booted up to the middle
and gloved to the very elbows, let him proceed to take the uppermost box.
He divides it from that on which it stands, that is--from box B. by a
slide or a divider of some sort prepared for such an operation, or in
any way he pleases, for that I leave to him. Well, he succeeds in getting
off his prize; not, however, without the destruction of a considerable
number of Bees: for _to presume_ that he is acquainted with my easy mode
of taking away a box, would be to presume too much; I therefore allow
him a Bee-dress at once, and have accoutered him in the best way I can
for his arduous undertaking. The box, then, is off. He turns it up and
examines it, and to his great disappointment, he finds that the combs
are discoloured, that each pile of the expected treasure contains parts
of the young larvæ, and that there is much pollen commingled with the
other substances in the box; in short, he finds that the whole is dirty
and filthy in appearance; and that he has destroyed a part of the most
valuable brood for another year. And, if instead of box A. he take box
B. he will fare little, if any better; nay, he will in all probability
destroy a greater quantity of brood: and in box C. he cannot expect to
find more than half-filled cells, or empty combs. Such are the fruits and
profits of the piling system of Bee-management. There are Bee-masters
resident within twenty miles of the good town of Spalding, and in many
other places that might be mentioned, who know that the foregoing account
is true, _lamentably true_: but, until such practitioners are sensible of
the faultiness of their system of Bee-management, it would be folly in
me to appeal more directly to any of them for a confirmation of what _I
know_ to be the truth. How, I would ask, can the Bees' sweet treasures
be divided from their other work, if there be no means of varying and
regulating the temperature in their hive? Without the aid of ventilation
it is, in my opinion, impossible; but with it, it is perfectly easy,
perfectly safe, and not at all distressing nor even unpleasant to the
Bees.
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