The apiary; or, bees, bee-hives, and bee culture [1866]: Being a familiar account of the habits of bees, and the most improved methods of management, with full directions, adapted for the cottager, farmer, or scientific apiarianNeighbor, Alfred
Science
The apiary; or, bees, bee-hives, and bee culture [1866]: Being a familiar account of the habits of bees, and the most improved methods of management, with full directions, adapted for the cottager, farmer, or scientific apiarian
Among others who took a deep interest in our exhibition was Mr. Edward
Wilson, President of the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria. This
gentleman requested us to pack four stocks of the Ligurian bees for
conveyance to Melbourne. With the assistance of Mr. Woodbury--whose
aid was, indeed, essential--these stocks were sent off on the 25th
of September, 1862, by the steam ship Alhambra, so as to arrive at
the colony during the Austral summer. The hives were Woodbury frame
hives, having ample space and ventilation, as well as the means of
supplying water to their inmates during the voyage; there was, also, a
sufficient store of honey to last until the following March. The bees
arrived at Melbourne, where they were released after an imprisonment of
seventy-nine days, and have since rapidly multiplied, the climate and
pasturage of Australia greatly favouring the increase of this superior
variety of the bee.
Mr. Wilson was so well pleased with the careful manner in which these
stocks were fitted out for their voyage across the seas, that he
subsequently instructed us to prepare him three more hives, which were
sent out in a sailing vessel. Owing to the mismanagement of the water
supply during the voyage, only one stock survived in this instance. Mr.
Wilson informs us that one of these hives contained 136 lbs. of honey,
on the 25th of December, 1864 (Midsummer in Australia).
Upwards of twenty years ago, we sent a Nutt's hive stocked with bees
to New Zealand. We then adopted the plan of fixing the hive in a meat
safe, so that the bees could fly about a little, and also cleanse
the hive of their dead, for bees are very attentive to sanitary
arrangements; they always remove the dead ones from their midst, and do
not void excrement within the hive.
When bees are shut up in their hives too long, even with adequate
ventilation, they are apt to be attacked by a disease called by
apiarians dysentery. Sometimes, when confined by the unfavourableness
of the weather in winter, or the lateness of spring, this disease
produces serious mischief amongst the bees. Various remedies have been
recommended; but we believe, the best is to see that there is wholesome
food within the hive, and plenty of it, and, when fine weather returns,
the health of the bees will return with it. Dampness of the hives,
and too late feeding in the autumn, are also frequent causes of this
disease.
BEE-KEEPING IN LONDON.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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