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
There are three windows in the lower hive, each closed with a shutter;
these are very useful and interesting for inspecting the progress made.
Across the centre window is a thermometer, enclosed at the sides by
slips of glass. The window shutters being painted green, add very much
to its appearance. The upper hive, which is merely a cover for the
glasses, is a conical-topped hive, also made of straw bound with cane;
a hoop is worked into the straw, and made sufficiently large to allow
the cover to drop over the top hoop of the lower hive, keeping the
whole close, and preventing wet from drifting in. A zinc ventilator,
ornamentally painted, forms the apex: this is useful in letting the
confined hot air pass away in warm weather. The ventilator is opened
by raising it. The dimensions of the lower or stock-hive are fifteen
inches diameter, nine and a half inches deep outside; its weight, when
empty, seven and a half pounds. The cover, or top hive, is twelve
inches deep and fifteen inches in diameter; the ornamental zinc top
being four inches deep. The whole is about twenty-four inches high. The
weight of a hive packed, including glasses, &c., is about 18 lbs.
These hives have a tasteful appearance in the garden, but they require
some further protection from the weather in the form of a cover or of a
bee-house--contrivances that have yet to be described. In extreme cold
weather, a little additional protection, by having matting folded round
them, will be advisable.
One of the advantages this hive has over the common cottage hive is,
that it affords opportunity for the humane management of bees. The
owner has also the power of taking a glass of honey-comb of pure
quality, free from the extraneous matter known as "bee-bread," instead
of combs that are darkened by having brood hatched in them. By this
system, we have combs newly made and used only for depositing the
honey first put into them; hence the name "virgin honey." These glasses
have a very pretty appearance, and, when nicely filled, are very
convenient for home use or for making presents. The lower hive is the
receptacle for the bees; when a swarm is placed in this hive, they
immediately proceed to fill it with combs, in which to store honey for
themselves, and for cells to breed in. This hive remains undisturbed.
The best mode of tenanting a hive of this description is by placing
an early and strong swarm in it, which may be generally procured of
a neighbouring bee-keeper; if from a distance, considerable care is
necessary to admit plenty of air; the shaking attendant upon carriage
irritates the bees so much, that, if not well ventilated, there is
danger of the swarm being stifled, and the finer the swarm, the greater
the danger. For the purpose of ventilation, remove the slides and
substitute perforated zinc, wrapping the hive up in a coarse cloth of
open texture (dispensing with the floor-board during transit when the
distance is great).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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