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
out these directions there may be misgivings, it is best to give
instructions that the swarm be brought home after sunset, and then the
foregoing directions for inducing the bees to tenant the frame hive may
be better carried out. For ourselves, we much prefer the evening for
the purpose. A little water sprinkled over them from a watering-pot is
likely to induce the bees to quit the ground and go up into the hive
more quickly.
Mr. Langstroth, in his admirable book, "The Hive and Honey Bee,"
writes:--"If they are too dilatory in entering the new hive, they
may be gently separated with a spoon or leafy twig where they gather
in bunches on the sheet, or they may be carefully 'spooned up' and
shaken out close to the front of the hive. As these go in with fanning
wings, they will raise a peculiar note, which communicates to their
companions that they have found a home, and in a short time the whole
swarm will enter, without injury to a single bee." In the _Journal of
Horticulture_, Mr. Woodbury says:--"If combs be fixed in the frames,
the crown-board may be removed and the cluster knocked out of the straw
hive on to the top of the exposed frames. The bees will disappear
between them with the utmost alacrity, delighted to have met with a
ready-furnished dwelling, and the top, or crown-board, having been
replaced, the hive should at once be removed to the position it is
intended to permanently occupy."
No one should attempt these operations without being protected by a
bee dress and a pair of india-rubber gloves, which are sting-proof.
Some persons also take the precaution of tying strings round the ancles
of the trousers, lest some straggler should determine to attack the
outposts of the enemy, which, to say the least, might perplex the
operator in the midst of his task. Elastic india-rubber bands are
good for this purpose, or a pair of "knickerbockers" would be useful.
If Wellington boots are worn, the trousers may be tucked within the
leather, in which case no bee can molest the operator, and no string
or band will be needed. Practice makes perfect in bee-tending, as in
other matters, and when a light hand is gained, there is little danger
of the apiarian being stung.
If the weather be wet the next day or so after hiving, it will be well
to give a little assistance to the new colony in the shape of food,
for although, when a swarm leaves a hive, almost every bee composing
it fills itself with honey, we have known not a few instances, in
case of very wet weather, in which the whole swarm has been starved
for the want of this little timely help. Of course, the first work
of the bees is to build themselves combs, and these combs being
produced by the secretion of wax from honey, a great drain upon their
resources immediately begins, and any little outlay at this juncture is
abundantly compensated by its enabling these industrious emigrants the
more quickly to push forward the furnishing of their new home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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