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
Precisely the same plan is to be adopted with the old stock in the
frame-hive as we have described in the case of the cottage-hive, that
is, to remove it some few paces off: when the hives are in a bee-house,
a similar result may be obtained, by placing the new swarm for a day
or two to the entrance used by the bees when with the old stock, and
the old stock may be removed to an approximate entrance. Some apiarians
recommend that a space be left between the two hives, by placing the
hives on the right and left of the old entrance, in order that too
large a proportion of bees should not enter the new hive at the old
position, to the impoverishment of the other. But we have found the
mode adopted with the cottage-hive answer so well, that we see no
reason for recommending any different plan.
It is the office of the bee-master to assist, not in the least degree
to oppose, nature. We know that when a natural swarm issues forth,
it has its impregnated queen, and, when located in a new abode, it
commences building worker-combs, leaving the building of the few
drone-combs to a later period; but if a division of the hive should be
made, by putting _half the combs_ in one hive and half in another, the
hive that is either queenless or contains an embryo queen will busy
itself with building only drone-comb; thus a number of receptacles for
useless bees is provided, which tends to weakness, and eventually to
loss of the hive.
In the plan we have recommended for forming two separate families, we
nearly follow the natural state of things; the comb that the queen is
upon is the only one that is taken from the hive, and this vacancy
should be filled in by moving the frames together, so as to leave
the empty frame at the end. The bees, under the government of the
impregnated queen, construct the combs and furnish their new above, as
before stated, with worker-cells.
By adopting the plan above described, the movable bar and frame-hive
will prove far superior to any of the dividing hives, which provide for
equal division of the combs.[20]
[Footnote 20: At page 143 of Mr. Langstroth's "Honey Bee," other
methods of artificial swarming are described, the perusal of which will
well repay the scientific bee-keeper.]
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