Part 8

RULE XII.

ON WINTERING BEES.

On the near approach of winter, as soon as the bees have receded from the drawers and gone below, insert a slide, take out the drawers, and supply their places with empty ones, bottom up. Suspend the bottom board at least one eighth of an inch below the lower edge of the hive, and open the ventilator.--Clean off the bottom board as often as the weather changes from cold to warm. Close no doors upon them, unless they are kept in a spacious room, and in such a place that the breath and steam of the bees will not freeze.

REMARKS.

Various methods have been practised by different individuals. Some have buried them in the ground, others kept them in the cellar, chamber, &c. One course only will be observed in this place.

RULE XIII.

ON TRANSFERRING SWARMS.

This operation should never be effected by compulsion.

FIRST METHOD. Insert drawer No. 1 into the chamber of the hive, to be transferred as early as the first of May. If the bees fill the drawer, they will recede from the lower apartment and winter in the drawer. As early in the spring as the bees carry in bread plentifully on their legs, remove the drawer, which will contain the principal part of the bees, to an empty hive. Now remove the old hive a few feet in front, and place the new one containing the drawer where the old one stood. Now turn the old hive bottom up. If there are any bees left in the old hive, they will soon return and take possession of their new habitation.

SECOND METHOD. Take drawer No. 1, well filled by any hive the same season, insert the same into the chamber of the hive, to be transferred in September, (August would be better.) If the bees need transferring, they will repair to the drawer and make the same their winter quarters. Then proceed in the spring as directed in the first method.

REMARKS.

This management should excite a deep interest in every cultivator, both in a temporal and moral point of view. Temporal, because the lives of all the bees are preserved; moral, because we are accountable to God for all our acts. We are not to be justified in taking the lives of animals or insects, which are but lent blessings, unless some benefit to the owner can be derived from their death, which will outweigh the evils resulting from such a sacrifice. Duty compels me to protest in the strongest terms and feelings, against the inhuman practice of taking the lives of the most industrious and comforting insects to the wants of the human family by fire and brimstone.

When bees have occupied one tenement for several years, the combs become thick and filthy, by being filled up with old bread and cocoons, made by the young bees when transformed from a larva to the perfect fly.

Bees always wind themselves in their cells, in a silken cocoon, or shroud, to pass their torpid and defenceless (chrysalis) state.--These cocoons are very thin, and are never removed by the bees. They are always cleaned immediately after the escape of the young bees, and others are raised in the same cells. Thus a number of bees are raised, which leaves an additional cocoon as often as the transformation of one succeeds that of another, which often occurs in the course of the season. Now in the course of a few years the cells become so contracted, in consequence of being thus filled up, that the bees come forth but mere dwarfs and sometimes cease to swarm. Combs are rendered useless by being filled up with old bread, which is never used except for feeding young bees. A greater quantity of this bread is stored up yearly than is used by them, and in a few years they have but little room to perform their ordinary labors.--Hence the necessity of transferring them, or the inhuman sentence of death must be passed upon them, not by being hung by the neck until they are dead, but by being tortured to death by fire and brimstone.

It is obvious to every cultivator that old stocks should be transferred. I have repeatedly transferred them in the most approved manner, by means of an apparatus constructed for that purpose; but the operation always resulted in the loss of the colony afterwards, or a swarm which would have come from them. When it is necessary to transfer a swarm, insert drawer No. 1 into their chamber in the spring, say the first of May. If they till the drawer, let it remain there; if they need to be changed to a new hive, they will recede from the lower apartment and make the drawer their winter quarters, which should remain until warm weather has so far advanced as to afford them bread. Then they may be removed to an empty hive, as directed in the Rule. Now the drawer contains no bread, and should remain in the old stock until the bees can provide themselves with a sufficient quantity of that article to feed their young bees with; for bread is not collected early enough and in sufficient quantities to feed their young as much as nature requires. If the bees fail in filling the drawer, one should be used that is filled by another swarm.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

The reader might have expected many things demonstrated in this work, which are omitted by design.

The structure of the worker is too well understood by every owner of bees to need a particular description. So also of the drone; and the Queen has already been sufficiently described to enable any one to select her out from among her subjects. If any further description is desired, the observer can easily satisfy himself by the use of a microscope.--Every swarm of bees is composed of three classes or sorts, to wit: one Queen or female, drones or males, and neuters or workers. The Queen is the only female in the hive, and lays all the eggs from which all the young bees are raised to replenish their colony. She possesses no authority over them, other than that of influence, which is derived from the fact that she is the mother of all the bees; and they, being endowed with knowledge of the fact that they are wholly dependent on her to propagate their species, treat her with the greatest kindness, tenderness and reverence, and manifest at all times the most sincere attachment to her by feeding and guarding her from all danger.

The government of a hive is nearer republican than any other, because it is administered in exact accordance with their nature. It is their peculiar natural instinct, which prompts them in all their actions. The Queen has no more to do with the government of the hive than the other bees, unless influence may be called government. If she finds empty cells in the hive, during the breeding season, she will deposit eggs there, because it is her nature to do so; and the nature of the workers prompts them so take care and nurse all the young larvae, labor and collect food for their sustenance, guard and protect their habitations, and do and perform all things, in due obedience, not to the commands of the Queen, but to their own peculiar instinct.

The drone is probably the male bee, notwithstanding the sexual union has never been witnessed by any man; yet so many experiments have been tried, and observations made, that but little doubt can be entertained of its truth. That the sexual intercourse takes place high in the air, is highly probable from the fact, that other insects of the fly tribe do copulate in the air, when on the wing, as I have repeatedly seen. That the drone is the male bee, is probable from the fact that the drones are not all killed at once; but at least one in each hive is permitted to live several months after the general massacre.

I examined four swarms, whose colonies were strong and numerous, three months after the general massacre of the drones, and in three hives I found one drone each; the other was probably overlooked, as the bees were thrown into the fire as fast as they were examined. But there are many mysterious things concerning them, and much might be written to little purpose; and as it is designed to go no further in illustrations than is necessary to aid the apiarian in good management, many little speculations have been entirely omitted in the work, and the reader is referred to the writings of Thatcher, Bonner, and Huber, who are the most voluminous and extensive writers on bees within my knowledge.

Bees are creatures of habit, and the exercise of caution in managing them is required. A stock of bees should be placed where they are to stand through the season before they form habits of location, which will take place soon after they commence their labors in the spring. They learn their home by the objects surrounding them in the immediate vicinity of the hive. Moving them, (unless they are carried beyond their knowledge,) is often fatal to them. The old bees forget their new location, and on their return, when collecting stores, they haze about where they formerly stood, sad perish. I have known some fine stocks ruined by moving them six feet and from that to a mile and a half. It is better to move them before swarming than afterwards. The old bees only will be lost. As the young ones are constantly hatching, their habits will be formed at the new stand, and the combs will not be as likely to become vacated, so as to afford opportunity to the moths to occupy any part of their ground.

Swarms, when first hived, may be moved at pleasure without loss of bees, admitting they are all in the hive; their habits will be formed in exact proportion to their labors.--The first bee that empties his sack and goes forth in search of food, is the one whose habits are first established. I have observed many bees to cluster near the place where the hive stood, but a few hours after hiving, and perish. Now if the swarm had been placed in the apiary, immediately after they were hived, the number of bees found there would have been less.

Bees may be moved at pleasure at any season of the year, if they are carried several miles, so as to be beyond their knowledge of country. They may be carried long journeys by travelling nights only, and affording them opportunity to labor and collect food in the day time.

The importance of this part of bee-management is the only apology I can make for dwelling so long on this point. I have known many to suffer serious losses in consequence of moving their bees after they were well settled in their labors.

Bees should never be irritated, under any pretence whatever. They should be treated with attention and kindness. They should be kept undisturbed by cattle and all other annoyances, so that they may be approached at any time with safety.

An apiary should be so situated, that swarming may be observed, and at the same time where the bees can obtain food easily, and in the greatest abundance.

It has been a general practice to front bee-houses either to the east or south. This doctrine should be exploded with all other whims. Apiaries should be so situated as to be convenient to their owner, as much as any other buildings.