Part 3

Erratum.--Page 45, line 18--For "inches" read "degrees." [Transcriber's Note: This WAS corrected!]

BEE-KEEPING.

"THE TIMES" BEE-MASTER.

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This work is not a speculative or philosophical treatise on bees. Its main interest consists in its usefulness; and its author's greatest reward will be the greatest measure of his success in promoting among cottagers and others a means of paying their rent, at once interesting, civilising, and remunerative. Next to this, I hope I may contribute toward the extinction of the savage and unprofitable, but almost universal, habit in this country of burning the bees with sulphur in August, in order to collect honey richly flavoured, and much deteriorated by sulphurous acid. It is a fundamental principle in my bee-management, that no bee shall be burned, or, if possible to avoid it, crushed or killed. No man deserves the name of a Bee-master, or should attempt to keep bees, who has not resolved, with all his might, to avoid bee-murder. Bee-cide, like homicide, may accidentally occur, but it must be accidental, not designed and culpable. That system of management which combines the safety and health of the bees, with the production of the largest amount of pure honey available to the proprietor, while providing generously for the inmates of the hive during the winter months, deserves the greatest patronage.

I.-BEE-KEEPING MONEY-MAKING.

We live in a practical age. Proposals of all sorts are too often, right or wrong, weighed against gold:--"How much will it bring? Can I turn a penny by this business?" I do not pretend to say bee-masters are rich men, or that the way to a fortune is through a bee-hive; but I do assert that a poor parish minister, vicar, or curate with a little glebe--a cottager who works all day for the squire--or maiden ladies who desire to engage in very delightful and loving labour--may add to their little income or stipend or dividend from ten to twenty pounds a year. To half-pay officers I would earnestly recommend bee-keeping. It would keep them out of those wild speculations into which, from their inexperience in business matters, they are so frequently and ruinously drawn, by giving them an interest, which would soon become a passion, in studying and conferring with a new family, besides yielding them a few spare sovereigns for personal use or charity. For white cells filled with honey in glasses--than which nothing more elegant or picturesque can be placed on a breakfast-table--one can obtain in June two shillings, and even two shillings and sixpence, a pound. For honey later in the season one and sixpence a pound may be easily had; and where the proprietor prefers to be his own consumer, he may dispense with bacon and butter, and take what is far more wholesome--honey--at breakfast. It is a fair average to calculate on fifteen pounds of surplus produce from each hive, if properly attended to. I do not see why our country should not be a "land flowing with milk and honey," or why we should import so much honey and wax from abroad, exporting good money in return, when so many flowers lift their beautiful blossoms, waiting and longing to be kissed and rifled by visitors they love so well. It should not be forgotten, too, that bees do immense good to flowers; some think they introduce one to another, and celebrate the marriage of the flowers. This, however, is certain: flower-gardens are immensely benefited by bees, and therefore every lover of flowers and proprietor of gardens should never drive away or destroy a bee; for the visitor is not only collecting honey for his bee-master, but adding to the variety, fragrance, and beauty of the flowers of their owner.

II.--BEE-KEEPING A SOURCE OF ENJOYMENT.

When pleasure and profit can be combined, time runs swiftly and the heart feels happy.

It is enjoyment to stand by one's bee-hives and watch the intense and untiring work of one's bees. It is like standing at a window in Cheapside, and watching the counter-currents of human beings that ceaselessly traverse its pavement; only, instead of faces grooved with cares and pale with anxieties, we do not see issuing from their hives or returning home a single bee that seems bowed down with trouble or fretful about the future. Each bee, from the queen down to the sentinel at the gate, seems to have heard the Master's words,--"Take no thought" (i.e., irritating care) "for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

Bees rarely fail to become acquainted with a kind and affectionate master. I have stood in the midst of thousands returning home after their day's work, and seen them resting on me, brushing their wings and bodies, and, thereby refreshed and recruited, they enter their home and deposit their sweet burdens. They do not forget little acts of kindness shown them, and rarely fail to show gratitude,--an example Christians would do well to copy. I have sat for hours by my hives with glass windows, and watched the orderly and beautiful array in which some give wax, others build it into forms of strength and beauty, others clear away incidental dirt, others pour honey into the warehouses, others carry out their dead, and all reverently and loyally attend to the instructions of their queen. Relays of ventilators, joining the tips of their wings and making fanners, take up their position at the doors, and send in currents of fresh air. Others are placed as sentries on the bee-board, who, like faithful soldiers, repel wasps and moths, and die rather than desert the post of duty. There is not an idle bee in a hive, if one may except the drones after their mission is ended. Fruges consumere nati; they meet with the consequences which all idle and unproductive citizens provoke. They, however, may be regarded as the exceptional inmates. The bees do not fail to understand their relations, and therefore they get rid of them as soon as they cease to contribute to the wealth or comfort or protection of the hive. They become in June and July the mere hangers-on--the fat, lazy monks, who believe that everybody is made to work for them, while they are excused helping anybody. But the bountiful Creator has left no place for indolence in this world of ours; it would be too disastrous an example to be permitted with impunity. The bees accordingly turn them out to starve, or garrote them as they catch them, and at all risk get rid of the incumbrance. Do idle young men deserve better treatment?

A hive in June is a perfect study, a model of order, work, neatness, and beauty; it is rich in interest to everyone who has an hour to spare. About nine o'clock at night you cannot do better than listen for a quarter of an hour by your hives, and you will hear an oratorio sweeter and richer than you ever heard in Exeter Hall. Treble, tenor, and bass are blended in richest harmony; sometimes it sounds as the distant hum of a great city, and at other times as if the apiarian choristers were attempting the hallelujahs which will swell from earth to heaven when all things are put right, and bee and bird and every living thing sing joyously together the jubilant anthem peal, "Great and marvellous are thy works. Lord God Almighty. Just and true are thy ways, thou King of nations."

III.--HOW TO BEGIN BEE-KEEPING.

Your garden may be very small, and its flowers few and far between; but as your bee-pasture is an area two or three miles round on all sides yours for the use of your bees, though entered in other peoples' title-deeds, your own little plot need not much trouble you. Bees seem to prefer to feed at a little distance from the hive, but have no objection to pasture close at hand. In the beginning of August, when the honey-yielding flowers begin to fail, I have found Broadwater Common, near Tunbridge Wells, which grows the finest heather south of Braemar, covered with my bees, and have lain down amid the heath-blossoms, watching and listening to my young friends, immensely enjoying their work.

But if you have any spare space--and there are always nooks and spots available in the smallest garden--sow on these lemon-thyme in abundance, rosemary, lavender, salvia, borage, mignonette, and crocus. Apple-trees, gooseberry and currant-trees, and above all, raspberry-plants, are great favourites with bees; and as their blossoms come early in spring, they are most seasonable and productive. But your chief reliance must be on neighbouring acres of bean-fields and buckwheat or clover meadows, heather and furze, and hedge-blossoms. Lime-trees are very valuable; I wish people would allow thorn-hedges to blossom. Let me urge the cottager to use for the edging of his garden lemon-thyme instead of box or daisies. Do not fear keeping a dozen stocks. I think many apiarians talk nonsense when they allege that a district may be overstocked with bee-hives. If the surrounding country be wholly arable, with little common, and with too good farming, it may be overstocked. But there are still left commons unenclosed, woods and heath, and clover and tiny weeds, which farmers persecute and bee-masters love; and far off are gardens of all sorts and sizes, in which flowers are cultivated for the owners' pleasure, constituting admirable bee-pasture. I only regret there is such a wide-spread rage for double flowers, for bees never touch them. On that magnificent standard rose, so rich in delicious perfume and so very lovely, a bee never alights; but the briar and hedge-rose are favourites and much frequented. On the Clyde, it is usual for bee-proprietors to carry their hives to Arran, Dunoon, and Kilmun, as soon as the heather comes into blossom; and cottagers take charge of them at a shilling apiece. The hives often therefrom receive great and remunerative additions.

Dr. Bevan states:--

"In Lower Egypt, where the flower-harvest is not so early by several weeks as in the upper districts of that country, this practice of transportation is carried on to a considerable extent. About the end of October the hives, after being collected together from the different villages, and conveyed up the Nile, marked and numbered by the individuals to whom they belong, are heaped pyramidally upon the boats prepared to receive them, which, floating gradually down the river, and stopping at certain stages of their passage, remain there a longer or a shorter time, according to the produce which is afforded by the surrounding country. After travelling three months in this manner, the bees, having culled the perfumes of the orange flowers of the Said, the essence of roses of the Faiocum, the treasures of the Arabian jessamine, and a variety of flowers, are brought back about the beginning of February to the places from which they have been carried. The productiveness of the flowers at each respective stage is ascertained by the gradual descent of the boats in the water, and which is probably noted by a scale of measurement. This industry procures for the Egyptians delicious honey and abundance of bees'-wax. The proprietors, in return, pay the boatmen a recompense proportioned to the number of hives which have thus been carried about from one extremity of Egypt to the other."

Richardson sensibly remarks:--

"Water carriage, when procurable, is the best, as it shakes the hives least, but when land carriage must be resorted to, the hives should be carried on poles slung on men's shoulders. The journey should be pursued at night only, and the bees suffered to go forth and feed during the day. Such is their instinct, that they will readily find their way back; but they should not be suffered to go forth until at the distance of upwards of ten or eleven miles from their original home, otherwise they will be lost in endeavouring to regain it--a moderate distance induces them to abandon the idea, and to become reconciled to their new quarters. If travelling by canal, the hives should be removed from the boat, and placed on stands at some distance from the bank, ere the insects are let out, otherwise they will be lost in thousands by falling into the water on their return. The charge made by shepherds for taking care of the hives during a season is from one shilling to eighteen-pence each. It is better to pay a trifle over and above the usual fee, in order to prevent your hives being placed too near to each other, or to those of other parties; for if your weak stocks happen to be placed near the strong ones of some one else, you will stand a fair chance of having them all killed in encounters with their more powerful neighbours. It would be well also to see that your hives are placed in a situation where they will be safe from the attacks of cattle or other foes. Before fetching the hives home again from the heath, it will not be amiss to ascertain their condition and weight, and to take from them what honey they can spare. I must here inform you how to ascertain the state or wealth of a hive."

On the subject of removing bees to the heather in August, Mr. Briggs makes the following useful and practical remarks:--

"In the vicinity of extensive heaths, the bees are removed to them about the beginning or middle of August, according to the season. The usual practice is to raise each hive with small wedges in the evening, to induce the bees to congregate together at the top of the hive. The hives are then firmly fixed to the bottom boards, or tied up in cloths, and conveyed in the night, or very early in the morning, to the garden of a shepherd or other person whose residence adjoins the heath. All hives and swarms are taken, including old and young ones, and the persons who receive them usually charge a shilling for each hive during the season. The hives are thus very frequently crammed together as close as they can stand, and the consequences are that much fighting and loss of life is often caused, and the weak stocks of one person are frequently partly destroyed and robbed of their stores and killed by the stronger ones belonging to other persons. When the blooming of the heath is over, the old stocks are, in general, suffocated on the spot, to obtain possession of the fruits of their labours, and those intended for winter stocks are conveyed home by their respective owners.

"The above system of managing bees at the heather is susceptible of material alterations and improvements. I would suggest that it would be of great advantage to the owners of bees residing within twenty miles' distance, if the proprietors or occupiers of residences adjoining the heath were to extend the accommodation by enclosing a larger extent of ground which is suitable for the purposes desired. It might be cheaply and expeditiously performed by hiring a few dozen of stout stakes, &c., from the neighbouring farmers for the season, and having the bars of them full of coarse thorns, briars, furze, or other convenient or suitable materials, to prevent the inroads of cattle and other depredators.

"I would recommend that none but strong stocks be taken to the heath, until arrangements are made for their convenience and accommodation; and that the collateral system of side hives, &c., be practised with them whilst they are at the heath, as well as on other occasions."

Where there is no water conveyance, a hive may be suspended from each end of a long pole, which may be carried on the shoulder to the neighbourhood of a common, in August, not less than four miles from your garden, and put in charge of a reliable cottager.

"In Yorkshire," says the Rev. Mr. Cotton, that prince of bee-masters, "it is the regular custom of the country to send the stocks to the moors for change of pasture in August and September. Cotters, who have a little garden by the moorside, take in dozens every year, and get a shilling a stock for their trouble. The trouble is a mere nothing--at least not one shilling's worth in all--and the pleasure is surely very great; for what can be a greater pleasure than to have ten additional stocks of bees on a visit to your own, and to cheer you with their glad music whenever you are walking in your garden? To say nothing of the pleasure you must feel at their honied stores, by playing the part of a kind host to these busy bees; and then, what is more, you may have the still greater pleasure of showing your friend (for all bee-masters are, or ought to be, friendly) how to take up his bees who have been your guests so long, as I trust you do your own, that is, without killing them. You and he may do so, if you try; and I, a bee-master like yourself, beg you most earnestly to try. What I have found a very good way with my bees you cannot find a very bad one. The stocks are taken up in the old way as soon as the heather goes out of flower. I hope many a man will learn by my letter to take them up by the fingers, instead of the sulphur match, that ready instrument of bee-murder. In France they put their hives into a boat, some hundreds together, which floats down the stream by night, and stops by day. The bees go out in the morning, return in the evening, and when they are all back and quiet, on the boat floats. I have heard they come home to the ringing of a bell; but I believe they would come home just the same whether the bell rings or no. I should like to see this tried on the Thames, for no river has more bee food near its banks: willows, the best bee food in spring; meadows, clover, beans, and lime-trees, in different places and times, for summer. A handy man, who could make his own boxes, though not up to hard work, might, I am pretty sure, gather through the mouths of his many thousand bees enough to fill his own one mouth, though it be somewhat larger. He might float softly down the river, as the flowers go off at one place and come on at another; and any bargeman would be glad, for the small price of one pound of Thames honey, to give him a tow up when he wishes to go back. I should like to see it tried."

But all this is supererogatory at present, and temporary removals are undesirable, unless where surrounding pastures entirely fail in August. It is, at best, supplemental.

Taylor, in his useful Bee Manual, says:--

"It is almost needless to say, that in the nature and extent of the vegetable production following in succession in the immediate neighbourhood of an apiary, must mainly depend its prosperity. After every care has been bestowed on all points of housing and management, it is in vain to expect a large harvest of honey where Nature has limited the sources of supply, or restricted them to a particular season of the year."