Part 5

But supposing you can afford to buy a straw hive with a hole already worked at the top--and it will not cost above a shilling more--you are to place the board with a corresponding hole on the top of this, and, till the middle of June, a small board over, or bung in the hole of the board. Then take it out as before, and place over it your bell-glass or small straw hive, and act thenceforth as already described.

If, however, you can invest a little in apiculture, as people do in agriculture or market-gardening, only on a very much smaller scale, I strongly recommend wooden hives or boxes. These, well made, are necessarily expensive. The objections commonly urged by those I have talked with are, first, that they split and twist, and get out of gear. This may occur in the best in a slight degree, but it arises generally from having unseasoned wood and bad workmanship. Green wood is utterly worthless. Bad workmanship is dearest, when done at the very lowest rate. The best workmanship and the most seasoned wood, I have invariably found in the workshop of Mr. Pettitt, Dover. They never cast, and are beautifully smooth, and all the fittings play easily. Such wood and workmanship, no doubt, may be had of any sensible and honest carpenter. My reference to Pettitt is merely the record of my own experience. In every case the entrance should be cut, not out of the hive, but out of the board on which it rests.

The second objection is, that wood is not sufficiently equable in temperature. I answer, if protected by a bee-shed, which I regard as an essential part of bee-furniture, this objection, so far as summer is concerned, is at once disposed of. Neither rain nor the direct rays of the sun can affect it. But in winter, I am persuaded from thorough experience, that in all hives under sheds additional shelter is required to keep out the searching north and east winds, and to keep in the vital warmth of the bees. For this purpose, I regard good brown paper, or a newspaper after you have read it, as the cleanest, neatest, and really warmest protection. Vermin gather less about paper than woollen material, and brown paper is less palatable to insect pests than any other. Let the back and ends of your bee-boxes inside the bee-shed be covered over in October--the front being left uncovered, unless by the bee-shed, and you will find every objection to wooden hives disposed of by facts.

The first illustration I will present is that of one by Pettitt, made of the best seasoned deal, unpainted, of course; for paint, however necessary to the shed, must on no account be suffered to pollute the hives.

On the top of this hive, of which I give a back view, are four apertures, each about three inches by two; zinc dividers, D D, being pushed in before receiving a swarm, shut off all egress, and on being withdrawn in May, allow the bees to ascend into the bell-glasses E E, of which there are four, each, of course, covered with its nightcap.

B is a glass window, with a thermometer inside. By the window you can examine progress, taking care when you leave to shut the lid.

In very dry, hot weather, when the thermometer rises to ninety-five, draw out the drawer A about two inches, and open the little door C, withdrawing at the same time also the zinc plate F, pushing in its place a perforated zinc plate, precisely the same in size as F, but perforated. A current of air is thus introduced, and in a short time the thermometer will fall five degrees.

Though I do not like the square shape as much as the octagonal or hexagonal, yet I regard this as a very valuable hive-box.

Instead of bell-glasses, Pettitt has substituted boxes for supers, about ten inches in height and seven inches in breadth; the front having glass instead of deal board, with a shutter ready to be put on.

It is in this way:--

Mr. Pettitt has provided, for those who can afford it, a very elegant and ornamental house, which he calls "The Temple Bee-hive." It forms a very suitable ornament on a lawn, and when three guineas can be spared, nothing can be better. It is, however, more adapted to the garden surrounding a gentleman's residence than to circumstances in which it is desirable to obtain large profits from little outlay. But as I wish proprietors of estates to take an interest in bee-keeping, I would try to tempt them by specimens of ornamental bee-furniture.

I give the drawing of it shut, with Mr. Pettitt's description.

"Temple Bee-hives, for the humane treatment of honey-bees, are got up in a tasteful and substantial manner; and when placed upon a lawn, in a flower-garden, or on a balcony, have a most picturesque appearance. They need no shade or shelter from extreme solar heat in summer, or from humidity and cold during winter, but afford of themselves a sufficient protection to the industrious tenants. Each hive is furnished with four bell-glasses, from which the drones are effectually excluded, and the temperature of the interior can be so regulated by the use of the ventilators and thermometers, as to prevent the necessity of swarming."

I add also a drawing of the same Temple opened from behind, with his observations.

"This plate shows the interior of the Temple Hive on the preceding page, with four glass supers upon the top. Owing to the difficulty some persons have experienced in getting the bees to work in the glasses, we have introduced small wooden boxes with glass windows; and it is quite certain that the bees will collect a larger quantity of honey in these small supers than they will in the glasses, particularly in uncertain and unsettled seasons."

Pettitt also constructs a wooden hexagonal hive; but he uses the top as a mere cover to the glasses, and of course perforates the top with four holes, on which he places the glasses. If he will adopt my amendments, he will give us a hive in all respects perfect. First, he must use the top half purely as a super for the honey available to the master. Secondly, he must make half-a-dozen parallel slits from front to back, with corresponding removable slides, made by a rabbet-plane, to be withdrawn in May, when it is desirable that the bees should ascend, and to be reintroduced when the super is full and is to be removed. From this hive I would banish glasses entirely.

I have introduced six slides into this hive, the ends of which are shaped as shown in the following drawing. On removing the slides, very small ones, about an inch long, must be substituted, to prevent bees coming out at the apertures. On removing the super or top half in July, the little slides are removed in succession, and the long ones introduced, in order to shut off the connection between the upper hive, or bee-master's portion, and the lower, or the queen's. When you remove your portion, a zinc plate eighteen inches square is pressed in between the upper and lower boxes, and the upper carried away on it. But this is not always necessary, as I will subsequently show in describing the Ayrshire hive.

I prefer the hexagonal shape, not from any theory, but from practical experience; and if this hive can be constructed at less expense, it will prove alike popular and profitable. Its price maybe reduced by substituting a plain glass window in each section, with a slide shutter instead of door and hinges, retaining all its seasoned wood and thorough workmanship, while lessening its merely decorative features.

The hive-box I have found unfailing in results is the Scotch or Ayrshire hive. It is octagonal in shape; the lowest box is six inches high, and rather wider than a large common straw hive. There are three octagonal boxes in all, the top of each having parallel slits from back to front, with slides corresponding, and withdrawn when required. In May, you place your first super box on the top of the lowest or stock hive, fitting and corresponding in all respects; you withdraw backward each slide, introducing as you do so a little slide about an inch in length, to prevent the egress of the bees behind. There is no possibility of escape in front, from the end of each slide being filled up by the wood of the box.

As soon as this first super is filled, you place on it another, or third; withdraw the slides on the top of the second as you did from the top of the first, and let the bees ascend still higher. A small glass window in each, with a sliding shutter, enables you to report progress. At the honey harvest, you remove each super as I have previously directed; and it must be a very bad summer that does not end as the bee-master would prefer.

Of all straw hives. Neighbours' is the most beautiful and lasting. With the super hive lifted up, you see three bell-glasses on the flat top of the stock hive, the zinc slides being withdrawn. The cost is thirty shillings. Preferable to three glasses is one flat glass, about six or eight inches deep. Bees prefer united to separate action in treasuring up their stores. But either with three small glasses or one large one, it is a very elegant and serviceable hive.

The collateral system of bee-hives has, however, many able and enthusiastic advocates. Nutt is the great advocate, if not the inventor, of this bee-box. As a system for ventilation and facility of deprivation it is unrivalled. His collateral hive, suitable to be placed in a bee-shed, is as below.

A is the stock hive, into which the swarm is introduced and the queen resides; the glass window is open. B B are the side boxes, right and left, having, either in the sides nearest the central box or in the floor, extending right and left, a subterranean communication. C is the cover of a bell-glass: so far in deference to the storifying system. D D D D D are means of ventilation,--above by perforated zinc cupolas, and beneath by drawers, which may be opened or shut as required.

But for every excellence and capability of which the collateral hive is susceptible, Pettitt's is undeniably the happiest and best. I give his own description and woodcut:--

"A is a block front to open for ventilation, also for the egress of the bees from the box F when filled. B Feeding apartment. C C Ventilating slides. D D D Dividers. E 'Pavilion of Nature.' F Surplus box. G G G Ventilators. H H H H Glass surplus hives. The finest specimen of glass honey in the Great Exhibition was taken from one of these hives. They are of such easy and safe access, that they can be approached at the back at mid-day, when the bees are in full work, without giving them any disturbance whatever. The parent hive is provided with apertures for four glasses upon the top, through which the drones cannot pass. These hives are intended for the inside of the apiary, gentleman's library, or attic."

The apertures on the top, which is the retention of the storifying system grafted on the collateral, are all he describes, and a real and valuable device. The price, two guineas, is, for so excellent a bee-box, most reasonable. I can testify from experience that the material is thoroughly seasoned, and the workmanship perfect.

But I still retain my conviction that the collateral system is not productive. The objection to the storifying system, that the bees have more fatigue in climbing than in travelling on the same level, is not tenable. The bee prefers to ascend; it traverses the roof as easily as the floor; it begins its work on the roof, and evidently ignores the difficulty which Nutt and others have invented. The side boxes, also, are too cold; the heat of the pavilion, or stock hive, ascending more easily than radiating sideways. Comb-building requires a certain temperature, without which it is impracticable. Hence, in storifying and collateral hives both, when the weather is cold and ungenial, I cover up as much as possible with brown paper, in order to keep in all the heat generated by the bees. Taylor, the most sensible and practical of apiculturists, thus describes his experience of collateral hives:--

"Another point on which Nutt laid much stress may be mentioned, viz., the supposed advantage to the bees in working on one level, without the necessity of climbing, as in storified hives. I long thought this was indisputable. Further consideration led me more minutely to examine the habits of the bee in this respect, and I became convinced that nature had given it equal facilities for moving in every direction. A scientific correspondent thus writes on this subject:--'I once propounded the question to a very eminent mathematician, and his reply was, that, if any, the difference was too minute to admit of calculation between the horizontal and the perpendicular movement; it was, in the language of the present day 'infinitesimal.' Although few of Nutt's positions have been found to stand the test of practice, it ought not to be said that his crude speculations and rash assertions have been altogether without useful results, as they undoubtedly led to farther investigation, and several modern improvements had thus their origin."