A Manual Or An Easy Method Of Managing Bees Part 2

ON REMOVING HONEY.

Insert a slide under the drawer, so far as to cut off all communication between the lower apartment and the drawer. Insert another slide between the first slide and the drawer. Now draw out the box containing the honey, with the slide that is next to it. Set the drawer on its window end, a little distance from the apiary, and remove the slide. Now supply the place of the drawer, thus removed, with an empty one, and draw the first inserted slide.

REMARKS.

Care must be exercised in performing this operation. The apertures through the floor into the chamber must be kept closed by the slides during the process, so as to keep the bees from rushing up into the chamber when the box is drawn out. The operator must likewise see that the entrances into the drawer are kept covered with the slide, in such a manner as to prevent the escape of any of the bees, unless he is willing to be stung by them.

If the bees are permitted to enter the chamber in very warm weather, they will be likely to hold the occupancy of it, and build comb there, which will change the hive into one no better than an old-fashioned box.

I have succeeded best in removing honey by the following method, to wit:--Shut the window-blinds so as to darken one of the rooms in the dwelling-house--raise up one cas.e.m.e.nt of a window--then carry the drawer and place the same on a table, or stand, by the window, on its light or gla.s.s end, with the apertures towards the light. Now remove the slide, and step immediately back into the dark part of the room. The bees will soon learn their true condition, and will gradually leave the drawer, and return home to the parent stock; thus leaving the drawer and its contents for their owner; not however until they have sucked every drop of running honey, if there should chance to be any, which is not often the case, if their work is finished.

There are two cases in which the bees manifest some reluctance in leaving the drawer. The first is, when the combs are in an unfinished state--some of the cells not sealed over. The bees manifest a great desire to remain there, probably to make their stores more secure from robbers, by affixing caps to the uncovered cells, to prevent the effluvia of running honey, which is always the greatest temptation to robbers.

Bees manifest the greatest reluctance in leaving the drawer, when young brood are removed in it, which never occurs, except in such drawers as have been used for feeding in the winter or early in the spring. When the Queen has deposited eggs in all the empty cells below, she sometimes enters the drawers; and if empty cells are found, she deposits eggs there also. In either case, it is better to return the drawer, which will be made perfect by them in a few days.

Special care is necessary in storing drawers of honey, when removed from the care and protection of the bees, in order to preserve the honey from insects, which are great lovers of it, particularly the ant. A chest, made perfectly tight, is a good store-house.

If the honey in the drawers is to be preserved for winter use, it should be kept in a room so warm as not to freeze. Frost cracks the combs, and the honey will drip as soon as warm weather commences. Drawers should be packed with their apertures up, for keeping or carrying to market. All apiarians who would make the most profit from their bees, should remove the honey as soon as the drawers are rilled, and supply their places with empty ones. The bees will commence their labors in an empty box that has been filled, sooner than any others.

RULE VII.

THE METHOD OF COMPELLING SWARMS TO MAKE AND KEEP EXTRA QUEENS, FOR THEIR APIARIAN, OR OWNER.

Take a drawer containing bees and brood comb, and place the same in the chamber of an empty hive; taking care to stop the entrance of the hive, and give them clean water, daily, three or four days. Then unstop the mouth of the hive, and give them liberty. The operator must observe Rule 6 in using the slides.

REMARKS.

The prosperity of every colony depends entirely on the condition of the Queen, when the season is favorable to them.

Every bee-master should understand their nature in this respect, so as to enable him to be in readiness to supply them with another Queen when they chance to become dest.i.tute.

The discovery of the fact, that bees have power to change the nature of the grub (larva) of a worker to that of a Queen, is attributed to Bonner.

But neither Bonner nor the indefatigable Huber, nor any other writer, to my knowledge, has gone so far in the ill.u.s.tration of this discovery as to render it practicable and easy for common people to avail themselves of its benefits.

The Vermont hive is the only one, to my knowledge, in which bees can be compelled to make and keep extra Queens for the use of their owner, without extreme difficulty, as well as danger, by stings, in attempting the experiment.

The idea of raising her royal highness, and elevating and establishing her upon the throne of a colony, may, by some, be deemed altogether visionary and futile; but I will a.s.sure the reader, that it is easier done than can be described. I have both raised them, and supplied dest.i.tute swarms repeatedly.

When the drawer containing bees and brood comb is removed, the bees soon find themselves dest.i.tute of a female, and immediately set themselves to work in constructing one or more royal cells. When completed, which is commonly within forty-eight hours, they remove a grub (larva) from the worker's cell, place the same in the new-made Queen's cell, feed it on that kind of food which is designed only for Queens, and in from eight to sixteen days they have a perfect Queen.

As soon as the bees have safely deposited the grub in the new-made royal cell, the bees may have their liberty. Their attachment to their young brood, and their fidelity to their Queen, in any stage of its minority, is such, that they will never leave nor forsake them, and will continue all their ordinary labors, with as much regularity as if they had a perfect Queen.

In making Queens in small boxes or drawers, the owner will not be troubled by their swarming the same season they are made. There are so few bees in the drawer, they are unable to guard the nymph Queens, if there are any, from being destroyed by the oldest, or the one which escapes from her cell first.

In examining the drawer, in which I raised an extra Queen, I found not only the Queen, but two royal cells, one of which was in perfect shape; the other was mutilated, probably by the Queen which came out first. Now when there are so few bees to guard the nymphs, it would not be very difficult for the oldest Queen to gain access to the cells, and destroy all the minor Queens in the drawer.

When a drawer is removed to an empty hive, for the purpose of obtaining an extra Queen, it should be placed some distance from the apiary, the better to prevent its being robbed by other swarms. When it is some distance from other colonies, they are not so likely to learn its comparative strength.

There is but little danger however, of its being robbed, until after the bees are out of danger of losing their Queen, which generally occurs in the swarming season.

The Queen is sometimes lost, in consequence of the young brood being too far advanced at the time of the departure of the old Queen with her swarm.

If the grubs had advanced very near the dormant or chrysalis state, before the bees learnt their necessity for a Queen, and the old Queen neglected to leave eggs, which is sometimes the case, then it would be impossible for the bees to change their nature, and the colony would be lost, unless supplied with another.

RULE VIII.

ON SUPPLYING SWARMS, DESt.i.tUTE OF A QUEEN, WITH ANOTHER.

Take the drawer from the hive, which was placed there according to Rule 7, and insert the same into the chamber of the hive to be supplied; observing Rule 6 in the use of the slides.

REMARKS.

Colonies dest.i.tute of a Queen may be supplied with another the moment it is found they have none; which is known only by their actions.

Bees, when deprived of their female sovereign, cease their labors; no pollen or beebread is seen on their legs; no ambition seems to actuate their movements; no dead bees are drawn out; no deformed bees, in the various stages of their minority, are extracted, and dragged out of their cells, and dropped down about the hive, as is usual among all healthy and prosperous colonies.

Colonies that have lost their Queen, when standing on the bench by the side of other swarms, will run into the adjoining hive without the least resistance. They will commence their emigration by running in confused platoons of hundreds, from their habitation to the next adjoining hive.

They immediately wheel about and run home again, and thus continue, sometimes for several days, in the greatest confusion, constantly replenishing their neighbor's hive, by enlarging her colony, and, at the same time, reducing their own, until there is not a single occupant left; and remarkable as it is, they leave every particle of their stores for their owner or the depredations of the moth.

Colonies lose their Queens more frequently during the swarming season than any other.

In the summer of 1830, I lost three good stocks of bees in consequence of their losing their Queens, one of which was lost soon after the first swarming--the two others not many days after the second swarming--all of which manifested similar actions, and ended in the same results, which will be more particularly explained in remarks on Rule 10.

The Queen is sometimes lost, when she goes forth with a swarm, in consequence of being too feeble to fly with her young colony; in which case the bees return to their parent stock in a few minutes. In fact all occurrences of this kind originate in the inability of the Queen. If she returns to the old stock, the swarm will come out again the next day, if the weather is favorable. If the Queen is too feeble to return, and the apiarian neglects to look her up, and restore her to her colony again, (which he ought to do,) the bees will not swarm again until they have made another, or are supplied, which may be done immediately by giving them any spare Queen, I have done it with entire success, and never failed in the experiment.

The Queen, when lost in swarming, is easily found, unless the wind is so strong as to have blown her a considerable distance. A few bees are always found with her, which probably serve as her aids, and greatly a.s.sist the apiarian in spying her out. She is frequently found near the ground, on a spire of gra.s.s, the fence, or any place most convenient for her to alight, when her strength fails her. I once had quite a search for her majesty, without much apparent success. At the same time there were flying about me a dozen or more common workers. At last her royal highness was discovered, concealed from my observation in a fold of my shirt sleeve. I then returned her to her colony, which had already found their way home to the parent stock.

The Queen may be taken in the hand without danger, for she never stings by design, except when conflicting with another Queen; and yet she has a stinger at least one third longer, but more feeble than a worker.

The Queen is known by her peculiar shape, size, and movements. She differs but little in color from a worker, and has the same number of legs and wings. She is much larger than any of the bees. Her abdomen is very large and perfectly round, and is shaped more like the sugar-loaf, which makes her known to the observer the moment she is seen. Her wings and proboscis are short. Her movements are stately and majestic. She is much less in size after the season for breeding is over. She is easily selected from among a swarm, at any season of the year, by any one who has often seen her.

RULE IX.

ON MULTIPLYING COLONIES TO ANY DESIRABLE EXTENT, WITHOUT THEIR SWARMING.

This large drawer, No. 1, should always be used for this purpose. Insert slides, as in Rule 6, and remove the drawer containing bees and brood-comb; place the same in the chamber of an empty hive; stop the entrances of both the new and old hives, taking care to give them air, as in Rule 4. Give clean water daily, three or four days. Now let the bees, in both hives, have their liberty.

REMARKS.