The honey-bee: its nature, homes and products

In a state of nature bees avail themselves of hollow trees, crevices in rocks, or other cavities of various kinds. Swarms escaped from apiaries will frequently find an entrance to the space between the roof and upper ceilings of houses, and extraordinary quantities of comb, brood, and bees have been taken from such places. Two gentlemen, well known to the writer, have given the following account in The Bee Journal for July 1, 1882, of their successful taking of bees, brood, comb, and honey, from the roof of a house at Lockinge, near Wantage, Berks.

"The house is very old, and built of lath and plaster in the old style, with gables. There was a bricklayer at our service to open walls where suggested. We commenced at the back gable, and the bees were situated, one lot in the roof, and two others in the walls.

"No. 1 in the wall was the first opened. There was a space eight or nine inches wide, and five feet long, and there was disclosed to us a wonderful sight In front of us were continuous honey and brood-combs, four feet six inches long, and as wide as the opening. The combs were four in number. Then we took No. 2 (next above), and in a similar opening found a quantity of brood, honey, and bees, the combs being smaller. Then we ascended to No. 3, where the bees entered by the eaves. After taking some splendid honey, some gathered by a swarm a month old, the bees took a turn further in the roof, and we left them. In the front gable we commenced cutting away the lath and plaster of the top lot, and opened a space six feet long and eight or nine feet wide; and here we were surprised in the extreme: a comb five feet six inches long (exactly one foot more than the other) was in front, and the combs were three feet deep, nearly as wide as the opening. We captured two queens and a large quantity of bees, and brought away a lot of brood as well. The whole of this work was done from a ladder; and had not our time been precious, we should have liked another day at it, as there were a quantity of bees, &c., still left behind. The combs were measured in the presence of the host and a friend, as well as ourselves, and I vouch for the correctness of my statement."

From the time that man learnt the value of the bee as a domesticated insect, habitations more or less suitable for securing honey have been furnished to the industrious workers. It is unnecessary to detail the various kinds of abodes which have been, or still are, in use for the purpose in different countries. It will be more interesting to our readers to know what are the principal forms of hives at present in use among us. Of these the most antiquated, and, we fear we must say, still the commonest, is the old-fashioned dome-shaped straw skep. We shall not enlarge upon its merits, though we are prepared to admit some; but, as it is almost universally condemned in its primitive form by skilled apiarians, we prefer to speak of some easy modifications of it which render it less objectionable.

In the first place, it must be borne in mind that every system which requires the slaughter of the bees for securing honey from them, is radically bad, and therefore wholly to be discountenanced. At the same time, every bee-keeper expects, and rightly, that he should get honey; and this can be managed even with straw hives, if they have a flat top and a perforation in it sufficient to allow the population to go up into supers, wherein to store their produce. Fig. 44 shows such an adaptation. The lower and larger receptacle is for brood and the maintenance of the stock. The top one, much smaller, and not so high, is for the surplus honey, which the bees will carry up when the population is becoming crowded below. The middle and smallest is merely a covering for the other two, and for the sake of keeping all warm, dry, and snug.

An improved Cottager's Hive (Fig. 45) differs from the preceding chiefly in the substitution of a glass for a straw super, and the addition of a window at the back,[7] closed by a door, for observing the internal conditions of the stock portion.

A still better modification is shown on the opposite page (Fig. 46), and is called, from the inventor and maker, "Neighbour's improved Cottager's Hive." In this the lower part has a stout wooden top with three perforations, which may be closed, at the will of the owner, by a metal slide. Over each opening is placed a bell-glass, and admission to these is given to the bees either singly, or by two or all three apertures. In use, the bell-glasses are encased with flannel, felt, or some other good non-conducting substance, and then the upper hive is let down over the glasses on to the board. There are three windows in the lower hive, each closed by a hinged shutter, so that inspection may be afforded at more points than one.

Each bell-glass is furnished with a ventilating tube of perforated zinc, and a ventilating cap is fitted to the top cover. There is also in the middle of the back window a thermometer fixed, for ascertaining the temperature of the stock-hive. By these arrangements the affairs of the community may, to a certain extent, be regulated by the master, and pure honey, free from bee-bread or brood, may be secured without the destruction of any of the workers.

The three hives now described are, perhaps, the best for those who have not the requisite time and skill for the more approved methods of apiculture. But they should, in other cases, be looked upon as merely the stepping-stones to systems of bee-management of a really scientific character.

Passing now to the notice of some of these, we will draw attention first to "Nutt's Collateral Hive"—named from its first maker, who may be considered a pioneer in the improved modern methods.

It consists of three boxes side by side, and having thin wooden partitions, with six or seven perforations, to admit of the passage of the bees from one compartment to another. These may be stopped by zinc slides. In the centre of the top is a wooden cover, to contain a bell-glass for supering. A ventilator over each of the side-boxes secures the proper temperature of these. "The grand object," as explained by Mr. Nutt, "is to keep the end boxes and the bell-glass cooler than the pavilion or middle box, so as to induce the queen to propagate her species there only, and not in the depriving (i.e. honey-storing) part of the hive. By this means the side and upper combs are in no way discoloured by brood. The queen requires a considerable degree of warmth. The bees enjoy coolness in the side-boxes, and thereby the whiteness and purity of the luscious store are increased." When the centre box is filled, access to the super and one side-box may be given by opening the slides. The glass is likely to be filled first, if kept warm by suitable coverings, and can be removed when the honey is sealed in the combs. If the season be very productive, one or both of the side-boxes may also be taken before the end of the summer, if sufficient stores are left in the central stock-portion, or if any deficiency be made up by judicious feeding.

The next and most important modification to which we come is the introduction of movable frames into hives, admitting of separate removal, either for examination as to conditions, or for the taking of honey. Bevan whose admirable work on The Honey Bee, published nearly half a century ago, is the foundation of modern systems of apiculture in this country—speaks of a straw hive with bars, instead of a solid top, invented by Mr. Golding, and named by him "The Village Hive." Even now we consider this variety might well be the cottager's introduction to the more enlightened methods of procedure; and it would, at the same time, satisfy, in large measure, old-fashioned prejudices in favour of straw for the material of the stock-hive. If the bars are properly furnished with "guides," straight and symmetrical combs may be secured, and the depriving of surplus honey-stores may be easily effected without murdering the workers.

Previous to this invention, Réaumur, Bonnet, and Huber had suggested, and tried, the use of boxes with movable bar-frames. The last named apiarian is said to have borrowed his idea from the inhabitants of Candia, and he called it the "leaf-hive." In its original form it had eight frames, secured to each other by hooks and eyes, the external ones being glazed, and covered with a shutter.

The idea of frames removable separately having once been established, various improvements were speedily effected. In 1841 Major Munn, an English-man, obtained a patent in France for his Bar-and-frame Hive, an account of which was published in this country in 1844. In America, the distinguished apiarian Langstroth made known his modifications of Huber's hive, and Dzierzon, in Germany, a little while before, and quite independently, had adopted the same principle of bars with certain special features, while Von Berlepsch, in 1853, added frames to his countryman's bars. In England the bar-frame system was not really known till its re-introduction by Tegetmeier, in 1860. Mr. Woodbury, to whom reference has been already made more than once, afterwards brought out the frame-hive which met with the first general acceptance by apiarians in this country.

As originally made, it consisted of a wooden box, 14¹/₂ inches square on the inside, and 9 inches deep. The frames were ten in number, each 13 inches long by 7¹/₄ inches high. The ends projected, and fitted into notches at the back and front; but this arrangement was found to be objectionable, from the secure manner in which the bees were able to glue them down with propolis. As facility of lifting without jarring the frames is of great importance, better means of keeping them in place had to be, and have been, devised.

Subsequently to his first introduction of the above-described hive, Mr. Woodbury suggested that the sides, back, and front should be made of straw, as being a better non-conductor of heat, affording a little ventilation, and absorbing the moisture of respiration more readily than wood. We give a figure on page 157 of this modification.

Various improvements on the original of Mr. Woodbury's pattern have been made. Of these we will mention first Mr. Cheshire's bar-frame hive, and we had better, perhaps, describe it in his own words:—"It consists of two main portions—the super-cover, the upper half of what may be denominated the body, and the hive proper, in the lower portion of which breeding is carried on, and where the bees pass the winter. In front of the lower part may be seen the porch, with its roof consisting of a stout piece of pine, about three inches wide, and running completely along the hive-face. This is chamfered off towards the end, the more effectually to carry away drip, and has a channel near its front edge, which acts as a gutter, by which the rain is conveyed to its ends. This gutter is shown in the cross-section at E. The bottom board of the hive projects 2¹/₂ inches along the front, so as to form a very convenient alighting board. Ten inches of the central part of this is grooved, so that, should it be reached by driving rain, the convex parts remain free of water, affording the bees a dry passage to the interior. The flight-hole is ten inches in length, and is formed by cutting from the hive-wall a piece a full quarter of an inch deep. There are two sliding shutters (shown in Fig. 50), by which the entrance-way may be regulated as occasion may require. The super-cover is hinged, and so contrived by the aid of a chain, that it can only open until its lines, horizontal when in situ, become perpendicular, and vice versâ.

"The walls of the hive are double, and have between them a space containing dead air. As heat is conducted by air with extreme slowness, these means prevent the escape of that generated by the bees during rigorous weather, while they also exclude the ardour of the sun's rays during summer. In order to give room for the ears of the frames, the inner skin, front and back, is made an inch shallower than the outer one. Standing three-eighths of an inch above the former are two strips of zinc (1 and 2 Fig. 51) each about an inch wide, and which serve to carry the frames so that they cannot be propolised, while they can be slid backwards and forwards with the greatest ease during manipulation. The depth of the hive is 8³/₄ inches, the width 14¹/₂ inches inside. The length will vary with the number of frames used." Fuller details are to be found in Mr. Cheshire's excellent book called Practical Bee-keeping.

Mr. Abbott, the well-known maker of apparatus of all kinds for apiculture, who was the editor and proprietor of The Bee Journal for many years, has also made various arrangements and improvements to secure advantages beyond those of the original Woodbury hive. We cannot detail all these modifications; but among them may be mentioned that the ends of his frames are so notched as to render them easily held by the fingers when it is required to lift them, and to replace them. Mr. Abbott also makes hives of various degrees of cheapness, according to the conveniences required and the neatness of workmanship demanded. We may safely attribute to him a vast influence on scientific bee-keeping, and a visit to his works and apiary at Southall, not far from London, on the Great Western Railway, will well repay any one interested in apiculture.

All the hives we have just been describing are adapted for supering, i.e. for getting honey stored in receptacles above the stock portion. The usual and most convenient form of such receptacles is that of small oblong cases, without front or back, cut in one flat piece of wood, and easily folded into shape, their slotted ends fitting, by pressure, tightly into one another. At the top of each, when folded, a small piece of guide comb is attached, as a help and an attraction to the bees in beginning their work in them.

It is usual now to pack a certain number of these into a frame or "crate," so that they may conveniently be placed upon, or removed from, the top of a hive. If kept properly warm, and well protected by their cover, not only do the bees, when needing room for storage, readily take to them, but they afford means of collecting, in a very neat, attractive, and convenient form, large quantities of purest and sealed honey. Thousands of hundred-weights are now annually secured in this manner in our own country, and tons of such filled sections are every year imported from America, from which country, we believe, was derived this ingenious little invention, which has done so much towards the promotion of the pleasure and profit of bee-keeping among us.

Some people, however, still prefer to secure their super-honey in bar-frames similar, except in point of depth, to those of the stock hive. Such an arrangement may be seen on the preceding page, which represents one made by Messrs. Neighbour and Son.

A form of hive first brought out at Stewarton, in Scotland, and named after the place of its original manufacture, is a great favourite with many bee-keepers, and certainly often yields admirable results in the way of super-honey. We are warranted, therefore, in giving some account of it.

It consists (see Fig. 57) ordinarily of four octagonal boxes. Three of these, A, B, and C, are called "body-boxes," and serve as abodes for the bees, for nurseries and supplies of food, for rearing the young and for winter use. Each is fourteen inches in diameter in the widest parts, and five and a-half inches deep inside. Nine bars range along the top of each. These are not movable, but serve as guides to the bees for building straight combs. Between them, and beyond the outer ones, are ten narrow strips made to slide in grooves in the bars, so that the top is completely and securely covered. The figure represents the way in which the slides shift. The top box D is that in which the honey to be taken by the bee-master is stored. It is four inches in depth, its other dimensions being similar to those of the boxes below it. It is furnished with only seven or eight, instead of nine bars, the object being to induce the bees to build longer cells for depositing honey in. This not only secures a greater quantity for less expenditure of wax, but prevents the queen laying eggs in them, if she should go up into the top box.

For her majesty, finding it impossible to reach the bottom of the cells to place her eggs as she has been accustomed to do, will retire to the lower boxes, where she finds places perfectly adapted to her instincts or her needs. The honey is thus kept free from brood, and it presents a massive and rich appearance. Bees seem greatly to appreciate this form of hive, and a strong swarm will often fill the two lower boxes with comb in ten days. To get the full advantage, however, of this system, it is best to put a swarm into each of the lower compartments, or in the first and third, if two colonies of bees cannot be procured on the same day. If they be kept asunder a few days by slides with perforations, to let their odours commingle, they may be allowed to join their forces, and the queens will settle the sovereignty by a battle, ending in the death of the weaker. When the stock-boxes have become well filled with bees, admission may be given to the honey-box, and, in a good season, splendid combs of honey may be secured in this way. We have seen supers of great weight and beauty taken from the Stewarton hive. Its merits have been well described from time to time in The Journal of Horticulture and The Bee Journal, by a "A Renfrewshire Bee-keeper."

Mr. C. W. Smith designed a modification of the above hives which he named the Carr-Stewarton. In it the square form is substituted for the octagonal, so as to secure the interchangeability of all combs—an important matter in the practical affairs of an apiary.

The chief points of recommendation in the Stewarton hive seem to be, its excellence as winter quarters for its inhabitants, and the readiness with which large quantities of super-honey are stored in it.

In order that some of the wonders of bee-work may be seen in the process of performance, various arrangements have been made, constituting what are called "Observatory Hives." In these glass is substituted for wood in the sides, shutters being fixed over them to exclude the light. In some cases Venetian blinds are used instead of shutters. The frames with the combs are sometimes arranged vertically in one or two series, and sometimes laterally a dozen or more standing one behind another. In the latter instance both the top and the sides are of glass.

The whole hive may be made to revolve by means of two iron wheels, the one fixed to its bottom, the other to a stout board running its whole length. In the centre of the floor-board there is an opening into a passage below, which leads to the open air. This arrangement enables the hive to be turned in any direction without interfering with the egress and ingress of the bees. If the queen with her attendants cannot be found on one side of the combs, the other side may be brought into view by rotating the hive, and the different classes of the population can be studied, and their work surveyed in security and continuously.

The unicomb hive may be stocked in various ways. The simplest plan is to take from a bar-frame hive the comb on which the queen is, and put it into the unicomb hive with as many more empty frames as will fill all the space intended for their reception. In this way new clean comb will be made, giving a much better appearance to the colony. Another plan is to take brood-comb in frames sufficient in number to fill the hive at once. The bees will then make a queen for themselves, and the interesting process may be watched in all its stages, provided, of course, that there are some freshly-laid worker-eggs in the cells.

It is not advisable to try to keep the bees alive in an observatory hive during the winter, because so much heat is lost by absorption through the glass sides and top. It is best, therefore, to replace the frames and their tenants, early in the autumn, in the ordinary wooden hives.

Much discussion has taken place among apiarians as to the merits of bee-houses. Those who advocate their use do so on the following grounds: Firstly, the protection afforded by a permanent building to contain the stocks, secures them from dangers of severe storms of wind, hail, rain, and snow. The first kind of tempest is apt to overthrow hives; the second to terrify the bees by the violence of the impact of the ice-drops; the third to saturate the floor-boards, and even to penetrate the top coverings; and the last will sometimes choke up the entrance-holes, and cause the suffocation of the bees. Secondly, for manipulating purposes in all weathers the shelter of a bee-house is very convenient, beside diminishing the danger of chilling the brood under examination. Thirdly, hives under cover of a roof are less affected by sun and moisture, and last longer without requiring paint, than if exposed to all weathers.

Those who advocate the placing of each hive on a separate stand in the open air, allege the following objections to bee-houses: Firstly, that of expense. Secondly, that they form a shelter for mice, moths, spiders, &c. Thirdly, that they promote dampness. Fourthly, that they encourage robbing by the bees. Fifthly, that they are inconvenient for manipulating, by causing disturbance in neighbouring hives while operations are going on. Sixthly, that they tend to the loss of young queens returning from their marriage flight, by the sameness of appearance in the entrances, and the nearness of the hives to each other.

We cannot discuss the replies given to most, if not all of these objections; but must content ourselves with saying that we advise all who have a shed which can be converted into a bee-house, or who do not mind the expense of putting up a building, to secure the advantages of such a shelter, and to take the easy precautions against possible inconveniences.[8]