THERE is no contrivance for protecting hives from the weather so complete as a bee-house; one which also admits of an easy inspection of the hives ranged therein is especially convenient for lady bee-keepers. We here present a front view of one designed for only two hives.
The folding doors behind the bee-house have only to be opened, and the hives are at once exposed to full view; then, by raising the upper hive or cover, the glasses may be deliberately inspected without molestation from the bees, and the progress made by the busy multitude may be watched from day to day. Under the roof on each side are openings to act as ventilators, to allow the heated air to escape. With the sun shining on the house, and no escape of this kind, the temperature would become that of an oven.
Here our illustration shows the back view of the bee-house, the interior being furnished with two of our improved cottage hives. Two suspended weights balance the top hives which cover the glasses; the cord for each runs on pulleys, so that the covers can be easily raised and as easily shut down again when the inspection is finished. We may here remark that it is not well to keep the glasses long exposed to full light and view.
The front of the bee-house being closely boarded, a passage-way is contrived for the bees, by which they have egress and ingress to the hives without being able to gain access to the house. The hives must be kept close to the front boarding of the house, to prevent the opening of any crevices which the bees might mistake for the entrance to their hives, and so find their way into the house. The front view of this bee-house shows the ordinary contrivance for giving admission; the sliding zinc entrances may also be advantageously fixed, as shown in the woodcut of the bee-house to contain twelve hives. The bee-houses we furnish have a lock and key.
Care must be taken to keep the bee-houses free from spiders and other insects. In some districts ants are numerous and troublesome. The plan we recommend for excluding them is to put some pitch round the four supports of the bee-house, or, better still, strips of loose flannel or other woollen material that is absorbent, which have previously been soaked in lamp oil. We use sperm oil, as being the slowest-drying oil we know of A piece of string will keep the flannel close to the wood, and then neither ant nor other insect will pass up; so that by this simple means the hives may, so to speak, be insulated and placed beyond their reach. As the oil dries up it can easily be renewed. We have found this an effectual remedy against these insidious enemies of bees.
Where economy of room is a consideration we fit up bee-houses with a double row of hives, one above the other. Our illustrations show respectively the front and back of a house of this kind for twelve hives, having an ornamental zinc gutter to prevent the wet from dripping on to the alighting-board. When a number of hives are thus together we colour the alighting-boards differently, so as to provide the bees with a distinctive mark by which each may know its own home, and not wander into its neighbour's house. Bees readily enough receive a honey-laden labourer into a hive; but if the wanderer be poor and empty it will be promptly repulsed, and may have to forfeit its life for the mistake. Queens returning from their wedding trip are liable to mistake their hive if there is not a noticeable difference between the entrances. A queen entering a hive already possessed of a fruitful sovereign would be certain to be killed, and the loss to her own hive is a serious one. Hives are often made queenless from this cause, and thereby reduced to utter ruin, the bee-master perhaps attributing his failure to something altogether different.
In lieu of houses an economical stand can be provided by driving two rows of posts into the ground, one row about twelve inches behind the other, and nailing upon them rails two inches wide and thick. The hives may stand upon these, with eighteen inches between them for space for performing operations. But there is less fear of jarring the other hives when the stands are separate.
The annexed illustration shows the ornamental zinc cover, and renders but little description necessary. It represents one of our improved cottage hives upon a stand. Three clumps of wood must be driven into the ground, and the three iron rods supporting the covering made fast to them with screws; there are screw holes in the feet of the iron rods for the purpose. When thus secured but little fear need be entertained of its being blown over by high winds.
In the roof two pulleys are fixed, so that, by attaching a cord, the upper hive covering the bell-glass supers may be raised with facility for the purpose of observing the progress made by the bees. Directions as to the mode of fixing the pedestal will be found above (page 118).
The ornamental zinc cover will form a pleasing object in the flower-garden when placed in a suitable position on the grass plot. It is painted green; the iron rods are of such a length as to support the roof at a convenient height from the ground.
Our next figure is that of a simple and inexpensive covering for any cottage straw hive when exposed in the garden. It fits close on to the upper hive, coming sufficiently low to protect it from sun and rain, without obscuring the whole hive.
These covers are painted green—a colour that is generally preferred.
A loose outer case completely enveloping the hive is found very useful. Such covers are made in various forms, some to drop over the hive in detached portions, some in a single piece, and others hinged; some, as we saw in the last chapter (§§ xii., xiii., xiv.), constitute a part of the hive itself. Ample room must be allowed for opening these, both at the side and behind, remembering that from the latter position all operations must be conducted. The cover and stand will require painting, or else staining and varnishing, which looks perhaps better; the hive itself, if not exposed to the weather, will not need this. When removing or replacing the covers, care must be taken not to enrage the bees. Covers formed with opening shutters will obviate the necessity of frequent removal.
The accompanying figure shows a simple form of cover for dropping over a hive. Its width is twenty-six inches, depth twenty-two, and height in middle nineteen.
Cottagers often use straight stiff thatching straw, sewed together; this contrivance is termed a "hackle," and has a pretty appearance, particularly if a number of hives are in a row. Care has however to be exercised that mice do not make the cover a resting-place. Mortar is often used for fastening round the hive at the bottom, but this is a bad plan, as it forms a harbour for insects; the wooden hoop fits so close as to leave little necessity for anything of the kind. The wooden cover just described is more especially constructed for our frame hive (page 142), but it may be used for any hive that it will fit over.
Our next cut represents the Woodbury cover, which is formed in three portions (the roof, the super-cover, and the stock-hive cover). It has an upper and a lower door, or rather shutter, behind. The whole can be placed on a pedestal as here shown. As this cover requires to be lifted off in pieces, and is liable to be blown over by the wind, it is not so convenient as those figured below, which open on hinges and are self-supporting.
We next give two representations of one of our more elaborate covers, showing it respectively from behind as opened and in front as closed. The former exhibits the cover with one of our new frame hives (Chap. III. § x.) within it, and two divisional supers upon the hive, the roof being formed sufficiently high to accommodate these. The cover is thus made to open near its vertical centre, and is held back by a chain. The flap behind falls down on opening the top to allow of inspecting the stock hive without drawing it out of the cover. In the front there is a portico for protection to the entrance, and wood slides work in grooves to narrow the opening in winter or other bad weather. The total height of the cover and stand is forty-five inches, the width twenty-two, and the depth twenty-six. The outside of the whole is grained and varnished. In the figure following it will be observed that the hinges are placed in the front; while underneath these the portico, slides, and alighting-board are clearly shown, as well as the sloping roof—in short, the general appearance of the whole structure as it actually stands in the apiary.
The next pair of views represent another very useful cover, but it has the objection of being bulky and more costly. The open figure exhibits, within the cover, our new glass frame hive and super (page 142). The hinges are formed with movable pins to enable the cover to be totally removed from the stand. An opening from the outside communicates with the super, so that the bees can find exit without passing through the stock hive. The flight-hole can be narrowed as in the previous instance.
The annexed cut shows a new cover of simple and inexpensive construction. In it any of our frame hives can be placed. The stock hive here exhibited is the one referred to on page 141, as "The Cottager's Improved Frame Hive." The advantage in having the stock hive independent of the cover and stand, and on its own floor-board, is that the hive is more easily stocked and more manageable in other respects than those that have hive, stand, and cover all in one, as is the case with the Philadelphia, Cheshire's, and Abbott's hives.
The drawing shows the outward construction so well that little further explanation is needful.
Some American apiarians recommend the use of a quilt in place of a crown board, as admitting of ventilation to the hive and thus allowing the moisture to pass off. Quilts are made of some soft woollen material or a piece of carpet. Care must be exercised that the maggots of other insects do not find a home underneath, or a hotbed will by that means be provided for bees' worst enemies.
In describing the stock hives of wood, straw, and glass, allusion has frequently been made to the depriving hives technically called "supers." The simplest form of these consists of the straw caps, represented at pages 108-110, and next to these will come those to which the above heading applies. Of the stricter bell-form, rounded at the top, we have three sizes:—
| To contain 10lb., 10 inches high, 7 inches wide. |
| To contain 6lb., 7 inches high, 5½ inches wide. |
| To contain 3lb., 5 inches high, 4 inches wide. |
These bell glasses are used in the hives before described. The largest is for Nutt's hive; the middle-sized is for our improved cottage hive; the smallest glass is so very small that it is not often used, and we do not recommend it. Bees will generally fill a middle-sized glass quite as soon as one so small as this.
The next figures exhibit what are known as "Taylor's Glasses." They were introduced by Mr. Taylor, and are recommended as preferable to deep narrow glasses. The drawings will show that they are straight at the sides, flat at the top inside, with a knob above to take hold by, through which is a half-inch opening to admit a ventilating tube. The larger, to contain perhaps twenty pounds, is six inches deep and thirteen inches wide; the smaller, five inches deep and nine and a half inches wide.
The late Mr. J. H. Payne, of Bury St. Edmunds, author of the "Bee-keeper's Guide," introduced another glass, called "Payne's Glass" accordingly. It has a three-inch hole in the centre, the purpose of which is to tempt bees to produce additional and larger stores of honey. It is to be used as follows: When a bell glass (which must be smaller in diameter than Payne's) is half or quite filled, raise it, and place Payne's glass over the hole of the stock hive, with the filled glass on it, over the three-inch hole. The bees will bring their combs through, and thus Mr. Payne found that they would store more honey than if the bell glass were removed and another empty one put in its place.
The "Flat-topped Glass" is a super to be placed on the hive in a similar way to the bell glasses already alluded to. It has the advantages of being straight at the sides, flat at top, and without a knob; so that when filled it may be brought on to the breakfast table, inverted, on a plate. The glass lid shown in the figure forms a cover, and fits over outside so as not to interfere with the combs within. There is a ventilating tube as above. Dimensions, six and three-quarter inches in diameter, and five in height.
To these we have already made considerable allusion under the various hives to which they are applied. They are often made of glass, but many are of wood or even straw. It is desirable that the combs in supers should be made thicker than those for breeding—the bees will in fact deepen their honey cells to almost any extent—and therefore the bars are placed somewhat, further apart than in stock hives, thus allowing of one or two bars less. By gradually widening the spaces between the combs these can be brought up, Von Berlepsch tells us, to four inches in thickness. With the shallower form of all the older supers the bars are without frames. The cut exhibits the "Woodbury Super," which is of glass thirteen inches square and six deep, with eight bars to the ten of the hive. These can be either the Woodbury ribbed bars, or flat ones with guide-comb attached. Lee's supers are similar, but they contain seven bars with four Stewarton slides for giving admission from one to the other when more than one super is used.
The next figure shows our "Frame Super," already sufficiently described on page 141. It can be had as below, in glass with wooden framework, or in straw with three windows, as shown with the hive on page 142.
Next in order we give our "Divisional Super," to which a prize was awarded at the Crystal Palace Bee Show in 1875. It is composed of seven divisions or frames, which are kept together by lateral strips of wood. Each division is intended to have one comb worked in it, rendering the contents of the super divisible without cutting the combs. As shown in the figure on page 175, this super is now made with whole-glass ends. From the same figure it will be observed that these supers are adapted for placing one above the other, passages being cut out of the top bar of the lower of the pair. Slits are cut for the insertion of strips of wax sheets.
Both in this super and the next it is desirable to provide against the admission of cold through the numerous interstices by keeping a warm woollen covering on the top and pasting paper over the divisions, which can easily be cut through when the super is filled.
Neighbours' "Sectional Super" is the last of our series. The attention of apiarians has been so much turned of late years towards a cheap and compact receptacle for honeycombs intended for deprivation, that we have introduced this last invention, which is very much on the same plan as the preceding, but the longitudinal divisions are again divided across, forming boxes, as shown in the figure. Each section is about two inches wide, seven long, and four and a half to five deep; it will contain about two pounds of honey in the comb. This is a convenient quantity for placing on the table or for purposes of presentation. The fourteen sections occupy the same space as the seven divisions of the preceding. Any number can however be used according to the size of the hive: the Philadelphia hive, for instance, has space for eighteen. Again, any single section can be removed when full, and another substituted.
Each section has a saw-cut in the crown for the insertion of wax strips. The queen-preventing zinc adapter can also be used. Observe the caution given in the second paragraph of the description of the divisional super, just above.
We allude to these for the sake of explaining the terms, and as they are adjuncts sometimes recommended for temporary enlargement. They are further contrivances for the prevention of swarming, but they differ from supers in being added below instead of above the stock hive. Briefly, an eke is a half-hive so added, and a nadir an entire one. An example of an eke is sometimes met with when a common skep is cut horizontally in half, and the lower portion placed beneath an entire skep hive. For an instance of a nadir we have only to refer to the Stewarton hive. Ekes and nadirs give increased room to the bees, but they of course do not answer the purpose of supers in providing honey free from the admixture of brood.
These artificial partition walls for combs are sheets of genuine wax, about the substance of thin cardboard. They receive rhomboidal impressions by being pressed between two metal plates, carefully and mathematically prepared and cast so that the impressions are exactly the same size as the base of the cells of a honeycomb. An inspection of a piece of comb will show that the division of the opposite cells is made by a thin partition-wall, common to both. The substance of this is said to be only the one hundred and eightieth part of an inch, whilst the artificial ones we are recommending are between the thirtieth and fortieth part of an inch, or more than four times the thickness of the handiwork of the bees themselves. It would, indeed, be vain to attempt to furnish them with sheets of wax at all approaching their own delicate fabric, and our sheets are quite as thin as they can be to bear the handling requisite for fixing them in the hives. We find, however, that the thickness is no disadvantage; the bees speedily excavate and pare the artificial sheet so as to suit their own notions of the substance required; then, with admirable economy, they use the surplus thus obtained for the construction of the cells. After a sheet has been partly worked at by the bees, it is interesting to hold it up to the light and observe the beautiful transparency of that part of it, contrasted with the opaqueness of the part not yet laboured upon.
This invention renders us independent of guide-comb, which is not always obtainable. It comes to us from Germany, where it has attained many years of success. At the International Exhibition of 1862 we purchased the metal plates or castings, so as to manufacture the impressed sheets with which we are now able to supply our customers; and after the careful trials we have made we have great confidence in recommending them. As will be seen below, however, we no longer advise insertion of entire sheets.
In the season of 1863 we furnished a Woodbury glass super with the wax sheets fixed to the bars in the way hereafter to be explained, and it was truly astonishing to mark the rapidity with which these sheets of wax were converted into comb. Receptacles were quickly made ready for the storing of honey, and the new combs soon became beautifully white; for, although the artificial wax has a yellow tinge, yet, after being worked at and made thinner, it is as good in colour as ordinary combs.
If whole sheets are used—or, in the case of supers, half ones—perhaps the simplest plan for fastening them is to fix a strip of wood with brads to the under side of the top frame or bar; place the wax sheet against this, then wedge another strip close to it, and thus hold the wax sheet firmly in the centre of the frame, taking care also to make the second strip of wood fast with brads. This has however the objection that it slightly diminishes the space. The wax plates must not extend to the bottom of the frame; a space of at least one inch should be left for expansion, because the bees, in working the plate, stretch it down lower. We also use a few pins firmly pressed into the frames, and long enough to reach the edge of the plate; for by fixing three or four pins on each side, both at the sides and at the bottom, the plate may be held in an exactly central position within the frame.
We are now disposed to make a great modification in the above directions, and, instead of using entire sheets of wax, we cut strips from them of about an inch in width, and place these in the bars as before, when they form an edged projection of half or three-quarters of an inch. We have found an objection to the entire sheets in the fact that they sometimes curl and break with the weight of the bees—so eagerly does a new swarm apply itself to work upon them—and thus become an obstruction instead of a help.
Strips of cardboard or wood shaving, dipped in hot wax or well besmeared therewith, may be substituted for the wax strips themselves. Where no slit is made for the insertion of either, the shaving running down the lower edge of the bar may be simply rubbed with hot wax, and the same purpose will be served.
This is an American attempt to improve on our impressed wax sheets. In the proffered assistance to the bees there is here some advance, for not only are the lozenge-shaped plates at the base of each cell more clearly stamped and defined, but the sides of the cells are slightly begun—so deep are the impressions that the foundations of the walls are actually laid.
Being quite a new invention, there has not been much time for fully testing it, but we find from American bee-keepers that when used-in large sheets there is the same difficulty as with our impressed wax—the bees will twist them. As specimens of work these comb foundations are certainly very commendable for appearance. The white ones seem too white to be of pure wax, and any substitute offered to bees has hitherto proved a failure. Mr. Baldridge, a frequent correspondent of the American Bee Journal, speaks of the yellow sheets as far preferable to the pure white, but some that are made partly of paraffin he considers of little worth. Possibly the material of which they are manufactured may be made to suit the delicate senses of the bees. Until this is the case, hindrance rather than help in comb-building will be the result of placing them in the frames and sectional or other supers. The mode of fixing is the same as described for impressed wax sheets.
At the Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in 1875, Mr. Cheshire exhibited and obtained a prize for a wax guide-maker, which is an ingenious contrivance. It consists of a plaster of Paris cast, with impressions taken from the metal plates before referred to (page 187). This cast is two inches in width, about the same in thickness, and eleven or twelve inches long. It rests in a shallow zinc or tin trough containing water to keep the plaster damp by capillary attraction. The plaster cast may first be soaked in water; then place against its side the top bar of the frame, reversed so that the centre of the under side lies even with the edge of the embossed cast. The wax (which must be genuine) is melted in an ordinary glue-pot; then with a clean paintbrush it is applied to the top of the plaster cast and exposed part of the bar. The wax immediately hardens on the damp cast and does not adhere, whilst the under side of the bar carries an embossed guide of sufficient depth to be an unfailing means of direction to the swarm in the building of straight combs.
When a large number of frames have to be prepared, this ingenious apparatus is a convenience; but for the ordinary apiarian we should advise procuring a few of the impressed wax sheets, cutting them in strips, and fixing without the mess and trouble which Mr. Cheshire's apparatus involves.
It is often a great convenience to have a rest at hand to lodge frames of comb on. The illustration shows one that we have contrived, and which will accommodate twelve frames of almost any size. The two broad rests on the top may be set closer or further apart by loosening the screws which keep them firm. They are easily shifted and secured again by screwing up.
This stand is light in weight, so that it can easily be carried about as required. The frames of comb, with bees on them just as they are, are temporarily placed on the holder when an inspection of the interior of the hive is needful, and the combs can be returned to the hive in the same order.
This is a contrivance which will be found specially serviceable in transferring old stocks from one hive to another (Chap. V. § iii.). It consists of an inclined rest for the combs, composed of laths, of wood arranged like the teeth of a comb, so as to allow the honey to drain into the zinc receiving-frame underneath; it also admits the ready introduction of the tape or whatever is used for tying and fixing the combs in the new frame. The operator should place the board upon a table so that its front, or the upper edges of the inclined laths, face him as he stands.
Honey-cutters are used for removing comb from boxes and glasses without damaging it. The flat-bladed knife is for disconnecting the combs from the sides; the hook-shaped one is to be applied to the top or horizontal part of the box or glass. We have recently introduced a knife with both these blades, one respectively at each end.
The first notion of extracting honey from the combs by centrifugal motion was the result of an accident. A son of Major von Hruschka, a bee-keeper in Germany, tied a piece of honeycomb to a string, and in play whirled it round the inside of a pail. Finding that the honey was ejected and the cells of the comb left dry, the idea was suggested to Herr von Hruschka of constructing a machine for the purpose, and this he soon afterwards did. The first honey-extractor was a wooden vessel with something like a broomstick working on a pivot in the centre; to this axle, provision was made for attaching a framework to carry the combs, and the centrifugal motion was obtained by winding coils of string round the upper part of the revolving shaft, which was thus put in motion by pulling the string sharply in the way a boy's humming-top is made to spin round.
This answered for a beginning; but with the opportunity of employing machinery it was soon found that many improvements in the construction might be made. For instance, it was apparent that the extractor should be constructed of metal, because the wood absorbs so much honey that it will soon become sour in warm weather, however carefully attended to and cleansed. The honey-extractor shown here consists of a metal reservoir with a treacle tap at its base to draw off the liquid honey. In the middle of this reservoir is a cast-iron spindle, with arms or projections to receive two metal wire cases, one on each side; in these cases the combs are placed, whether in frames or not. Motion is given by turning the handle, which with the aid of a cog-wheel causes the spindle to revolve at great speed. The machine is mostly used for frames of combs taken from stock hives whilst the honey-gathering is at its height.
When the frame is removed from the hive whilst at full work, the bees have to be shaken or brushed off with a feather, and those cells that are sealed have to be uncapped by shaving the waxen lids off with knives, of which there should be two, one to be kept immersed in a vessel of hot water, whilst the other is used until it becomes cold, and so alternately until the required work is accomplished. The knife being warm very much aids in slicing through the wax as near the top as possible, and prevents tearing the tender comb. This must be done carefully so as to disturb the form of the cells as little as possible, and not to touch the brood cells, from which honey cells are easily distinguished. The frame is placed in one of the wire cases, and a second may be treated in the same manner and dropped into the extractor. A few turns of the handle eject the honey by centrifugal force, and a little practice will inform the operator of the requisite degree of speed, though some honey is more tenacious and takes a few more turns than other. When on examination it is found that the honey is gone out of one side, the cases will then have to be reversed, and a few more turns will clear the cells on the other side. The frames should now be returned to the hive for the bees to refill, and two other frames of comb may take their places in the extractor, and so on until all the combs in that hive suitable for extraction have been operated upon according to the wish and judgment of the manipulator. Prior to commencing this operation, a little smoke should be blown into the hive and an examination made lest the queen should be too summarily shaken off the comb; she must be quietly transferred to another if the one she may be on is required to be placed in the extractor.
During the gathering season it is astonishing how quickly these emptied cells will be refilled with honey, and not unfrequently the queen finds in some of these unoccupied receptacles timely provision for her otherwise contracted accommodation for depositing eggs; thus breeding goes forward at an astonishing rate. Much is written about the value of comb, and by this contrivance the labour of the bees in building it is saved. There is no doubt but that this instrument is of great service to the bee-keeper when judiciously applied,[23] and since the introduction of the movable combs it has formed an important adjunct thereto. For no invention has the apiarian cause to be more deeply indebted than for the "Mel Extractor" of Germany, improved upon as it has been both in America and in this country. Even if there were less sale for extracted honey, the extractor would be found at certain times of great value to every bee-keeper. In the award at the Philadelphia Exhibition, special notice of commendation is recorded of our honey-extractor.
[23] This, machine is not of much service for extracting honey from combs made in supers, the cells of which are mostly too soft to bear operating upon.
The object of nucleus hives is explained below in the section on "Queen Rearing" (Chap. V. § vii.), and they render services in the process of artificial swarming, in maintaining a supply of young mothers, or in Italianising an apiary. Mr. Cheshire's contrivance is as follows; Certain frames in a regular hive are made to consist of two half-frames, each complete, but joined together in the top bar by a tongue in the one portion which fits firmly into an opening in the other, thus forming an ordinary frame except for the division down the middle. When a royal cell has been formed upon one of these compound frames, such frame is taken out of the hive, and the twin portions are then placed side by side in the nucleus, which measures only three and three-quarter inches wide inside, nine inches deep, and seven and a half from front to back. Its sides are constructed double in the same way as those of the Cheshire frame hive (page 145). In the nucleus hive it is necessary for the frames to be well covered up. Care must be taken that the queen was not upon either of the nucleus frames, but the other bees may be retained upon it. The older ones, however, will be sure to return to the stock hive, and their place must be supplied by shaking young ones off other frames on to a board in front of the nucleus.
The royal cells may be obtained from any source, and artificially transferred to the divided frames, after which the frames must be placed in a stock hive for twenty-four hours for the bees to fix and repair the cells. Or, if more convenient, three or four such frames may be placed in the middle of a hive, and all stocked with eggs; the queen may be removed for a few hours, at the end of which a larger or smaller number of royal cells will be found to have been formed, and these in the middle frames, which should be the ones desired. The transferring process may still be needful, unless only one or two queens are wished for. The royal cells should be placed inside when the two parts of the frame are put together in the nucleus; there must however be only one such cell on each of these, as the first queen that is hatched will be certain to destroy the cells of the rest.
Further mention of the subject of nucleus hives will be found under "Queen-Rearing." They should be constructed with narrow entrances so as to lessen the facilities to robber bees.
These are small receptacles made of close wire or perforated zinc, just large enough to contain the queen with a few of her acknowledged subjects, and their use is on the occasion of her introduction to a new hive. The new queen is by this means protected from the primal hostility of the bees, but at the same time so much communication is permitted as suffices to familiarise them gradually with her presence. It is one of the characteristics of the bee nature that, however distressed they may be at the loss of their old queen, and however eagerly at work to produce a successor, they will not usually receive such at once from an artificial source. They will, however, supply her with food even when longing to transfix her with their stings.
We have two kinds of cage for this purpose. One of them is a wire dome to be placed over the queen, when with a card carefully slipped underneath she can be kept secure until the hive is prepared to receive her favourably. It is nearly the same as Kleine's cage for protecting royal cells, as described under "Queen-Rearing" (Chap. V. § vii.). Another cage, devised and strongly recommended by "A Renfrewshire Bee-keeper," is flat in form and neatly made of wire net; it is two inches deep, one and a quarter wide, and three-eighths of an inch thick; the top is of the same material, and projects one-eighth of an inch all round as a flange to prevent slipping too far between the combs. The door consists of stronger wires reaching across the bottom of the cage; these are fixed at one end, and have two more wires fastened to them at the other, which wires pass up at the corners and are brought out at the top, where a push with the thumb will cause the bottom to project open. Into this cage we consider there is more difficulty in introducing the queen than into the other, as she has to be taken hold of with the thumb and finger and passed within the narrow opening; and though some of the cages are made with an entry-valve at the top, the risk of injuring the queen remains, in our opinion, greater than with the domed cage. The mode of procedure with each of these will be found described under "Introducing New Queens" (Chap. V. § viii.).
Much disappointment is often felt, when removing a super that appears well filled with honey, at finding that brood, and not honey, is in many of the cells. In such a case the super should be replaced on the hive until such time as the brood has hatched out. The comb will be found to be discoloured, but there is no help for that. The fact of there being even a few cells so occupied is a great deterioration. This little contrivance, however, excludes both the queen and the drones, the wires or strips of zinc being fixed too close together to admit of their passage, though wide enough for the worker bees. It is adapted for any hole that it will cover, but more especially for the openings in the tops of straw hives communicating with the supers. Some of our better-class hives are fitted with slides pierced in like manner, or else with sheets of perforated zinc to ensure the same end.
The queen-preventer also serves a useful purpose in preventing pollen being carried into the supers, as the edges of the wires or bars act as scrapers upon the legs of the bees.
The object of these is to clear supers of bees previous to taking the honey. There are several of them in use, but the principle of most is the same. Clutton's bee-trap resembles one of the common round-holed mouse-traps, but the bees have to pass out instead of in. Over the little circular hole a pin is hung perpendicularly, and permitted by wire staples to open far enough to allow the escape of the bee, after which it falls back and denies readmission. The super having been removed from the hive and inverted, the trap may be fitted into one of the sides of a box, which, without its lid, is then inverted upon the super, every opening being closed which could admit a bee from outside. The super is then darkened, when the bees within will make for the light through the trap. Mr. Cheshire and Mr. Aston have also invented traps. Mr. Aston's has talc falls in place of pins.
If the increase of drones grows into an intolerable nuisance a trap may be applied for their partial extermination. Aston's drone-trap is an ingenious contrivance, though we recommend its use only under limitations. It consists of a box to affix to the hive entrance, with an opening from the inside, but no means of exit except through perforations which admit only the workers; the bees are attracted into it by the light, while their proper flight-hole is darkened by a ridge over which they can just make their way into the hive. The drones are thus left in the box to perish. The objections which we have to the trap are—first, that the surmounting of the ridge must surely prove an impediment to the work of the bees; secondly, that the ridge obstructs ventilation; and thirdly, that should the queen stray into the trap, she will, unless promptly discovered, soon share the same fate with the drones. But if the trap be applied only for an hour or so at the part of the day when the drones are leaving the hive in the greatest numbers, it may then perhaps sufficiently effect its purpose and be free from any serious drawback.
It has long been acknowledged that the best mode of feeding bees is through an opening at the top of the stock hive, as bees can thus take the food without coming abroad. Another important feature is the cleanliness with which liberal feeding can be accomplished; and few operations require more care than this does. If liquid sweet is left hanging about the hive it tempts robber bees, and when once the bees of an apiary have had a taste, there is no knowing where their depredations will stop. Even if no hives be completely destroyed, weakness from loss of numbers will be the portion of most, if not of all, the hives in the garden. The morals of our favourites are here a good deal at fault, for the stronger hives, when their inordinate passion is thus stirred up by the carelessness or want of knowledge of the bee-keeper, attack and prey upon the weaker ones. "To be forewarned is to be forearmed"—and "prevention is better than cure."