An ingenious little contrivance has been brought into use by continental bee-keepers, especially by Herr Kleine, a German pastor, to prevent the destruction alluded to. It consists of a small wire cage (in fact, a pipe cover), as represented in the annexed illustration, placed over a queen cell to protect it from the mother bee's animosity. It also serves to prevent the young queen, when hatched, from escaping; for she will have the same jealous feeling towards her sister princesses, should there be more in the hive. The bee-master may thus carefully remove and appropriate her.
Particular attention will have to be exercised to affix the cage into the comb by pressure, as far as the middle wall, but at no point must it touch the royal cell itself. As the cage will probably project so as to touch the adjoining comb, a little incision and removal of a portion may be necessary to allow space for it.
This covering need not be put over the cell until the egg is a little more than a week old. The animosity of the reigning queen does not generally manifest itself until the royal brood approaches maturity. These cells are unmolested on the tenth day, but on the eleventh day they may be found tenantless. Notwithstanding the apiarian's care and skill, many disappointments are frequently experienced in endeavouring to establish fertile young queens at the head of colonies.
Hives found to be queenless may be supplied either with matured queens or with queen cells. If the latter are sufficiently numerous, their introduction may easily be effected by exchanging a comb in each hive; if they have to be cut out and placed loosely in the new hive, a triangular piece of comb should then be removed with them, to be used as a block in preventing any pressure coming on them. A space must be cut out of the middle in the centre combs of the hive into which they are to be introduced. They must not be so loose as to be in danger of falling out, but if such seems likely a little melted wax should be applied with a feather. Special care must be exercised not to bruise the royal embryos, as a very slight pressure is likely to be fatal. It is important not to perform the operation till they are within three or four days of coming forth, which may be known to be the case from the brown look of the tops of the cells, the wax having been removed.
It is always easier to introduce royal brood into queenless hives than matured queens, because bees are reluctant to receive stranger queens, whilst they will tolerate one hatched in the hive, who will speedily depart to seek a drone. Bee-masters mostly use small hives for queen-rearing, as explained in the section on "Nucleus Hives" (page 197). It is not however indispensable to use other than the ordinary hives, and Mr. Langstroth gives the following as the very best mode of procedure. Place an empty hive on the top of a well-filled one, giving communication through crown and floor boards and turning their entrances opposite ways (one of his plans, by the bye, for procuring an artificial swarm). The young bees will many of them take to the upper hive—if not they must be enticed into it by food—and when there are sufficient of them, a brood comb with adhering bees must be inserted and the connection closed. After a few days this nucleus hive may be removed, a few steps at a time, and another, if desired, take its place and be raised in the same way. Queen-rearing operations must be confined to warm weather and when drones are abundant.
Royal cells are often built so close together that it is difficult to remove one without injuring another. As a remedy for this Dr. Dzierzon has made the important discovery that any convenient worker cell may be made to produce a queen by the removal to it of some of the royal jelly from an unsealed cell; by placing this on the inner margin of the cell selected, the bees will adopt and rear the larva as desired.
This is an operation that is continually being practised for the purpose of Italianising a colony, though there are other occasions for its adoption, as on the loss or the superannuation of the old queen. We will in the first place describe the mode of procedure with a frame hive.
Should the old queen be remaining in the hive, she has first to be removed. Having discovered her, by lifting out and examining the frames (see page 271), place a wineglass over her whilst on the comb, and, with a card passed very carefully underneath, she may, with a few of her subjects, be made a prisoner and easily removed. She should be preserved in a small box till the success of the new introduction is ascertained. Then, having enclosed the new queen, with such of her retinue if any as are with her, in the domed wire cage described at page 199, place this cage upon the comb in a spot where there is a little honey, so that she may be independent of the bees for food, and as near the brood as may be; press it into the comb as far as the middle, and close the hive and leave the bees undisturbed for three days—less will mostly suffice, but it is best to be on the safe side. The royal cells that are sure to have been commenced should now be cut away with a penknife, and then the new queen may be carefully released. If the hive is one that permits it, her reception should be watched. If the bees make way for her and caress her with their antennæ, all will be well, and the comb may be gently restored to its position and the hive shut up. But if they cluster in a ball around her, her death is intended; and if they cannot readily be induced to separate they should be taken out and dropped into lukewarm water (which will hurt none of them), and the queen re-encaged for another day or so—that is, if she has not already met her doom, which is all uncertain: Mr. Langstroth says he has had several queens stung to death before they had quitted his fingers! We prefer effecting her release, then shutting up the hive and leaving the bees quietly to themselves.
We may remark here with regard to these acts of surrounding a new queen, that they evidently arise from a great number rushing upon her at once for the purpose of stinging her, but that very frequently such purpose is frustrated by the immovable position in which the inner bees are held. Suffocation however will soon effect the same end if the ball be not dispersed. There are cases, on the contrary, in which friendly bees surround a queen to protect her from others, and sometimes the knot is made up of members of both parties, perhaps without enclosing the queen at all. The hissing note will at once distinguish a hostile onset from a protecting rally.
With the Renfrewshire cage (page 199 as above) all the variation needed is to place the cage between instead of within the combs, so as to permit of the queen's release at the bottom. The inventor considers that this gives an advantage in introducing her majesty in the first place to those bees that have been engaged in feeding her; but, as already noticed, it is not the feeding, but the familiarising with her presence, which is the great point, and that is surely quite as well accomplished with the other cage as this. There is also here no opportunity, as in the other case, of being certain whether she is well received or not, so that we always put a good-sized board under the entrance, and examine the next day whether she has been thrown out dead or not.
In effecting the exchange with cottage hives, the bees must first be driven out into another hive (as described at page 226), and after the old queen is removed they must be sprinkled with a little water flavoured with a drop of extract of peppermint (to be obtained of any chemist), which overcomes the particular hive-scent, and makes all smell alike; then throw the new queen in among them and place the mass of them back in the hive. If preferred, an eke (page 186) may be placed on the stand, the bees precipitated into it, and the hive of combs placed above, when the bees will ascend. If this is done in the evening the queen will in most cases be well received. As there is no opportunity of excising queen cells, the process should be performed, say, in the middle of October, when breeding has ceased. Stupefying the bees with fungus is a method devised by Huber as applicable in any kind of hive, and it has been highly approved of and declared to be infallible.
A strange queen is generally well received by young bees, whether she be Italian or English—for we have never found the slightest difference in reception, though Mr. Wagner (Langstroth's "Honey Bee," page 325) was of opinion that there is more opposition in the case of the foreigner. The difficulty is to have a sufficient number of such young bees. In the middle of a hot summer's day a stock may be divided and the part with the old queen left in its former position, while the other part, with as many brood combs as it is prudent to take, may be removed a few yards off. The old bees that have been brought with the latter will in three or four hours have most of them returned to their former abode, and the new queen may then with safety be given to the remainder without caging, taking care to introduce her to the young bees on the combs. This task must only be attempted on a warm midsummer day and when the night temperature need not be feared for the young brood in its deserted condition. Stocks may be divided and artificial swarms formed in this way--from the end of May to the beginning of July—if the apiarian has queens in readiness.
It requires a considerable amount of apiarian skill to accomplish the union of Italian with common bees, so that we find by experience it is best to send out complete stocks or swarms of the former. This is particularly desirable now that the packing of whole hives is so easily accomplished by us with the aid of bars and frames. We have sent a great number of stocks to all parts by rail. Still, as the introduction of fertile Italian queens is a frequent practice, and we are ourselves large importers of the same, it is only right to add some directions as to the course to be pursued where such union is resolved upon. These queens come over during the summer months, from May to October. They are packed in wooden boxes about five inches square, with a comb of sealed honey in a frame in the centre to feed the queen and the few workers that accompany her on the journey. The old queen should first be removed from the hive, but carefully preserved till it is ascertained whether all goes well with the stranger. The box containing the latter must now be prised open, and this should be done within doors, lest the queen should fly and be lost. On discovering her she must be placed in a queen-cage and gradually introduced to her new subjects in the manner explained under that article (pages 198 and 247).
If this is successfully accomplished all is right so far; but unless considerable pains be taken the off-coming swarms will certainly produce mongrel bees. If none of the neighbouring residents are bee-keepers, the risk may be considerably narrowed by destroying the drones and drone comb in the other hives and rearing Italian queens to place at the head of each of these as speedily as possible. Every one of these queens, even if impregnated from an undesired source, will still produce drones as purely Italian as herself (see page 64), and thus in another year the chance of Italian mates being found for the queens will be further increased: indeed the peculiarity of Italian queens in laying drone eggs in there first year will probably produce this result more speedily. But should some hybrids be the result, as in all probability will be the case, even these are much to be preferred to the common black bee—some say (see page 53) that they are even better than pure Italians for honey-gathering, but they are more irascible.
This course is undoubtedly in opposition to the design of Nature to avoid interbreeding, but we find even Mr. Hunter recommending it, though showing in another place that he perceives it to be a violation of his "law." By commencing with two Italian queens there might be more chance given of escape from the evil—if it really is an evil when not several times repeated. Von Berlepsch, however, informs us of the following method, devised by Dathe and others, by which even this objection may be avoided:—
"When the young queen has left the cell, she is transferred after forty-eight hours, or even earlier, into a cellar or some other dark and cool place. If the drones, by one of which the impregnation is to be accomplished, are not among the colony of the queen, they also must of course be inserted. We now wait for a sunny day free from wind, when the thermometer in the shade is at least 17° above zero [70° Fahr.]; the bees in question, towards five in the afternoon, when drones have completely ceased from flight, are fetched out of their prison, and set up in any spot, if possible where isolated and with the flight-hole exposed to the sun; then, by means of a small syringe or in any other way, direct some liquid honey into the flight-hole. In a minute or two the bees will sport in numbers in the front, and it will not be long before the queen and drones also fly out. At evening the colony is brought back into custody, and the manœuvre is repeated till the young queen has commenced laying, or till her accomplished fructification is made sure by expansion of the abdomen, or, upon return from a flight, by having the more or less torn-off drone penis upon her extremity." Some essential particulars are not here specified, but we interpret the instructions to refer to a nucleus hive in which the queen is hatched with several workers, but with no drones present except those specially introduced. By choosing these, also from their birth, from the progeny of a different queen from the mother of the one in the nucleus, all may apparently be made as straightforward as could be desired. Even Von Berlepsch, who is no friend to the Italians, praises this method as a "beautiful discovery:" it dates only from 1867.
It may not unnaturally be asked by some, Why all this trouble about frame hives? No one, however, who has carefully read the previous sections of this chapter, and especially those on "Artificial Swarming" and "Queen-Rearing," can require any further answer to such question. Briefly, frame hives stand immeasurably above others from the full command over the bees which they afford. The facility of inspection for ascertaining the strength of the colony or the stock of its honey, or for incidental purposes, such as the detection of disease and the extirpation of enemies such as the bee-moth, and again the facilities provided for giving ventilation or for contracting the dimensions to suit a small population, are among the minor but still great advantages which the use of these hives secures. In skilful hands these advantages may be used successfully; though in the hands of the unpractised and unskilful the contrary may be the result.
It is a great desideratum that all the bars and frames in an apiary should be of precisely the same dimensions, so as to fit every hive. A hive that is weakly may often be advantageously strengthened by having put into it a comb of brood from a populous stock, to which an empty frame from the weak one may be given; no bees must be on the brood-comb—these should be shaken off or gently dislodged with a feather into the hive from which the comb is taken. The frames of combs should then be, one by one, placed so as to fill in the vacancy, leaving, the empty frame nearest the side.
In the British Bee Journal of March 1875, Mr. Cowan gives the following excellent description of his system of working frame hives. He says: "The method is very simple, but is one that requires much attention, which is, however, well repaid by the extra quantity of honey obtained. The hives I use are the ten-frame Woodbury, and thirteen-frame on the Woodbury plan, only longer. In the autumn I transfer the bees into clean hives and leave them seven or eight frames, and should they be short of food or of bees I add those I may take from the cottagers in the neighbourhood. I feed with sugar and water of the strength of two pounds of sugar to a pint of water boiled a few minutes. They are fed up to a weight of thirty pounds. During winter they have ample ventilation—the hives being raised about one-eighth of an inch from the floor-board, and the top board is also raised about the same height, so that there is a constant current of air through the hive. While I am on the subject of wintering I may mention that I have tried several plans. With the above I have always been free from mouldy combs. I have also tried wintering without crown-boards, by merely placing an empty super on the top, and I have done so successfully—in fact, the hive which produced the largest quantity of honey last year was wintered in this way. Condensers I have tried, but give the preference to crown-boards without them. I am trying the quilts on some of my hives, but must reserve my opinion about them until later on.
"I generally supply my bees with plenty of food in the autumn, so that they require no further attention until about the end of February, when, if the weather is fine, the bees are all thoroughly roused into activity and induced to commence and continue breeding until the honey-gathering season commences, by which time every frame in the hive is filled with brood, and the hives are so strong that it is easy to make an artificial swarm and to ensure a good supply of honey besides. If the weather is fine, about the end of February (or if cold, then I defer a little longer) the bees are transferred into clean hives; and in this way I get to know the exact state of the community. Now suppose it is a ten-frame Woodbury hive. I do not return the whole of the eight frames which the bees had for wintering on, but only from five to six of the centre ones, and contract the size of the hive to the six frames. I then unseal the honey-cells of two of the frames, and allow the honey to run down inside the hive. This thoroughly rouses the bees; and the queen at once begins to lay. The running honey is very soon collected and stored; and in a few days I do the same with a couple more frames, and so on until all the frames have been unsealed. I find this a great advantage, as much of the honey that has granulated, and which the bees will not touch, is removed by them out of the hive, and gives them increased space.
"I now commence very gentle feeding, for which purpose I use the very fine strainers found in Loysell's coffee-percolators, and allow each hive from a quarter to half a pint of food a day, of the strength of about three pounds of sugar to a quart of water. When there is sealed brood in three or four of the frames I add two more—making eight—and serve them in the same manner as the rest; then when there are six with sealed brood, the colony will be sufficiently strong to have the remaining frames added. The same plan is adopted with the thirteen-frame hive. They must be constantly watched so as not to allow them to store too much food, which would diminish the space for egg-laying; and if such is found to be the case, food should be withheld for a day or two, or until they are getting short of it. In this way I keep them going from day to day; watch them carefully, or it might happen that a hive full of bees—and at swarming point—might, if not watched and supplied with requisite food for existence, swarm or decamp. So by the time there is an abundance of honey abroad the hives are completely filled with bees and contain brood in every frame hive; and then it is that I put on my supers and discontinue stimulative feeding.
"In the place of the crown-board I place a sheet of five-thirty-second perforated zinc, and supers same size as hive and five inches deep. The supers are provided with bars which are sawn down the centre, enabling me to fix a strip of impressed wax sheet without any difficulty. The bees generally take to these supers at once; and in a day or two the crown-board of super is removed, and I place a second super without top board between the first one and stock hive. The supers are also provided with traps [page 201] to enable bees to leave after they have deposited their load, instead of passing through the stock hive. Now it sometimes happens that for some days the weather is fine and the bees begin storing a large quantity of honey in the supers (as they have no room in the stock hive), when suddenly the weather changes and cold sets in. As soon as this happens I remove the supers and watch the bees, and if they require small quantities of food I give it them, and when the fine weather returns they go again into the supers when replaced on top. In this way it sometimes takes only a week to fill a thirty-eight or forty pound super with some of the best honey that can be obtained in this part of the country [Horsham]. I discard old queens and generally select young and prolific egg-layers."
Agreeing as we do very much with the hints Mr. Cowan gives, we commend them to the careful carrying out of intelligent and painstaking apiarians.
A very great advantage that frame hives afford is the safety and convenience with which a stock of bees can be transported in them to any part of the kingdom or abroad: by a few additional arrangements stocks have even been sent in them to distant countries. In many districts hives are removed to moors and heaths in autumn, for the purpose of gathering heather honey. In this operation the frames are a great support to the combs, very much lessening the risk of a break-down and consequent loss.
The proper course to pursue in this case is to remove the crown-board, and nail across from side to side two strips of wood with smaller pieces fastened on them so as to secure each frame in position. Then nail a sheet of perforated zinc over the top; or in default of that the crown-board may be screwed down, when, if the two strips are not over an eighth Of an inch in thickness, they will secure ventilation without allowing the bees to escape. The combs must be scrupulously carried lengthways, or they will break; and if they are new and the weather is warm, even with that precaution any but the most careful hand carriage is nearly certain to ruin them. If not going far it is best for the hive to be borne between two; but if this is impracticable the vehicle used must at any rate have springs.
It is most urgent in making such a transfer that the most ample ventilation should be allowed. The bees are of course gorged at the time, and in that condition they are most particularly in need of air; while on the other hand the fact of their imprisonment, together with the shaking attendant on carriage, irritates them and causes them to make such a commotion, that without stringent precautions they would very probably be stifled, and of course the finer the colony the greater is the danger.
With an ordinary skep this supply of air cannot be ensured at the top, so that it becomes necessary, if the journey is to last longer than an hour or two, to invert the hive. This must be done with great caution and always in the direction in which the combs run. A sheet of perforated zinc on a board, or a piece of coarse canvas or cheese-cloth, may then be nailed or otherwise fastened with string over the base, thus taking the place of the floor-board, and it is needless to say that this should be done in such a manner that not a single bee can escape. If the journey is likely to be one of more than a few hours it will not do to employ any soft material, as it would in that time be gnawed through; but wire-cloth would answer as well as perforated zinc.
As a preliminary to any remove, smoke should be blown in at the entrance repeatedly during half an hour, after which it may be judged that all on the wing will have returned. For carrying a swarm, either a skep or box or anything will serve, and it must be secured and carried mouth upwards in the same way.
We have spoken above (page 187) of the great value of sheets or strips of wax for assisting the bees in the building of their combs. But when, through another hive having lost its bees at an early stage, the combs themselves can be supplied them in good and clean condition, the advantage is very much greater. Such combs may be fixed in frame hives exactly in the same plan as is adopted on transferring full honeycomb (page 224).
Generally speaking the bee-keeper may be satisfied if he can simply insert pure white guide-comb with which to start the bees. Every bar, or if the comb is not plentiful, every other bar, should have a piece fixed to it in the following manner: Cut a piece of clean empty comb of the required size, say two inches square, not less; heat a common flat iron, with which slightly warm the bar; then melt a little bees'-wax upon it; draw the comb quickly over the heated iron, hold it down on the centre of the bar, giving a very slight movement backwards and forwards; then leave the wax to grow cold, and, if cleverly managed, the guide will be found firmly attached. Care must be taken that the pitch or inclination of the comb is the same as it is in the hives—upwards from the centre of each comb.
When a hive has been in use many years the combs become very black, and every bee that is bred in a cell leaves a film behind. It may be understood how in this way the cells become contracted, and the bees that are bred in them correspondingly reduced in size. After the lapse of, say, five years it may be necessary to begin removing the old combs. This may be done by cutting away the combs, or by substituting an empty frame for one with old black comb, gradually moving the frames towards each other. By taking two away in this manner in the spring or summer of every season, the combs in course of five years may all be reconstructed, and fresh clean ones be secured for breeding in, instead of the old black ones that otherwise would remain as long as the stock could live in the hive.
Guide-combs can also be used with glasses. These may be filled, with great regularity, by adopting the following directions, which, we believe, have never before appeared in print:—
Procure a piece of clean, new, empty, worker honeycomb, which has not had honey in it (because honey will prevent adhesion to the glass); cut it into pieces of about three-quarters of an inch square. Gently warm the exterior of the glass (this we find is best done by holding the glass horizontally for a short time over the flame of a candle); then apply one of the pieces of empty comb inside at the part warmed, taking care, in fixing it, that the pitch or inclination of the cells is upwards—in fact, place the guide-comb in the same relative position that it occupied in the hive or glass from which it was taken. There is some danger of making the glass too warm, which will cause the wax to melt and run down the side, leaving an unsightly appearance on the glass; but a little experience will enable the operator to determine the degree of warmth sufficient to make the comb adhere without any of it being melted. It is hardly necessary to state that only the very whitest combs ought to be used. A short time should be allowed before changing the position of the glass, so that it may cool sufficiently to hold the comb in its place. Six or eight pieces may thus be fixed, so that, when the glass is filled, it will present a star shape, all the combs radiating from the centre. The annexed illustration shows the appearance of a glass as worked by the bees, in which guide-combs were fixed in the manner described above. The drawing was taken from a glass of our own, filled after being thus furnished. In the Old Museum at the Royal Gardens, Kew, may be seen a Taylor's glass, presented by us, some of the combs in which are elongated on the outside to the breadth of six inches.
We believe that not only does a glass present a much handsomer appearance when thus worked—and will, on that account, most fully reward the trouble of fixing guide-comb—but that more honey is stored in the same space and in less time than if the glass be merely placed on the hive in a naked condition for the bees to follow their own course. This mode of fixing guide-comb does not solely apply to the above-shaped glass, but is equally useful for all kinds of glasses. It is introduced in connection with this glass because, from its having a flat top and no knob, the regularity is more clearly apparent.
The working of bees in the bell glasses illustrates how tractable their disposition really is if only scope is allowed for the due exercise of their natural instinct. They have no secrets in their economy, and they do not shrink from our constant observation as they daily pursue their simple policy of continuous thrift and persevering accumulation. Yet it is only owing to the labours of successive inventors that we are now enabled to watch "the very pulse of the machine" of the bee commonwealth.
Murphy's Vanière.
Supposing the hive to be a stock (page 81), the super should be applied at the early part of the season, say, if fine and warm, at the latter end of April or beginning of May; but if the weather is then unfavourable it is better to delay doing so until a more genial temperature. If the colony is a swarm of the present year, two or three weeks should be allowed to elapse from the time of tenanting a hive before putting on the super; this delay is necessary to give the bees the opportunity of building combs in their new domicile, and of getting a store of honey for themselves before working for their master. The exact time[28] will, however, depend much upon the weather, and the same applies to the subsequent time occupied by the bees in filling the super. They will be the more incited to commence their work, and having commenced to continue it, if some warm covering is placed over the glass; at night, when much comb-building goes on, it is important to wrap it in flannel or worsted, or some warm material (a baize bag is convenient for bell glasses). A further inducement will be offered by the fixing of a piece of comb to the bars or ventilating tube, as the case may be. The cells on the outside or by the window are always the last to be filled, so that when these are sealed over it is safe to conclude that the rest are also complete.
[28] There is the nick of time before bees make their internal arrangements for swarming, but the difficulty is to know precisely when this is.
When it is wished to use a super with a frame hive, the crown-board or roof of the stock hive must be taken away, the thin adapting or honey board, or perforated zinc adapter, taking its place—excepting of course where the crown-board is provided with openings for the purpose. The two long slits at the sides are to give admission to the super. The bees will begin sooner, and work faster, if the bars are each furnished with guide-comb (as described in the previous section). Combs that have been left unfilled may be fixed to the bars, but these must be white and clean, as dark comb should not be used for super hives.
The operation of taking honey is best performed on a fine sunny day. The combs may be extracted singly, if wished, for consumption, substituting an empty bar or comb; or, should the bee-keeper desire to see a handsome super, he must wait until the bees have filled and sealed up all the combs, and then he may proceed to disconnect the super. If a bell glass, he will first pass a table-knife round it underneath the rim; then with a piece of string or fine wire, one end in each hand, he will very slowly sever the remaining connection with the board, so as to allow of the bees getting out of the way. Wait an hour or so for the commotion to subside and to give the bees time to repair broken cells and suck up spilt honey. Then raise the glass and blow in a little smoke, after which the slide that closes the roof of the hive may be inserted, and above it another piece of zinc that will cover the base of the super and hold the bees in it close prisoners. After having confined them in the glass for a short time you must see whether they manifest symptoms of uneasiness, because, if they do not, it may be concluded that the queen is among them. In such a case, replace the glass, and recommence the operation on a future day. It is not often that her majesty is in the depriving-hive or glass; but, this circumstance does sometimes happen, and the removal at such a time must be avoided. When the bees that are prisoners run about in great confusion and restlessness, the operator may conclude that the queen is absent, and that all is right. The glass may be taken away a little distance off, and placed in a flower-pot or other receptacle, where it will be safe when inverted and the tin taken away; the bees will then be glad to make their escape back to their hive. A little tapping at the sides of the glass will render their tarriance uncomfortable, and the glass may then be taken into a darkened room or outhouse, with only a small aperture admitting light, which must be open; the bees, like all insects, make towards the light, and so escape (see description of "Bee-Traps," Chap. IV. § xviii.). The bee-master should brush them off with a feather from the comb as they can be reached; but on no account should the glass or other super be left exposed and unwatched, because the bees that have the opportunity will gorge themselves to their full, and speedily bring a host of others from the adjacent hives, who, in a very little time, would leave only the empty combs. It is truly marvellous how soon they will carry all the store back again, if allowed to do so. Unless the honey season is over, an empty glass should be put on to the hive in place of the full one, as it will attract the bees up, thereby preventing the too close crowding of the hive, and starting them to work more honeycomb.
If a bar or frame super, the first process is with a spatula to loosen the adapting-board from the stock hive after which the string is passed between them as above, putting in wedges on each side to follow the string. The smoking and expulsion of the bees follow as before. Another super will take the place of the one removed, or else the crown-board must be replaced.
Some apiarians, however, are of opinion that deprivation is more easily accomplished by disconnecting the super over night. In this case, after smoking the bees, wedge the super up all round about an inch from the board. Do this just before dusk, and leave it so for the night. The opening in the board remains unclosed, to allow of the bees joining the stock hive below, which they will naturally do for warmth. The super should receive its usual cover, and quite early in the morning, before the bees are much about, it will be ready for removal. The few bees that remain within may be speedily induced to quit. With a super that has an opening at the top it will be worth while to insert the nozzle of a pair of bellows, when a few puffs will be very efficacious in driving the occupants out.
It is well for a beginner to practise the directions for opening and shutting up hives, by using an empty hive until he becomes familiar with the handling of the frames. The first thing to do is to loosen the crown-board, or lid, with a knife, drawing a piece of string underneath it, to divide the wax or cement with which the bees make all secure. All this should be done very slowly, so as not to irritate the bees. In hot weather the crown-board may be loosened by a lateral movement; but sometimes, for want of care, this loosening of the lid disturbs the bees, and, as soon as it is removed, a number of them, enraged thereby, rush out and attack the operator. Especial care should be taken not to prise the lid upwards, by way of wrenching it off, for the frames and combs are generally secured thereto, and there is a liability of rending the combs with it; this will greatly irritate the bees, and be otherwise injurious. When a hive of bees is really enraged there is little chance of pacifying them; if the first tokens of anger cannot be appeased it is best to "give in" at once, and not attempt to perform any operation, but to shut the hive up and beat a retreat, benefiting by the experience in order to do better a day or so afterwards. There are various devices for intimidating or conciliating the bees, and one of these, already spoken of, is smoke. So next time the experimenter makes his attempt let him raise the lid an inch or so, and blow a few puffs of smoke into the hive, which will cause the bees to retreat. Previous to this he may give a puff or two at the entrance, which will help to produce the quieting effect. This is best done by using our tube fumigator, with a little of the prepared fungus lighted. Pipes or cigars are not convenient to use for this purpose when the head is enveloped in the dress. As soon as the lid is removed a few bees will fly out to learn the cause of such an interference. Conciliation should then be offered by having at hand a little sweetened water, which may be sprinkled, or rather let drop, from a feather or a brush.[29] The sudden motion of the hand required in the act of sprinkling irritates the bees, so that, instead of making them our friends, they may become our foes. Mr. Langstroth recommends that a fine watering-pot, containing sweetened water, be used for the purpose. Care must be taken not to drench the bees; only just sufficient should be given to run down the sides of the combs, as well as sprinkle the top. As soon as the insects really understand that syrup is being given them, they feast upon it, instead of angrily attacking the operator. Thus pacified, and with gentle treatment, but little difficulty will be found in proceeding with the work required. But the unskilled operator should on no account neglect to put on a bee dress and gloves, as described above. We would err on the side of caution, although there is an old saying that "a cat in gloves catches no mice;" and the apiarian will find that his fingers are not so free to work as he would like, for gloves make them rather clumsy in drawing up the frames.
[29] An objection to, this is that robber bees are liable to be attracted from surrounding hives.
These must now be gently prised up from front to rear; this may be done with a small screw-driver or other stout instrument with a wedged end to go into the notches. They fit loosely so as to permit of a slight movement from back to front; a lateral or sideway movement might kill the queen, or, if not so fatal as that, might crush some of the bees and injure the brood combs, which must be carefully avoided. Of course much depends upon the nature of the operation that has to be performed, whether or no all the frames should be thus loosened. If it be for making artificial swarms, or for any purpose that requires an interview with her majesty, the whole of them must be loosened, because it may happen that all the combs have to be examined, sometimes twice over, before she can be discovered. Bees are very apt to build their combs in a slightly waving form, and in extracting one it will be needful to make room both for the comb and bees upon it to pass without scraping the next comb, and there will be a difficulty if the apiarian attempts to draw out one comb whilst the other frames are located in their appropriate places. Where a dummy frame is provided the operation becomes simple; but if there is none, let the operator gently proceed to lift, say, the third frame slightly nearer to the fourth frame (allowing it to lodge on the little block that divides the notches),[30] and the second nearer the third, so as to admit of sufficient space to lift out the end one. Very carefully and slowly he should lift the frame by taking hold, with thumb and finger, of the projecting shoulders that rest in the notch; and he must not let it touch or scrape the next frame or the sides of the hive, so as to crush, or irritate any bees.
[30] Many hives are now made without notches, so that it is necessary only to slide the frames.
After the end comb is thus removed it will be easy to extract the others, as there will now be plenty of room for drawing them out. If the bar-frame holder (page 192) is not at hand an empty hive of the same size will serve; and care should be taken that each comb occupies the same relative position that it did in the hive so that the same order may be afterwards retained when they are replaced.
In handling the frames it should be borne in mind that they are to be held perpendicularly. To gain a view of both sides of the comb when searching for the queen, or for any purpose requiring full inspection, the reverse side may, with a little dexterity in twirling the frame round, be brought to face the operator, without letting the comb break away by its own weight and so fall out of the frame, which it may do if allowed to deviate from its upright or downright position. If the beginner could see an experienced person perform the operation he would quickly understand how combs may thus be handled without any risk of a smash.
The bee-keeper should be on his guard not to tempt the avarice of bees by exposing honey, either in the comb or liquid, and also to be very tardy of opening frame hives in the spring or autumn. If needful to do so, soon after sunrise is the safest, because there will be few bees about, and the hive should be taken, if convenient, to a quiet corner of the garden, many yards away from the other hives, and what is requisite done speedily, so as not to expose the honey to the scent of a host of robbers, who will most unceremoniously pillage and cause a terrible commotion.
When replacing frames in the hive, care must be taken not to crush a bee, and on no account must the frame be let down with a jerk, or the insects will become exceedingly fierce; it should be so slowly deposited in its place that a bee on feeling the slightest pressure may be able to escape unhurt. The crown-board should be replaced by first resting its front edge along the back, and then sliding it forward, so that any bee upon it is pushed away instead of being crushed. Should the hive have its super on, the same directions may be followed. The super with its honey-board may be bodily taken away, and so placed and confined for a time that robber bees cannot find an entrance, and also be far enough from the apiarian to be out of danger of being broken or overturned by him.
It will be sometimes found, in cases in which the bees have not had sufficient storage-room, that they have carried their building operations outside and above the frames, or across from comb to comb. Such cells must be severed and the materials melted down for wax. There are also cases in which fine white combs of honey can be taken from the end frames of the stock hive; but probably not more than one comb could be removed in a season without impoverishing the bees.
Those of our readers who prefer eating "run honey" to honey in the comb may be glad of some instruction as to the best method of separating the two. Beyond all question they will find this in the use of the honey-extractor (page 193), but in default of such, and for extracting honey from combs made in supers, the following should be the course pursued:—
Take a sharp knife, and slice the combs on both sides, keeping the knife parallel with the partition wall, so that every cell may be laid open. Place these broken combs in a sieve, or on a piece of muslin stretched across and tied round the opening of a pan or large-mouthed jar. Allow the honey to flow out of the combs spontaneously, and reserve the squeezing process for a separate jar, so that the honey of the first-drained jar may be perfectly pure, both in appearance and flavour. That which has pressure put on it will be waxy in flavour and thick. Some persons recommend that the opened combs be placed in the sun, as the heat will cause the honey to run more freely. The great disadvantage of this is the temptation the honey offers to bees, who will be eager to gain a share. Honey, whilst in the combs, keeps remarkably well when left in the supers; if cut out, the combs should be folded in writing paper, and sealed up, so as to effectually prevent the free entrance of air; they should then be placed in a warm dry closet.
Comb for which there is no use as such should be melted down into cake wax. Brood comb which has undergone its five years or so of service will probably not repay the trouble, and should therefore be thrown away. But if in good condition it should be put into a clean saucepan with plenty of soft water, and gently boiled or simmered over a clear fire till it is melted, when, the wax will rise to the top. It must then be run through a strainer (never mind a little water going with it) into a stoneware or earthen pan, the sides of which have beep greased to prevent adhesion. The refuse is then collected in a coarse bag and boiled again, a flat iron or other heavy weight being placed upon it to hold it down, and a plate or other false bottom beneath it to prevent its burning. By working this about with a rod or ladle a quantity more of wax will be brought out from it, and more still by applying to the bag a wet rolling-pin upon a board also wet; the additional wax thus obtained may be added to the other, and the whole boiled again with a very little clean water and over a slow fire. Skim off the dross as fast as it appears, and then pour the whole again into the greased pan, and, after letting it cool slowly, scrape off the settlings. The above is in the main Mr. Cheshire's method. Another is that of Mr. Payne, who would pour the original boil into a canvas bag of about a quart, which should be laid on an inclined board in a tub, with cold water in it below the reach of the bag; then, applying the roller, the wax is all expressed at one process, and may be collected on the water and boiled again as before. The operation must be carried on where the bees will not be able to get admittance, or the odour will bring them in great numbers.
Virgin comb, being free from cocoons or other rubbish, will not require the squeezing process, but may simply be melted into the pan, gradually cooled, and melted again. If the cooling is artificially delayed the wax will be all the clearer. If bleaching is desired, melt it again and pour it out so as to form thin streams or plates, and then lay these for a few days in the sun; take care however that they are not melted.
One of the most effectual modes of ascertaining the condition of a hive is by weighing it. Such knowledge is most important at the close of the gathering season, in order that the bee-keeper may determine whether he ought to give his bees artificial food to enable them to live through the dreary winter. A knowledge of the numerical strength of the colony is also useful in enabling the bee-keeper to decide which hives will be benefited by being joined together, on the method explained in the article on "Uniting Hives."