HINTS ON THE MANAGEMENT OF BEES. By the Rev. W. C. Cotton, M.A. [Continued from no. 260.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 264, 9 February 1848, Page 3

HINTS ON THE MANAGEMENT OF BEES. By the Rev. W. C. Cotton, M.A. [Continued from no. 260.]

If ycu find that the box which you remove from the stock has some brood in it, cut out the combs till you come to those which are thus filled, and then return the box to its own place. I never return drone comb, which you may know by the cells being of a larger size, for there is no lack of these non-producers, but terrible consumers, in every large apiary during the breeding season, but keep them to feed up young chickens or turkeys who relish them highly. Returning a box with some brood comb in it to its own position bas this good effect, — that it induces the Bees to take immediate possession of the box so returned. They cluster upon the brood comb and straightway proceed to fill the vacant space with honey comb. Even if there is no brood to return I generally tempt the Bees to reenter the top box by placing in it a piece of honey comb. And here is the great advantage of having all your box^s made to the same gage, the bars will then fit all youi hives indifferently, and you may transfer one with a piece of comb attached to it from a full hive to an empty box which you wish the Bees to occupy. After the breeding season is over, that is about the end of February or March, the Bees will fill the empty brood comb with honey, and when the cells are all sealed over will often almost entirely desert the richly stored box, which may then be taken with very little trouble. During the breeding season, the loss of the Queen should any accident happen to her during the operation is easily supplied. There will generally be young Queen grubs ready to take her place, or if there happens to be none in the hive the common egg may have its prospects in life changed from that of a maid of all work to a reigning Queen. After the breeding season of course this cannot be done, and the

I loss of the Queen is necessarily followed by the gradual extinction of the whole hive. The season of the year at which the greatest quantity of honey may be taken will vary of course in the different parts of these islaDds, as they extend over so many degrees of latitude. In the northern districts they work during the entire winter, (though in the English sense this is not an appropriate word.) The Queen rests from her maternal toils, though the workers make no pause in their honey gathering ; so the very purest honey may be taken during the winter months. In the latitude of Auckland the work of a hive is suspended for a month or so, varying of course with the season ; whilst in the south I think their state of torpor will be found to extend over a longer period, and the habits of the Bee will differ less from those of their English brethren. Experience, therefore, must teach Bee-masters what season is the best for a great take of honey. By means of bell glasses, or in lack of them.small straw caps, pure honey maybe got in the height of the breeding season. Put your glass on the top of your box the very day the swarm is put into it, and if it be a strong one, they will immediately take possession of the glass, store up honey there, while the Queen will confine her breeding operations to the box below. It is a very good plan to fix a bit or two of pure comb in the lower part of the glass, as a foundation or beginning for them. This may be done by holding the glass to the fire till it becomes as hot as the hand can bear, then steadily yet firmly press a piece of pure comb to it, which will melt where it touches the glass, and setting again almost immediately will firmly fix the whole comb in its place. Take care not to put the comb topsy turvy, but in its natural position, as it stood in the hive where it was made. The cells of a comb w hich is built expressly to receive honey are often not perfectly horizontal, but a little higher at the mouth. The instinct of the Bees leads them to construct them in this way that the honey if thin in quality may have no inclination to run out. Now if the piece of comb be fixed upside-down in the glass, the Bees will immediately perceive that it is man's clumsy work, and not their own. It is like holding a quart bottle with its neck downwards arid telling your servant to fill it whilst in that position. These decoy-combs, so to call them, should be flush with the lower rim of the glass, so that when it is standing on the inch bars they may come close to where the Bees are clustering. The Bees seem to know the proverb — " Well begun, is half done," or to have some equivalent to it in their Bee notions ; they seem to think it wrong to leave unfinished a work which they perhaps think they have begun in the glass ; arid so these decoy-combs often tempt the Bees up into a glass, which otherwise they would have been loth to work in. The following is a remarkable instance of the power of the Bees over the material in which they work. I fixed a piece of new comb in a glass at right angles with the surface ; I mean so that the comb stuck out from the glass towards the centre ; it was put on a fine young swarm, and the Bees took possession of the glass directly ; the folbwing morning I noticed that the comb was not in the same position, it no longer pointed to the middle of the glass, hut inclined toward one side ; at first I thonght I must have been mistaken as to its former position, but the next day I was convinced that my memory had not played me false; the Bees were actually shifting the position of the comb, for they went on day after day slueing it round till at last the surface of the comb. was brought within a quarter of an inch of the surface of the glass. What mechanical meaus they iwtd I never could discover. How they got purchase enough to haul the comb round, having only the slippery glass to stand upon ; whether they nibbled away the comb on the side towards which it was bent, whilst they proportionately added to it on the other, moulding it as a modeller does his clay ; all these are wonders which are beyond me. I should hardly have dared to have recorded this on a single operation, but I have several times repeated it. Take JLhe glass off directly it is full and all sealed over. The Bees always swarm with their honey-bags full as I told you before, and they often take the greatest part of the honey from a bell-glass, as provision for their journey, leaving nothing but empty combs where the day before there was plenty of honey. I like the bell-glass to stand as I have said, on the bars themselves, and not on the lid, with small holes cut in it, which is the common way of putting them in, for the Bees have a freer passage to the glass. The manner of taking them when full is very simple ; I have one of the rims which run round the top board pinned to it and not nailed ; this is removed when a glass is to be taken, and a thin carving knite passed under the top to separate the comb and the glass from the bars, to which they are generally firmly united. In no other way is it possible to take away a full glass, without certainly breaking

the comb and possibly the glass itself. The Bees which happen to be in the glass at the time it is taken are easily got out of it by the means recommended for the top boxes. N.B. Have the hole in thetop board cut so large that the glass may pass freely thiough, or else the contraction of the wood, and consequent narrowing of the hole will split the glass. Glass is now so cheap as to be within the reach of almost every Bee-master. A barrill containing twelve — one large sizf, five holding about 15lbs. of honey when full, and six of a smaller size, can be supplied by William Powell, from the Glass Works, Whitefriars, London, for under £2. They are so carefully packed in an oaken barrel, that I have lately received two sets without a single breakage. iioney may be easily taken f»om the Sicilian hives, which is a very good form of the straw hive, by blowing some smoke in at the doorway; and when the Bees are driven into the back part of the hive, single combs may be cut out till you reach the broad comb, or later in the season a complete section may be removed. The Ruche a lair libre will yield its supply much in the same way. Blow a few puffs of smoke in the doorway, take down the shutters, and, after driving the Bees away by smoke from the part where you intend to commence your operations, cut out comb after comb. It is impossible to sate how much honey may be taken from a well-stocked Apiary in the course of the year, for it will depend so much upon the situation and the number of Bee-masters who happen to be near together. A country may be overstocked with Bees just as a paddork may be overstocked with cattle, and the practical Bee-master must determine for himself what is the greatest number of hives he can keep with profit. Where a number of Bee-masters are living in the same village or district, and each wishes to have a very large stock, it is possible for none of them to get a single ounce of honey, their Bees being unable to do more than just rear their young, which is their first instinct, without laying by any surplus, which is their second. So in mauy countries, therefore, immemorial custom has been called in to regulate the number of stocks each Beemaster is allowed to keep, and which is proportional to the nnraber of acres which he holds. Some sucli arrangement as this will perhaps be necessary here in the cultivated districts ; experiment and a mutual good understanding must determine tne ratio which it is for the interest of all to adopt. But there is hardly any limit to the quantity of honey which may be piocured from au isola^d Apiary, favourably situated near an extensive tract of wood-land; I will give an example :—: — A single swarm was placed in such a situation as this in the summer of 43 — 41 ; by September, '44, it had yielded 3 libs, of honey, as it was a single stock, it was not taxed severely. The following little table gives the amazing produce of it, aud its offspring up to the respective dates, annexed to the weight of honey :—: — September 44 - 311bs. „ 45 - 205 „ 46 - 721 „ 47 - 1211 „ 2168 „ If this, the produce of a single hive, does not make English bee-keepers open their eyes with astonishment, I shall be surprised. It certainly should encourage New Zealand beemasters lo study the gentle craft. Nor do I think the limit of productiveness has, even in that locality, been reached as yet. In the neighbourhood of towns, or wherever a number of people are living near together, it is idle to think they all can keep large apiaries. I never like to give a swarm to a friend living in such a situation. Often when I state my reason for refusing to send my pets where I am sure they would be starved, I am met by such an answer as this, " I have a nice little garden with plenty of flowers in it, and I always see a number of bees there, who seem to do very well." "That's it," I reply. There are plenty of bees every day and all day in your garden, and those of all your neighbours ; and although you may call a piece of ground your own, and your flowers your own, you cannot establish such an exclusive privilege in favour of your bees. "Every bee has a free right of coramou wherever its wings can carry it. There is no trespass ordinance which can touch these small cattle, and so I should advise you not to try to keep bees in the town, except to a very limited extent for the sake of observation. — (To be continued.)