Part 11
I once thought quarrels and angry controversies were confined to ecclesiastical denominations--churches and chapels. But I have learned what I did not expect, that not a few apiarians so devoutly believe each his own patent hive to be the only way to a honey harvest, that if you do not notice it, you are denounced as ignorant of the progress of science, and if you disapprove of it, you must know nothing about bees.
I hope they will all improve in temper as they advance in experience, and agree to differ while they cease to quarrel. I have made up my mind on two or three subjects, from thought and reading, and personal observation; and though open to argument, evidence, and facts, I am not in the least to be moved by intemperate criticism or ill-natured ridicule.
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_August 1st._
The "Bee-master" is respectfully requested to publish his letters to _The Times_ in a pamphlet by themselves.
It is suggested that the paragraph about "Brother Ignatius" be omitted.
The "Bee-master" must have forgotten to have taken his usual allowance of honey at breakfast when he penned those harsh words.
Did he know "Brother Ignatius," he would soon discover he was
No Drone.
That he is no honey-bee is plain. If not a drone he must be a spider or earwig, creeping by stealth into the old Romish Benedictine hive, to which he does not really belong.
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_Stoke-upon-Trent, July 29th._
Dear Sir,--I have long been hoping against hope, and trying to persuade my friends to interest themselves in that courageous little insect, the _apis mellifica_; but the drawbacks appear to me to be rather disheartening. In the first place, the ladies dread the stings of my little friends; and in the next place, they lose the pleasure of investigation into the habits of the bees by not being enabled to procure hives that will enable one to observe the operations of the industrious little creatures. Your letter, however, in yesterday's _Times_ enlightens us somewhat as to where the best-constructed hives may be obtained; and I am sure you have my hearty thanks for the information you have so kindly spread abroad through the medium of _The Times_. The common straw hive may not be very conveniently "tolled" without being in mortal fear of an accident; and to destroy the bees seems very cruel and wasteful, in order to take the honey from them. For my part, I have never yet had the courage to attempt to interfere with a straw hive, nor have I ever yet destroyed one, but kept them for my amusement and observation. Last year I constructed a wooden hive--say a square box, divided in the middle by a slide--and I introduced a young swarm into it, and they soon filled the bottom half of the box. This year they have had one swarm only, which I have put into a newly-constructed hive with a moveable bottom and front, with glass to look through and doors to protect the glass: the size is 12 by 14 and 16 inches, and they have very nearly filled it since they were swarmed, on the 6th June. It contains ten large parallel combs or plates, which are beautifully full of virgin honey, carefully covered with fine films of wax, to prevent it from either running out or becoming damaged, I presume, from the atmosphere. I have a small box _to fit underneath_ the full one; but I cannot induce the bees to come down by easy means--that is, by shaking the box or drumming upon it: the vibrations only cause them to run about, but they will not descend. Pray what means would you adopt to cause them to leave the spaces between the combs, and go into the lower box, to enable me to take a portion of the combs and their contents without destroying or injuring the queen or the other bees? With regard to the box-hive first named, and which is divided in the middle by a wooden slide, which has a hole cut into its centre about 6 by 4 inches, and which was covered by a zinc slide, which I removed in June, after the swarm came from the box. In a few days after I could only observe about a dozen which had passed into the top part of the hive. I then tried to frighten them by shaking the box, in order to induce them to leave the combs in the bottom half, and pass through the hole into the top, but without success. I afterwards reversed the box, thinking that I might induce them to descend, and so shut them out; but they would not budge an inch. I afterwards placed the box in its proper position, and closed the entrance-holes for two days, thinking by that means to cause them to ascend in order to find a way out, but without any result, save the destruction of _eight hundred_ drones in those two days, from the anger of the little workers; for, as they could not go abroad to collect food, the drones cleared every comb that contained any honey, and now I can see them all as empty as when just made; so you see I am really nonplussed. Pray what would you do? for if I smoke them, they will come down, not go up; and I am afraid that brimstone or tobacco would destroy them.
Yours very faithfully,
T. H.
This family of my correspondent has been, I fear, very ill-used. Bees have a will of their own, and a way too. You may lead and draw, but you cannot, and should not, drive.
Had Mr. H. given them more barley-sugar, or ale and sugar, and practised less manipulation, I think they would have behaved as well as he could wish.
_Stamford, July 29th._
Sir,--I feel compelled to ask you to answer one or two queries of mine, for without answers I shall be unable to follow out your admirable instructions in the letter of yesterday's Times. I can only say, that if you will take the trouble to give me a line I shall feel greatly obliged.
I am, Sir, yours faithfully,
J. B. S.
Queries.
1.--Which is the best plan of hiving bees?
2.--How are the bees to be persuaded to descend from the _upper_ hives, so as to allow of the honey being extracted?
3.--Should the sheds face any particular aspect?
4.--Is it necessary to stop up the entrance-hole to the hive in winter, when covering them up with paper?
5.--Are the hives (Ayrshire hexagonal) _bottomless?_ I judge so, as they are put one on the top of the other, and the bees rise through the slits?
I fear I must own myself totally ignorant about bee-keeping, so I trust you will excuse these queries.
J. B. S.
The writer will find 1, 2, 3, answered in the body of the work. In reply to 4, No. In reply to 5, Yes.
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_Cheltenham, July 30th._
Sir,--I have been much interested with your letters in _The Times_ about bees; and having just commenced keeping them, am anxious for further information. Your kindness in writing so fully induces me to trouble you.
I purchased a swarm on June 17th, and have them in a common straw hive. I am told by the cottager from whom I bought them (who, by the way, takes his honey by stupifying the bees with a fungus), that as mine is a late swarm (though a first), I ought not to take any honey from them this season; but noticing in your letter of 27th your mode of obtaining honey from a straw hive by cutting a hole in the top and placing a bell-glass on a board over, I shall be much obliged if you will inform me if you think I might now adopt this mode, or is it too late in the season, and ought they to be left undisturbed till next season?
Will you kindly tell where the Scotch hexagonal hive is to be procured? I like your account of it so much, that I shall certainly try it as soon as I can. Will you excuse this trouble?
I remain, Sir, yours obediently,
C. H. H.
To the Gentleman who writes in _The Times_ under the signature of "A Bee-master."
If a good swarm take place in May, and in a good year, you may hopefully put on a super. For Ayrshire hives, see p. 213.
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_July 30th._
Sir,--We have read your letters in _The Times_ with the greatest interest, partly because we have been for some years bee-keepers on the more sensible plan of saving the little creatures' lives, and partly because we are anxious to induce our neighbours (poor cottage folks) to follow our example, and give up the disgusting smothering process. We have taken off a glass of honey weighing full twenty pounds, and have another equally well filled to remove; but should be very grateful for your advice as to the means of getting rid of the bees from the super when it is withdrawn, a part of the process not described in your letters, and one which we cannot manage without much trouble, and the murder of many insects. We use, for stock, common straw hives, with flat tops, and a hole in the centre, which we cover with a piece of zinc or slate, easily removed when we wish to put on the super. But the bees always continue the comb up through this hole into the glass; then, when the latter is removed, there is always broken comb and running honey, to which the bees cling, and to which they return again and again, and we find the greatest difficulty in dislodging them.
You likewise recommend covering the stock-hives in winter with paper, for warmth. Will you kindly tell us whether you consider it best to close the entrance also?
My only apology for thus intruding on you must rest on our ignorance, and on your benevolent and enlightened zeal for the good of the poor, and for the lives of the much ill-treated insects.
I am, Sir, yours obediently,
H. C.
I enclose a stamped envelope, in case you prefer writing to me rather than again to _The Times_.
Press a zinc plate between hive and super, and on removal substitute a very small empty bell bee-glass, and cover it with woollen cap. On no account close the entrance to the hive.
_August 1st._
My dear Sir,--I have read with much interest your letters in _The Times_ respecting our little friends the bees, and as one of your many readers, I beg to thank you for your valuable hints. Will you, however, complete the matter by giving us one hint more, and that is, as to how you manage with the bees which may remain in the compartment which you remove? I have used the lateral wooden hive, but have always found a difficulty in getting rid of the bees which remained in the box which I have taken away. One year I took a lateral box full of honey, but lost it in consequence of the bees having taken it all away again. I, by the advice of a neighbouring bee-master, had it placed in a cool part of the garden. If you will kindly tell us how you manage in this respect, you will greatly oblige.
Yours, faithfully,
W. B. J.
Carry your super, or side-box, if yours is the collateral system, to a little distance from the hive. Raise one side of your box, and they will gradually escape and go home. If it be August, when wasps and corsair-bees are abroad, remove it about 7 P.M. Few, if any, thieves will arrive, and your bees will equally go home.
Or if you take it into a room or closet with a window on hinges, they will fly to the light and cover the window. Open the window smartly, and all on it will fly away. Shut it again till covered with bees, and repeat opening it. No thieves can thus get in, and your bees will all get out, if you have patience.
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_Stokenchurch, August 1st_
Sir,--I hope you will pardon the liberty I take in addressing you; but having read your letter in _The Times_, entitled "Bees and Bee-hives," and wishing to gain information on those subjects, I venture under the circumstances to write to you.
There have been for many years a quantity of bees under some leads that cover a bow added to this house. About eighteen years ago the leads were removed, the honey taken, the bees destroyed, and all the entrances (as was supposed) stopped up. Notwithstanding this, fresh swarms arrived in the course of the following year, forced their entrance, and again took possession of the leads. Since then they have not been disturbed, but now my father expresses a wish to take the honey and get rid of the bees, as we suffer some inconvenience in the spring, on account of the bees entering the bed-room.
As I think it a pity that all the bees should be destroyed, and also have a great wish to keep them in common hives, I should feel much obliged could you give me any information as to when and how to take the honey without destroying the bees, and to place the latter in common straw hives. I regret much that I did not see your letter in _The Times_ on the "Honey Harvest," nor do I know the day it appeared, therefore I cannot refer to it. Apologising for troubling you,
I remain, yours faithfully,
A. P.
I do not think it possible to remove the bees. The only alternative is to lessen, if possible, the area and contents of their residence, and thus force them to swarm. If you can lay open their residence, you might stupify the bees with fungus smoke, and abstract a portion of their honey.
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_Bath, August 1st._
A lady having read in _The Times_ a Bee-master's letter of the 27th July, on "Hives," would feel greatly obliged if he would inform her where the Ayrshire hexagonal hive is to be had, its price, and likewise the cost of setting up the establishment with one hive to commence with; where to obtain the best bees, and how many are necessary; and the time to commence keeping them. Would a book on Bees be of much use to a beginner! An answer will be esteemed a great favour, if not entailing too much trouble on the "Bee-master."
For Ayrshire hive, write to "Mr. Bruce Taylor, Post-office, Mauchlin, Ayrshire, N.B."
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_Brighton, August 3rd._
Sir,--I have just been reading your excellent and interesting letter in _The Times_ of this morning, and am induced to write you a second letter, having despatched one to you last week, soliciting you to be kind enough to reply to my queries and inquiries therein contained, and not having received any reply thereto. I can readily imagine you could not answer all your correspondents, and that your letters in _The Times_ would contain the information that most of them sought. Although I have perused them with the greatest pleasure, I do not find they tell me whether you would be kind enough to sell me any of the _virgin_ honey which your bees have made this year, which was the principal point I wished to have solved in my former communication. I am quite sure you are a gentleman of position, and from your language I am inclined to believe are a member of the clerical profession; and as I am unwilling to trespass unreasonably on your valuable time, I do earnestly beg, if you are unable or unwilling to sell me any of your _virgin honey of 1864_, you would be so truly obliging as to furnish me with the name and address of some respectable party in your locality or neighbourhood, on whom I could depend to purchase what I might require. I never eat "rancid London," or indeed any "butter for breakfast," or any other meal, and am not fond of "nasty greasy bacon;" but as I cannot find any substitute of which I approve but pure "virgin honey," and know not where I can procure and purchase the latter from the "grower," I am constantly obliged to eat my dry toast and bread without any agreeable addition thereto. I am exceedingly desirous to cultivate a good temper and "sweet disposition;" and if you would kindly aid me in this by supplying my "honeyed requirements," or inform me where I can purchase what I wish for, I shall be most grateful for your reply, if it contain only the name and address of some respectable person to whom I can make application for the "pure, unadulterated, virgin honey of 1864," and for which purpose I enclose you a stamped envelope.
Hoping you will oblige me, and apologising for trespassing on your valuable time,
I remain, yours most obediently,
E. L. B.
Pure honey, taken by deprivation, and in the most charming white wax cells, may be had of Neighbour, in Holborn, London.
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_Sundridge, August 3rd._
_To "The Times" Bee-Master._
Sir,--In reference to your interesting letter on "Bees and Bee-hives," in _The Times_ of last Thursday, I take leave to explain to you how I prevent tom-tits and other birds from molesting my industrious little friends, if so they should feel inclined.
I affix before the door of the hive a piece of wire-work, resembling the half of a round mouse-trap, and by this very simple means a bee is permitted to return to its house, or take wing as it pleases, without "let, stop, or stay," from your "wicked hypocrite" and his companions.
This precaution being taken, I endeavour to encourage all mischievous birds to abide with me, feeding the several tom-tits, to each of whom our gardens are so largely indebted, throughout the winter with walnuts, and even providing them with sleeping-places.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your very humble servant,
G. S. S.
This is a very sensible letter, and well worth the attention of every bee-master.
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From the Hon. and Rev. Orlando Forrester.
_Dover ridge, Derby, August 26th._
Sir,--Last autumn I saved from a cruel and unnecessary death a very old stock of bees belonging to a neighbour, the parent one of all his colony, full of black comb; I gave him seven or eight shillings for it. I fed it, and it just lived through the winter. I gave it a box on the lateral plan, which it filled with a quarter of a hundredweight of honey,--so rewarding my interference.
At the time I took my box from this stock, a neighbour destroyed two of his hives, bees, &c., for the honey (I think he will not do so ungrateful a thing another year). Happening to go into his garden the morning after, he told me he had found the queen that morning dead. On showing her to me, we found she was alive, but of course none the more lively for the sulphuring of the previous night.
I begged her, took her home, and put her under a finger-glass with a little honey. I then got down from my store-closet my box of honey-comb untouched, cut away a good bit of honey, leaving sixteen or seventeen pounds. I carried it back to its old spot, opened the communication, and soon had a good number of the little manufacturers in their old quarters. Towards night I closed the communication again, stopped them in, and carried the old hive away about fifty yards. This done, I opened the ventilator at the top of the box, and inserted the strange queen, and put the inverted finger-glass over to see the effect. They seemed in a moment to be in a strange commotion, apparently receiving her majesty with hurrahs, as the popular candidate at an election is received.
The next morning they seemed quite satisfied, and I noticed pollen taken in, and a struggle once or twice with a drone which had remained--there may have been seven or eight of these gentlemen in my experimental colony. Of course, the carrying in pollen was soon discontinued, as there was no brood to feed; the material, weighing sixteen pounds, being all honey and wax. I also saw them active in defence of their homes against the wasps; and although some wasps contrived to enter, I have seen the bees bring out their corpses now and then since, showing that they appear right.
To-day, the sun shining very bright and the temperature being warm, I am flabbergasted by seeing crowds of drones going in and out, and no slaughtering of these now unnecessary mouths. I say, can all be right? Is the queen still alive? My little friends fight the wasps, and go in and out; but what meaneth this crowd of drones?
Will you excuse my putting my case to you? for I am a lover of bees, but not very learned in the matter.
I should like to make my one cast-off stock two for next year by this artificial means, besides getting my honey; and so be in a good position to preach to the bee-killers the folly as well as cruelty of bee-murder.
I enclose a stamped envelope, and remain, Sir,
Yours faithfully,
Orlando William Forrester.
This is a very interesting letter. Is it possible that the drones arriving from other hives, and entering when the queen was alone, were really suitors for her majesty's choice?
I do not like artificial swarming. I prefer to follow the instinct of the bees, not to create new relations: others think otherwise.
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_Brighton, August 30th._
Sir,--I trust you will excuse the liberty I have taken in addressing you on purely personal matters. Your kindly, genial letters in _The Times_ have induced me to do so. We wish greatly to increase a very small income, and you have so strongly advocated the care of "bees," as both remunerative and agreeable, that we wish to try on rather a large scale. I should not have troubled you on this subject, as you have intimated your intention of publishing, but that I feared the season for procuring stock would be over before the book appeared. We wish to commence with not less than fifty hives; and, as many of the authorities we have consulted are very conflicting, I have taken the liberty of begging your aid in our dilemma. Might I trespass upon your kindness so far as to ask your opinion as to the best method of purchasing _bees_; also the best description of hives? With regard to their care during winter, and their general management, we shall doubtless be fully informed in your book.
Again apologising for thus troubling you,
I am, Sir, yours obediently,
A. A. M.
If you buy stock-hives this autumn, you must see to it that--
1. They are not very old.
2. That they weigh from twenty to thirty pounds.
3. They must be transported by water, or carried one at each end of a pole on a man's shoulder.
4. Let them swarm next summer, and thus multiply your stock.
5. If you wait till spring, buy swarms, which is the best way.
Fifty swarms, gathered from cottagers, would cost 25_l._
Begin with fewer, and increase gradually.
_Faringdon, August 11th._
Sir,--I have bees in the common cottage hive, the honey of which I wish to take without destroying the bees. I am told I can fumigate them with puff-ball. I tried doing so, but killed my bees. I was afterwards told I could fumigate them with chloroform; this I also tried, but--whether the chloroform was good or bad I cannot say--I failed again.
Three or four years since I heard that a person offered a friend to take his honey for him, if he would give him the bees. The offer being accepted, the person fumigated the bees, took the honey from them for his friend, and carried the bees to his own home, where, in the end of October following, after giving them six pounds of moist sugar in ale, they contrived to fill the hive with comb and honey, and the whole weighed nearly twenty-five pounds.
Some people think it a good plan to drum the bees; but I should fear to rely on it. And if you did not object kindly to advise me, as you have had so much experience, what plan you consider best to deprive them without destroying them, I should esteem it a very great favour; and hoping you will not consider me very impertinent in seeking your advice,
I remain yours truly,
J. H.
You must have depriving hives. You must take from the bees their surplus honey, only leaving them twenty or twenty-five pounds of honey for the winter. To take the honey out of a common skep, you must either burn the bees or leave them to perish of hunger--alternatives too barbarous to be thought of.
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_Gravesend._