Part 1

Transcriber Note

Original text lacked a Table of Contents.

Text emphasis denoted as _Italics_ and =Bold=. WHole and fractional parts of numbers as 12-3/4.

THE BEE-KEEPER'S MANUAL

THE BEE-KEEPER'S MANUAL,

OR

PRACTICAL HINTS ON THE MANAGEMENT AND COMPLETE PRESERVATION OF THE HONEY-BEE;

WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE MOST APPROVED HIVES, AND OTHER APPURTENANCES OF THE APIARY.

BY HENRY TAYLOR.

SIXTH EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS.

ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS.

LONDON: GROOMBRIDGE AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLX.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

The Bee-Keeper’s Manual. 1 The Queen or Mother Bee 4 The Common or Working Bees 11 Swarming (or Single Hiving) and Depriving Systems 21 Common Straw (or Single) Hives 27 Straw Depriving Hives 30 Hive-Covers 37 Floor or Hive-Boards 42 Hive-Stands, or Pedestals 37 Wood Box Hives 51 Wood Bar Boxes 54 Bar Glass Hives 72 Straw Bar-Hives 73 Circular Wooden Hives 75 Collateral System 78 White’s Collateral Hive 81 Nutt’s Collateral Hive 82 Nadir Hive 87 Bee Sheds and Houses 94 Position and Aspect 97 Bee Passage and Number of Hives 101

Summer Management. 106 Wax and Combs 109 Propolis 112 Honey 113 Pollen and Farina 113 Water 115 Shade 115 Moths, Wasps, Hornets, and Other Enemies 116 Super-hiving 119 Bell-glasses 120 Triplets and Nadirs 122

Autumnal Management. 124 Remove a Full Box or Super 125 Honey Harvest 128 Comb-Knives 130 Robbers 131 Autumnal Feeding 132 Feeding-troughs 133 Bee Food 137 Winter Store 138 Autumnal Unions, Fuming, and Transferring Bees 140 Driving of Bees 152

Winter Management. 157 Winter Positioning 158 Damp in Hives 161 Temperature 162 Dysentery 164

Spring Management. 166 Cleaning or Changing Floor-boards 167 Comb-pruning 167 General Directions 168 Spring Feeding 170 Enemies and Robbers 175 Super-hives 176 Temperature and Weather 177 Swarming 180 Returning of Swarms 183 After-swarms 186 Uniting of Swarms 192 Prevention of After-swarms 193 Maiden Swarms 196 General Directions on Swarming 196 Artificial Swarming 199 Dividing Bar-Hive 204 Bee-Protector 208 Remedy for the Sting of a Bee 210

Conclusion. 212

Index. 217

PREFACE

TO

THE FOURTH EDITION.

Twelve years have elapsed since the original publication of the Bee-keeper's Manual. For the fourth time the author is called upon to revise his little book, and he still thinks that the leading object in offering it to public notice will best be explained in the words with which it was first introduced. "The existence of the following pages had its origin, some time ago, in the request of a friend, that the author would give him a brief practical compendium of the management of Bees, on the humane or depriving system. Similar applications came from other quarters. The subject is one which has of late acquired increased interest; but the hints following would perhaps never have been prepared for the press, had not the hours of a protracted confinement by illness required some diversity of occupation and amusement. On reviewing his experience as an amateur bee-keeper, the author was led to believe that the result of it, added to a concise view of such particulars as are usually spread over a large surface in works of this nature, and arranged according to the progressive order of the seasons, might be useful to others, seeking like himself occasional relaxation from weightier matters in watching over and protecting these interesting and valuable insects. Step by step this or that defect of construction in his Hives had been remedied, and such conveniences added as necessity or the spirit of improvement from time to time had suggested. These are briefly described in the following little work. If it have the good fortune, though in a small degree, to smooth the path (usually a rough and uncertain one) of the apiarian novice,--of removing ignorance and prejudice, or of obviating any portion of the difficulties with which a more general cultivation of bees has to contend,--why may not the contribution of this mite be considered a humble addition to the store of USEFUL KNOWLEDGE?"

In its present renewed form, the author has been induced partially to extend his first design (originally much restricted in its scope), by entering somewhat more at large into the subject of Bee management, and the general details of practice. Although not professing to offer his remarks to any particular class of readers, he is, nevertheless, inclined to think they will frequently be found, in an especial degree, applicable to the position of the amateur Apiarian. For the peculiar use of cottage bee-keepers, tracts and scraps innumerable have been issued,--probably with very uncertain effect. In short, there is little room for doubt that these can be more effectually benefited by example and verbal advice, than by any kind of printed instructions. Be this as it may, putting out of the question the long train of contingencies incident to locality, season, &c., much must often be left to individual judgment and careful observation; and no writer can be expected to meet every supposable case of difficulty in dealing with insects confessedly often so intractable as bees. The author, therefore, must be considered as merely laying down a scheme of general recommendations; aiming much less at novelty than at plain practical utility; not hesitating occasionally to borrow the language of other unexceptionable authorities where it clearly expressed his convictions, or coincided with the results of his own experience; but carefully abstaining from any interference with the dogmatists and hyper-critics in the settlement of the affairs of their peculiar vocation.

If some of the details relative to the construction of hives or their appurtenances appear to be tedious to the general reader, it must be borne in mind that these are chiefly addressed to the mechanic, who will not be found to object that his particular department has received the aid of a careful attention to matters of description and direction.

On the whole, the author is induced to hope that the improved arrangement, additional information, and variety of illustration now introduced, will render superfluous any apology for a small unavoidable increase in the size of the book.

_April, 1850._

PREFACE

TO

THE FIFTH EDITION.

In once more revising the following pages for republication, the author has still kept in view the purpose in which they originated, as referred to in a former preface, and which is again prefixed. He trusts that the intervening period has not been unprofitably occupied in the task of continued investigation and experiment relative to the general economy of the Bee; in the introduction either of original invention or improvement as regards the mechanical requirements of the Apiary; and in maturing the many useful suggestions derived in the course of a pretty widely extended correspondence. The incorporation of matter thus arising must be the apology, if such is needed, for the omission or abridgment, here and there, of some that a later experience had superseded or modified. From these causes the rewriting of many portions of the work became a necessity, together with the introduction of much new illustration,--on the whole resulting in a slightly enlarged volume. Under the circumstances of accumulated materials, condensation was often found more difficult of accomplishment than expansion, had this been thought desirable; but brevity throughout has been the aim, so far as seemed consistent with clear explanation and obvious utility. A work on the Honey-Bee, thus restricted in its object and scope almost entirely to details of a practical bearing, may not entitle it to much literary or scientific consideration, but--without reference to the claims involved in a large circulation--the author will never regret the time and thought bestowed, where the leading aim was the welfare and preservation of one of the most curious of God's creatures; and the dissemination of knowledge in relation to a pursuit in rural life, of more general interest, probably, than many kindred ones of higher pretensions.

_August, 1855._

PREFACE

TO

THE SIXTH EDITION.

A continued, or rather an increasing sale of the Bee-keeper's Manual has, for the sixth time, rendered a reprint necessary; confirming the belief that a work, first appearing as the amusement of an idle hour, has, in its more recent extended form, not been unappreciated, as supplying a medium between the costly treatises of elaborate investigators and compilers and the class of mere tracts on Bee management, that have, with more or less of pretension, abounded of late years. These are sometimes directed to detached points or portions only in the wide and diversified field of controversy opened in relation to the Honey-Bee, or confined by space to the usual desultory scraps of information for the guidance of the inexperienced tyro, or supposed cottager; communicating just enough to prove the necessity of advancing a step further, by consulting works that take a wider and more systematic view of the subject in its details. The prefaces to the two last editions of the book are again placed before the reader, as showing that, in its successive stages, the author's purpose has been the condensation of a large amount of useful apiarian knowledge, assisted by an unusual variety of illustration. The present republication professedly follows in the path of its predecessors; such additional matter or remark being occasionally introduced as space permitted, and the onward progress of improvement appeared to demand.

_May, 1860._

What well appointed Commonwealths! where each Adds to the stock of happiness for all; Wisdom's own forums! where professors teach Eloquent lessons in their vaulted hall: Galleries of art, and schools of industry! Stores of rich fragrance! Orchestras of song! What marvellous seats of hidden alchymy! How oft, when wandering far and erring long, Man might learn Truth and Virtue from the Bee!

Bowring.

THE

BEE-KEEPER'S MANUAL.

The Hive or domestic Honey Bee of this country is classed entomologically _Apis mellifica_, order _Hymenoptera_, as having four wings.[A] The limits to which a Bee-keeper's Manual of practice is necessarily confined, permits only the remark that these extraordinary insects are, as to origin and history, lost in the mists of a remote antiquity. We know, however, that they, their habits and productions, are alluded to in Scripture, and attracted marked attention and admiration in the early eastern communities, where doubtless was familiar their characteristic Oriental name, _Deburah_,--"she that speaketh." Subsequently, the bee has spread itself, or been carried, in spite of clime and temperature, over a large portion of the old continents; following in the wake of civilized man wherever he has placed his foot in the primeval forests of the new world; and later on, in our own time, has been received as a friend and benefactor in the boundless regions of Australasia and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. From the time of Aristotle down to our own day, treatises on Bees have ever been popular, and the curious naturalist has no difficulty in collecting a library relative to a subject apparently inexhaustible. But space allows us to notice neither the crude speculations to be met with in ancient literature, the unprofitable disputations too often prevailing among modern Bee-annalists, nor the endless catalogue of hives, possible and impossible, of every period, by which the novice is bewildered. Our present purpose is restricted to a utilitarian view of the subject of apiarian knowledge, where science, invention, and the most competent testimony, have combined to place it in our own day.

[A] Although in the following pages the _Apis mellifica_ alone is referred to, it may be well here to state that attention has recently been directed, not only in our own country, but in a still higher degree in Germany, France, and even in the United States of America, to the introduction of the Ligurian Bee, or _Apis Ligustica_ of Italy, the race most probably that was known to Aristotle and Virgil, and, perhaps, to the ancient Greeks. The combs of this species of bee closely resemble those of the common kind, but its outward characteristics exhibit a marked difference; the first rings of the abdomen being of a reddish colour, instead of dark brown. A fertile Ligurian queen is readily accepted in an English stock-hive, from which a common queen has been abstracted, and in due time young Italians are distinguishable, gradually displacing the original inhabitants. Report speaks favorably of the superiority of the strangers over our own bee, as more hardy, more laborious, less irascible, and as swarming earlier.

To those who may be unacquainted with the leading characteristic of the Honey Bee, it is necessary to premise that in every family, when fully constituted, its members are of three kinds of individuals; viz.,

A _Queen_, or _Mother Bee_, [Illustration]

The _Common_, or _Working Bees_; [Illustration]

And (during a part of the year) the _Male_, or _Drone Bees_. [Illustration]

Thus associated, they severally perform their allotted functions in great harmony, labouring for the general good, combining in self-defence, recognising one another, but permitting the intrusion of no stranger within the hive.

THE QUEEN OR MOTHER BEE

Is darker on the back, longer, and more taper towards the end of her body than the common bees; has longer legs but shorter wings, and is of a tawny or yellowish-brown colour underneath. She is supreme in the hive, admitting no rival or equal; and is armed with a sting, somewhat more curved in form than that of the common bees, which, however, she rarely uses. Where she goes the other bees follow; and so indispensable is her presence to the existence of the commonwealth, that where she is not none will long remain. She is the mother of the entire community, her office being to lay the eggs from which all proceed, whether future queens, drones, or workers. Separate her from the family, and she instinctively resents the injury, refuses food, pines, and dies. Without a Queen, or a prospect of one, the labour of the hive is suspended, and a gradual dispersion or emigration of the community ensues.

Those who have examined the appearance of a bee-hive, after it has been filled with combs during a year, will recollect seeing suspended here and there, certain small inverted cup-shaped forms. These are the partially destroyed remains of what were designed for the birthplaces of young queens, and so-called royal cells or cradles. They are much larger than the common hexagonal cells in which the working bees are bred; varying also in their composition, the material of which appears to be a mixture of wax or propolis, and the farina of flowers. Soon after the foundation of one of them has been laid, an egg is deposited in it, the work of completion of the cradle being carried on as required by the increasing growth of its occupant. When finished and closed up, it presents in form the appearance of an oblong spheroid, about an inch long, usually appended like a stalactite perpendicularly to the edge of a comb, the small end or mouth being downwards, a position most favorable to economy of space in the hive. In number the royal cells vary from four or five to a dozen, and sometimes more. They are not peopled till after the usual great spring laying of eggs for the production of working bees, preparatory to swarming; and also those to produce drone bees. The existence of the latter, or in some stage towards existence, is an invariable preliminary to the construction of royal cells, the reason for which will hereafter appear. The affectionate attachment evinced by the nurse-bees towards the royal larvæ is marvellous, the quantity of food given is profuse, and they arrive severally at maturity on or about the sixteenth day from the laying of each egg; these having usually an interval between them of but a few days. Of the young females or princesses, as they are often called, and the mode of disposing of supernumerary ones, we shall speak more at large when we come to treat of swarming. The duration of life in a Queen bee, under ordinary circumstances, is, by a wise provision for the perpetuation of the species, much more prolonged than is the case with the common bees, and some observers have imagined that it may in some instances have reached to nearly five years. So far as my knowledge extends, the oldest queen bee of which we have an authentic record, existed, in the apiary of Mr. Robert Golding,[B] during the space of three years and eleven months. She died in April or May, showing little sign of decrepitude, judging by her fertility, for previously she had filled the hive with an abundance of brood of every kind. I am, however, inclined to believe that a Queen is oftener changed than we are always aware of, for in nothing in Nature is there displayed a more careful attention to the due preservation of a family of bees than in the provision made for supplying the casual vacancies arising not merely from the natural demise of the sovereign, but from other causes, especially those involving deficient powers or absolute sterility. I should, therefore, discountenance any attempt at direct interference by the forcible removal of a queen, after a prescribed period, as has sometimes been advocated. If, however, it should happen that such removal is absolutely necessary, the bees will accept a successor as soon as they have discovered their loss, which is often not till after the lapse of several hours. If all is right the previous agitation will cease.

[B] See the 'Shilling Bee-book,' by Robert Golding.