The Bee Preserver; or, Practical Directions for the Management and Preservation of Hives

II.--Proper time to transport a swarm to the situation designed for it, 16 III.--Situation of the hives ought never to be changed, 18 IV.--Most convenient shape of hives, 21 V.-...

The choice of a good situation is of the utmost consequence. An apiary will not thrive in a bad situation, however well it may be cared for in other respects.

Most people who have bees allow their swarms to remain till the evening in the place where they have alighted, and do not move them to the apiary till after sunset. This method...

I have seen people shift about their hives very inconsiderately, but change of place invariably weakens them, as the bees will return to their old residence, the environs of whi...

One of the chief objects of my researches has been, to ascertain what shape of hive is the most profitable; and, with this view, I have tried all the different kinds in my apiar...

It is commonly supposed that bees thrive best in straw hives, because the straw absorbs the moisture, and the combs are less liable to mould. For my part, I can perceive no diff...

Whatever may be the form or material of which hives are made, I strongly recommend not to be sparing of it, but to make them substantial. I would recommend that the boards of th...

It is of great importance to widen or contract the entrance, according to the season, or to the strength of the swarms; and for this purpose it is only necessary to have a few l...

Many apiaries do not prosper, in consequence of the ignorance of those who have the care of them. How many people follow blindly the way they have been used to, without knowing...

The quantity varies according to the climate. In southern countries, where there is scarcely any winter, the bees gather food till towards the end of autumn, and the flowers off...

Well made straw-hives ought to have a hole in the top, of about an inch or an inch and a half in diameter, which may be closed with a cork or stopper of wood. This stopper may b...

It is in the heat of the day that the honey should be taken from the capes. A number of bees will always be found (commissioned no doubt) to guard the treasure.

Most amateurs have all their hives of an equal size. Some will have only very large ones; others very small ones; and others there are who prefer those of middling dimensions, i...

Feeble and tardy swarms can do no good excepting in very fine seasons. In bad seasons they greatly weaken the hives that produce them, without being able to shift for themselves...

When the swarms have not been able to lay up a sufficient provision during the fine weather, I weigh them at the end of the season, and, knowing the weight of each empty hive, I...

When old hives are weakened by giving out too many swarms, and have not amassed a sufficient provision for the winter, many proprietors place them one above another, simply maki...

I HAVE already said, in Chapter III. that bees which have not swarmed voluntarily return to the place they have been accustomed to, even after having been shut up for months: th...

There is always honey in hives that are emptied to be united. If there are six pounds more or less, I lay aside the combs that are full, after having separated those that are bu...

I have said, in Chapter IX. that each hive must have three pots, or fifteen pounds of honey, to sustain it during the winter, and until the bees can find food for themselves aga...

The advantages of uniting weak hives are very considerable. I need only mention three. 1. The bees are saved; 2. They are saved without trouble or expence; 3. All the hives are...

It is a common prejudice, that hives cannot be profitably preserved beyond three, four, or six years at most, and that, beyond that term, they become weak, give out no more swar...

As long as a hive produces honey and swarms, it is needless to touch it; but, when it ceases to be productive,--when, during several months, the bees form clusters, without swar...

One often sees well-stocked hives that do not swarm, and which, during the whole of the summer, form large clusters, until the cold of the autumnal evenings forces the idlers to...

A swarm, taking flight, rushes out of the hive, and seems bent on fixing itself in some distant quarter, as if it feared the neighbourhood of other swarms--as if it felt that it...

All amateurs that have written on the subject of bees, have spoken of their enemies, but few have given any directions in what way they may be overcome. I should neither attain...

Bees have no real disease. Dysentery, about which so much noise has been made, and for which so many remedies are prescribed, never attacks the bees of a well-stocked hive, that...

Almost all authors speak of four different kinds or varieties of the honey-bee. I frankly acknowledge that I know but of one; and that all the bees I have seen are equally profi...

The bees of a hive have the means of recognition, and of distinguishing their companions from every stranger bee; without which they could not defend their honey. In vain would...

The most important point that remains to be treated, is the preservation of hives in winter. This severe season, which lasts at Neufchatel four months, from the commencement of...

It is generally supposed that, in the high valleys, and in the mountains, bees can only be preserved by taking the hives into the house in winter, where they must remain, until...